Bukit Batok Chinese Orchestra | The Terracotta Warriors 秦兵马俑

Fantasia 梦幻 30 August 2025 NAFA Lee Foundation Theatre Conductor: Tan Dayang Concert held in conjunction with Singapore Chinese Music Festival 2025. === Programme Notes === Composer: Peng Xiuwen 彭修文 Year of composition: 1984 Amidst a drought in 1974, the fields of a village 35 kilometres east of Xi’an were parched and the grains were dying. Farmers began to dig a well at the lowest point in the fields. On the third day, a farmer by the name of Yang Zhifa discovered a buried jar. His neighbour cautioned him to dig carefully so he could bring the jar home for use as a container. Neither man realised at the time, but the “jar” was to be the head of one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century: the Terracotta Army in the vast mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. The mausoleum contains an estimated 8,000 terracotta warriors across 57 square kilometres (at least 5 times that of Bukit Batok). In his programme notes, composer Peng Xiuwen made it clear that despite the title, this Fantasia is not about the terracotta warriors. It is meant to depict the Qin soldiers and their suffering at being pressed into service and being away from their homes year after year. They bitterly missed their parents, wives, and children, who in turn longed for their safe return. Hence, the huàn xiǎng qǔ 幻想曲 (fantasia) form – with its freedom to shift between moods and imagery – serves to capture the soldiers’ inner world in three parts: I. Discipline is Strict in the Army: When will the Feng-Shan tours end? The music starts faintly – the tired, rhythmic march of the Qin army at dawn. A military horn accompanying the army can be made out in the distance, slowly closing in until the stately theme of the Qin army emerges in full. The ostinato supporting the melody gives way to a flowing melody led by the huqin, and the focus shifts to the daydreams of a homesick soldier. Bubbling underneath his fantasies are despairing thoughts: the war is won, yet here I am; will the Emperor’s Feng-Shan tours ever end? The dark thoughts are suppressed by a deep sigh, played out in an accented tutti. The flowing melody continues as if nothing has happened, and urges the soldier onward in his unending march. A nervous call from the suona snaps every soldier out of his reverie. The call is answered by the dizi, accompanied by a flurry of tremolos by the plucking and strings sections. The army scrambles to smarten up for the Emperor’s passage. Soon, drums announce the arrival of the Emperor and his ceremonial guard. The orchestra fills the air with pomp and circumstance as they pass through. Night eventually falls. Gongs and drums are sounded to halt the advance, set up camp, and prepare for rest. II. Spring Boudoir Dreams: Lovesick soldiers bitterly miss their wives. The night is still, save for the sounds of night watchmen on patrol (打更 dǎ gēng): two quick strikes on a wood block (梆子 bāng zǐ) after a long one, to announce that “all is well” at midnight. A lone xun (埙 xūn) carries the soft lament of a soldier for a home that he had to leave behind. His song stirs the homesickness in others who join in the song in quiet tremolos, before drifting back into the Duke of Zhou’s (周公 zhōu gōng) realm. In the soldiers’ liminal dream state, the sounds from the watchmen’s wood blocks morph into a scene of a wife laundering her husband’s winter clothing by pounding on them (捣衣 dǎo yī). Here, the guzheng, xiao, pipa, and erhu take turns to weave tunes – memories of the soldiers’ and their wives’ cosy domesticity in gentler days. The dream’s saccharine climax gives way to one last poignant memory between the zhonghu and the liuqin, before a familiar gong dissolves it. The soldiers jolt back into reality and hastily prepare to move out again. III. Hoist the Banners: A ten thousand Mile March across Snowy Mountains The theme from the first movement returns as the army continues their march but the music now harbours a tension, an out of step impatience under the magnificent facade. Even the emperor’s splendid procession fails to conceal the anxiety brought on by a rising cold wind and heavy clouds rolling in that hint at a bitter winter storm to come. Qin Shi Huang’s army trudges on against biting wind and billowing snow. Will the Emperor’s Feng-Shan tours ever end? In the final section of the Fantasia, the full orchestra unleashes the repressed pain of the soldiers that erupt in blood curdling cries…… The immortalised army marches on. === Programme notes written by humans. References: 2019 Mainland Tour Programme notes (2019) HKCO. Available at: https://www.hkco.org/en/Others/2019-M... Yu, Fei (2009) Living with the Terra-cotta Army, Consulate General of China, Houston. Archived at: http://web.archive.org/web/2010120620... (Archived: 6 Dec 2010) Composer's Notes.