All About the Arts: "New Music of Vivian Fung"
Vivian Fung’s music is immensely varied, colored by her Asian heritage and travels in the Far East, and not easily pigeonholed or labeled. Her String Quartet no. 1 is decidedly atonal, given unpredictable harmonies, sudden changes in tempo and time signatures, and given impulsive, often agitated music that rivets the attention of the listener.
Fung’s String Quartet no. 2 is structured as a six-movement tone poem melodically evocative of Chinese scales. The work then progresses through five movements, several poetically titled Of the Wind, Of Birds and Insects, Of Tribes and Villages, Of Ghosts and Memories.
Throughout a fascinating hour of listening Vivian Fung makes use of several compositional devices: pizzicato, fugato passages, moto perpetuo, and contrasting of sustained notes in the cello bluntly interrupted by restless interjections by the violins.
- Rafael de Acha