Enloe students are big fans of music. At least, that’s what I’ve concluded based on the high prevalence of AirPods, headphones, and wired earbuds within our population. Yet despite our artsy reputation, the number of students blasting art music in their ears is relatively low, and I presume that this phenomenon stems from a lack of knowledge of art music composers.
Not one to sit idly on the sidelines, I am taking action against this misfortune and introducing you all to Christopher Tin. From a video game theme about Leonardo da Vinci to elegies for birds facing extinction, this Grammy-winning Chinese American composer takes inspiration from musical traditions around the world to comment on nature and the human experience in new and surprising ways. Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month this May, let’s take a look at 10 of Tin’s greatest hits!
“Nocturne” (2006)
This may be the closest Tin has come to composing a love song, and unsurprisingly, it falls outside the mainstream. Tin was inspired by the poem “I Love Thee” by Eliza Acton, which he sees as “a celebration of all things nocturnal and beautiful.” The resulting instrumental piece is performed by a solo piano and was recorded for World Sleep Day. If the original isn’t peaceful enough for you, they even created a lofi remix.
“Mado Kara Mieru” (2009) – “This cheerful iris — a lone, white flower in the springtime dusk.”
Sung in Japanese, this piece is structured as five nature-themed haikus that portray the entire cycle of the seasons, from spring at the beginning to a second spring at the end. Following a similar pattern, the singers of the haikus grow progressively older until the last one is again sung by a child. The orchestration and dynamics emphasize this pattern and create a dramatic reflection on the ephemerality of life.
“Iza Ngomoso” (2014) – “I fly; I swim over all the lands. I’m holding on to the wind.”
“Iza Ngomoso” (“Come Tomorrow”) is sung in Xhosa and features lyrics inspired by the poem “Keramos” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Sung by the Soweto Gospel Choir, this uplifting song is the fourth piece in “The Drop That Contained the Sea.” The songs in this album portray different forms of water; this one represents mist.
“Temen Oblak” (2014) – “Everyone through the village races, but granddad won’t unhitch the traces.”
With text written by the revolutionary poet Hristo Botev, “Temen Oblak” (“Dark Clouds”) is a must-listen for fans of Bulgarian folk music—a music tradition partially developed by female farmers who sang while working. This piece is the representation of “clouds” in the album “The Drop That Contained the Sea.” Strident, foreboding, and surprisingly versatile, the piece has been used by a Japanese figure skater and a drum corps based in South Carolina.
“Flocks a Mile Wide” (2016)
Unlike some of Tin’s other pieces, this work isn’t especially bold or triumphant, but it has a unique elegance. An orchestral piece, “Flocks a Mile Wide” is the overture to Tin’s album “The Lost Birds,” an elegy for human-caused loss of bird species. From the soft opening to the climax, this piece conveys a sense of absence and solemn beauty, a tribute to vanished flocks and silenced songs.
“Sogno di Volare” (2016) – “The first great bird will take flight towards the sun.”
Like “Baba Yetu,” which I spotlighted in a previous article about non-romantic music, “Sogno di Volare” is the theme of a video game in the “Civilization” series. The Italian lyrics were adapted from the writings of Leonardo da Vinci and portray his vision of people flying in aircraft for the first time. According to Tin, the song celebrates the themes of both geographical and intellectual exploration.
“Astronomy” (2020) – “Looking at the stars, you see the work of God.”
The fifth piece in the album “To Shiver the Sky,” “Astronomy” continues with the theme of flight and extraterrestrial exploration. Sung in Polish, the text is taken from a 1543 treatise by Nicholas Copernicus that argued the sun was actually the center of the universe. If that isn’t cool enough, the music notes in the score form the shapes of constellations of winged creatures, including Cygnus and the Phoenix. How’s that for art music?
“Enter the Funk Dragon” (2021)
This electronic-style instrumental piece was composed for an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month PSA directed by Jon M. Chu. It’s very fun and upbeat, and the music video features a headshot of Tin’s daughter when she was 18 months old, her expression showing more than a little attitude. Tin shares that the song is a “tribute to the history of martial arts in film and TV.”
“Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” (2022) – “Yet, never, in extremity, it asked a crumb of me.”
Like the other pieces in the album “The Lost Birds,” this text for this song was written by a 19th-century female poet (in this case, Emily Dickinson) and it was sung by the British a cappella group VOCES8. As a work centered around extinction, many of the album’s songs are rather melancholy. However, for this song, Tin turns to a more uplifting note, as if to remind the audience of all the birds who still grace our skies.
“Yeshua” (2025) – “As a sheep to the shepherd, we are His own; Those who walk in His footsteps are never alone.”
“Yeshua” is from Tin’s most recent album, “Song Offerings,” which he describes as “the return of ‘fun Chris’” after years of working on serious, high-pressure material. With frequent call-and-response and a single piano at the forefront, the piece is deceptively uncomplicated and overall just nice to listen to. Plus, as it’s sung in English, the lyrics are easier to understand than those of almost any of Tin’s other pieces.
Happy AAPI Heritage Month and 10 cheers for Christopher Tin!
