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Magical Adventures of the Monkey King (Part 1 of 4) 神奇愛冒險的孫悟空 （第1部份）
Origins and Misadventures of Sun Wukong
Composed by Gary Schwantes © ℗ 2012

Gary Schwantes: composer, saxophones, bamboo flutes,
Winnie Wong: guzheng
Yangqin Zhao: yangqin
Doug Ebert: bass
Surya Prakasha: drumset, percussion, harmonium
Audio recording: Gavin Jones
Camera: Douglas Latimer, Joseph McDonald, Will Hou
Video Editing, Audio Mix: Gary Schwantes
Additional Video Editing: Douglas Latimer
Produced by Gary Schwantes

See Monkey King concert review: http://www.sfcv.org/reviews/old-first-concerts/an-ultra-magical-x-tet-imagines-the-familiar.


Composer's notes:
The composition Magical Adventures of the Monkey King is inspired by Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Written in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en, the novel is a fictionalized account of the legendary pilgrimage to India of the Buddhist monk Hsuan Tsang. Journey to the West has a strong background in Chinese folk religion, mythology and value systems. The tale is at once an adventure story as well as a spring of spiritual insight. The book can be divided into 4 main sections, which correspond to the 4 movements of the composition.

I. Origins and Misadventures of Sun Wukong
The first section of the book (and longest movement of the composition) recounts the origin of Sun Wukong, a monkey born from a stone nourished by the Five Elements, who learns the art of the Tao, 72 polymorphic transformations, combat, and secrets of immortality. Intelligent, willful, egotistical, and funny, he has a major problem with authority figures. After an exceptional feat of bravery, he becomes king of the local monkeys and rules his Monkey kingdom from the Water Curtain Cave on the beautiful Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. His powers grow to match the forces of all of the Eastern Taoist deities, leading to his rebellion against Heaven. Pride and arrogance prove to be Monkey's downfall and the Buddha manages to trap him under a mountain, sealing the mountain with a talisman for five hundred years.

This project made possible in part by support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation. ULTRA WORLD X-TET is a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music.