Dr. Leung Chi Hin is an enthusiastic local composer, and he is also currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, The Education University of Hong Kong. Over the past years, Dr. Leung has been dedicated to the compositions integrating elements of East and West, as well as timbral and textual exploration under the influence of his diverse cultural background. The masterpieces composed by Dr. Leung have been widely featured in various music events worldwide, such as the ISCM World New Music Days, International Electronic Music Week, the International Rostrum of Composers and Asian Composers League Festival.
Besides, with the background of majoring electronic music in professional diploma, Dr. Leung has also been devoting his effort in fostering music education with the aid music technology, which also relates to his active participation in International Society for Music Education Conference.
Festive Chamber was delighted to interview Dr Leung on 14 November 2018 and had the opportunity to know more about this very passionate musician.
(I): Interviewer
(L): Dr. Leung Chi Hin
L : Basically, I’m interested in composition and also electronic music. But for myself, I actually do more on acrostic music than electronic music. My first degree was music education, then I did my master in composition. Moreover, I spent a year for Hong Kong Academy for performing art where I majored in electronic music, then I did my doctor in composition again. Therefore I have a little bit of interest in electronic music. In my opinion, electronic music is not that important in music education, but technology instead. I think e-learning is very important in music education. Thus you can find that I am doing some e-orchestras. Currently, we use iPads to make the orchestras instead of making some strange sounds like wind and wooden instruments. I personally do a lot of things in STEM, or even STEAM, which I believe technology is essential to music education.
L : Starting from S4, music is not a core subject in the DSE exam, so it becomes an elective. In the past nine years, from Primary 1 to Secondary 3, we have already had nine years of music training, which the curriculum goes through the three cycles: listening, performing and creating. I believe that in these nine years, we have already equipped students to
have a basic understanding of what is music and learnt how to appreciate music. At the same time, they experienced musical performances and even a little bit of compositions, so I believe that these nine years is quite enough for students. I understand that although there is no core subject, most schools still keep on doing music activities like the orchestra, choir and some extra-curricular activities which encourage the S4-S6 students to continue with music. I think it is not a problem because if you study music in S4, you will treat it more academic rather than the music lessons you had in that nine years, the role and nature of music education are thus different.
L : I think I am fortunate that I had many opportunities to participate in many international festivals. For example, I attended an International Society for Contemporary Music in Croatia in 2011, which is the so-called World Music Day. I was so lucky that one of my compositions was selected in this festival, and I had a chance to listen to music from all over the world. Most of the pieces were really contemporary and newly written, so I think that this event is significant in my life as I had a chance to learn the latest trend in music and met many composers and world-class performers. Also, I cooperated with the performers in Croatia. My piece was a tuba quartet, and they performed my piece very well.
L : I started my composition journey since 2004, so far I have been composing for fourteen to fifteen years. To be honest, I don’t like all the pieces I wrote, but there are indeed some good pieces that I will surely listen to them again and again. Most of the ideas come from nature, I love the sound of nature, sometimes from the ocean, sometimes form the skies. Recently, I also think that cultures are quite important too. I have some pieces made for the intangible heritage, like Tai Hang Fire Dragon. Also, some Cantonese operas inspired me to write for some pieces. Besides, I encountered some poems when I look for my inspiration, like the Tang poems, I am really impressed by them: there are just four sentences, but there could be many meanings behind. I tried to use my harmony language to depict this kind of pictures and scenarios, in which I really satisfied with the product, as long as the music and the lyrics work closely together. What I like the most is that piece about a Tang poem, which named ‘Thoughts of Separation’, this is a choral piece attempts to imitate a poem, but just with a piano. The most exciting thing is I tried to compose the melody in G Minor, but the harmony in F Major though, it sounds so harmonise, and you don’t feel strange. But this is how I treat the music element to fit this topic because we are talking about missing, longing, the thoughts of separation. So if we are not in the same key, somehow you feel the emotions of the poem. This is one of the pieces that I satisfy the most. Another piece is played by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra last year, which is about Fire Dragon Dance. As I can work with this professional orchestra, I can write for full orchestration, so it gives me a huge space to express myself through these compositions. The players are skilful, The outcome is fantastic. Somehow I can achieve my goal to depict the fire dragon with those strings harmonic sound and primitive sounds with the woodwinds, like the piccolo. This is why I enjoyed it very much.
L : To be honest, it is tough for me to maintain a good work-life balance. I am a person who is really committed to music and also music education. As a composer, I would never stop composing. At the same time, I teach music as I love sharing my knowledge to the next generation. Both fields, for education and music, are really time-consuming, I won’t say they are bad, but they make my lifestyle fast. In the past, I worked for all day long, and I didn’t have mischief family time. Therefore I tried not to work at home recently, I decided to complete the work on time, so after my work time I can have time to stay with my family. Usually, I go back home at 6:00 pm, then I stop doing all the things because I think music is essential, but also family. As a musician, it is easy to be occupied on Saturday and Sunday because we have to attend many concerts, so that’s why I need to make an excellent work-life balance. Now my son is four years old, so my whole family can go to watch concerts together so I can spend more time with my family.
L : I know that Festive Chamber Choir has done a lot of good concerts and performances in these 8 years. What we can do further is perhaps to promote Hong Kong music. We have quite a lot of good composers in Hong Kong, but in the scenario, Hong Kong music is still a bit far behind from the other countries, because the support from the local performing ensemble groups is not enough. I understand that it is still improving, but I am looking for more opportunities for the choir or ensemble work with the composer, like for the composer to tailor-make compositions for the ensemble group. I think composers nowadays are more open and flexible in composing, not like the previous decades where composers just write a piece of the song without asking the members’ for advice. But nowadays we can communicate and discuss with the composers what you want to do, what is the strength of your choir, how we can work together to showcase your talent, I think it is good to work closely with the composers.
