This piece is commissioned by Xiamen Foreign Language School (XMFLS), China, in commemorating its 40th anniversary, and is designed to a level suitable for the School Orchestra. 

天风海涛, literally translated as ‘sky, wind, sea, and wave’, is an ancient depiction of the sublime costal view of Fujian province, China, and is used specifically to signify the view of Kulangsu, an island where XMFLS was founded in 1981. This piece takes inspirations from each of the four words and an impression of the entire phrase. The main pitch motif that starts the piece corresponds to the school’s name — X(i)-M(i)-F(a)-L(a)-S(ol).

2021 ©️ Jerry Yue Zhuo

Sea Panorama 天风海涛 (simulation)

I-D-T (2020)
for Violoncello, Joystick Player, and Pre-recorded Tape
Performed and recorded by Jerry Zhuo (2nd version, August 2021)

First performed on 2 January, 2020 in Xiamen, China under the title 'Suffocation', the materials have since been rearranged to focus on a different issue: identity.

The phrase occurs throughout the piece is 'Who am I, I cannot remember' in Minnanese (the dialect of Xiamen, China). The piece can be performed by the joystick player alone (with a prerecorded Cello track).

I-D-T (2nd performance)

TAIYI II - SHUYA XU

This piece is inspired by the titular poem by Li Qingzhao (1084-1155, Song dynasty), who recalls a memory from the good old time in the poem. The piece is an impression of the poem visually and sonically, combining the past (memory) and the present (the time this story is told). Premiered in June 2022 during the 12th Biennial International Conference on ‘Music Since 1900’, Birmingham, by Yajie Ye (mezzo-soprano) and Jerry Yue Zhuo (piano).

Dream: Pavilion by the Water

Dream Nostalgic (2019)
for One Player: Double Bass, Japanese Bell, and Electronics
Premiere | Three Shadows-Xiamen | 2019.8.31 | Jerry Zhuo

Dream Nostalgic 家乡梦 [Live]

Live recording by members of Les Métaboles and Ensemble Multilatérale with Brian Liao (conductor), July 13th, 2019 in Marseille, France.

Instrumentation: three male voices, hp, vc, cb, with everyone also plays selected percussions or objects.

Score purchase: https://www.babelscores.com/catalogs/instrumental/chamber-ensemble/5423-june-story

“June Story” refers to a poem I composed in June 2018 in Greece.

June
You run
With your eyes
Shimmering
And with the seabirds
Flapping around
Becoming a part of your attire
Your moving shadow
Stretches into the streetlight
I think that
At one moment
Your hairs
Crash my face lightly


At the time I started to compose this piece of music, I was in a very different mood than the time I wrote the poem. Instead of following the light, romantic atmosphere in the poem, I eventually decided to write a work destroying it. I wanted the music to be dramatic, impolite, and in a way violent. I indeed kept this idea while composing the piece.

It’s funny that when I finally got to listen to the recording of the premiere, underneath the dramatic, impolite, violent surface, I could still find a strong sense of romance everywhere in the music…

Cover picture © Shunji Iwai

June Story 六月 (2019) for three instrumentalists and three vocalists

New Summer No.7

Recorded by Jerry Zhuo
Our memory is naturally fragmented. Imagination -- a metaphysical glue that puts memory together. Identity -- the memory of memory that lacks the suitable glue. 碎(sui), fragmented, broken, crushed...

Sui 碎

A short study for synthesiser and fixed media voices, written as part of my PhD in composition at Cardiff University. 

The piece sets three short poems, written by two of my friends and first posted by them to social media. The music playfully explores the meaning of vernacular text, and evokes the experience of looking through a Facebook feed; short snapshots of seemingly unrelated material are juxtaposed together, but which we can all relate to seeing on social media: something beautiful, something personal, and something (inevitably) about cats. The piece uses a single instance of Massive, Native Instruments' classic wavetable synthesiser, and fixed media of the three poems recited by their original authors.

Featuring the words and voices of William Christofides and Matthew Colclough. Synth performance and programming by Timothy Johnston.

© Copyright 2019

Facebook Snapshots | for Massive & fixed media (2019)

Dr Jerry Yue Zhuo is a composer, improviser, and ensemble leader. He is a Lecturer in Composition at Cardiff University School of Music.

Dream: Pavilion by the Water

Jerry Yue Zhuo

Related tracks