I remember a sweet moment in the summer of 2023, when my mother visited me in Tallahassee, FL. We went to the Cascades Park and saw the beautiful blooming lotus flowers in the lake. My mother spontaneously recited a timeless poem by Nguyễn Du, a revered figure in Vietnamese classical literature. Below are the original poem and its Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation:
共知憐蓮花，
誰者憐蓮幹。
其中有真絲，
牽連不可斷。
Cộng tri liên liên hoa,
Thuỳ giả liên liên cán.
Kỳ trung hữu chân ti,
Khiên liên bất khả đoạn.
And here is my English translation:
“Everyone adores the lotus blooms,
Yet who beholds the lotus stems in sight?
Within these stems, silk threads reside.
Even when the flowers are gone, the threads still bide.”
This poem describes the resilience of the lotus stem’s fibers. When a lotus stem is split, the stem fibers continue to bridge the gap between the broken pieces. Therefore, in Vietnamese old literature, the lotus fibers symbolize how our hearts still ache for someone or something that has departed from us. Inspired by this romantic imagery and my mother’s deep affection for the poem, I composed The Lingering Threads for cello and piano. The piece encapsulates these sentiments through the cello’s expressive sounds and versatile bow movements, as well as the piano’s colorful techniques, including string picking and string harmonic glissandi that imitate the cello’s timbre. The piano’s relentless sustain pedal and the interaction between the two instruments also create a continuous, uninterrupted musical flow.
Premiered at FSU Society of Composers Concert, March 22, 2024.
Param Mehta (cello) and Ky Nam Nguyen (piano)