In Eastern watercolor painting, the main three kinds of bamboos are the Wind

Bamboo, Sun Bamboo, and the Rain Bamboo. Several trips to Japan also

introduced me to the scenery of Japanese bamboo forests beside the temples. After

Reading Japanese myths, merged with the concept of oriental watercolor painting, I composed these three bamboos into three movements based on the view of the

Japanese bamboo forests. This Sonata, to harmonize with Japanese scale (Hirajoshi), the music is arranged with the Chinese pentatonic scale “Siang” with “D” as the beginning note, which is accompanied by the note “Liu” in the change between Flat and Natural, and combined with Hirajoshi in C to be the main Mode of this Sonata.

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The firs movement “Rain Bamboo” shows crisscrossing of heavy rain and drizzle, and the silver lining after the sky clears. It is difficult to draw out the rain bamboo in Chinese painting. The shape of the leaves and how to add the ink is hard to capture. In addition, the rain bamboo represents another important concept. It is that of how to flutter about, but developing with a main axis. Form the beginning, it is describing the sky starts to drizzle, raindrops sliding downwards, rolling, and bouncing between the rain bamboos. And then, there are couples of times of the arrival of heavy rain that the music reflects the raindrops flapping against the bamboo leaves and the image of the rain fluttering among the bamboos. The bouncing and rolling of the raindrops among the fluttering rain bamboos echoing the Chinese splattered painting, the lines are natural, not tamed. While, in between the heavy rain fall, the rain is weakening, the scene of the rain wandering between the leaves is clearing up while another gust of spirit is inserted. Finally, it comes with the last arrival of the heavy rain, an even stronger gust of ingeniousness is spreading through the bamboos which leads to the peace and silence at the end: the sky cleared, the rain bamboo forest is soaked with raindrops gently strolling down and rolling, while the remnant rain is still flapping.

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The second movement is portraying the temple’s bamboo forest during the day, how the sun bamboos shimmer under the sunlight, and the legend of the sun god in Japanese folklores. As for the techniques, this movement assimilated the concept of “point” and “lift” in oriental watercolor painting. Outlining the visit of the god of sun, light trapped in the leaves, the blessed sun bamboos, and how they waited in silence, passing down messages between one another, the music delivers these images with the intertwining of half breathy tone, overtone, ordinary tone, and the rapid change of the dynamics. Furthermore, regarding the ever shrinking and enlarging circles created by the sunlight on the leaves, the overtone is played with a perfect eighth, indicating the changes in the circle. In the ending section, the music depicts the sun bamboo forest finally returning peaceful, shimmering with the marks of the gone god of sun. The leaves of the sun bamboo rise a little, and it is usually drawn with light ink. For that, this movement is written with a moderate amount of notes to form the phrasing, and the crisscrossing of section A and B is to present the image of the sun bamboo in estern watercolor painting.

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The third movement "Wind Bamboo" is describing with the force of the wind and the arrival of the day and the night, the wind bamboo is swaying in the temple’s bamboo forest. The leaves of the wind bamboo is much softer, so in this movement. The opening describes wind bamboos in the fog of the dawn, portraying the image of the swinging of the wind bamboo with the breeze, and a gust of wind passes by. Followed with the depiction of the wind rises, and the different scenes the wind bamboo presents during the rise of the wind. Suddenly, the bamboo forest seemed to have a phantom appeared, the image of the last wind walking back and forth, and that of the bamboos surrounded in the wind. The music shows the wind and clouds rising, the sudden up and downs of the wind bamboo. After the strong gust, a gentle breeze blew by. Flowing with the transformation of Motif, the msuic evokes the invasion of the “Shiftry” the bamboo forest is enveloped in insecurity, and the wind bamboo is swinging wildly. In the end, the “Shiftry” strolled past, and the bamboo forest is once again tranquil. The wind bamboo is slightly swaying and chanting with the wind, but a faint hint of disturbance can still be heard, as if it were the trace of chaos left behind by the “Shiftry.” A gust of wind blows back and forth again.