Purple Mountains is an orchestral overture filled with dramatic contrast, graceful melodies, and energetic rhythms. Musical ideas are drawn from the opera, When the Purple Mountains Burn, which explores the connection between Iris Chang and Shiro Azuma and the Nanking Massacre in China during World War II. Just like how the opera asks the question — what is it in us humans that could unleash the catastrophic power for one part of humanity to massacre and defile another part of humanity — The orchestral overture will depict the heavy subject in an abstract and absolute musical way: the fast whirlwind of panic and destruction, melancholy melody with dark and heavy harmonies, and uprising waves and textures that hijack the piece into a thought-provoking ending. For more information and musical ideas from the opera, please visit scene 10-11 and 14-15.