Ten Miles Fading Red

Solo Xiao (簫), 6m30s

 

Ten Miles Fading Red was composed for the inaugural year of the Orvis Foundation’s “Musicians in the Museum” project, which provides financial support to performers and composers who will perform at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Composers, in particular, were encouraged to create works based on art pieces in the museum’s galleries.

The line “Ten Miles Fading Red” comes from the English translation of a poem written in Chinese calligraphy on a traditional folding fan, which was on display in the museum’s Chinese gallery at the time. The poem describes a sunset casting red light over the ocean from the poet’s eye to the horizon.

There is a long tradition of musically interpereting poetry on the Chinese flute called a Xiao.