Real Loud
HUANG RUO

A program note from the composer:
When I was invited to write a chamber work for the trio Real Quiet, I thought of naming this piece Real Loud. I was much amazed by the name of the trio and its instrumentation. Percussion, piano, and cello are definitely not the top three instruments in my mind when I think of the sound of being "real quiet." However, why not, and that is the beauty of it. So it becomes my destiny to make their statement heard and to carry it out in a real-loud way. This is one of the ways my title came about.

There is a Chinese expression that says it is so quiet that we can even hear the sound of a needle dropping on the ground. It means that sound can achieve and enrich real silence; Silence can also reflect and create absolute loudness. What is quiet? What is loud? What is real and what is unreal? Everything is relatively, closely connected.

Real Loud: Trio for Cello, Percussion and Piano has both extremes. The interplay of sound and silence, loudness and quiet can be found in every corner and curve of the music. The co-existence of both elements, contrasting yet completing each other, creates a dynamic and vivid soundscape in seamless entirety.