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Programme Note

This piece is a section of a collaborative performance work with New Mexico poet Arthur Sze commissioned by the Santa Fe Center for Contemporary Art; based on his long poem "The Silk Road," it was first performed by Joan LaBarbera and Christopher Shultis. The rhythms of English verse are combined with the tonal qualities of Peking Opera, in a linear structure like the connected brush-strokes of calligraphy.

—Tan Dun