Shu Shon Key (Remembrance) was inspired by a Taiwanese Folk melody that conveys a feeling of homesickness. I wrote this work for Hsin-Yun Huang who shares a similar background to my own: both of us were born in Taiwan, yet we have lived the majority of our lives in the West. Given our shared heritage and experience, it seemed fitting to use this melody as source material for this work.

At the beginning of the piece, the original melody with its sad and bittersweet emotion is presented in a simplified manner. Gradually this melancholy emotion, carried by different fragments of the folk melody, is transformed into an uplifting, lighter, playful, and eventually intense, powerful music for the climax of the piece. After a dazzling cadenza-like passage that reveals Hsin-Yun’s superb musicianship and technique, the melody returns in its original, elaborated form played by the entire ensemble in a multi-layered texture. This brings full closure and a resolution to end the piece.