Such a lonely and beautiful story! Did not know about this whale, fine sound representation of its singing :)

Delusions of Reference for Two Saxophones is based on the psychological concept of the same name, which is described as a delusional conviction that normal events, behaviors, or objects have special meaning and significance specifically for oneself. The work relies heavily on chance and improvisational elements; particularly, improvised moments that are based on and developed from previously improvised material created by the opposite performer. Delusions of Reference was premiered by the Protean Duo during the 2014 NASA Biennial Conference, Urbana-Champaign, IL on 03/2014.

Delusions of Reference for Two Saxophones by Torres

Live recording of the premiere of "Traced Upon Cinders".  Either/Or Ensemble, conducted by Richard Carrick, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall. (April 12, 2014 - recorded by Ryan Streber).

"Traced Upon Cinders" is a partner piece to my percussion sextet "Etched in Sand" (2013).  The notes to "Etched in Sand" read:

“To etch is to cut, carve, or engrave a text or design onto a surface (traditionally metal, glass, or stone).  This process leaves a permanent design on the original surface.

“I recall going to the shore as a child and spending hours etching designs into the wet, hardened sand at the threshold of beach and sea.  With the sun on my back I would revel in the glory of these beautiful and ephemeral pieces of art that I created using the sand as my canvas and a stray seashell as my stylus.  As evening encroached, the tide would slowly come in, its regular cycles of crashing waves a whispering reminder of the passing of time.  The gently lapping water would inevitably creep towards my etchings, and as it neared I waited, in tense anticipation, for the arcs of water blindly reaching up the beach.  As the first finger of water washed over my design, the image began its transformation into a subdued echo of itself.  For a short time – an eternity – I would solemnly watch my day’s work gently fade away into the original blank canvas.”

As an adult, I often look back to memories of moments from my childhood.  I trace these images over and over again in my mind, seeking new meanings and connections.  But as time passes their fidelity erodes; they are now cinders of the burning moments they once were, and quickly they do fade.

"Traced Upon Cinders" was written for the Either/Or Ensemble.

-Nina C. Young

Traced Upon Cinders (2014) for 13 musicians

World Premiere, March 21, 2014
Eastman School of Music, Kilbourn Hall

HD Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSRjKcoRLWw

Score: http://www.jasonthorpebuchanan.com/music.php

Double Concerto (2014) for Two Horns and Chamber Orchestra was written between November 2013 and March 2014, premiered by Jeff Nelsen, Michael Walker, and the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble with conductor Brad Lubman on March 21, 2014. 

In 2008, I had written Mike Walker a work for horn and electronics that I now consider a turning point in my creative output, and throughout my undergraduate studies he remained one my closest friends and colleagues. The seed was planted for a horn concerto as far back as March 2011 through correspondence with Mike, and by June we had confirmed our plans to collaborate. The following year Mike suggested that I write a double concerto for himself and Jeff Nelsen, an exciting prospect and opportunity to explore the musical relationship between two hornists. We discussed the use of a "fluid" early valve horn technique that would utilize the natural partials available on each of the instruments, following in the footsteps of Ligeti's Horn Trio (1982) and Hamburg Concerto (1998-99; 2003), one of his last works. Ligeti writes about his own work on the Hamburg Concerto: "In this piece I experimented with very unusual non-harmonic sound spectra. In the small orchestra there are four natural horns, each of which can produce the 2nd to the 16th overtone. By providing each horn or group of horns with different fundamentals I was able to construct novel sound spectra from the resulting overtones. These harmonies, which had never been used before, sound "weird" in relation to harmonic spectra. I developed both "weird" consonant and dissonant harmonies, with complex beats." 

My own Double Concerto utilizes four valved horns, the two soloists accompanied by two obbligato horns in the ensemble, each freely alternating between valved and natural horn technique. In this work I sought to explore my (complex) relationship as a composer to classical repertoire, and in the same way that Ligeti draws from Brahms, I in turn take a page or two from Ligeti's book, among others. Throughout my creative life, perhaps no other composer has had such a strong an influence on me; he was the first living composer I became aware of, and I was immediately fascinated by his music. While living in Hamburg from 2010-11 I had the opportunity to study with a number of his former students and close colleagues, including Manfred Stahnke who helped me begin to raise many important questions in regard to my own creative process. I like to think of this work as a return of sorts after several years questioning the relevancy of pitch as a larger artistic dilemma; what is it about pitch that we as composers, performers, and listeners gravitate towards, perhaps above all else? We acknowledge music as organized sound, and thus all intentionally organized sound may be considered music. Yet, I find that the majority of composers, even today, remain fixated on this musical parameter more than any other. In the last three years I have quite intentionally been working to neutralize definite pitch and harmony in my works, favoring the exploration of nearly all other musical parameters and inharmonic spectra. For me, the horn is an instrument that is simultaneously very powerful and yet somehow still extremely fragile and organic in character. In being confronted with a musical situation featuring two horn soloists, I was faced to deal head-on with the issue of pitch within the context of my own musical language. 

Many thanks both to Brad Lubman and Jeff Nelsen, without whom this undertaking would not have been possible. This commission was funded in part by the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Program of the International Horn Society.

Double Concerto (2014) for Two Horns and Chamber Orchestra

​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

GRINDCORE (2015) for amplified string trio

Stanley Cheng-Hao Kuo, violin
Hillary Sametz, viola
Eman Chalshotori, violoncello



GRINDCORE (2015) for amplified string trio

Episode 42 of ADJ•ective New Music's podcast, Lexical Tones. Rob McClure interviews composer and audio engineer Chin Ting Chan.
http://www.chintingchan.com/

Visit www.adjectivenewmusic.com for more information about ADJ•ective New Music, the ADJ•ective Composers' Collective, and Lexical Tones.

42 - Chin Ting Chan

Chen Yu-Fang, violin
Premiered at TICF 2017.
Recorded at Ball State University on 11-20-2017.

In Murmuring Flies in a Translucent Box (2017), the composer explores dialogues between light and darkness hidden in a variety of textures. Rapid interchanges of harmonic and ordinary pitches as well as bowing positions creates shimmering murmurs that resemble the title figuratively.

Murmuring Flies In A Translucent Box for solo Violin

An exceptional studio recording, by STELLAR violinist Yu-Fang Chen, of a piece written in Rome in 1989, as the Berlin wall was falling and Eastern Europe was experiencing a newfound freedom.  The opening and closing sections reflect the folk sound of these countries, while the scherzo-like middle section reflects the energy and optimism of a new era.

Soggiorno (for Violin And Fixed Media)

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.

52 Blue - Peter Opie, Amplified Cello

chintingchan

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⭕️Ernesto Schmied⭕️

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