Commissioned by the ArtZenter Institute for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
Completed April 25, 2023
Premiered September 21, 2023 at Herbst Theatre

I have long been familiar with ukiyo (translating to ‘the floating world’) prints. The ubiquitous Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanegawa was always attractive to me for its narrative intensity, but it was not until recently that I began to appreciate ukiyo’s most discussed feature: the evocation of motion. Perhaps it was because of just how much motion I was experiencing, moving from city to city and watching a revolving door of faces and places spin past me. It was lonely and disconcerting, but it also was exhilarating and strangely beautiful. I became attracted to this notion of beauty in ephemera, leading me naturally to the nonchalant and sensual impermanence of ukiyo prints. 

“Living only for the moment, savoring the moon, the snow, the cherry 
blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting 
oneself in simply floating, unconcerned by the prospect of imminent poverty, 
buoyant and carefree, like a gourd carried along with the current of the river: 
this is what we call ukiyo.”
- Asai Royōi, Kyoto native and Buddhist priest

The first ukiyo prints, created in the 17th century, depicted scenes of common life in Kyoto as well as popular entertainers of the time, from geisha to sumo wrestlers. The focus on these earthier, ‘lower’ subjects captured the newfound joie de vivre that permeated a newly affluent Japanese society: perhaps the subjects worthy of preservation did not have to be lofty and noble. Instead, ukiyo-e suggested that any pleasurable or evocative moment was deserving of immortality.

My piece The Floating World seeks to capture ukiyo’s energetic lust for life through its bubbling vitality. The music rarely sits still, perpetually moving from one harmony to the next as whirling lines spin their way through the ensemble. Every aspect of the piece, from its shimmering orchestration and effusive patterns to its rhythmic instability and melodic transience, is meant to evoke the wispy exuberance of ukiyo prints. 

This piece was begun while in residence at Copland House, Cortlandt Manor, New York, as a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. It was commissioned by the ArtZenter Institute Grant for the San Francisco Contemporary Players, and is dedicated to my dear Ellie Cherry, whose ebullience, whimsy, and support are endlessly encouraging to me.

The Floating World, for chamber orchestra

composed for Mivos Quartet
premiered on April 9 2023 at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York

pour

Kory Reeder Walls of Brocade Fields

Performance by Julius Akira Mauldin and The Westside Chamber Players in the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York, NY.


Program Notes:

Back in 2020, after I finished my first commission from the Albany Symphony, they sent me a wonderful book of collected poems. One of the poems included in this book, Of Rain and Air by Wayne Dodd, immediately resonated with me with its beautiful, evocative imagery and its striking relevance to both the sounds I was exploring in my new piece for Albany Symphony and what I was experiencing at the time. My piece is not a musical setting of the poem, but I feel it shares much of the same feeling as that of the text, as if they were part of the same world.


Wayne Dodd - Of Rain and Air
from Sometimes Music Rises

All day I have been closed up
inside rooms, speaking of trivial
matters. Now at last I have come out
into the night, myself a center

of darkness.
Beneath the clouds the low sky glows
with scattered lights. I can hardly think
this is happening. Here in this bright absence

of day, I feel myself opening out
with contentment.
All around me the soft rain is whispering
of thousands of feet of air

invisible above us.

Of Rain and Air (2021, rev. 2023) for chamber orchestra

For ATTBB choir. Performed by Gallicantus

I am You are Who?

"Interwoven Interstices", for improvising sextet
Premiered at Princeton Sound Kitchen, 2/6/2024

tenor saxophone: Travis Laplante
trumpet: Nate Wooley
percussion: Russell Greenberg
violin: Yuniya Edi Kwon
cello: Lester St. Louis
electric guitar: Wendy Eisenberg

Interwoven Interstices

Studio version of the first movement of Following and Flocking and interactive audio-visual piece co-composed and performed by Charlotte Mundy.

Interactive visuals, and live electronics by me
Vocal part - Charlotte Mundy

Full performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4dbT443MwE

Following And Flocking (2023) I.

Blackout -  for amplified chamber ensemble, motion sensors, live lights, visuals, and electronics

Written for TAK Ensemble 

Perusal score on my website!

Blackout (2024)

I wish for the rain

the being/the world (2024)
for Juliet Fraser and Ensemble Musikfabrik

extract recording: 
scene 10: the atmospheric agent, 
scene 11: aria (happiness) [from 4:28], 
and part of scene 12: ensemble (love) [from 10:00]

premiere recording extract from WDR, Köln on 3 March 2024

total piece duration: 1 hour

in loving memory of Amelia Cuni

commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and Kunststiftung NRW
photograph: Janet Sinica

the being/the world (2024) scenes 10, 11, 12 (extract)

Created for An Taobh Tuathail 25th Anniversary

The Floating World, for chamber orchestra

Bobby Ge

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