When I first saw Tan Swie Hian’s Night Kites (1988), I was struck by the treatment of space and texture in the painting. A few figures resembling kites are seen wandering in the dark background, giving the work a sense of homogeneity across different portions.

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While starry flickers and misty banners is not a literal representation of Night Kites, it does employ the colours and textures of the painting through musical interpretation. Using silence as a canvas, the flute and bassoon permeate the silence with fluttering gestures that are separated by moments of quiet repose. These gestures resemble the shapes of the kites—wavy, dynamic, and free-flowing. The duet has timbre trills that mimics the flickering shapes, as well as melodic lines and counterpoints that depict lyricism with a pointillistic texture.

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The flute and bassoon perform from the same score in an extremely free manner, interacting with one another as though in dialogue. I imagine them as two kites meandering gracefully in the night sky, weaving a tapestry of musical lines that represents the trails they have left in the sky above.