First Beam Last Light

Functions as the third piece of the Epicurus Project (https://www.zhuoshengjin.com/epicurusproject.html), First Beam Last Light for fifteen musicians is written for the McGill Contemporary Ensemble. This piece expresses my personal melancholy towards all historical loss and cultural ruins. When Epicurus wrote all his thoughts in his cozy garden, he was living in one of the world’s most powerful cultural centres. However, when we recall him today in 2018, his life and his own physical and spiritual prosperities become no more than just another speck of trivial dust in time. From those ancient civilizations to now, thousands of years have passed and thousands of civilized nations rise and fallen. Powers shifted between entities and human lives were constantly lost from the endless warfare. One day our planet will be swallowed by the enlarged red giant sun. This moment will function as the last sound of a great piece, i.e. our history, to end all these alternations of powers and the seemingly endless loss of human beings. After contemplating from Epicurus’ time to the time we will all be ended, I imagine the moment we finally face the first beam of the last light of our history. All other dangers will be gone and we will all be equal in death. The first beam sent from the red giant will be the last light for us to finally free us. We are free to die and we die in light, and when this glorious moment comes, truly, “we are not”.