Interview by William Chan
Monic Chen Hoi Kei recently shared her insights in an online interview with The Macau Post Daily regarding her performance at Bravo Macao!, a programme within this year’s Macao International Music Festival that aimed to provide a platform for local young musicians.
Chen, a local pianist and composer, possesses a versatile musical background, engaging in improvisation and composition across a diverse range of genres, including classical, avant-garde, pop, free jazz, and other rhythmic styles.
Chen highlighted her performance of “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” (“Quartet for the End of Time”) at the Small Auditorium of the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) on October 22. This composition, created by the French composer Olivier Messiaen while he was held captive by the German army during World War II, had its premiere in a concentration camp in Germany. The piece combines classical and modern elements, showcasing unique harmony, rhythm, and melody.
When asked how to appreciate contemporary music that is often foreign to traditional aesthetic principles, Chen noted, “The structure and form of the piece may be reflected in the relationship between its movements or in the composer’s state of mind. The background of the music and composer could also provide some means for us to appreciate the music from various perspectives.” She added that every time she performs “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”, it moves her deeply and brings tears to her eyes.
Chen firmly believes that aesthetics in music should not solely rely on pleasing melodies and harmonies. Just like diversity, innovation, chaos, madness and challenges in life, music can also be interpreted beyond the simplicity of pleasant.
Review by K. von Waldenblatt
K. von Waldenblatt is a musician and art curator from Hong Kong who attended the concert.
In a concert that evokes the spirit of contemporary artistic youths in this part of Asia, Monic Chen bravely and charismatically led all of us to the rarely accessible realm of “avant-garde” classical music. The attempt on Macau soil itself is laudable and must be most inspiring to those still fearful and hesitant to dare popular judgement. But perhaps the essence of Chen’s charisma lies in daring popular judgement with conviction and style, whilst not despising or rejecting popular judgement from a high ground or from some ivory tower.
Incidentally, popular judgement does not necessarily mean a united consensus amongst the populus either. Some people wept during “Quartet for The End of Time’’; some people were snoring. More importantly, perhaps the person who was weeping was given the ticket by a friend, and had no idea what he was going to listen to that night; or that the snoring person had come to this concert precisely because he enjoys falling into a satisfying slumber to this piece of Messaien’s…
This is a peculiar phenomenon of our time and space, that is different from the time and space in which the piece was written and performed: we have no idea who might come to listen, and we have no idea what anyone might know of this music. The contemporary artistic youths in our time and space can, and indeed must, now freely purvey that which is considered beautiful music, and must do so with personal conviction and style. More than promoting or educating anything, the serendipity of connecting to undiscovered lovers out there, and the rare gratification it may offer to the very few existing lovers equally out there, fully justifies their every effort. Monic Chen clearly champions this spirit of contemporary artistic youth.
The realm of “avant-garde” classical music is rarely accessible because this music is rarely performed live. Listened through a recording, on its own, this music is really not useful to an overwhelming majority of humanity. We need not be careful saying this, for the principal use of music is enjoyment, and clearly, the enjoyment of listening to this music recorded is not affirmed universally.
Yet it is another story when performed live. The intensity of the artists’ efforts in expressivity, in concentration on musicality, and in executional cooperation, were on full display on Chen’s stage, resulting in a gripping, and very useful, experience. The video displays in the second half of the concert, combined with the displacement of the musicians creating varying acoustic effects, likewise lent [Dutch composer Louis] Andriessen’s “Workers Union” useful context, creating stronger connections to the ears and eyes and minds of the audience. The very demanding tutti [all together] in dotted and compound subdivisions were executed tightly, resulting in a captivating performance to the end. One wonders why some atmospheric or visual instalments were not in place for the first half of the concert, which would have enhanced the usefulness of that experience, too.
“Bravo Macao” has succeeded in introducing, and hopefully really nurturing, an important local artist through this concert. We hope to hear more of Chen and her musical journeys. One would yearn for more discoveries of real local talent, giving them the soil to grow on, nurturing them, and bringing them to blossom.
Monic Chen Hoi Kei performs with other musicians at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) on October 22. – Photos provided by Chen
