THE MONKEY KIDComposer & Musicians

Jean-Pierre Tibi, his first evening in Beijing for the recording of The Monkey Kid soundtrack, April, 1994

Composer

Jean-Pierre Tibi studied composition in Paris. His concert work has been played in France, in the United States and Mexico. Since his move to Los Angeles in 1987, he has scored numerous television documentaries and features that have received a spectrum of awards including Emmies and Oscar nominations. He composed the music for The Blank Point, The Beijing-San Francisco Film Group's first film, and I'm seducible, The Beijing-San Francisco Film Group's latest. The soundtrack of The Monkey Kid was released in Europe in 1997.

 

 

 

Recording The Monkey Kid music in Beijing.
From left: Jean-Pierre Tibi, director Xiao-Yen Wang,
sound recordist/mixer Wang Xue-Yi and
sound technician Guo Man.

 

 

"Chinese instruments have always seduced me as a composer. Their timbre and their technique have attracted me because they allow ornaments and sonorities impossible to get on their Western, and even their middle-Eastern, instrumental equivalents.


"The Monkey Kid is the second time I've worked with Xiao-Yen Wang. While the score of her documentary film, The Blank Point, was entirely electronic, the music of The Monkey Kid was written for orchestra and four Chinese instruments. It was recorded in Beijing.

"For the score of The Monkey Kid I endeavored to write as simply as possible, knowing the musicians in Beijing would be very busy and have little time for rehearsal. The orchestra wasn't happy that the leading role had been given to old Chinese instruments — the part I wrote for strings was not very demanding and put them in the background behind the Chinese instruments. But the result was beyond my expectations, and the music is now part of The Monkey Kid soundtrack. I am extremely proud of it."

Jean-Pierre Tibi

 

Solo Musicians

di-zi: Hou Guang-Yu

gu-zheng: Wang Zhong-Shan

er-hu: Bai Miao

yang-qing: Tian Wei-Ning

 

 

Films THE MONKEY KID CREW BIOGRAPHIES