Lyrics and Music by Austin Yip
for SATB chorus with occasional divisi
Commissioned by Hong Kong Schools Music and Speech Association
曲詞 葉浩堃
為無伴奏合唱而寫
香港學校音樂及朗誦協會委約作品
Program Notes
This piece is about reading, and about how imaginative the act of reading can be.
The music follows a main character who wanders through different books: entering one world after another, exploring their imagery and emotions, and enjoying the freedom of imagination they offer. Each section of the piece is inspired by books I read when I was around the age of 15, continuing through my mid-20s, a period when reading played an especially important role in shaping how I understood the world.
Rather than narrating specific stories, the piece reflects the experience of reading itself: curiosity, wonder, humor, tension, loneliness, and reflection. As the character moves from one book to another, reality and imagination begin to blur, much like the feeling of being absorbed in a story and momentarily forgetting the world around you.
The books that inspired this musical journey include The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; The Building and Toys from the Wesley series by Ni Kuang; Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong; On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami; The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Together, these works form a landscape of imagination, one where reading is not an escape from reality, but a way of understanding it more deeply. This piece is a reflection on how books open doors to many worlds, and how those worlds continue to shape us long after we close the book.
這首作品是關於閱讀，以及閱讀所帶來的豐富想像力。
音樂描繪一位主角在不同書籍之間遊走的旅程。他走進一個又一個故事世界，沉浸其中的畫面與情感，享受閱讀所帶來的想像自由。作品中的每一段落，皆源自我在約十五歲時開始閱讀的書籍，並一路延續至二十多歲。這段時間的閱讀經驗，深深影響了我理解世界的方式。
作品並非重述書中的情節，而是嘗試捕捉閱讀本身的感受：好奇、驚喜、幽默、不安、孤獨，以及內省。隨著主角在不同書籍之間轉換，現實與想像逐漸交融，正如專注閱讀時，暫時忘卻周遭世界的狀態。
啟發本曲的書籍包括：聖修伯里《小王子》；倪匡「衛斯理系列」中的《大廈》與《玩具》；羅貫中《三國演義》；村上春樹《遇見100%的女孩》、《世界末日與冷酷異境》及《海邊的卡夫卡》；卡夫卡《變形記》；以及海明威《老人與海》。
這些作品共同構成了一片想像的風景。對我而言，閱讀並非逃離現實，而是一種意味深長的理解方式。本曲正是對閱讀如何開啟多重世界，以及這些世界如何在我們闔上書本後，依然持續塑造我們的反思。
Austin Yip 