//CHAMBER | Orchestra
Furusato | home of the heart | 14:30
violin, viola, cello + electronics (fixed media)
commissioned by the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra
St Noel Church, Cleveland, OH
Premiered by Yoojin Jang (violin), Masumi Per Rostad (viola) & Mimi Huang (cello)
Many years ago, I met a Japanese woman at an in-patient hospital where I volunteered as a music entertainer. Patients would sign up for me to play music by their bedsides to lift their spirits. This Japanese woman was overjoyed at the prospect of speaking Japanese with me, and would frequently ask for my visit. She would exclusively ask for Japanese folk songs, mostly children’s songs, which we would sing together as I played my portable piano. She was ostracised by her family after marrying an American man after WWII. She moved to America with her husband and never returned to Japan. She told me about her long struggle with loneliness in America, and how she feels lonely once more now that everyone she loved, including her husband, has passed. The secret in coping loneliness, she told me, is to sing Japanese folk songs as it always brings her heart closer to her homeland.
This composition in four short movements is inspired by my time with this woman and her remarkable strength and courage in reclaiming her freedom and identity in a foreign land. The work loosely incorporates three well-known Japanese children's songs.
I. Prologue
II. Amefuri (Rainfall)
III. Hamabeno Uta (Song of the Seashore)
IV. Akatombo (Red Dragonfly)
Crossbeams | 13:00
clarinet, horn, violoncello + electronics (3 channels)
commissioned by Trio Radial
Virtual premiere at Unerhörte Musik, Berlin, Germany (Mar 2021)
"Crossbeams" is a continuation of my ongoing exploration of spatialized acoustic patterns. The three audio speakers and instruments are placed around the audience in alternating order, each forming a triangular unit that results in a hexagon. In this work, sound overlap, shift and echo slowly within and between various sound patterns.
Constraint Obstacle Studies | 10:00
twelve musicians (2020) for pre-composed video or live performance
commissioned by New Music Concerts for their 50th Anniversary Commission Series
Virtual premiere by the distanced ensemble (Dec 2020)
Distanced Ensemble: Aiyun Huang, Austin Lamarche, Britton Rene Collins, Chung Ling Lo, David Schotzko, Haruka Fuji, Michael Murphy, Michelle Colton, Nikki Joshi, Rick Sacks, Ryan Scott & Zuri Wells.
In response to the Covid-19 lockdown in May, I was invited by the New Music Concerts to write a piece for a 'distanced' ensemble of 10-15 musicians that can be rehearsed and played in their homes with whatever equipment they happened to have with them. This work for 12 musicians directly responds to the struggle and constraints I faced in my own creative process as well the challenging social restrictions many of us felt during this time of lockdown. The composition is a collection of three short movements, highlighting the experiences many of us share: being stuck at home, spending a lot of time in the kitchen and virtual conference calls, and with this the emotional urgency and longing to be connected to a shared community physically.
The kitchen is often thought of as a space of security, comfort and warmth. As the world shutdown during this pandemic, home cooking is one thing that kept me with a sense of happiness and normalcy. In this work, musicians perform using solely objects found in their own kitchen. Here, the individual parts prepared by the twelve musicians become united as a collective, not only in sound but also as a visual composition. While each performer is allotted in a confined space, their bodies and movement connect to develop relationships that are only possible collectively.
Orbit | 8:35
octet for any instrument group (2019)
written for and premiered by the Arizona State University Saxophone Ensemble
official premiere at PRISMS New Music Festival ASU (Nov 2019)
Soprano Sax / Jarred Waters & Matt Fox
Alto Sax / Nathan Salazar & Tanner Bayles
Tenor Sax / Patrick Feher & Chris Sacco
Baritone Sax / Kirsten Zelenak & Bonson Lee
Directed by Christopher Creviston
Sound movement in relation to space is explored in this work. This work examines various patterns of sound motions in physical space by placing each performer around the audience to form a circular ring. These patterns become more intertwined and complex as the piece progresses.
View/Listen->
Orison | 8:15
three music box players and electronics (2-channels) (2017)
commissioned by 21C Music Festival - The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, Canada
Premiered at 21C Music Festival
Termerty Theater (May 27, 2017)
This work is written as part of a series, “In Praise of Shadows”. The work in this series is inspired by Junichiro Tanizaki’s essay, “In Praise of Shadows” (1933) written at the birth of the modern technological era in imperial Japan. The essay describes the ways in which shadows and negative space are integral to traditional Japanese aesthetics in music, architecture, and food, right down to the design of everyday objects. As Tanizaki explains, “We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”
The first part of the sequence of “In Praise of Shadows” is for three paper players and electronics. Interested in the place of collective loss of the tangible in our modern life, it uses the analogue of the excessive illumination in Edison’s modern lighting and its affect on Japanese aesthetics and culture. Following this work, “Orison” is composed for three music box players and electronics. The work is motivated by the voices of children during wartime, both from past and present, speaking and singing about hope and peace, as well as the sorrows arising from their personal experiences. These melodies, presented as empty spaces on the music score, reveal as they are fed through the music boxes.
In Praise of Shadows | 9:00
three paper players and electronics (4-channels) (2015)
commissioned by the Contemporary Music Festival, Arizona State University
Premiered by Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME): Arian Abdollahi, Lisa Atkinson & Bryan Hummel
Katzin Concert Hall (Nov. 2015)
This work is inspired by the essay, “In Praise of Shadows” by the Japanese novelist, Junichiro Tanizaki written in 1933, at the birth of the modern technological era in imperial Japan. The essay describes the ways in which shadows or emptiness are integral to traditional Japanese aesthetics in music, architecture, and food, right down to the design of everyday objects. For instance, the depth of color and delicate painting on Japanese laquerwere is designed to be seen in soft candlelight. A type of light quickly becoming obsolete at the time of his writing. As Tanizaki explains, “We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.” Simultaneously, the essay is concerned with how the modern sensibility and excessive illumination of Edison’s modern light affect Japanese aesthetics and culture.
As modern life has become increasingly alienated from materiality, pushing into a virtual, digital domain. In Praise of Shadows is an eulogy for our collective loss of the tangible. Using material as actual instrumentation it highlights the real world and our presence within it.
Dreams and Wandering | 23:00
chamber orchestra and electronics (2012)
commissioned by the Sinus-Ton Music Festival / Unser Liben Frauen monestary, Magdeburg, Germany
Premiered by Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig, Germany | Gunnar Harms, conductor
I. Slanted Moon
II. Wet Molecular
III. Rupture
IV. Epilogue
This composition is inspired by the well known writings of the Japanese poet, Matsuo Busho. Busho traveled from Edo (modern day Tokyo) northward on the island of Honshu from 1689 to 1691, and as a result left one of the most revered literary texts in Japanese history: “Oku no Hosomichi” (Narrow road to the deep north). This journal contains hokkus that beautifully depict the northern landscapes he visits. Upton his return, he spent the next three years editing the journal.
The work is in four short movements and sonically represents images from his journals as well as his very last hokku, which he completed just before his death in 1694. The first movement depicts Busho’s romanticization as a voyager drifting for eternity and his longing for a journey that is described in this opening paragraph:
“The months and days are the travelers of eternity.”……”Those who float away their lives on ships or who grow old leading horses are forever journeying, and their homes are wherever their travels take them.”….”…I seemed to be possessed by the spirits of wanderlust…….I could think of nothing but the moon at Matsushima.”
The middle two contrasting movements are more loosely constructed, and inspired by images of landscapes and weather described in his writings. The unmistakable feeling of melancholy in Busho’s last poem, “Falling sick on a journey”, speaks to his love of his native land. Finally, the work closes with an image of Busho’s soul evaporating into the sky while dreaming of the landscapes that he so loves.
Falling sick on a journey
My dream goes wandering
Over a field of dried grass
Wintry Air | 8:00
string orchestra (2007)
written for Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio
This work depicts an image of a wind quietly moving above a winter landscape. Gentle noise and airy sound of the strings represent the stillness of cold wind and the particles of air that are gently pushed along by the breeze.
Distortion | 9:30
flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello (1999)
commissioned and premiered by Continuum Contemporary Music (Canada)
Made in Canada Music Festival, Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada (Nov. 1998)
This work is centered on the percussion, which directs and controls many aspects of the music materials produced by the five instruments: clarinet, flute, piano, violin and cello. All five instruments have different music characteristics in the beginning. As they slowly emerge into one similar character, the percussion interrupts the movement and forces them to return to their opening gestures. After this process is repeated several times, these five instruments become more eager to free themselves from being controlled by the percussion, and their timbre and rhythm become more complex and frantic. By the end of the piece, the rhythmic expressions of all instruments become increasingly more chaotic.
Minyo| 15:00
string quartet (1997)
Premiered by Stanford String Quartet
Opus #415 Music Festival, ODC Performance Gallery, San Francisco, CA (Dec 1997)
“Minyo” consists of five short movements, which are largely influenced by Japanese folk music. Elements of folk music can be heard directly in the variations of pitch and rhythm. Strings also imitate the sounds of the traditional instruments commonly used in folk music: shamisen (guitar), koto (harp), taiko (drum), and voice. These seemingly contrasting movements are interconnected by the reoccurrence of these four components.
Whisper Nocturne | 10:00
viola, cello and piano (1997)
Premiered by ALEA II New Music Ensemble (pianist.)
Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford, CA (May 1997)
The work is inspired by the spirituality and texture of Japanese Gagaku music. Whispers of instruments merge in this cyclic single-movement work.
Transparent String | 9:00
piano trio (1995)
Premiered by ALEA II New Music Ensemble (pianist.)
Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford, CA (May 1995)
Quintet | 8:00
bass clarinet, bassoon, piano, percussion and double bass (1997)
Premiered by Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Canada)
Voix Nouvelles Royaumont /Abbey de Royaumont, Asnières-sur-Oise, France (Sep 1997)