Fallen Leaves • Drum Tower for solo cello

It is always a challenge to write a solo piece, especially for a string instrument that carries endless possibilities and various tone colors. Exploring new sound effects and extended techniques to present contemporary Chinese music become the goal of this piece. The harmonic language of this piece is based on, but not limited to Chinese pentatonic scales. The chord structures are complex because of the added intervals of seconds. Also, different combinations of timbers are developed in the piece. All of these are my attempt to describe the Chinese culture and how this culture can be present by using western musical instrument.
This piece has three sections. The beginning section creates a sorrowful and foggy picture of a deep fall. It introduces the wind sound by using sul ponticello, sul tasto, glissando, etc., extended techniques of cello. Gradually, the beautiful and profound fallen leaves theme is revealed from the harsh and frigid scenes. It is like my grandma who likes to tell me her old memories: “I remember when I was little I don’t like the season fall, it is cold and sad, every morning when I run through these ancient alleys of old Peking to school, I heard the crying of the electronic wires along the sides of the road. Wind, is like to throw the whole world away, making everything upside down; fallen leaves are everywhere ...”

The middle section is active and rhythmic with constant changing rhythmic pattern. It imitates the drum sound from ancient drum tower at Beijing by using pizzicato, rapidly repeating intervals of seconds and rhythmic harmonics. In my memory, autumn always related with beautiful red leaves accompanied by the drum sound from the tower at Beijing, and autumn is also the season to look forward to an upcoming good new year. Dancing leaves reserve new energy and prepare for a productive year.

The last section derives the wind sounds and thematic materials of fallen leaves melody from the first section, and the rhythmic motives from the middle section. It combines these two different musical materials and also dissolves themselves into each other. I try to tell the audience that old time has already melt away into our memory, but no matter how comfortable and cozy we live in the current world, we should not forget the heavy history that our elder generations have carried.

Fallen Leaves and Drum Tower - for cello solo

On the Threshold of a Drizzly Reality for cello and electronics is dedicated to cellist Nora Karakousoglou. The piece attempts to describe a mixed world of both my ideals and the stone-cold realities of my life. Everyone and everything enters my life for a certain reason, and at a certain time. This piece, too, came into my life with a purpose. It is a soul-searching piece for me.  It describes the powerful emotion of my beautiful mind and imagination, and also reveals the various hard aspects of the reality that intrude on my life all the time. Perspective - drowning in illusion or dancing on the threshold of the reality.


The cellist is on the stage alone, which is the reality of how I individually exist in this world. The electronics, based on pre-recorded sounds of the cello, are the illusion. Processed cello reveals a mysterious world, which sings simultaneously with the live cello. They are tangled with each other. The audience is unable to distinguish what is real and what is the “illusion”. In the middle rhythmic section, the repeating notes travel through stage and surrounding speakers. The effect represents how fantasy and reality seem so interfused sometimes. On stage mic’d cello with reverberation is used to present a spatial-temporal variation of reality.

On the Threshold of a Drizzly Reality - Kay (Yuanyuan) HE

Soliloquy • Wings
Inspired by Chinese myth “Jingwei filling the sea”
for solo Bb clarinet

Soliloquy • Wings for solo Bb clarinet was written for and dedicated to clarinetist Jun Qian. It is always a challenge to write a solo piece; especially, the goal of this piece is to explore new sound effects and extended techniques to present contemporary Chinese music. The harmonic language of this piece is based on, but not limited to the Chinese pentatonic scales. Also, using different combinations of timbre and extended techniques of the clarinet are developed in the piece. All of these are my attempt to describe the Chinese culture and how a western musical instrument can present this culture.

This piece is inspired by the story “Jingwei filling the sea”. Jingwei is the name of a character in Chinese mythology. Originally, she is the youngest daughter of Emperor Yan (legendary ruler of primitive China), she perished at a young age in the East Sea. Just before she was buried by the surging waves, her spirit turned into a beautiful bird. When it flew over the roaring sea, it cried sadly in the sound “jingwei, jingwei”. That is why people named it “Jingwei”. I try to use rapid grace notes and “falling off ending” on long notes of clarinet to imitate the cry of the bird, sadly, but strong!

The bird lived on a mountain near the sea. Jingwei hated the sea so much that it decided to fill it up by carrying in twigs or pebbles from the mountain and dropping them into the sea. The rhythmic middle section of the piece describes the countless to and fro every day, never stopped. This idiom “The bird Jingwei filling the sea” that comes from this fable describe people who have indomitable spirit; they are firm, gritty and will never give up on their goals. The whole piece is like a sound serial cartoon to depict the story of Jingwei.
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Duration: 5’22”

Kay HE 
2013. 2

Soliloquy • Wings_Kay HE (clarinetist: Shih-Wen Fan)

      On the Fringe of a Whale’s Tail for piano and electronics is written for pianist Josh Straub. The piece attempts to describe an artist’s world. It is sentimental, unreal, and full of adventures, creativities and conflicts. Artist is not a manufactory profession, is an explorer with dreams. As artists, it is our responsibility to show our powerful emotion of our beautiful mind and imagination to the world, and also fight with the harsh and uninspiring reality. Imagination is the most powerful weapon.   

      The pianist is on the stage alone, creating much fascinating sound on piano. It is the lonely reality of how an artist individually exists in this world, just like standing on a whale’s tail. The electronics, based on pre-recorded sounds of the piano, is the little universe he/she created by his/her imagination. It is deep, dramatic, inspiring, exciting and colorful, like the ocean. Processed piano reveals this mysterious world, which sings simultaneously with the live piano. They are tangled with each other. The audience is unable to distinguish what is real and what is the imagination. Mic’d piano with live effects represents how creative passion evokes inspiration and imagination, which sometime contrasting with the reality. 


On The Fringe Of A Whale's Tail

On the Pivot of an Abandoned Carousel for flute and electronics is dedicated to flutist Kenzie Slottow. The piece describes the haunted scene of a carnival that was once a beautiful place full of happiness and joy.  Years ago, the calliope, a small simple carnival organ, was a signature of the carnival, representing simple childhood happiness.  Here, the flute, which I use to imitate the calliope, becomes increasingly more distorted until it collapses later in the piece.  The scene becomes abandoned.  The flute and electronics overlap so the audience cannot determine what is real and what is not.  This mimics our memories, so as to show the exaggerations and delusions that form in our head.  On one hand, the music can recall amazing memories of wonderful experiences.  On the other, the music is creepy and haunted.  This is the human brain’s ability.  Things can be interpreted in a multitude of ways.  Experience the mind’s illusionary power.

On the Pivot of an Abandoned Carousel

The Remains of the Wind for concert band is dedicated to my parents, who both gave me and taught me to appreciate life. The inspiration for this piece came during my solo trip to Barcelona. While wandering around the famous Passeig de Grácia (Passage de Grácia), I was impressed by the city, the so-called “The Great Enchantress.” The city is like a warm breeze from the Mediterranean Sea intertwined with a passionate and artistic spirit. Barcelona is the city that tells the whole world how it once made a fascinating dream come true. Antoni Gaudí was the dream shaper who filled the real world with gleaming colors, swirling sparks, and painted dreams. He used his magic to ignite the starry sky, embrace us, and fulfill our deepest dreams. These dreams are the remains of his time, floating along with the passion of art. Magic oozes from Barcelona. Mirth saturates in every lonely soul.
I use large wind ensemble as the medium to express my feeling of this glamorous city, and Gaudi, one of the greatest artists. This is my enchanting, dazzling, and passionate dream come true.

The Remains Of The Wind

If you like it, here is the video version of it.
Check it out. :)




Love YOU ... Niverse KayHE


On the Arch of a Monochrome Rainbow
Inspired by Nancy Rubins’ sculpture Monochrome for Austin
for clarinet and electronics

Composer: Yuanyuan (Kay) HE
Clarinetist: Shih-Wen (Winnie)Fan

	On the Arch of a Monochrome Rainbow for clarinet and cello was inspired by Nancy Rubins' sculpture "Monochrome," which is displayed on the UT Austin campus. "Monochrome" stands nearly 50 feet high and stretches across 24th Street.  It comprises around 75 Kayaks, canoes, and small boats, arranged together to form a giant silver tree, and has become a significant landmark in Austin, TX. 

"Monochrome" develops a sense of mass and scale that is accompanied with true grace. Balance becomes the main theme of the sculpture.

The premiere of this piece will be in the area of the sculpture. The clarinetist stands under the canopy of "Monochrome," where a bouquet of aluminum canoes and boats blossoms over a busy pedestrian intersection on the University of Texas campus. The sculpture accompanies the tall trees on the sidewalk, mixing with nature. There are many extended techniques I use for clarinet solo, such as large scale glissando, bending tone, multiphonic techniques, etc. These create a very interesting sound palette, which become the source of the electronic sound. Sometimes it’s gentle and beautiful, sometimes it’s odd and harsh, sometimes it’s aggressive and overwhelming, sometimes it’s colorful and joyful, just like nature. How do we keep the balance in the world to continue to live along with nature? How do we enjoy the different shades of nature, and be part of it?  It just like dancing on the arch of a monochrome rainbow. It’s overwhelming and also joyful. 

Duration: Ca. 8’ 23”
2016. 03.22


On the Arch of a Monochrome Rainbow_Yuanyuan (Kay) HE

Shadow of Dew Drops for violin, violoncello and piano was inspired by a poetry of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) “Xiao Chi - A little Pond” written by the famous poet Yang Wanli (1127-1206). This poetry depicts: the silent mouth of a spring “cherishes” the little streamlet and lets it flow quietly into the pond; the shadow of a tree flowing on the surface of the water, as though it has fallen in love with the soft sunshine; The pointed tip of a lotus sprout appears above the water, quickly, a dragonfly lands on it. 

In this poetry, the mouth of a spring, a little streamlet, the shade of a tree, a sprout of lotus and a lovely dragonfly, they all have lives and feelings just like human beings. The piano trio is a suitable instrumentation to represent this intimate and delicate writing style of this traditional Chinese poetry. Exploring fresh and lively sound effects to present this style become the goal of the piece. By using pizzicato followed by a glissando, fine harmonics of violin and cello, ornamentations and high repeated notes on piano, etc. to describe a lively picture of a little pond, show the harmonious and close relationship among natural things.

The harmonic language of this piece is based on, but not limited to the Chinese pentatonic scales. The chord structures are complex because of the use of stacked seconds. Also, using different combinations of timbre and extended techniques (such as sul pont., sul tasto, harmonic, harmonic glissando, tremolo with glissando, glissando and pluck on piano internal strings, muted notes on piano, etc.) represent this exquisite artistic conception of the poetry.
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Shadow Of Dewdrops_Yuanyuan (Kay) HE

it's a kind of new piece..... but not really like this old style of me, I gonna change......totally!




Destiny of Sputnik


"And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality they're nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we'd be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing."

— Haruki Murakami (Sputnik Sweetheart)


The eight-minute chamber work Destiny of Sputnik gets the inspiration from Sputnik Sweetheart which is a novel wrote by Haruki Murakami. This work is written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. In the piece there is a series of colorful chords, which are built on the interval of minor second. The motive played on the piano is broken into small cells, which are scattered over the whole piece. Like the star in the sky shine faintly in the shadows of dazzling neon lights of the city. The middle part of the piece introduces a new motivation containing a section of continuous thirty-second notes. The so-called new motivation is actually evolved from the previous minor second harmony when the tension of the music develops. As the minor second interval continuously fluctuates and expands, the ensemble simultaneously and gradually progresses from a single instrument to all the instruments, creating layers of resonance. This represents the destined fate of two off-track stars as they pass each other, emitting an illuminating and yet explosive glow. The path of cross is temporary and the darkness resumes, as the whole universe returns to its original peace.

Destiny of Sputnik-Kay HE

Gobetween_KayHE

Yuanyuan (Kay) HE began learning piano at age 5. At age 15, she began studying composition at the affiliated middle school of Shenyang Conservatory of China. As a double major undergraduate, Kay He studied with Tang Jianping in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (CCOM), and with Zhang Xiaofu at the Conservatory’s Center for Electroacoustic Music of China (CEMC). The winner of a Snow Scholarship, Kay He completed her Master’s degree in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). While at UMKC, she studied under Dr. Zhou Long, Dr. Chen Yi, Dr. Paul Rudy and Dr. James Mobberley. Besides music, she also learned to paint at the UMKC Department of Art and Fine Arts. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in composition (DMA) at the University of Texas at Austin, studying under Dr. Dan Welcher, Dr. Russell Pinkston, Dr. Donald Grantham, and Dr. Yevgeniy Sharlat. Her works often explore various forms of media, link them together to support each other as a whole and create a unique audiovisual experience that engages the audience. Some of these works have involved collaborations with dancers, video artists, and stage lighting and design artists. 
         Kay has won many composition awards in the U.S. and abroad. Her piece On the Pivot of an Abandoned Carousel has been selected for performance in 2016 ISCM World Music Day. Her piece Passeig de Grácia for orchestra was selected for the 2015 ACO Underwood New Music Readings in New York City. On the Threshold of a Drizzly Reality for cello and electronics was selected for 2014 performances at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Athens, Greece and the Root Signals music festival in Jacksonville, Florida; her piano trio Shadow of Dewdrops was selected as a finalists for TICF2015 composition competition in Bangkok, Thailand and Gamma UT music festival in 2014; the orchestra piece Legends of Old Peking won the Seattle Symphony’s Celebrate Asia Composition in 2012; Dying Away won the 2011 DuoSolo Emerging Composer Competition; Destiny of the Sputnik was chosen in the 2011 Beijing Modern Music Festival Young Composers Project, and many other pieces have won awards or competitions in other parts of the world.

      As a young composer, Kay has won many composition awards in the U.S. and abroad. Her piece On the Threshold of a Drizzly Reality was selected for 2014 performances at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Athens, Greece and the Root Signals music festival in Jacksonville, Florida; her piano trio Shadow of Dewdrops was selected for Gamma UT music festival in 2014; the orchestra piece Legends of Old Peking won the Seattle Symphony’s Celebrate Asia Composition in 2012; Dying Away won the 2011 DuoSolo Emerging Composer Competition; Destiny of the Sputnik was chosen in the 2011 Beijing Modern Music Festival Young Composers Project, and many other pieces have won  awards or competitions in other parts of the world.

Kay He

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