Composition
Innocence's last gaze before it, like all, goes with the wind, Op. 16
Alternative title: 純真隨萬物乘風而逝前的最後回眸，作品 16
Year of composition: 2023
Instrumentation: flute, bassoon, piano
Duration: 10 mins
Commissioned by: Ensemble Fioritura
Dedicatee: Matthew Wong
Premiere:
World premiere:
Ensemble Fioritura
2023 Feb 2・St Mary's, Aylesbury, UK
Innocence’s last gaze before it, like all, goes with the wind is about saying goodbye, especially to someone or something that once brought delight in their naturally constant simplicity. The piece captures the many nuances at the precise moment of realisation that each has gone so far on their ways that such simplicity has long been compromised by necessity. The reluctant farewell is probably wordless, and perhaps they will cross paths one day, but the innocence they once shared will never return.
The piece opens with a canon, its phrase structures built on the Fibonacci sequence, between the flute and the bassoon. It forms the basis of all motivic materials and structural nodes of the piece. The first section expands the motifs into lingering long notes like hanging shreds of bittersweet memories and morphs into a melancholic bassoon solo. The second section becomes more anguished but eventually launches itself into a much more jubilant waltz and then a duet almost like rays of sunshine through the woods, expressing the most heartfelt of gratitude. As the canon returns the third time, the phrases appear in a reverse order, dwindling into smaller and smaller shadows of its original, until it is gone with the wind.