Students Pitch in During Musical Marathon

The British musician Peter Moser led Hong Kong University students in an experiment in which a song was composed every hour, for his "24 Hours in a Tower" project.

The British musician Peter Moser composed songs for 24 hours
 straight at the University of Hong Kong in November.

HONG KONG — Peter Moser was approaching his 24th hour stationed at the University of Hong Kong’s new Centennial Campus. The British musician, who also organizes school projects, was surrounded by guitars, drums, maracas and energy drinks, and he was beginning to look bleary and stubbly.

Last week, he led students in an experiment in which they composed a song every hour for his “24 Hours in a Tower” project. The musical marathon, which ran from noon Monday to noon Tuesday, was coordinated by the university’s Faculty of Arts and the General Education Unit, which provides extracurricular courses and experiential learning activities. An online live stream broadcast the results and allowed him to receive comments and suggestions in real time.

There were songs about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights in India last week, as well as the Hong Kong skyline and headlines from The South China Morning Post. Mr. Moser sung about Chinese economic growth and President Hu Jintao.

To Fuk, 21, a student of social work, helped out with the percussion.

“I like the concept it’s about — the global village — that we are all connected,” Mr. Fuk said. “It’s like for those 24 hours we were linked, people all around the world, just for that time.”

At one point in the Hong Kong night, Mr. Moser wrote a love song for three friends who were just getting up in Vancouver, in Canada. They e-mailed back saying that it was the best wake-up call they had ever received.

“We all had this sense that we had done something that made someone cry 5,000 miles away,” Mr. Moser said. “There was this real sense of community and connectedness around the world.”

Asian education institutions are sometimes seen as being strait-laced and more focused on exams than creativity, which made “24 Hours in a Tower” all the more notable.

Wong Chi-chung, the assistant director of the General Education Unit, who had helped to organize the event, said the project showed the university’s creative, international nature.

“This was something quite different to what we are used to here,” Dr. Wong said. “It has technology and culture, but it has also brought out the sense of community.”

Mr. Moser was finalizing the last song — tapping his fingers on the table in front of him before turning to the piano and tweaking the melody.

He hit the edge of the instrument lightly, stood up and walked past an engineering student, Eric Yeung, who had skipped class to see the finale of the song project.

“Things like this never happen, so I had to come,” Mr. Yeung said.

Mr. Moser spoke into the video camera hooked up to the live-stream broadcast. He thanked everyone and introduced the final composition, “Song 24.”

- nytimes.com