Category Archives: Program Notes

Microcosmos (小宇宙) : for a Percussionist (2010)

commissioned and premiered by Shih-San Wu 吳思珊, Jun. 2010, Taipei, Taiwan

Program Note:

This musical piece is inspired by Microcosmos: 100 Modern Haiku, a book of poetry by Chen Li (a contemporary poet in Taiwan). Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 syllables, in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. However, Chen Li adds contemporary interest to the traditional poetic form, attempting to explore new possibilities for modern poetry. In these three-line short poems, the poet conveys an abundance of ideas and stimulates readers’ imagination with refined and concise language. Within the restricted form, every modern haiku in the book is very much like a microcosm rich in tremendous energy.

In this piece, the composer borrows the concept of Microcosmos mentioned above. In musical material, the two elements of “motion” and “motionlessness” dominate the whole piece; in instrumentation, only the timpani and the Zheng (a Chinese plucked zither) are employed. The composer attempts, by using simple and limited material, to explore multi-acoustic effects, exploit new possibilities of music, and create a simple but substantial musical microcosm.

The composer selects three short poems from Chen Li’s Microcosmos as the original concepts of the three sections of this musical piece. She transforms the energy she has felt while reading the poems into material to develop musical motives. The three sections are developed by using two materials in contrast to each other, which can be viewed as a process of the inter-transition and the rise and fall of accumulating musical energy and intensity.

The three haiku are not necessarily or absolutely related to this musical piece, though the inspiration originates from them. The purpose of listing the three poems is to provide the performer and the audience with greater room for imagination and association.

1
A swift and downward glissando:
someone puts a ladder
against my childhood window.

2
I wait and long for you:
a turning die in the empty bowl of night
attempting to create the 7th side.

3
Silent soybean milk: day after day
from my bowl to my body flows
the blank music.

本曲創作理念來自詩人陳黎的《小宇宙：現代俳句100首》。俳句源自日本，是三行的短詩體，陳黎以日本俳句為原型，為它加上當代的趣味，試圖賦予現代詩新的可能性。在這些二、三十字的三行短詩裡，詩人以精鍊簡潔的文字，傳達豐富的意念，激發讀者的想像。雖然置身狹小有限的文字載體中，每首現代俳句宛若一個蘊含極大能量的小宇宙。

在此曲中，我借用「小宇宙」的概念，在音樂素材上，以「動」、「靜」兩種元素貫穿全曲，在配器上，也只選用定音鼓與古箏兩種樂器作為主要的樂器，試圖運用單純、有限的素材，探索多元的聲響效果，開發音樂的可能性，創造出簡單卻豐富的音樂小宇宙。

我選用《小宇宙》中的三首短詩作為本曲三個段落的原始概念，將作曲者在閱讀詩作時所感受到的「流動」與「靜止」的能量，轉化為音樂的動機素材。曲中三段皆運用兩種具對比性的主要素材加以發展，可視為音樂能量與張力逐漸累積並相互轉移、消長的過程。這三首俳句雖是樂念的發想，但音樂本身與文字並不存在絕對必然的對應性，其目的在於提供演奏者與聽者更多的聯想空間。

1

快速而下行的滑奏：

有人在我童年的窗口

放了一把梯子。

2

我等候，我渴望你：

一粒骰子在夜的空碗裡

企圖轉出第七面。

3

靜默的豆漿：日復一日，

從我的碗流到我的體內的

空白的音樂。

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.
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Rambling (蔓生): for Flute, Clarinet, Trombone, and Double Bass (2012)

performed by Eco Ensemble, May 2013, Berkeley New Music Project (Berkeley, CA, USA)

Program Note:

The inspiration of this piece comes from rambling plants, which to me are symbolic of vitality, with their long shoots putting out, growing, and extending over walls or other plants. Through interweaving and mixing lines of different parts as well as developing and transforming the materials, I attempt to represent the process of the plant spouting, getting exuberant, blooming, and then withering and fading. My ultimate end is to create a rambling atmosphere in music.

此曲的原始意念來自蔓生植物，它們枝幹細長，攀附而生，易於延展伸長，極具生命力。我想透過各聲部線條的交織混合與素材的發展變化，表達植物從萌發茁壯、蔓延至盛放、而又凋零的過程，也希望這些聲音及能量的發展與消長，能顯示出一種音樂的蔓生現象

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.

 

 

Fusing, Refusing, Diffusing: for 9 instruments (2015)

performed by eco Ensemble (conducted by David Milnes), Dec. 2016, Berkeley New Music Project (Berkeley, CA, USA)

2016bnmp-fusing

Instrumentation:

Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Piano, Percussion, Harp, Violin, Viola, Cello

Program Note:

The title of the work, “Fusing, Refusing, Diffusing,” reveals the central idea I intend to express in the music. I choose the three words with the same root “fuse” to represent three phases of the timbral orchestration I’d like to explore: to fuse varieties of timbre by finding their similarities, to refuse the unity of the sounds by emphasizing the uniqueness of every single instrument, and to diffuse the hybrid or independent timbre to expand the texture, the idea, and the tension.

The idea is related not only to my research interest in the manipulation of the timbre, but also to the current situation of my country. In March 2014, many students and citizens in Taiwan occupied the parliament to protest against an illegal under-the-table approval of the trade treaty with China and prevent the government from destroying the democracy and selling Taiwan to China, which intends to aggress upon Taiwan economically and politically. Therefore, I try to transform the political issues into music to express the intention to refuse the gradual fusion and the diffusion of the refusal as a tribute to the brave protesters in Taiwan.

Fusing_Refusing_Diffusing-1

此曲曲名《Fusing, Refusing, Diffusing》（中文意為：融合，反融合，擴散） 即為我企圖傳達的中心意念。我選用三個擁有相同字根「fuse」的英文字彙，表達我欲探索的三種音色運用面向：融合不同的音色（尋找不同音色的同質性），拒絕聲響的統一（強調個別音色的獨特性），擴散發展聲響素材以擴大意念、織度與音樂張力。

本曲構想除了與我對音色聲響的研究興趣相關，也受到台灣政治現況的啟發，特別是2014年台灣所發生的太陽花學運。2014年三月，許多學生與民眾因為政府試圖以黑箱方式通過對中國的服務貿易協定，發起抗議並佔領立法院，以反對黑箱服貿的通過，抗議政府破壞民主，進而阻止當時政府借此出賣台灣，被中國以經濟統一。太陽花學運讓更多人意識到政治與生活的密不可分，也加深許多人對台灣的國家認同意識。我試圖將社會的波動現象轉化為音樂素材間的互動關係，期許自己不只是一名出世的藝術工作者，而是能藉由抽象的藝術創作，表達我對現今社會的關心與致敬。

 

編制說明： 長笛，降B調單簧管，低音管，擊樂（註），鋼琴，豎琴，小提琴，中提琴，大提琴

＊註：擊樂編制為：小型定音鼓(timpani)，吊鈸（suspended cymbals)（一只置於定音鼓上），古鈸crotales，顫音鐵琴vibraphone，管鐘(chimes)，雷片(thunder sheet)

logo（本創作計畫獲國家藝術基金會2014年音樂創作補助）

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.

Hypochondriasis (憂患) : for Chin Solo and Live Electronics (2014)

premiered by Lily Chen, Berkeley New Music Project (Berkeley, CA, USA), May 2014

Press:

the New York Times (Review: A Mix of Sounds at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival): “Lily Chen turned gentle strums of the chin, a Chinese zither, into roars in her ‘Hypochondraisis.'”

Cycling ’74: (Collective) Artist Focus: SEAMUS 2017 

chin_setting  chin_perform2

Program Note:

This piece is my first experimental work for electronic music. Chin is an ancient Chinese traditional 7-string zither, which is also a very personal instrument due to its soft volume and subtle timbral changes. Since it is not able to make sounds of great volume, amplification becomes an important element and thus creates a new kind of environment, an augmented chin. Such an augmented environment gives me inspiration for the piece. The necessary amplification and the electronic sounds both expand and even exaggerate the original instrumental sounds, which reminds me of the syndrome of the hypochondriasis, a tendency to fear or imagine that one has the illnesses that one does not actually have. The sufferers of this psychological illness normally augment their pain and exaggerate their physical conditions.

In the piece, I pretend to be a hypochondriasis sufferer who exaggerates and distorts the sense as if viewing things under the microscope or doing some ritual. By associating this emotional activity with music, I intend to find an appropriate role that the electronics plays, to build an intimate relationship between acoustics, amplification, and electronics, and to create different scenarios and multiple layers of musical environments.

I want to express my special thanks to Prof. Edmund Campion, who leads me to the world of electronic music and helps me create a good environment for the composition, and to Jeff Lubow, who helps me complete the concert patch and solve the technical issue of this piece. This piece is dedicated to my mother, who had a hard time taking care of my father, a hypochondriasis sufferer. It is also dedicated to some activists in my country Taiwan. To me, they are the hypochondriasis sufferers who have foreseen the crises hidden in the current situation and are fighting hard for the well-being of the country.

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.

Phase Transition (相變) : for Prepared 21-Stringed Zheng Solo (2008)

Performed by Yi-Chieh Lai, Transformation: Contemporary Taiwanese Zheng Music, 2008

Program Note:

In physics, “phase transition” refers to the transformation of matter from one phase to another. In this work, the composer tries to represent the three states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) and their transformations (melting, vaporization, condensation, freezing, and sublimation) by means of timbral and textural manipulations.

The composer chooses 21-stringed Zheng, a Chinese traditional unfretted zither, as the solo instrument, which has been prepared. The player also has to play with different tools——bow, superball, paper, and clips, for example——to make variant sound effects in the performance. Through these performing devices, the composer hopes to create timbral diversity and to seek the new possible sonorities out of the traditional instrument.

在物理學中，「相變」意指物質從一種狀態轉變為另一種狀態的過程。本曲企圖以不同的音色、織體來表現物質三態──固態、液態、氣態──以及熔化、汽化、液化、凝固、昇華等轉化過程，製造音樂的「相變」。本曲將二十一絃箏加以預置，並在演奏中使用多種輔助工具(如弓、彈力球、紙張、迴紋針)，試圖透過預置、不同的演奏媒介與演奏方式，創造出更多元的音色變化，從傳統樂器中尋找新的聲響效果。

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.

Soundscape (聲景) : for Violin, Percussion, and Piano (2012)

Performed by eco ensemble (conducted by David Milnes), Apr. 2012, Berkeley, CA, USA

Program Note:

This piece is inspired by ‘Three Poems in Search of the Composer/Singer,’ written by Chen Li (a contemporary poet in Taiwan). The work is composed of three visual poems with the subtitles of “Starry Night,” “Wind Blowing over the Plain,” and “Footprints in the Snow.” Each visual poem creates a scene and atmosphere full of imagination, which motivates me to transform the images into music.

I employ three main materials with different characteristics to represent the poetic scenes. I hope, by means of the timbre of music, to shape and interpret the landscapes of the starry night, the blowing wind, and the footprints in the snow. Instead of following the poetic form and dividing the piece into three individual movements, I merge the three landscapes, recombining and interweaving them, in order to create my own “soundscape.”

soundscape_bnmp

此曲樂念來自陳黎〈三首尋找作曲家/演唱家的詩〉。這首圖象詩由「星夜」、「吹過平原的風」與「雪上足印」三首短詩所組成，創造出三種情景，圖象詩的表達方式賦予讀者極大的想像空間，也給了我將詩中情境轉化為音樂的靈感。

在曲中，我運用三種特質迥異的主要素材描繪詩中的情景，透過音色的經營與變化，我希望能形塑出星夜、微風、雪上足印的風景。然而，我並未依照詩的形式將樂曲分成三個獨立的段落，而選擇將這三種風景融合重組，進而創造出屬於我自己的「聲景」。

© Lily Chen 2013-2018. All rights reserved.