2023.11.08 Performed by the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra
National Recital Hall, Taipei, Taiwan
Photo taken and the manuscript written at the Copland House

Program Notes

“Only a short distance have I gone astray, and I know today I am right, if yesterday was a complete mistake…” 
(Quoted from “Homeward Bound” by Tao, Yuanming, translated by Lin, Yutang)

In recent years, I have repeatedly meditated on the relationship between humans and time: What will my role and my perspective be after everything changed in time?  How do I perceive the time that has changed everything?  Following this, a number of my recent project focus on a meditation on humans and nature as well on humans’ impact on the environment with interpretations and re-interpretations of the symbols of rising water and receding nature.

towards drifting pines extends the poetic ideas of pines that I use in multiple of my previous works and re-interprets and re-orchestrates them into a new musical texture.  The title directly responds to my 2008 work, Under the Pines, reflecting a meditation in nature when time slowly passes.   Differing from the calmness and peacefulness when I composed Under the Pines, towards drifting pines reflects my resonance with Tao’s poem and conveys a spiritual state of endless drifting and internal isolation.

樂曲解說

「實迷途其未遠，覺今是而昨非……」

這幾年我常在思考人與時間的關連：在一切變遷之後，自身所處的當下是怎樣的視野與角色、在時間裡的感知又是怎樣的狀態。近來數首已完成與手上正在著筆的作品，也都陸續環繞著類似的課題，關於人與自然，以及人類對於環境的影響。因此我以「湧上的水」與「消逝的自然」，兩個與自身情感與生活經驗最位密切關連的題材，透過不同的視角來為關於時間的沉思著墨。
此曲延續多首前作關於「松樹」之樂念加以配器、整合為嶄新的音樂織體與面貌。標題《無歸之松》與自身2008年之另首絲竹樂作品《松下》相呼應，同樣在彷彿時間靜止的大自然間沉思，但今已非昔。比起當年寫作《松下》時秋意微涼、海風吹拂的愜意，《無歸之松》借用【歸去來辭】中詩人感嘆迷途之意象，以反映足跡與記憶皆漸行漸遠、飄泊無可依歸的心境。

towards drifting pines (2023) for di, sheng, pipa, daruan, zheng, erhu, and electronics

Chen-Hui Jen is a composer, poet, and pianist, whose music presents an imaginative, spiritual, and poetic space with subtlety and sophistication. She writes music works that reflect an angle of contemporary art music that integrates time, sound, color, and poetry.

Robert McClure’s music attempts to discover beauty in unconventional places using non-traditional means.  Visual art, poetry, the natural world, neurological and mathematical concepts are all elements that influence McClure’s works. His work has been featured at festivals including the New York City Electronic Music Festival, the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, ISCM, SCI, SEAMUS, and ICMC (International Computer Music Conference). 

His works may be found through ADJ·ective New Music LLC, Bachovich Music Publications, Imagine Music Publications, Innovative Percussion, Media Press, Inc., Resolute Music Publications, and Tapspace Publications as well as on the ABLAZE, Albany, and New Focus Record labels.

In addition to his composition activities, Robert is a member of the ADJ·ective New Music Composer Collective and the host/producer of the ADJ·ective New Music podcast, Lexical Tones; a weekly conversation with a guest composer, performer, and/or artist creating new works of contemporary art/music that focuses on aesthetics, technique, process, meaning, perception, and the musical origins of the featured guest. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, and Soundcloud.

Robert received his doctorate from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where his primary mentors were Shih-Hui Chen, Arthur Gottschalk, and Kurt Stallmann.Robert has previously held positions at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Soochow University in Suzhou, China. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Composition/Theory at Ohio University.

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towards drifting pines (2023) for di, sheng, pipa, daruan, zheng, erhu, and electronics

Chen-Hui Jen, Composer