Grade 11 student Houtian Zhong was recently named one of the top young music composers in the country, having come in first place in BC and second place in Canada for his age group in a student composer competition.
His piece “Winter Fantasy” (which you can listen to online) is inspired by the snow-covered landscape outside his house when Victoria was hit by a heavy snowfall in January. The five-minute composition takes listeners through “the winter landscape, hearing the sounds of winter creatures and those of a massive avalanche.”
“When I first started writing it, I didn’t know exactly what I was going to compose. But I thought about the snow-covered landscape in my neighbourhood, snowy mountains and avalanches, and I composed based around those ideas,” he says.
Houtian translates those thoughts into a musical score using a technique called word painting. An avalanche, for example, is represented through his music with a descending scale, which starts higher and descends lower in the same way as snow crashing from the top of a mountain to the bottom.
For “Winter Fantasy”, Houtian composed parts for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four French horns, three trombones, two trumpets and one tuba.
He says writing “Winter Fantasy” took a few months with minimal revisions. Instead of finding a full orchestra to play his song, he used computer-generated audio to perform the piece for submission at the provincial level in the spring, where he came in first.
“I felt pretty happy when I found out I won, and I was pretty excited for this piece to get sent to the (national) level,” he says.
The national-level competition is open to the provincial winners, as they face off for the title of best in the country. In late summer, Houtian learned he finished second in the under 15 category.
“That was very exciting. It has certainly encouraged me to continue composing,” he says.
Houtian has been composing music since he was in Grade 5. A skilled pianist and violist, he began composing music at a young age when he started to study music theory and had a desire to start writing, too. His first piece was for his school’s string orchestra.
Now at the SMUS Senior School, he has composed music that his classmates in the Grade 9 and 10 string orchestras have played. He continues to write music and is currently composing a longer piece with multiple movements.
“I really enjoy composing,” he says. “It gives me a lot of joy.”
