This is a conspectus
of a quarter-century of compositions
by the Anglo-Chinese composer Ann-Kay
Lin, also known by her original name,
Ho Wai-On. She spent her earliest years
in Hong Kong but came to London to study
at the Royal Academy as a pianist (with
that distinguished figure Max Pirani)
as well as singing and composition,
on a John Swire Scholarship. But a wrist
injured compelled a change of direction
and she has written many compositions
since, covering a range of forms, dance,
ballet, chamber, instrumental and, most
entertainingly, for voice. The book
that comes with this CD is an attractive
and quite lavish one, full of biographical
and musical information about the composer
and her music. There are numerous photographs,
as well as examples of her scores; all
texts are here. It’s a tactile pleasure
to peruse, full as it is of historical
photographs and shots from in-concert
performances of her works. There’s also
a checklist of compositions and a roll
call of performers.
The album is called
‘Music is Happiness’ and explores her
interest and immersion in cross-cultural
projects. The music is varied and colourful,
sometimes tough but always expressive
and frequently pictorial. Most are prefaced
by spoken texts, recited by soprano
Jane Webster, and all are relatively
compact. Sakura Variations, like
many of these pieces, seems to be very
much work-in-progress and exists in
several versions. This 2000 version
is for cello and harpsichord – full
of keening string and crisp keyboard
(reminiscent of the Chinese koto
in sonority); there’s a delicious instruction
in one of the variations "as if
entangled in a spider’s web" –
and that’s just how it sounds. Sticky
stasis. She writes for intriguing sound
worlds and conjures up zestful and colourful
vistas – for soprano soloist and clarinettist
for instance in the Four Love Songs.
These are melismatic, allusive, introspective,
spare, desolate and lonely. They enshrine
an epigrammatic stillness, though the
final song has buoyancy in its loneliness;
there’s something of the German Romantics’
motto Frei aber einsam about
the sensibility. Permutation derives
from her interest in computer music
but is no sterile abstract statement;
it’s accessible, uses a "nightmare
hymn" motif (as described by the
composer) and has a passacaglia-like
inexorability.
To You is a
yearning vocalise with a Raga influence
and encompasses trills and an elevated
despair whereas Tai Chi (1977)
for the ear titillatingly subtle combination
of flute and guitar is warmly and delicately
textured. Farewell, My Beloved is
subtitled Impressions of a Chinese
Opera and there are allusions a-plenty
here to Peking opera though the forces
are severely reduced – a single clarinet
for which Lin writes with complex adroitness,
the spaces between counting for much.
These elements come to the fore in the
last two pieces - Bulldozers, Old
House and Old Banyan and Let’s
Sing "Magic Banyan Tree."
The first enacts the story of an
attempted demolition – full of cartoonish
"heavy booted" thuggery, vaguely
baroque in its tread, in the context
of a ballet scenario. This is an enjoyably
scary and very fluid piece of writing,
full of danger and lyrical moments,
and does what good ballet music should
do; it makes you want to see it staged.
Finally then Let’s Sing "Magic
Banyan Tree" for bigger forces
with vibraphone, flute and percussion
to the fore, as well as a solo soprano
and a children’s chorus. This is the
most explicitly Chinese piece on the
disc- with the soloist having a quasi-operatic
role to play, enacting as she does the
kind of role taken by a female singer
in Cantonese opera. It’s tuneful, amusing,
sometimes demanding, but enjoyable.
So a welcome voice
with a strong sensibility – melancholic,
maybe, but only in part (for which one
should read the composer’s own biographical
notes) but also full of pleasurable
generosity and élan. Try ordering
it from the address above.
Jonathan Woolf
Nancy Yuen (soprano), Rowland Sutherland (flute,
piccolo, alto flute), Glyn Williams (bassoon),
Nathaniel Bartlett (marimba), Teddy Bergstrom
(xylophone, vibraphone) Alex Brangwyn (timpani,
percussion) and Child Singers/Chorus from Redbridge
and Walthamstow directed by Ann-Kay Lin 
