I.     Moderato
II.    Adagio
III.   Andante
IV.   Allegretto
V.    Meno mosso

Drift is written for the Rhythmic (躍韻) 2nd Anniversary Gala in the summer of 2016 in Hong Kong, performed by saxophonist Masanori Oishi and harpist Judy, Ching Man Ho. This piece is inspired by Chinese “Shan Shui” (山水) painting that traditionally depicts scenery or natural landscapes of the old China, using brush and ink.
 
The piece is then divided into five short movements, each capturing an impression of the drifting motion: drifting on downstream water, drifting away in the air, drifting in a steady tempo, drifting in irregular motions, drifting in unexpected currents, etc., as well as the actual movements of the “drifting” hand while painting in such style. The eventual subject of what is drifted away is left to the imagination of the listeners.

Drift

​52 Blue is said to be the loneliest whale in the world. First detected by sensors across the Pacific Ocean in 1989, they sing at an unusual frequency of 52 hertz, far above that of a typical blue whale’s singing at 10-40 hertz. These recorded tones usually last for 5-7 seconds, in groups of 2-6. The migratory patterns suggest that 52 Blue may in fact be a blue whale, but more likely to be a hybrid between two different species. Their unique song travels thousands of miles in the ocean. While other whales can detect this frequency, none has ever connected. Whales are deeply social animals, but 52 Blue continues to sing a cappella, alone and unanswered.
 
The music is about loneliness. The story of 52 Blue is used as a metaphor or symbol of being alone but in a positive way. Throughout the piece, the performer freely explores and interacts with oceanic soundscapes accompanied by rich synthesized materials; eventually, they experience a process of self-discovery.

52 Blue - Peter Opie, Amplified Cello

​Everything in the universe oscillates in predictable or unpredictable patterns. When things come in proximity, they collide, but after a while, they begin to synchronize and resonate at similar frequencies. The collisions of different sound materials are used as a metaphor for our intricate interaction and relationship with nature as well as other living beings. It reminds us to focus on what we have in common rather than how we differ, to facilitate connections rather than conflicts. We all share the same world that we ought to preserve, where we should strive to connect spiritually with those who live in it.

​This second piece in the series is inspired by the collision of galaxies. It creates a perceived moving, contracting, and expanding space through the interaction of long and morphing overtones.

Resonant Collision II (excerpt) - Michael Pounds, Lap Steel Guitar; Patrick C, Guqin

​Everything in the universe oscillates in predictable or unpredictable patterns. When things come in proximity, they collide, but after a while, they begin to synchronize and resonate at similar frequencies. The collisions of different sound materials are used as a metaphor for our intricate interaction and relationship with nature as well as other living beings. It reminds us to focus on what we have in common rather than how we differ, to facilitate connections rather than conflicts. We all share the same world that we ought to preserve, where we should strive to connect spiritually with those who live in it.

​This third piece in the series represents all forms of human conflicts. It includes sounds from previous pieces, as well as metaphorical noise of tear gas and body impacts.

Resonant Collision III - Patrick C, accordion; Jisu Han, Saenghwang

Rituals is inspired by various ritual processes of different cultures. Some rituals involve elaborate processes, while others are simply daily rituals inherited from the tradition. While most rituals are diversely different, they all engage a sequence of actions according to a prescribed order guided by a mythical belief. This piece takes inspirations and sonic elements reminiscent of the ritual processes and forms a sonic collage that alternates constantly between hyper-real and surreal soundscapes, and creates a multi-layered texture of timbral and rhythmic complexity. Some of the sound sources include air, wind chimes, metals, water, piano resonance and various drum patterns, processed almost exclusively with Cycling 74’s Max program.

Rituals

​Friction is the force created by sliding objects against each other. It results in the conversion of kinetic energy into thermal energy. Inspired by this idea, this piece treats sounds as “objects” and attempts to create friction that would fuse energy into the sound wave. To create friction, the music focuses on building up tension with sounds that go in contrary or oblique motions, mimicking the concept of physical friction. The tension is then released when the sounds go in parallel motion. Ultimately, it forms an illusion of sonic friction.

Friction

The term “fractal” was first used by mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975. It was based on the Latin term frāctus, meaning “broken” or “fractured.” Mathematically driven by recursion, a fractal is a never-ending pattern. It can evolve into complex patterns that are self-similar across all scales in an ongoing feedback loop. It serves as the basis for chaos theory, which examines the behavior of dynamic systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, causing a response popularly known as the butterfly effect. Fractals are also widely observed in nature in forms such as clouds, trees, mountains, seashells, etc. It is the imageries of such spectacular fractal designs and the theories behind them that inspired this composition.

Fractals

A falling star has nothing to do with stars. It is caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids that swipe across Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. The trail of light thus created is a meteor. Since the ancient times, humans have been fascinated by changes in the unreachable sky. Falling stars, especially, have motivated countless myths, the most common being that one’s wishes can be granted.
 
On the contrary, the “falling” of a star depicts the death of an important person in Chinese Mythology. In Ancient China, each emperor was accompanied with a professional “star interpreter” who served to predict the kingdom’s future by studying the messages from God. It all seems mythical today, where myths and legends are largely despised by modern science. But if the Moon can exert tidal force on the Oceans, whereas Man is composed mostly of water, a meteoroid approaching close to Earth’s surface must affect the living beings in ways we are yet to understand. Perhaps the creation of this composition is infused with hidden meanings from such phenomenon.

Falling Stars

​Double exposure is a photographic and cinematographic technique. It refers to the superimposition of two exposures to create a single image, resulting in something similar to the effect of audio convolution that captures aspects from both sources. An image that is exposed to light twice contains the subsequent image layered over the original. It is a visual effect frequently used to create ghostly images, or to add materials that were not originally present. Written for ensemble mise-en and its director Moon Young Ha, Double Exposure was premiered in Seoul, South Korea, on December 2017.

Double Exposure

I.         Reflex
II.        Beams
III.       Crank
IV.       Catch
V.        Throw

​Commissioned by and written for Aether Eos (Leah Asher, violin; Christopher Goddard, piano), In-pulse is a collection of character pieces; each of them captures the essence of a type of movement or concept. The collection is unified by a central idea of extreme contrast between maintaining and disrupting a constant pulse. A pulse, in these pieces, is loosely defined as a repeated rhythmic pattern.

In-pulse

Icebergs are irregularly formed, just like almost everything in nature. But if you step back and look at them from a distance, you see a reflection from the water that creates perfectly symmetric images. Thus, asymmetry naturally creates symmetry in a macro point of view.

Icebergs is written for a standard piano trio. This piece evokes transparent images of icebergs from different perspectives through the use of both symmetric and asymmetric musical structures in its macro and micro forms.

Icebergs

Written for pianist Kay (Yuan Yuan) He, time, forward explores my visions of time and the stretching of time through augmenting the sounds of a piano with live electronic processing. The performer often has the liberty to control the duration of the resonance of each sonority (resulting from the aleatoric notation), both reacting to and controlling the electronics. The title “time, forward” describes such interaction and the resulting momentum in the music. The fixed sample playbacks used are mostly pre-recorded sounds from inside the piano and live-recorded sounds. Live processing techniques such as feedback delay, chorusing, flanging, harmonizer and granular synthesis are used to enhance the harmonic spectrum as well as to stimulate conversations between the performer and the computer.

time, forward

The structure of …and see it vanish is highly linear in terms of pitch succession and rhythmic sequence. Bar lines are eliminated to give free flow to the music. It is meant not to have any clear and defined point of entrances and vanishing points for each instrument. They enter and interact freely with each other. When they vanish, they become transparent but still present, as if they have always been, and will forever continue to be.

...and see it vanish

Whispers of Time is a 14-minute sonic exploration on the elapse of time, the stretch of time, and the reverse of time. Various sound samples have been manipulated and processed in ways that significantly affect the time domain of the samples, using mostly custom patches made with Cycling 74’s Max 6 program. 

Throughout the composition, one hears layers of gestures move through a three-dimensional sonic space, emulating as well as alternating between hyper-real and surreal soundscapes. The multi-layer projection of the sound stage adds much depth to the music, and creates a sound world existed only in one’s imagination. The juxtaposition of contrasting events in various lengths eventually becomes an inspiration for the title.

Whispers of Time

Composer Patrick Chin Ting CHAN grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States in 2003. He has been featured in festivals including Ars Electronica, IRCAM's ManiFeste, ISCM World Music Days, and UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, among others. He has worked with ensembles such as City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Ensemble intercontemporain (France), Ensemble Metamorphosis (Serbia), eighth blackbird (U.S.), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Mivos Quartet (U.S.), and New York New Music Ensemble, with performances in more than thirty countries. His scores are published through BabelScores and Universal Edition. He is also an active performer and improviser of accordion, guqin, as well as live electronics using a Eurorack modular system and other custom interfaces on the computer. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music Composition at Ball State University.

chintingchan

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