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

An original work in renaissance style, written and performed by Federico Bonacossa

Tre pezzi in stile antico - III. Toccata

Adrift

Night Soundscape captured by DPA 5100, mixed down to stereo

Night Soundscape at USJ 2 garden

'Dawn' for Ten Musicians - 2025 version

The endless mile 09112025

Short Circuit refers to when neurons aren’t connecting properly in the brain, when one experiences brain fog or small seizures when tiny moments of time disappear.  In this piece, there are silences or ghosts of musical material that require the listener to mentally provide the connecting thread between the ideas to form the complete narrative.  The electronic sounds are triggered by the percussionist through Ableton Live, thus being a bridge between a piece for instruments and fixed media and a piece for interactive electronics.

Short Circuit

The Burrow, a story of an animal that has built itself a magnificent burrow, but who lives in fear that it will be found and invaded, so it spends most of its time outside the burrow keeping watch over it.

02 The Burrow - Icarus Tales of Kafka_4 Edit_15 Mix_6 - 44100Hz 16bit

Pixercise (ver. 2024) mvt 4_excerpt

Dream Gloaming (2025) for fixed media
*Originally for 4 channels, here is the stereo remixed version.

Music Composition: Chen-Hui Jen

Poem in Chinese is AI-generated by Chen-Hui Jen's language model. 
English Translation / Editor: Chen-Hui Jen

《暮之沉降》

在未醒與未眠之間
聲音尚未找到名字
只是一縷呼吸
隨暮色，散落為霧

有光未至
卻在眼皮下漾動
像河的暗潮
將一切牽向無岸

Dream Gloaming

In the liminal space between waking and sleeping,
A sound yet unnamed
But a breath
fades into haze with the twilight.

Light hasn’t arrived,
yet it flickers beneath the eyelids—
like a hidden river current,
drawing everything toward a shoreless drift.

Dream Gloaming (2025) for fixed media - Stereo Remix

Commissioned by the Lucerne Festival for the celebration of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday

Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Leonard David Wacker
August 23, 2025, Lucerne Hall of the KKL Lucerne

IMPULSE Hommage à Pierre Boulez

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.

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

Chen-Hui Jen, Composer