Rainforest Refrains (2025)
for baroque ensemble
Instrumentation:
2 violins, violoncello, theorbo, harpsichord, high voice and narrator (optional)
Duration: 15'
It was a very special commission to write for my friends at Red Dot Baroque for their tour to Italy during the summer of 2025. I wanted to pay homage to the Italian baroque — and the recurring ritornello was an obvious choice. But how could we also include a piece of Singapore?
The way string instruments and gut strings are made from natural materials made me think of nature…and the precious fragments of rainforest in our urban-but-green island came to mind. To me, the rainforest is a beautiful analogy to the musical range of the baroque ensemble, with each strata corresponding to a different musical voice:
Emergent Solo voices
Canopy Treble voices
Understory Middle voices
Forest floor Basso continuo
We also had to go with the alliteration. Thus, Rainforest Refrains!
Three of the nine movements feature a vocalist, each time singing in a different language. 4. Burung Hamba Kera (the monkey's servant bird) is a reimagination of the regional folk song Burung Kakaktua in Bahasa Melayu. 5. Pangolin Passacaglia, in English, was the composer's attempt to paraphrase lines from American poet Marianne Moore's ode to the Pangolin (1936), presented here as a lament for the endangered creature. 9. Durian (流連) is a playful setting of Tso Ping Lung's poem from the colonial era, involving the wordplay between the Mandarin idiom in Mandarin (流連往返) 'to linger on...forgetting to leave' and 'Durian'.
On RDB's Italy tour during June 2025, five movements were performed (2. Jingle Jungle, 3. Flora II, 4. Burung Hamba Kera, 8. Flora IV, and 9. Durian). For the full premiere of Rainforest Refrains in Singapore (7 Sep 2025 at Victoria Concert Hall), the vocalist doubled up as the narrator, weaving together the various movements of flora and fauna inspired by the tropical rainforest. Both Alan Choo (RDB's director) and Teng Xiangting (soprano/narrator) were instrumental in helping in the narrator's script.
— Chen Zhangyi, 5 Sep 2025
Movements (the order may be rearranged as necessary)
1. Flora I - Tall Trees
2. Jingle Jungle (Urban / Nature)
3. Flora II - Lingering Lianas, harpsichord solo
4. Burung Hamba Kera (The Macaque Follower) with voice
A re-imagination of Burung Kakaktua
5. Pangolin Passacaglia (paraphrase of Marianne Moore's 'The Pangolin') with voice
6. Flora III - Cinnamon Bush Frog (featuring the theorbo)
7. Slender Squirrel, harpsichord solo
8. Flora IV - Tapestry, violin I solo
9. Durian (Tso Ping Lung's 流連) with voice
"Inserted between the concertos in each half was the Asian premiere of Rainforest Refrains (2025), composed for RDB's Italian tour earlier in 2025 by Young Artist Award recipient Chen Zhangyi. This is a modern update of the multi-movement baroque suite or partita. With narration and delightful singing by soprano Teng Xiang Ting, this could pass off as a neo-baroque cantata.
Tropical flora and fauna were the subjects in its nine movements. Burung Hamba Kera (The Monkey's Servant Bird), a reimagination of the Malay song Burung Kakak Tua, contrasted with Pangolin Passacaglia, a doleful lament.
The lively finale became a play on the Chinese words "liu lian", which mean to linger, and are also the name of the thorny but aromatic king of fruit."