Buddha Passion Tan Dun

• Tan Dun (b. 1957): Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree":
• 1 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree": Chant 03:38
• 2 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree": Little Prince 02:00
• 3 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree": Mantra 03:54
• 4 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree": Under the Bodhi Tree 05:48
• 5 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act I "The Bodhi Tree": Equality 02:25
• Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors":
• 6 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors": Deer of Nine Colors 03:32
• 7 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors": Gratitude 03:41
• 8 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors": Betrayal 03:43
• 9 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors": Trees Wish to Be Still, yet the Wind Doesn't Let Go 04:41
• 10 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act II "The Deer of Nine Colors": Karma 03:46
• Buddha Passion, Act III "A Thousand Arms and A Thousand Eyes":
• 11 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act III "A Thousand Arms and A Thousand Eyes": Apsaras 02:02
• 12 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act III "A Thousand Arms and A Thousand Eyes": Father and Three Daughters 03:28
• 13 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act III "A Thousand Arms and A Thousand Eyes": My Dear Father 05:34
• 14 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act III "A Thousand Arms and A Thousand Eyes": Sacrifice 04:51
• Buddha Passion, Act IV "Zen Garden":
• 15 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act IV "Zen Garden": Mantra of Nine 03:34
• 16 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act IV "Zen Garden": A Body is a Bodhi Tree 02:11
• 17 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act IV "Zen Garden": Is it the Wind or a Banner Moving, or is it My Soul? 02:07
• 18 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act IV "Zen Garden": Zen Dream 02:41
• Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra":
• 19 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra": A Solar Eclipse 02:49
• 20 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra": Silk Road: An Invisible Road 02:24
• 21 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra": Home Lies so Far Away 02:06
• 22 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra": Love is Destined to Part 04:28
• 23 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act V "Heart Sutra": Heart Sutra 05:52
• Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana":
• 24 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": In No Time, I Shall Enter Nirvana 02:42
• 25 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": All Creatures in the Universe 03:59
• 26 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": The Other Side 02:33
• 27 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": Buddha Was Man, Man Will Be Buddha 02:10
• 28 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": One Last Question 02:17
• 29 Dun: Buddha Passion, Act VI "Nirvana": Nirvana 05:18
• Total Runtime 01:40:14

Info for Buddha Passion

Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion is a captivating tale of wonder, truth and gentle but irresistible transformation. The monumental work involving massed choirs, large orchestra, six percussionists and an array of soloists including indigenous singers, traditional Chinese instruments and a dancing pipa player, is the first such ‘Passion’ on a Buddhist rather than Christian narrative.

Set at the foot of the Himalayas and inspired by Chinese and Sanskrit texts, the story follows a little prince as he finds enlightenment and becomes Buddha, meeting an array of characters before reaching Nirvana. The life-affirming score fuses the ancient wisdom of Buddhism with the musical tradition of JS Bach’s Passions, featuring hypnotic orchestral textures and Eastern vocal techniques.

The epic work was inspired by a visit to the vast myriad of ancient caves containing countless musical murals in the Dunhuang desert. Tan Dun explains that “these musical paintings depict more than four thousand musical instruments, three thousand musicians and five hundred orchestras. I was so deeply moved that I could almost hear the sounds emanating from the murals.” After years of research, composing, and striving to bring the murals to life through the vast forces of orchestras, choirs, Chinese instruments and sounds of nature, Buddha Passion was completed in 2018. Tan Dun felt that he had created a bridge that brings the distant – “from Dunhuang to Europe, from ancient times to today,” connecting people with the shared compassion and the love of the ancient art.

In the 1960s, Tan Dun was a young boy running barefoot through the fields of remote Hunan in China, yet always aware of the sounds and traditions surrounding him. Today, based in New York, he is one of the world’s most exciting composers. Having been catapulted into the mainstream by his Oscar, Bafta and Grammy-award-winning score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador has scored music for global events such as the reunification of Hong Kong with China, the world's celebration of the new millennium and the Beijing Olympics. He has also written music for some of the biggest names in music, such as Lang Lang, and for many of the world’s leading orchestras, and was the first composer ever commissioned by Google/YouTube.

When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, Tan Dun’s was separated from his parents and sent to the country to plant rice. He taught himself the violin and eventually got work as a musician with a travelling troupe. When the Cultural Revolution finally ended and music conservatories opened again, Tan Dun, with no money, smuggled himself onto a train to audition for Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, beginning his meteoric rise.

Shenyang, baritone (Mantra/Emperor/Daman Hongren/Buddha)
Huiling Zhu, mezzo-soprano (Little Prince/Princess Miaoyin)
Sen Guo, soprano (The Deer of Nine Colours/Princess Miaoshan)
Chuanyue Wang, tenor (Drowning Man/Court Guard/6th Zen Patriarch Hui Neng)
Tan Weiwei, Indigenous Female Singer
Yining Chen, Dunhuang Fantan Pipa
Batubagen, Indigenous Male Singer
Internationale Chorakademie
Orchestre National De Lyon
Tan Dun, conductor

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Tan Dun
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun, has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. Most recently, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture and society.

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