CALL Confucius - A Secular Cantata one monumental work.

You don’t need to be a literary or philosophy expert to enjoy Chong Wing Hong’s 100-minute musical blockbuster on the life of Confucius.

Old tale, new music. For all its scale and lofty aesthetics, Confucius - A Secular Cantata was scored in an impossibly short period of time: four months.

‘It was frantic,’ says composer Phoon Yew Tien, 49, who was commissioned by the National Arts Council to write the work.

‘The contract was not finalised till April 2000, and I had already committed myself to other projects in the meantime, leaving very little time for the Cantata. Often, I simply worked overnight without a break.’

He worked on it from last November till this February. Lasting 10 movements in 100 minutes and scored for a full Chinese orchestra, eight soloists and two choirs, it is Phoon’s largest work to date.

In spite of the deadline rush, the composer is happy with his finished product.

Eschewing the use of ancient - and dubious - instruments traditional to Confucius’ time, he prefers to write for modern Chinese orchestral forces using his imagination as a resource.

‘In this work, I have used a technique I developed over the years which I might call my own: the subtle shifting of keys in a single flowing melody,’ he says.

‘As a listener, you will be surprised, and wonder where the lines are leading.’

At 485 pages and 100 minutes long, and requiring the gargantuan forces of two large choirs, eight soloists and one full orchestra, this musical blockbuster is also the largest choral work ever commissioned by the National Arts Council for the annual Singapore Arts Festival.

"Some people say it’s ambitious," says its creator and librettist, Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao’s leader-writer Chong Wing Hong, 52.

"With a subject like Confucius, there was no other way."

On June 9, the piece, set to music by Phoon Yew Tien, will be premiered by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under the baton of Xia Fei Yun.

Before you shudder at whatever portentous, didactic philosophies it may preach upon the stunned listener - no, this work is not about Confucianism per se.

"I wanted to present Confucius - the man, the life," says Chong.

"There will be mention of his writings and beliefs. But I’m not interested in the orthodox theories that warlords in China appropriated for themselves after his death."

Indeed. With greying hair brushed casually around a kindly face and shirt-sleeves that fly with accompanying hand gestures punctuating his speech, Chong the man, too, is not a stuffy Chinese intellectual.

A well-known film critic and fan of Hollywood blockbusters and art flicks alike, he is too open-minded and chatty to deliver ancient tracts with frowning eyebrows to innocent young minds.

Apart from a tiny quotation from the Book Of Rites (Li Ji), the entire text of his magnum opus is set in modern Chinese.

"It’s a contemporary work," he says.

"Anybody who understands Chinese can understand it - you don’t need to be a literary expert."

While he says the work is accessible to today’s audiences, there is thankfully no grandiose talk of "revolutionising culture" - catch-phrases which typify the pronouncements of one too many eager Chinese writers and composers today.

If the Cantata is Chinese and "modern", it is also uniquely Singaporean, Chong says.

"A lot of people think that a Singaporean text must be written in Singlish, or have a plot which is set in a hawker centre," he says.

"But I feel that this "Singaporean’ essence doesn’t just come in superficial things. It goes beyond that; it’s about penetrating a work at the larger, deeper level."

While the pursuit of this lofty aspiration is an end in itself, it should be a natural, unconscious process.

Born and bred in Singapore, Chong feels that "I’ve been around here long enough for any "Singaporean’ values to seep into my work, whether I like it or not".

Ironically, the first draft was written outside Asia, in London, nine years ago. Chong was then working as a producer for the BBC China Service and taking a master’s degree in Film and Television Studies.

"Living in a foreign culture, there was a sense of solitude I experienced, which I could share with the ancient sage," he recalls. "I was prompted by political events of the world then, and inspired by many English Oratorio performances that I had watched in London, to write this work."

Over the years, various composers from Singapore and China were considered for the realisation of text into music.

However, it was not until 1999 that a production committee was formed, and that Chong approached the National Arts Council to programme the work into this year’s Singapore Arts Festival. Cultural Medallion winner Phoon Yew Tien, already a member of the committee, was engaged to write the score last November.

"I have full confidence in Mr Phoon. I believe this work is important and monumental," Chong says.

His regret is that it has not been billed as an opening gala event.

"National arts organisations should have more confidence in Singaporean works. I think something of this scale, or even Kuo Pao Kun’s One Hundred Years In Waiting, should deserve such an honour."

( Article reproduced from The Straits Times - 25 May 2001, by Tan Shzr Ee )