UC San Diego

...after a mountain stream rainfor six Chinese instruments was composed for the Chai Found Music Workshop Formosa Landscape/2011 Sizhu Music Composition Contest, for which it won third place. across an ocean, across the land... for laptop ensemble was composed for the Florida International University Laptop and Electro-Acoustic Arts (FLEA) Ensemble that I direct. Each of these two compositions uses strongly contrasting media and technical means to explore some of my primary aesthetic interests from different angles.

...after a mountain stream rain solely uses acoustic instruments and carefully notated music. For this piece, I studied traditional Chinese musical culture and aesthetics starting with ancient music for the guqin and continuing through to contemporary works for Chinese instruments. This cultural background serves as the basis for the music's focus on a nature as well as the symbolic meanings of the sounds and their relationships. In addition, when writing the music I applied certain stochastic algorithms without the aid of a computer to intuitively create a sense of multiple emerging phenomena.

across an ocean, across the land... uses solely electronically produced sounds and a flexible graphic score. The sound sources come from recordings and transformations of Tibetan bells and a gigantic tam-tam. In this piece, the performers control stochastic algorithms that determine how the computer will generate the sonic results. As a result, during performances, the performer and audience constantly engage with different manifestations of the algorithms. Structurally, the work focuses on how one can observe the relationship of similar materials interacting through many different overlapping layers of tempi and register.

Although sonically different, both pieces use the same primary harmonic fields. In addition, both pieces focus on my interest on the emergent phenomena that result from the interaction of simple scientifically and culturally informed structures or behaviors. Finally, in sum, both works also reflect my strong aesthetic interest in representing my own personal interactions with the spiritual in its many external, internal, and transforming manifestations.