The Girl From The French Fort:how did my orchestral illustration of Hong Ying’s story come to life?
My orchestral illustration The Girl From The French Fort came into being almost by accident. Hong Ying had asked me to translate her wonderful story into English, as the book was published in a bilingual format, with sumptuous illustrations by the extraordinarily talented Cherry Denman. (There’s a funny story about that too: Cherry doesn’t read Chinese, and the translations that were being provided – I guess through google translate – meant that she kept drawing the wrong things… I like to think I helped to solve that problem!) Some time after the book was released, Hong Ying appeared at my flat one evening and asked me to write music for the story. I was quite surprised to be asked, I didn’t think Hong Ying knew I composed music as I hadn’t been actively composing for a while. But I was, naturally extremely flattered. I remember I asked her why me? “Because,” she said, “you went to Cambridge, and people who went to Cambridge are very smart.” Kind words!
The project was in some ways a strange one – I was not entirely sure what we were working towards. Initially, it seemed to be incidental music for piano for a performance involving traditional puppets. Then it changed into something for two performers and multimedia. In its final phase, it didn’t need music at all… but I had already written quite a bit, and reactions from friends were overwhelmingly positive, so I decided to turn it into a companion piece for Peter and the Wolf, even down to scoring it for the same size orchestra (albeit with more colourful percussion), and Peking Sinfonietta gave the first performance at Beijing Concert Hall back in 2016.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the many challenges of this project, The Girl From The French Fort was a joy to write. I have kept the music simple and direct, and I have tried to infuse it with a sense of how it feels to live in China, both now and during the period in which the story is set. In fact, I wrote music that I thought my son would be willing to listen to. The greatest pleasure I get from this piece now is watching the reactions of children in the audience. Two performances in particular really stand out for me. At the first Chongqing performance, I decided to sit right at the back of the hall, behind a group of children who had not been to many concerts (I asked them afterwards). They sat politely through Peter and the Wolf, but they were on the edges of their seats for Sangsang’s adventures. The other performance I will never forget is the performance by the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra at Shanghai Oriental Art Center for International Children’s Day in 2019. There were easily 1000 children in the audience, and when Sangsang returns home after his night at the French Fort to find years have passed and his mother has died of grief, a good half of the children burst into tears. I got some seriously concerned looks from the concert organizers. But their sheer joy when Sangsang and the little girl turn back time to reverse the situation and save the day made it a palpable hit. Of course, that is Hong Ying’s story, but I like to think that my music helps!
And friends tell me that the adults in the audience enjoy it too! You can see this orchestral illustration in November, with the premiere of my latest work, my short opera The Stone God, at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre.
