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Composer: ASSAD Sergio
DO 1167
Advanced
ISBN: 978-2-89503-942-6
Solo Guitar
12 p.
Sun Wukong, aka Monkey King, is a leading character in the ancient Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. In the book he was a loyal entourage of Master Monk Tang Sanzang on a journey to ancient India to acquire valuable Buddhist Sutras back to ancient China. Along the journey they had to pass 81 tasks that the Buddha had set up for them to test their sincerity and will power.
Sun Wukong is a superhero, he masters many special weapons and is capable of 72 transformations into just any person or object. On top of that, he has this charming, mischievous, kind and cool personality. He is every child’s hero in China and certainly in other cultures - He is the original of Goku, the main character of Japanese manga book Dragonball. I still remember when I was a kid, I would practice the guitar hard for many hours so my mom would reward me with the latest issue of the Dragonball manga book.
Over the years of playing the guitar, I have always been amazed by its beauty, its colors and the infinite possibilities of the instrument - the guitar is capable of playing so many different styles of music from all over the world! In this way, I find the guitar similar to the Monkey King, it can do 72 transformations, too! And I’m so happy and honored that another childhood hero of mine – Sergio Assad would write a piece about the Monkey King on the guitar!
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Sun Wukong’s Toccata was generously commissioned by San Francisco Performances for its PIVOT New Music Concert Series in 2016. The piece was premiered by myself in San Francisco in October 2016. The first part, Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, is a representation of the Monkey King’s birthplace and his kingdom before the journey. The short yet epic theme of Sun Wukong appears here several times. The second part of the piece is a demonstration of three weapons Sun Wukong acquired, among others.