Mong Dong

Description

This piece for chamber ensemble was written in 1984. The impulse to write it came from tne primitive cliff drawings of the Wa minority people of Cangyuan, Yunan Province, in southwestern China. Like all primitive art, the cliff drawings of Cangyuan belong to nature, not to civilization. The crude, unstudied, simple, childlike lines of the cliff drawings are permeated with the tranquility of primitive man's oneness with nature. This sort of prehistoric serenity moves me deeply. I cannot bring back the primordial world. But the feeling of closeness with nature, which mankind had in primitive times, is perhaps the most precious thing that modem civilized man has lost. As to the title, it is actually a title of an untitled work. Mong Dong, nothing more than two abstract, mysterious syllables. -- Qu Xiao-song