Archive for the ‘Orchestral’ Category

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Fantasy in D

Thursday, April 21st, 2016

Fantasy in D is a musical composition that embraces the spirit of a fantasy — characterized by its free form and an improvisational style. Tracing its roots to early 16th-century fantasias, this piece evolves the concept by involving short sections driven by one or more musical motifs. True to the fantasy tradition, it uniquely integrates orchestral improvisation. Performers are provided with collections of notes or instructions, and are encouraged to improvise within these guidelines for set durations.

Fantasy in D

Pages from the score

The structure of Fantasy in D is a blend of improvisation and fully notated music. While certain sections are strictly composed, others offer musicians the freedom to explore. A recurring element is a three-note motif, especially pronounced at the piece’s climax. The composition is divided into two primary sections, with the second being an inversion of the first (b+a instead of a+b). This overarching structure is further broken down into 64 smaller sections, following a hierarchical breakdown (2-4-8-16-32), each triggering unique events, textures, chord changes, and instrumentations.

Score Draft Notes

Score Draft laying out the Golden Ratio

The timing of each section is guided by the “Golden ratio“, φ (phi) or 1.6180339887498948482…, celebrated for its prevalence in natural patterns and lending an organic quality to the piece. While the tonal center is D, the piece navigates through various modes and tonalities including D, A, B, G, major and minor, creating a sound that is D-centric yet modally diverse, so it is really in D (ish).

Fantasy in D

The mood of “Fantasy in D” is tinged with somber and melancholic undertones, influenced by personal life events during its creation, including the passing of my father and my mother’s battle with pancreatic cancer. This piece, premièring on May 21st, 2016, by the SFCCO is a reflection of these emotional landscapes, woven into its musical fabric.
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for Loop

Thursday, April 30th, 2015

for n in reversed(range(1,4)):

play(n)
pause(n)

For Loop or 80’s Nostalgia

SFCCO performs for n in reversed(range(1,4)): play(n) pause(n)

 
In the 1980s, during my school years, pattern music – encompassing minimalism and post-minimalism – was at its peak. Among my peers at school, John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine resonated strongly. My piece for Loop initially began as a homage to that vibrant era. However, as the composition evolved, it took on a mechanical, almost computer-like quality. This shift, likely influenced subconsciously by my college composition professor, Dr. Cindy McTee, and her work Circuits, led me to discover a recurring pattern in the piece: play 3 – reset 3, play 2 – reset 2, play 1 – reset 1. This pattern reminded me of a simple ‘for loop’ in computer programming. Thus, the title for n in reversed(range(1,4)): play(n) pause(n) was born, reflecting this programming loop and accentuating the composition’s likeness to a computer in operation. The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) brought this piece to life with its premiere on May 9th, 2015.

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Triangles

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

SFCCO performs Triangles


Triangles is a composition inline with my composition Pollock which the SFCCO premiered 12 years ago. The present work uses guided improvisation and colorist techniques to create it’s sound.  The title of the work comes from the Triangular number sequence that inspired the form of the composition. There are three large sections lasting 4 minutes each. These large section have a fundamental pitch center of  ii-v-I, my jazz roots. These large sections are made up of three sections A (modal runs), B (intervalic movements) and C (chordal sustains). Each of these sections (A,B,C) are also made up of three sections each one lasting a value in the triangular number sequence (ex: 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45). One could also look at Triangles a quasi rondo form: A, B, C, B1, C1, A1, C2, A2, B2 (Rondo Form: A, B, A, C, A, B1, A). While three is the magic number for this composition, the numerics are just the glue for the work. With sound-washes of runs, thick Ruggle-esque chords, and intertwining spontaneous melodies — Triangles aims to paint pictures in the mind.

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Incomplete Thoughts

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

SFCCO performs Incomplete Thoughts

 
Incomplete Thoughts was born out of the news that the SFCCO would not have all the bassoons they normally have for the May, 2013 concert. I stopped the piece on which I was working, and came up with another: a contemporary passacaglia where the bass line was in one time and the other instruments in others. I was thinking to use either multiple conductors or metronomes with earpieces. Desiring inspiration, I looked though some of my incomplete compositions for a bass line, and found something useable in a draft of an opera from many years ago. The figure went through some modifications and was given a lazy lilt in 7/8. I wanted to layer fragments of music on top, which were inspired by scraps of music not yet finished and other incomplete utterances. As I felt the work should be written in a stream-of-conscious-manner, an interruption motif came into being as a way to switch thoughts. While I eventually decided that the original idea of multiple times might be hard to pull off, I came up with other ways to have multiple times. In the end, I hope to have created a thought-provoking work that is more than the collection of Incomplete Thoughts that began it.

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A Love Letter: Minerva’s Dance

Monday, October 25th, 2010

In crafting music that speaks from the heart, I often reflect on the words of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In a letter to his father dated November 8, 1777, Mozart wrote:

I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet.
I cannot artfully arrange my phrases so as to give light and shade.
Neither am I a painter;
Nor can I even express my thoughts by gesture and pantomime, for I am no dancer.
But I can do so in sounds.
I am a musician.

This profound declaration inspired me to create a collection of pieces I call Love Letters. Each piece is a musical expression lasting approximately 3-5 minutes, dedicated to someone dear to me. These compositions are my way of conveying emotions and memories that words alone cannot capture.

Dancing to the original.

Minerva’s Dance is inspired by Minerva, the goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic, and notably, the inventor of music. This piece holds a special place in my heart as it was originally composed for my wife and for our first dance as husband and wife in 2004. and our first dance together as a married couple in 2004. Inspired by her love for tangos and the enchanting music of Astor Piazzolla, I set out to create a composition imbued with deep personal significance. In my studio, the creative process began with laying down initial tracks, and soon, my friend and bandmate Andrew Wilshusen added vibrant percussion elements.

Although the piece originally included extensive improvised sections with only minimal portions formally notated, I revisited it in the summer of 2010 to fully document and enhance the orchestration. The revised composition features prominent solos for flute and soprano saxophone—offering options for either improvised solos or detailed transcriptions of my original performances. At the premiere on September 25, 2010 SFCCO, at the SFCCO concert, the flutist performed the written solo, while the saxophone solo was spontaneously improvised.

An interesting twist occurred when my friend Erling Wold initially slated to play the accordion for the concert, unfortunately sustained a leg injury due to a car accident just before the performance. Despite this setback, the concert was a profound embodiment of the creative and resilient spirit of Minerva.

SFCCO performs Minerva’s Dance


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A Love Letter: To G.A.C. 26.2

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

There is a quote from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s letter to his father on November 8th 1777:

I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet.
I cannot artfully arrange my phrases so as to give light and shade.
Neither am I a painter;
Nor can I even express my thoughts by gesture and pantomime, for I am no dancer.
But I can do so in sounds.
I am a musician.

This quote inspired me to create a collection of pieces I call Love Letters. They are usually for piano, last about 3-5 minutes and are written for or about someone dear to me. Twenty years ago I decided I want to write one based on my father’s initials, GAC. But every time I sat down to write it I was unhappy with the results. After my parents visit this summer, I had a feeling time was running out and I sat down to try again. I finally heard something I was satisfied with and in a couple of weeks I completed the piece I have been wrestling with for twenty years. Not only did I use his initials but I used his full name by putting rests in place of letters not used by music notation. I also added in my own name at the end.

Notation of my Father's Name

Notation of My Father’s Name
Notation of my Name

Notation of My Name

My father is very interested in running and has run marathons all over the world so the A theme last 26.2 measures (26.2 miles is the length of a marathon) and the B theme is reminiscent of the music in the movie that inspired his desire to run “Chariots of Fire”. The finale is a culmination of all themes that runs on to the end.

Piano Version:
 

As I was finishing this composition I started to hear strings playing the B theme at finale so I decided to orchestrate it for chamber orchestra. On September 25th 2010 the SFCCO premièred this version.

G.A.C. for Orchestra

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Open Ended (redux)

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Open Ended

 
Do to unforeseen circumstances the composition I planed on having performed on the November 7th 2009 SFCCO concert had to be canceled. So I decided to pull out one of my guide improvisation compositions, Open Ended. I conducted/composed this performance as well as played tenor saxophone. It is a very versatile work that is composed live before your eyes and ears. Based on Rova‘s Radar techniques, Open Ended is less of a composition and more of a color or tool palette. It is an ever-growing collection of rules and games for the performers that are triggered by hand signals by the conductor/composer. The conductor/composer then composes the piece live using these hand signals to guide the performers. This work has no set instrumentation and can be played by any number of performers. It also has no set length; the piece could last 5 minutes or 24 hours. Open Ended has been performed several times, including two other performances by the SFCCO, but every time it is a world première and unique performance that can never be repeated.

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A Baby Sleeps (for Isabella)

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

After about two years of research, sketches and learning a new instrument, my composition for my daughter was premièred June 13th, 2009 by the SFCCO. The genesis of A Baby Sleeps (video) came after my daughter was born and my grandfather told me I need to write her a piece. I wanted to write a modern lullaby and one that would reflect my daughters American and Taiwanese heritage. For a few months I struggled for inspiration, then one night I realized my wife was singing a beautiful lullaby to her every night. I decided to write a “Theme & Variations” on this Taiwanese lullaby, 搖嬰仔歌 (Rocking the baby lullaby). It was written by the famous Taiwanese composer, 呂泉生 (Lu Chuan-sheng). (more information on this melody and Master Lu is available in an earlier post). Originally I was just going to add the beautiful Chinese instrument called 古箏 (gŭzhēng) to the orchestra. But in August of 2008 I was in Taipei and I bought an instrument that I have wanted to play for 20 years, the 笙 (shēng) (more on the sheng in an earlier post). So I started to add those instruments into the composition and ended up featuring the sheng and guzheng as soloist.

isy

Gangqin Zhao, 古箏 (gŭzhēng) &
Michael Cooke, 笙 (shēng)

I had written a bunch of different variations and in March 2009 after the premièred of my composition String Theory, I started to put all the pieces together into a composition. I ended up throwing out several variations as they were to complex and made the piece lose it’s lullaby quality. When the dust settled I had four variations (plus the theme) that I liked: Variation I: Fragments, Variation II: Canon, Variation III: Block Chords & Variation IV: Reduction. I wanted the piece to flow better then just switching from variation to variation so I wrote some “connective tissue” to put it all together in a seamless way. The piece became more of a dream sequence then a traditional Theme & Variations. Now I prefer to view the composition in that way, where the first theme is when the baby is going to sleep listening to the lullaby and at Variation I she is asleep and starts to dream. The variation send her on dream adventures, maybe swimming in the ocean or floating in the sky. At the reprise of the theme at the end of the composition, the baby is back from her dream adventures and is dreaming about being in her parents arms.

A reviews of this concert can be found on Sequenza 21 and Memory Select’s Blog


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String Theory

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

String Theory

On February 28th, 2009, the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) premiered String Theory, a unique guided improvisation composition. This piece uses a graphical score inspired by the revolutionary branch of theoretical physics known as string theory.

String theory is a groundbreaking concept in theoretical physics that aims to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity into a unified quantum theory of gravity. It posits that all particles and forces in the universe are composed of tiny, vibrating strings. These strings, though initially considered one-dimensional oscillating lines, can also be conceptualized in terms of points or surfaces.

String Theory p.13

String Theory p.13


In my composition, I employ graphical notation to represent these strings, points, and surfaces, guiding the orchestra through improvisation. The piece culminates in a unification, symbolizing how string theory might eventually prove Einstein’s unified field theory, creating an elegant universe composed entirely of the music of strings.

One of the most exciting aspects of using guided improvisation as a compositional technique is that each performance is distinct, yet the overall composition remains recognizable. To illustrate this, I have recordings from both the dress rehearsal and the concert performance of String Theory for comparison.
Dress Rehearsal
Concert Performance
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Stripes & Stars

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

Stripes & Stars

 
In April 2008 I won a “Meet The Composer’s MetLife Creative Connections” grant to participate in the SFCCO project, The Star and Stripes Forever variations. Where 6 composers each write a variations on The Star and Stripes Foreverand it put together into make this new piece. I have many warm memories about hearing The Stars and Stripes Forever during 4th of July outings as a child. It is by far one of the most well known marches in the repertoire. While I have enjoyed listen to it over the years, as a performer, my part was always very boring. Bassoons and saxophone only got the pa-pa part of the um-pa-um-pa accompaniment. So for my variation, Stripes & Stars, I first decided I would give the bassoons a more fun part. Then while working with melodies I inverted them and really liked it. The inversion of a given melody is the melody turned upside-down. For instance, if the original melody has a rising major third, the inverted melody has a falling major third. I then recombined various melodies a little to round out my variation. This piece was performed on June 7th, 2008 by the SFCCO.

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