Henry Ng Tsz Kiu

Just by reading Caplin's Classical Form will be ok? Henry

You are so lovely Vasilis! Thx to you I met new ppl in your channel! To me I wrote it and conceive the piece really as a “Musical Moment”, which means I never thought deeply in how to develop the piece or so, but only get directly from my heart to write what I want. Maybe those emotions are long stored in me and I just took them out in this piece. My writing motto is simple: Be honest. By listening your playing I know we are connected. If we aren’t you won’t play this great. Maybe the beauty is hidden in the piece, but it’s you who excavate them out! You for sure love the piece more than I did!! Nah you have to admit that your playing is better! 🤩 But thx for enjoying playing the piece, it makes me feel happy and honoured! ❤️ Henry

My pleasure to play it! I thoroughly enjoy it! As you’ve said in my Musical Moment, sometimes performers can look into a piece in a different perspective or approach that even the composer doesn’t think of, but all the notes and inspiration come from the composer himself! Plus, I’m also a composer myself so I love creating things from any score, whether it’s written, not written or even against it haha. Thx for dedicating one of your favourite works to me! That makes it more special! Henry

To tell you the truth, I don’t love this piece that much until Vasilis played it. To me I only wrote it in 2 days and hence not much emotion with it (not like my Sextet or Quintet when I wrote them for years hence have a lot of emotions towards them), but Vasilis excavated the essence of my piece out, plus his own interpretation of the piece. Big thx to him! And a thx to you for loving the piece! Henry

Hi @Grant Weep ! You should, I agree that Vasilis’s version is much better than mine!😄 I think it’s just our different stylistic choice. For this whole piece I didn’t think much and just let the music grow itself. I could have changed the 1st and 2nd crotchet with different thickness though I didn’t haha! Haha that’s a REAL BIG compliment from you! Please keep giving me constructive criticism haha! Thank you! Henry

Hi @Lucky ! Thx a lot for your engraving suggestion! I know it’s one of my major weakness and I look to improve it! I even got a copy of the book myself! Thank you! This complement is more than enough for me! Henry

Hey my Vasilis! I feel bad not to reply earlier since this piece is dedicated to me! For me at first I find the piece humorous to listen to, but only by playing it I realise all the details and contrast of different passages. This piece is again primarily Scarlattian and Schubertian, the energy and phrasing is Scarlattian while the harmony, like the modal texture and Augmented sixths, neopolitan sixths are Schubertian. I really enjoy playing it! It’s much more difficult than the score appears since there are lots of details. Also I occasionally ignore your markings because I feel the piece in a different way haha. For example in section B I feel like the piece can be more dramatic, so I ignore the decrescendos. Thx a lot for dedicating this piece to me! Henry

Hi all, I'm overjoyed to share a recording of this plece played by my dear friend @Vasilis Michael ! He completely captures the calmness and serenity of the piece with many details, and he plays the piece better than I do, and he understands the piece more than I do, and he excavated something from the piece I don't. What an honor to have such a great friend playing this great recording of my piece!! Thank you Vasilis! Henry

Yup, they are 陸王心學 instead of Zhu XI's 理學. And I really love them! I didn't go through them one by one, but I did read some Chinese philosophy books so I can basically grasp their thoughts. And their thoughts are essential in this piece of music. Thank you! I love that section too, it's definitely the climax of the 1st movement! I'm not that knowledgeable about Chinese music either so I don't know why I write like this, but in case the product is good it's good haha. But the Chinese spirit is true, I write this piece totally because I'm inspired by Chinese philosophy. Yeah again I don't know how I wrote that! Thank you! Thank you! Henry

I YT search your Professor's name and find this one: A wonderfully contemplative piece! Not that atonal to me haha. Henry

Sad to know there's an end! "If I'm going to give a deadline to our love, I hope it will be 10 thousand years..."

Hey @Wieland Handke ! Thank you so much for your review! I always want to reply but I have been sick for almost two weeks (still so) and threw up twice 2 days ago, and also digging myself into Scarlatti so I am not that active in this forum recently. Whenever I write I never expect how long a piece would be, as I am not writing for any competitions/commissions. I always say that I am selfish and I always write for myself instead of any other people. I write to express myself and I will let the music grow and speak for themselves. The duration of "my" piece (if they are really mine) is not what I the mere labor barer can control. What I have to do is to make sure the music express itself out fully, resonably and coherently, with technique and care and honesty only. I didn't choose the instrumentation either; the 1st inspiration popped out during a night when I woke up from sleeping, in the sound of a String Sextet which is the opening of this piece. I have no choice but to follow my inspiration haha. I even (unwillingly and forcefully) write 6 part fugue thx to the Sextet medium, as if I write for any other medium or instrumentation I wouldn't have dreamt of myself tediously writing a 6 part fugue! This shows another aspect of how "selfish" I am as I only write for myself, I never care for the feeling of my listeners! :) I don't think of any imagery for the beginning but I think yours is an apt description of it. What I was thinking then was human represented by freaking violas immersed and resonated in Tao by Heaven (represented by Violins) and Earth (represented by Cellos), that's where my shameless subtitle "Heaven, Earth and Human" bases on. The fugue is in 26:33 of the Youtube video for the whole Sextet, or 11:53 in the 2nd movement audio. Thank you so much for listening to the Sextet and remembering the piece even it's a year ago! I really appreciate it! Henry

Is this a live recording? I ask so because I hear the pressing sound of pedal, and if it's so it's a really good playing. On the piece itself it has sentimentality and melodic fluency, and it reminds me of piano music from @UncleRed99 and @MK_Piano . Thx for sharing! P.S. Thank you! Henry

Hi @Mamuka Chkheidze ! Do you have the full audio of the piece? I don't have a spotify account and in this preview of your piece it just allows me to listen to some seconds of it. Thx! Henry

When did I speak? 🤪