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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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Posted in Composition, Jazz, Orchestral | 2 Comments »

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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…with the Spirit of the Desert

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Chisos mountains of Big Bend National Park

Chisos mountains of Big Bend National Park

On November 7th 2009 the SFCCO will be performing a composition I wrote back in 1993-94. It is a violin, bassoon and piano trio I call …with the Spirit of the Desert. This work is inspired by Big Bend National Park in Texas, a place I used to go camping every year in the early 90’s. The park can be thought of as having three natural divisions; the river, the desert and the mountains, thus why I chose a trio. Big Bend National Park lies in the northern third of the Chihuahuan Desert. The name Big Bend refers to the great U-turn the Rio Grande River makes there in Southwest Texas. Prehistoric Native Americans made their homes there at least 10,000 years ago and perhaps earlier. This area has been occupied many different Native Americans groups over the years. The La Junta, Chisos, Jumano, Mescalero Apaches and Comanche all made the homes in Big Bend. The Native Americans said that after making the Earth, the Great Spirit simply dumped all the leftover rocks on the Big Bend. Even though Big Bend is a desert it is full of wild life, you frequently see jackrabbits, roadrunners, golden eagle and coyotes. The composition is a seven-movement work, where the first three movements are played continuously as are the last four. Each member of the trio has it’s own solo movement, entitled “Alone”. The natural beauty of the area and its Native American past inspire other four moments. When camping in Big Bend where always awoken by spectacular sunrises,  the first movement “In the Sunrise with the Spirit of the Desert” represents that. The end of the first movement flows into the first of the solo movements which a this point is for violin. This solo second movement sets up the third movement, “Dancing the Dance of the Eagle…” This movement reminds the listener of a Native American dance and soaring golden eagles in the desert sky. The end of the third is the first break in the composition, the fourth movement is the bassoons solo movement which leads into the powerful fifth movement. “Two Braves Warring…” puts man vs. nature (and Spirits) as the desert is can be a difficult place to live. The rains and water finally come after this movement end on the last of the solo movements begin, this time for piano. After a long day in the sun the last movement takes place in the cool of the night as “Coyotes Howling at the Moon…”

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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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Sun & Moon

Saturday, March 8th, 2008
Score of the Sun movement

Score of the Sun movement

On March 8th, 2008, the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO) premiered my composition Sun & Moon, a work deeply rooted in the concept of circle-music. This form of music embraces a structure where phrases can be performed in any sequence or timing, offering a rich tapestry of sound that defies traditional musical narratives.

Sun & Moon draws inspiration from ancient mythology, where the celestial bodies have symbolized contrasting yet complementary forces since the dawn of humanity. The sun represents the masculine, the source of light and life, while the moon reflects the feminine, reigning over the darkness and the rhythms of time. Together, they embody the dualistic nature of existence—balancing light and dark, male and female, life and decay.

The composition is structured in two parts: the “Sun” section begins on the left side of the ensemble and sonically moves across to the right, mirroring the sun’s journey across the sky. Conversely, the “Moon” section starts from the right, moving to the left, encapsulating the moon’s nocturnal path. This movement not only illustrates their respective celestial paths but also their influence over the natural world.

I was introduced to the concept of circle music by Dr. Cindy McTee, who composed a piece in this style for my bassoon teacher, Sue Schrier (Bancroft). Inspired by its flexibility and the unique challenges it presents, Sun & Moon was crafted to allow each musician the freedom to explore the themes within a loosely defined framework, mimicking the dance of these heavenly bodies.

This performance by the SFCCO not only explored these ancient symbols through modern compositional techniques but also invited the audience to experience the perpetual interplay between the sun and the moon, echoing through time and space.

Sun & Moon

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Symphony No. 3 “The Shadows of Japanese Children” take 2

Friday, December 7th, 2007

After premiering the outer two movements in 2005, the SFCCO premiered the inner two movements of my third symphony: Symphony No. 3 “The Shadows of Japanese Children” on December 7th, 2007. More information is available from the original notes of the first performance.

Symphony No. 3 “The Shadows of Japanese Children”
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