Matthew Lam - Garden of Mists for Percussion Quartet (2024)

Garden of Mists for Percussion Quartet
Commissioned by RTHK & HKCG for New Generation 2024
Premiere:
06 JUN 2024. New Generation 2024, RTHK Studio One, Hong Kong
Performed by M.A.R.B.L.E.S Percussion
​
Program notes:
Garden of Mists is composed with Japanese gardens covered in morning mists in mind. Though I do not want to specifically depict any of the Japanese gardens (as each has its history and aesthetic), I attempted to capture the atmosphere of the garden with it being meditative, peaceful, and at the same time, somehow mysterious. With that in mind, I chose a combination of mostly metal percussion instruments using two groups of sounds in two different sections: the first group features ‘sustained sounds’ achieved by non-conventional means of playing such as rubbing with super ball and playing with a bow. The second group returns to the conventional way of using mallets. The entire piece does not have a significant melody, with the aim of combining all sounds into a single soundscape and letting listeners ‘feel’ the atmosphere.