Pikong

for solo soprano saxophone – 2015 – 5′

for solo soprano saxophone – 2015 – 5′

This piece was written for a special project that Pikong Wu designed for his final bachelor exam at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Four composers participated in that, each of us providing a piece that would chain with one another to form a whole suit, using a song and a poem (provided both by him) as a backbone.

My small piece was agreed to have childhood (early childhood) as a sort of theme or backthought. I approached this by tapping onto curiosity and spontaneity, as well as by researching flexible material on the saxophone that could evoque babbling and crying. The whole playfulness suited very well my view of Pikong’s cheerful and positive personality. We ended up producing something quite theatrical, as it was somehow implied in our initial conversations.

The opportunity also provided a wonderful environment to delve into new notational options. Pikong was very collaborative in the whole process, and performed the piece repeatedly that same year in his concerts in Singapore and Taiwan.