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A recent work for soprano, trombone, cello, percussion and piano performed by the Eunoia Quintett with soprano Lena Kiepenheuer at Basel's Gare du Nord in May 2014.
The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (traditional Chinese: 施氏食獅史; pinyin: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ; literally "The Story of Shi Eating Lions") is a 92-character modern poem written in Classical Chinese by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), in which every syllable has the sound shi (in different tones) when read in modern Mandarin Chinese. It is a famous example of constrained writing. The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken in Modern Standard Chinese or when written in Romanization.
In my work, each line is set/interpreted/melismaticised before then being heard ‘in summary’ very briefly, almost how it would sound if spoken. The various accents on the written words do not matter in terms of their being sung – the changes in pitch have been ‘built in’ to the music.
« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
1. Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
2. Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
3. Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
4. Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
5. Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
6. Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
7. Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
8. Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
9. Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
10. Shì shì shì shì
« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
1. In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
2. He often went to the market to look for lions.
3. At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
4. At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
5. He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
6. He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
7. The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
8. After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
9. When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
10. Try to explain this matter.
- Genre
- Vocal