Musicators is a music literacy game app that my colleagues and I worked on together to help make music literacy accessible to the masses. Designed to support face-to-face music sessions, the app will allow students to practice on their own. This is one of several original theme music composed specially for this app.

Musicators: Sturm Und Drang

Musicators: Sunrise

Musicators: Sky Theme

Musicators: Night Theme

Mary Had A Little Techno

Music: 郑维诚 Albert Tay
Lyrics: Trad.
Conductor: 廖欣恩 Esther Liu Harris
Recorded 'live' at the 2023 Young Bohemia Prague Festival, Prague, Czech Republic

Ave Dulcissima Maria

RAGE AGAINST WAR

This étude was written while studying Electroacoustic Music at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with Prof. Eli FIELDSTEEL and is a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It was shocking to see footage of the devastation in Ukraine from the Russian invasion. As a Singaporean hailing from the tiny red dot and serving in the military full-time for 2.5 years and continuing with reservist duty until very recently… the relevance of such national service was really brought to the fore on seeing such scenes of war. In an age of science and civility when we as a species should be solving bigger problems like climate change, sustainable use of natural resources and space travel, it is unconscionable to expend lives and resources in such acts of barbarism in pursuit of artificial constructs such as national borders.

The work is a meditation on the horrors of war and is deliberately kept economical and lean as a reflection of how lean resources must be in Ukraine now. With just 5 pitches and 5 tracks, an intense soundscape is created to reflect the mental numbness to the sounds of bombs and impending palpitations of death. The work employs FM8 and Massive from Native Instruments and is an exercise in FM synthesis, oscillators and modulators. Mixed in Dolby Atmos, special use of spatial distribution plays a significant role in this work and is best experienced in a Dolby Atmos enabled space or headphones.

Albert “Pacifist” TAY
23 November 2024, 17:55hrs
Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA

Rage Against War

Love Remains

Have you ever loved someone who’s ‘not here’ or have a partner who is not quite present in the moment? Were you ever in a long-distance relationship where loving the Other means interacting through a machine? Would you turn back time if given a choice and what would the sonic equivalent of walking time backwards sound like? What about the musical equivalent of a gradual fading of a memory? Where humans fail, what might it be like to be in a relationship with AI instead? What would it be like to be playing an intimate duet with a computer? Will the performance still elicit emotional responses from the performer(s) and audience? Are such interactions ‘real’? Can a piece of music convey the sense of love (or emptiness?) that remains after such interactions with a screen?

“Love Remains” may be performed as a piece of ‘Performance Art’ in the following format: 
‘Live’ performance for two humans
‘Live’ performance for one human and pre-recorded track (choose between primo or secondo)
Entirely pre-recorded track

Some of the compositional ideas include equal distribution of piano octaves between the two players, hand crossings, meeting of hands and notes, taking over of musical foreground between the two duet partners etc. The motif is a musical metaphor for Yang and Yin, made up of two parts, ds,rsfl, and rs,drf.

“Love Remains” is written for dancer Dr. Danny Tan’s “Reimagining Love” performance as part of Odyssey Dance Theatre Ltd’s (ODT Ltd.) “The Launch”, a prelude to their 25th Anniversary Celebrations. “Love Remains” is premiered on 7 October 2023 (Sat) 7:30pm at ODT Gem by Albert Tay and his MacBook Pro. 

Albert Tay
7 October 2023
http://tayalbert.com

Love Remains

Qixi Final MMO

“A Dream of NES”

“Console games are a distraction to studies and was thus banned in the household. The poor boy can only do his NES boss fights in his dreams…”

This composition is an exercise in economy of source material and aims to transform two selected sound samples into “entirely new, evocative ideas” that are “unrecognisable from their original forms.” A personal challenge to myself in this exercise was to experiment with at least 2-3 forms of sound processing/editing/mixing techniques that I seldom use or am unfamiliar with in this composition.

Of the 6 samples that were provided (bowed cymbal, ignition choke, muted piano, tape measure shuffle, threaded rod scrape and viola bow overpressure), the bowed cymbal and overpressure bowed viola was selected after listening to all the samples individually numerous times on loop.

I have always had a soft spot for metallophones - the sounds of wind chimes and bells have always attracted me since I was a young boy. The long ringing tones of the bowed cymbal was thus a very natural choice for me. I did not have any strong preference for a second sample so I approached the selection from an intellectual perspective by selecting another recording that was also created using a bow, in this case, the bowed viola.

As I was interested in the ringing overtones and harmonics of the bowed cymbal, I was certain I will want to capture that better and make it last much longer beyond the original 12-second duration of the source material. A time stretch was applied to the material to 1 minute, before settling on 2 minutes. As “attack” of the bow on the cymbal was a distinct giveaway of the source sound, an attempt was made to cut out the attack, but the results were still unsatisfactory. Waveform reverse (retrograde) was applied on the sample killing two birds with one stone - not only was the bowing now distorted and mostly unrecognisable, the sample now starts al niente and crescendos towards a focal point, tying in nicely with the overall plan of the work in working towards a climax.

Surprisingly, I ended up being quite enamoured by the Viola Bow splice - it sounded like something straight out from a 8-bit NES video game. Following this train of thought, I ended up experimenting to see if it was possible to create something that is reminiscent of an old school arcade game music. Discovered the bit-crusher for the first time to make the audio files sound even more authentically 8-bit! Just for fun, I also tried the Phat FX for the first time on the ‘dreamscape’ track.

Various techniques used (non-exhaustive list): 
Bitcrusher to create ‘8-bit’ sounds
Dolby Atmos
EQ band pass filter.
Flex Pitch (I’ve always wanted to try the limits of this tool and challenge singing rubber chicken)
“Latch” function to record changes of EQ whilst doing playback.
Phat FX to see what LFOs will do to the audio.
Time stretching
Waveform reverse (retrograde)

A Dream of NES.wav

60Hz Project.wav

Project Pickup Programme Notes

Text
F: It’s cold out there…
A: But darling, it’s warmer in here because of you!
*gets slapped in the face*

A: NNNNnnnneeeeeeext!!

A: My dear, life without you is like a broken pencil…
F: Why?
A: Because life without you is… pointless…
F: Great… wonderful…

F: I thought I saw you on Spotify, you were listed as the "hottest single". 
A: Oh my G(hey) (Oh I’m Gay)

A: Hey, do you believe in love at first sight, or shall I walk by again (when we first met… oh)!

F: Hey are you a practice room, because I want you and hope you’re not taken.

F: Are you that note I messed up at the concert, coz I can’t stop thinking about you.
A: Awww that’s so sweet.

F: I’m going to have to give you a ticket.
A: What do you mean? But what for?
F: For being too cute! Give me your number!!

Speakeasy Tutti:  Hallelujah x 3…HALLELUUUUUJAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Notes
This work is inspired by my visit to a hidden (-behind-a-bookshelf) speakeasy bar in Urbana-Champaign during winter, as well as my favourite artist Salvador Dali and his surrealistic paintings. I wanted to create a dreamy, surrealistic soundscape that was pseudo-programmatic, employs and deconstructs spoken text, but is also humorous and approachable for the layman.  Like the overwhelmingly loud and noisy bar I visited, it was hard and required sustained concentration to have a proper conversation in such settings and very often, only fragments of conversations can be heard and sometimes, what is heard is jumbled or distorted in various ways. I decided to create an entire work based on pick up lines that I may or may not have deployed across over the years. In true surrealistic fashion, spoken phrases get spun off, slaps become EDM beats, and synthesisers become transformed into the voice of singers in harmony. Being married to a feminist and having been nurtured by iron ladies in my musical upbringing, decided it was also fun to do a role reversal in this pick up scenario.

Various techniques were used to modify text and voices. Audio files were mapped into MIDI and tweaked to increase/decrease pitch and/or speed. In some cases, it was to create a feeling of slow motion after being slapped. Use of “Spectral Blurring” ala Michael Norris was applied on “Are you a practice room (…)” in traditional Madrigalian fashion to “paint the text” and create the illusion that the speaker was teleported into a small practice cubicle. A slow gradual reveal of “I thought I saw you on Spotify, you were listed as the 'hottest single’” and the “OMG(hey)” was achieved by strategic splicing(s)/crossfades and plugins to create intentional hilarious (mis)understandings of what is being said. Stereo-panning was used to create a sense of movement and space. A quasi-stretto and increasing intensity of pickup lines. High frequency sounds were used to recreate the tinnitus one can get after being in a loud bar for too long!! Please listen to the music till the very end. Thank you!

Albert TAY
5 April 2025, 2318hrs
Chambana, Illinois, USA.

Project Pickup.wav

Sounds of a Rothko-Pollock 

I wanted to create a sonic “glacial moving” painting that is the equivalent of a cross between Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock.

Past experimentations with Alchemy have proven it to be an excellent “starter pack” and sound source for compositions that require pads and (old school) synths. The clean and very malleable timbres of this tool and its long sustained tones made it a natural choice as a base coat of sonic paint for this composition. Various parameters such as modulators, envelopes, filter cutoffs etc. were tweaked. Also used were cuts to create silence and looping of sounds - these were used extensively to also augment a wash of sound, but the loops were subtle and carefully placed to ensure it makes tasteful reference to LFOs, but does not sound like an outright, in-your-face use of the tool.

Due to the composition needing to focus on textures and timbres and avoid melodic, rhythmic, harmonic ideas, special care was taken with the Alchemy samplers used - Incidental “chords” were either eliminated altogether, fused and “sonically smudged” with a tone cluster, or using volume automations to create a gestural “flick” of timbral color.

Automation curves were also used carefully and extensively to ensure the smooth fading in and out of each new layer, like how some of Mark Rothko’s paintings transition from one color to the next smoothly.

One live audio sound that did work well, was the wine glass rub exercise audio files that was deployed in previous assignments. I took the opportunity to revisit and review the exercise of putting EQs in series. The layered combination of these audio files on top of already present sounds resulted in rather loud, unpleasant teeny high frequencies in the initial few drafts of this exercise. This was eventually managed by re-EQing each audio file. I also used the opportunity to do a complete survey of the entire gamut of Michael Norris’s plugin that does spectral processing of sound. While some like “Partial Glides” (overly obvious presence of pitch) were not very suitable, others like “Blurring,” “Freezing,” “Chorus,” “Drone Maker,” “Granulation” and “Emergence” were excellent in providing yet another layer of sonic paint! Subtle panning was also used.

As part of my continued exploration of “metallophone” and “bell-like tones” for my installation project with visual artist colleague Dr. Tan Ngiap Heng, I continued to explore the recordings of his singing bowls, and also went through the metallophone sound objects I had in my cloud storage. Sampling of cymbals in Kontakt 5 while fun, did not really add much value to the work at this point and decided that “less is more.”

I searched for sounds and timbres that could provide little Pollock-inspired splotches of color. A search of my Kontakt sound libraries yielded sounds that included metallic scrapping sounds, water droplets etc. These were layered on top of the already rich base coat of sonic paint and helped provide some colorful moments of interest in the work.

Sounds of a Rothko Pollock.wav

“A lone poet in Tang Dynasty robes sits calmly in a bamboo forest, composing the first two lines of the poetry as a light veil of rain starts to fall around him. He starts playing the 古琴 (guqin :an ancient zither) restlessly in a bid to find peace and inspiration to finish his work. As his thoughts begin to wander to his loved one faraway, the music starts to get more agitated - eventually as the rain comes to a stop, so too does his quiet rumination come to an end as he completes the poem.”

相思 “Longing” is a revisitation of the same self-written programmatic prompt that has inspired a theatrical a cappella choral work as well as a solo work for baritone and tape. This new work of the same name, also attempts to capture the ephemeral state of composing, going into a state of “flow,” retreating into the mind and hearing internal sounds to the point where the environment “melts away” from the consciousness. It is interesting to have come full circle for this work - starting from being fully acoustic to a mixture of acoustic singing with tape, and now fully fixed media. While this work may be considered as a standalone “sound mass inspired” fixed media work, it has pitch material to help keep it accessible to the general audience. Akin to “flex band” arrangements, it is designed for repurposing for “live” performance with “live” singers, organ/synthesiser, theremin etc. with fixed media augmentation!

Many approaches and techniques went into the cooking this dish. Granular synthesis was applied on the rain audio file to create a deeper, “gritty” timbre and were added at climaxes for greater depth of sound. Splices, loops, layering, EQ-ing, compression, stereo panning, “ultra zoom-ins” of sounds, tweaking of ADSR envelopes, LFOs, automations etc. were employed in fine tuning and ensuring a clean, seamless texture throughout the work, blending MIDI sounds with “live” audio samples (e.g. rain, Tibetan singing bowl). A playful experimentation with a particular sculpture modelling synth by chance created a cool theremin-like timbre that was featured prominently in the event a live theremin player becomes accessible! This fun timbre reminded me of the opening sounds of my favourite TV show, Star Trek’s theme song… which in turn reminded me of my first noob attempts at electroacoustic music in my “Stargirl” film scoring exercise. Fragments of the original “Longing” can be found too! As per my modus operandi, I hide music “Easter eggs” for my friends to find in this work.

While the original idea was an ambitious project to create a blending of ‘live’ acoustic, multimedia performance with ‘live’ electroacoustic music creation, there were plenty of challenges and thus needing major scaling back! E.g. Coding in SuperCollider to create a ‘live’ triggering of (aleatoric) sounds and creation of new timbres proved to be a really impossible task to figure out within such short timelines. Similar brick walls were encountered with programming TouchOSC into iPads as an audience participation tool in triggering sounds. Spatialisation of music using Dolby Atmos and Binaural mixing was mastered but had to be abandoned in the end in interests of site-specific practicalities. The learning curve for creating visuals via Adobe and Blender (a 3D animation software) to animate something as simple as “rain” also provided to be formidable tasks that are beyond the scope of this project but should be explored for the future!

Thankfully, I began conception and composed the music many weeks ahead of time with plentiful buffers to ask for advice, trial equipment and explore possibilities! QLab software was a wonderful find from theatre colleagues in the triggering of lights, videos, sound files and foley effects. Site specific equipment trials were done ahead of time, allowing the work to change from Dolby Atmos to stereo panning. Due to this project, I learnt more about SuperCollider, TouchOSC, and other software and DAWs I never knew existed. Crowdsourcing ideas uncovered Sora as a AI video generator. I suspect I will be kept very busy with these side quests during the summer/winter breaks for some time to come!!

Special thanks to Prof. Fieldsteel for patiently guiding me through two semesters of Electroacoustic Music. Even though I’m a seasoned veteran with commissioned and/or commercial works, my compositional thought, listening, music vocabulary, and skillsets have been stretched and expanded after being put through the paces by the various prompts in MUS 407 and 409 - I walk away from this experience, transformed significantly as a composer, conductor and educator. THANK YOU!!

Xiang Si Longing (Electroacoustic) 相思.wav

希望 Xi Wang (Hope)
Composer: Albert TAY
Conductor: Dr. NIEH Yen-Hsiang
Choir: 光禾歌手合唱團 Lux Singers
27 June 2025
National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

https://tayalbert.com/hope/

Hope 希望

Soundlocity Rush (Fixed media)

Composed while under the supervision of Dr. Kerry Hagan, the spark for this work came after showing her some of my previous electroacoustic music such as the programmatic “Longing (Electroacoustic)” and “Sounds of a Rothko Pollock” where the music patiently unfolds and moves at glacial speeds. She issued me a challenge to create a work that is the complete polar opposite, intense and fast paced. Soundlocity Rush is the outcome of this challenge, aiming to give the listener a visceral “rush” via the sonic barrage that is “soundlocity” (a portmanteau on the words “sound” and “velocity”). This final version is what I consider to be the best and hugely different from the ultra dense  first version of Soundlocity Rush, bringing the listener on a journey of ups and downs - Thank you Dr. Hagan for teaching me how to compose with an eraser!!

Completed 5 October 2025

Soundlocity Rush

Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) Choir singing commissioned work "Rose of Sharon" by  Dr. Zechariah Goh Toh Chai 'live' at the Saint Laurence Church, Macau, 11 November 2015. Conductor: Albert Tay

Rose Of Sharon Zechariah Goh

MGS Choir singing Franz Biebl's Ave Maria 'live' in Saint Laurence Church, Macau, 11 November 2015. Soloist: Sarah Andrea Ng. Conductor: Albert Tay

Ave Maria Franz Biebl

Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) Choir singing "Laudate Dominum" by Albert Tay 'live' at the Saint Laurence Church, Macau, 11 November 2015. Soloists: Trina Banerjee, Sarah Andrea Ng, Liea Chan. Conductor: Albert Tay

Laudate Dominum

Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) Choir singing "Ave Regina Coelorum" by Ko Matsushita 'live' at the Saint Laurence Church, Macau, 11 November 2015. Conductor: Albert Tay

Ave Regina Coelorum Ko Matsushita

Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) Choir singing "Ave Regina Coelorum" by Josef Rheinberger 'live' at the Saint Laurence Church, Macau, 11 November 2015. Organ: Samantha Wong/Leeann Ong. Conductor: Albert Tay

Ave Regina Coelorum Josef Rheinberger

Methodist Girls' School (Secondary) Choir (Secondary 2-3 batches) impromptu singing of "Ecce Crucem Domini" by Albert Tay 'live' at the Saint Joseph Seminary & Church, Macau, 12 November 2015. Conductor: Albert Tay

Ecce Crucem Domini

Arranger: Liong Kit Yeng
Conductor: Albert Tay
Piano: Xu Gui Fang 許溎芳
Choir: Natus Cantorum (Taiwan) 天生歌手合唱團 
10 June 2018
Dadong Arts Centre, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
大東文化藝術中心，高雄，台灣

Albert Tay

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