Editing Tan Dun (section)

===''Orchestral Theatre'' series===
In the 1990s, Tan Dun began working on a series of orchestral pieces that would analyze the relationship between performer and audience by synthesizing Western classical music and Chinese ritual. According to the composer, <blockquote>If we look at the idea of 'art music' with its firm separation of performer and audience, we see that its history is comparatively short. Yet the history of music as an integral part of spiritual life, as ritual, as partnership in enjoyment and spirit, is as old as humanity itself.<ref name="ot2">Music Sales Group. "Orchestral Theatre II: Re (1992)." Accessed November 1, 2013. http://www.schirmer.com/composer/work/1561/33578.</ref></blockquote>

In the first piece of the series, ''Orchestral Theatre I: O'' (1990), members of the orchestra make various vocalizations—chanting [[Non-lexical vocables in music|nonsense syllables]], for instance—while playing their instruments using atypical techniques. For examples, the harp is played as a gushing, and the violins are played as percussion instruments.<ref>Music Sales Group. "Orchestral Theatre (1990)." Accessed 1 November 2013. http://www.schirmer.com/composer/work/1561/33571.</ref>

''Orchestral Theatre II: Re'' (1992) expands the concept of ritual by involving the audience. The orchestra is split, with the strings, brass, and percussion onstage, while the woodwinds surround the audience. The score also calls for two conductors, with one facing the stage, and the other facing the audience. The latter conductor cues the audience to hum along with the orchestra in certain sections of the music. The work's namesake derives from humming the [[solfège]] pitch "re".<ref name="ot2" />

The third piece in the series, ''Red Forecast (Orchestral Theatre III)'' (1996), involves more staging elements than its predecessors, adding television monitors, lighting, and even stage directions for the musicians. In this multimedia work, the orchestra is led by both a human conductor and a virtual conductor who appears on the monitors. While the human conductor leads, the monitors depict a variety of images from the 1960s and the [[Cold War]]: a collage of [[Mao Zedong]], the [[Cultural Revolution]], [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[John F. Kennedy]], [[The Beatles]], [[Nikita Khrushchev]], and [[hydrogen bomb]] testing. In addition to the video, an audio recording of a weather forecast is played.<ref>Music Sales Group. "Red Forecast (Orchestral Theatre III) (1996)." Accessed 1 November 2013. http://www.schirmer.com/composer/work/1561/33583.</ref><ref>Tan Dun, ''Red Forecast (Orchestral Theatre III)'' (New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1996).</ref>

The final piece in the series, ''The Gate (Orchestral Theatre IV)'' (1999), focuses on three women of literary fame: [[Consort Yu (Xiang Yu's wife)|Yu]] from ''[[The Hegemon-King Bids His Concubine Farewell]]'', [[Juliet]] from ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', and Koharu from ''[[The Love Suicides at Amijima]]''. Based on the theme of sacrifice for love, ''The Gate'' is structured as a [[Variation (music)|theme and variations]]. The style of each section corresponds to its respective character's country of origin. Additionally, Yu is played by a Peking opera singer ([[Shi Yihong|Shi Min]]), Juliet by a Western opera soprano (Nancy Allen Lundy), and Koharu by a [[Bunraku|Japanese puppeteer]] ([[Jusaburō Tsujimura]]). As in ''Orchestra Theatre II: Re'', the orchestra is distributed onstage and amongst the audience. ''The Gate'' also incorporates video, but unlike the prerecorded images used in ''Red Forecast'', a projection screen displays live images of the three actress-soloists, manipulated in real time by a [[video art]]ist. The video artist for the 1999 premiere was [[Elaine J. McCarthy]].<ref>Music Sales Group. "The Gate (Orchestral Theatre IV) (1999)." Accessed 1 November 2013. http://www.schirmer.com/composer/work/1561/33559.</ref><ref>Tan Dun, ''The Gate (Orchestral Theatre IV)'' (New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1999).</ref>