Programme Note

Some inspiration for Morning after the Deluge, a 12-minute piece for violin, piano and string quartet (a rare instrumentation used most notably by Chausson), comes from William Turner’s similarly-named painting from 1843, Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis. The painting depicts dawn emerging from the ruin of the great flood when God’s covenant with man was established.

The shifting landscape dissolving into layers of mist against a rising sun inspired me to design the same for the music: it begins with a single melody that slowly develops into a growing fugue; when all 6 members of ensemble finally come together, we begin “hearing” the first light of the dawn. A new, lively motif emerges. Bright and colorful, the music bears influences from traditional Chinese folk dances. The opening theme also forms the ending of the piece, which is reflective of a sunset. Here, the ensemble slowly fades, one instrument at a time, into the silence of the darkness.

My deep gratitude goes to pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, who commissioned and premiered this work at Curtis with violinists Susie Park, Lily Francis, and Xi Chen; violist Teng Li; and cellist Yumi Kendall. I learned tremendously from working with these great musicians.  

—Zhou Tian

“Morning after the Deluge” won ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards in 2004.