Romance (2025)
for Chamber Ensemble

Commissioned by Sharing Chamber Orchestra

Instrumentation:
1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Percussion (Snare Drum, Kick Drum, Suspended Cymbal, Rainstick, Triangle, and Metal Wind Chime.), 1 Harp, 1 Piano, 2 Violins, 1 Viola, 1 Cello

World Premiere:
October 18, 2025
Music Kaleidoscope – Sharing Chamber Orchestra Concert 2025
Chiahu Performance Hall, Beigang Cultural Center, Yunlin, Taiwan
Sharing Chamber Orchestra

Duration: 7 minutes

Program Notes

Romance for chamber ensemble is a commissioned piece by Sharing Chamber Orchestra. Since I first composed Under the Darkening Sky (2020) for them, it opened the path for me to work with them continuously on many arrangements after the COVID-19 pandemic. As usual, they asked me to arrange a piece including Happy Birthday for their 25th anniversary concert. Instead of doing an arrangement, this led to the idea of composing my second original work for them, and two pieces came to my mind, Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Two Romances for piano and Amy Beach’s Romance for violin and piano, Op. 23.

Inspired by these two pieces, I titled this piece Romance as well, to embrace the warm and touching atmosphere of music while expressing my longing for my beloved family and hometown. Based on the mixolydian mode and pentatonic scale in both melody and harmonic progression, the piece weakens the function of the leading tone and creates the illusion that the tonic is actually a dominant chord. In this setting, the music flows freely, without a fixed destination, through contrasting sections, each revealing its various gestures.

Singing Happy Birthday is a very intimate act, as is missing my lovely family and friends. This piece will premiere on October 18, 2025, which is also my birthday, at Chiahu Performance Hall, Beigang Cultural Center (Yunlin, Taiwan). With this piece, I am singing my own Happy Birthday, a gift both to Sharing Chamber Orchestra and to myself.

接受了鄉音室內樂團的委託創作，我譜寫了這首為室內樂團的《羅曼史》。自從第一次為鄉音室內樂團譜寫了《天黑之後》(2020)，在後疫情時代開啟了許多與他們繼續合作的編曲機會。他們問我是否能改編一首有生日快樂歌的作品，提供他們在25週年的音樂會上演出。我心想與其是改編作品，寫第二首新的曲子給他們或許比較好。開始了這個想法，我想起了兩首曲子，吉松隆為鋼琴的《兩首羅曼史》和艾咪．畢奇為小提琴跟鋼琴的《羅曼史，作品23》。

靈感來自這兩首曲子，我也把這首新作命名為《羅曼史》，有著溫暖而動人的音樂氛圍，同時也散發著對親人跟故鄉的思念。曲子的旋律跟和聲結構主要建立在米索利地安調式跟五聲音階，這些調式削弱了調性音樂的導音功能，讓屬和絃聽起來像是主和絃一樣。在這樣手法中，音樂得以自由而無終點的展開，在對比的段落中變化著不同的樣貌。

我一直認為唱生日快樂歌是一個很親密的舉動，就好像思念著家人跟朋友一樣。這首曲子會在2025年10月18日於雲林北港文化中心家湖廳首演，那天也正好是我的生日。藉由這首曲子，我似乎在唱著一首有著我自己風格的生日快樂歌，祝福著鄉音室內樂團跟我自己的生日快樂！

– Feng-Hsu Lee (September 2, 2025 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)