Mirage
for Orchestra
by Brian Chatpo Koo (Australia)

Mirage is the illusive appearance produced by air conditions causing something not existent to appear as if it were real.

The music consists of two movements. The first movement, Allegro Spirito is built upon several soft floating phrases in the string’s harmonics and accompanied by the tremolos of the winds and percussion instruments depicting the illusion of mirage. In the second movement, Allegro grandioso, the storm-like sonorities of the whole orchestra are contrasted with a soft, song-like passage depicting the conflicts between hope and reality. In the final section of the piece struggling from the piercing sonorities of the strings and the winds, the brass instruments build up a grand melody that ends the music suddenly.

This work was commissioned by the Hong Kong Composers’s Guild with financial assistance from the composers and Authors Society of Hong Kon and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 1996. The work was premiered by Hong Kong Sinfonietta Orchestra during the Musicarama International New Music Festival in Hong Kong on the 1st of September 1996.