Colorful composition

Inspired by a painting at the Mogao Caves that depicts a fabled deer, composer Tan Dun's latest work is a vocal concerto for soprano and orchestra, Chen Nan reports.

For Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, his ideas about traditional Chinese cultural values - such as loyalty, righteousness and honesty - often derive from the stories his grandparents told him when he was a child.

One of the tales he can still remember is called The Deer of Nine Colors, which is about a fabled multicolored deer that saves a drowning merchant who promises not to tell anyone about its existence. However, the merchant breaks his oath and leads the king's army to hunt down the deer when he is tempted by a reward offered by the king when his concubine demands a coat made of the deer's skin. When the merchant falls into the river once again, he drowns.