STRING QUARTET NO. 3 "MONGOLIAN DANCE" (2018)
Instrumentation: string quartet + dance choreography
Duration: 6'
Commissioner: Hong Kong Composers Guild
Performance History:
June 1, 2019. Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival: Hong Kong Delights, Sheung Wan Civic Center, Hong Kong.
MR. Quartet & dancer, Felix Ke, from City Contemporary Dance Company
October 19, 2025. Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, Presidio Theatre, San Francisco.
Del Sol Quartet & San Francisco Poet Laureate, Genny Lim
March 14, 2026. Facing the Moon, Angel Island Immigration Station, Tiburon, CA.
Del Sol Quartet & San Francisco Poet Laureate, Genny Lim
Program Note:
Mongolian Dance for String Quartet (or “String Quartet No. 3”) is a 6-minute dance piece inspired by the traditional music of Mongolia, including long songs, overtone singing, and the horse-headed fiddle, Morin khuur. Similarly to Kazakh Steppe for String Quartet (“String Quartet No.2”) that came before it, this piece tries to capture its listeners’ imagination with kaleidoscopic textures, episodic musical narrative, and newly invented playing techniques.
Meilina Tsui
2018
