"Distance is scored for mixed ensemble including four Chinese traditional instruments and Western instruments. The reason why I titled this piece Distance is that I have been questioning myself for a long time. Distance does not only mean time and space, but also signifies the ability to reconsider and rediscover the “roots” of language and culture. Meanwhile, distance could imply the echo, dialogue, contrast, transplantation and integration of form and content as well. This piece is a new starting point for me to explore, understand and clarify the meaning of distance through my music composition."
Fuhong Shi, 2013

This work was premiered on May 14, 2013 at the 'Music for China' concert presented by Soundstreams and performed by: Accordes String Quartet, Chai Found Music Workshop, Sanya Eng (harp), Leslie Newman (flute), Gregory Oh (piano), Ryan Scott (percussion), Anthony Thompson (clarinet), Les Dala (conductor).

For more information about Fuhong Shi and the Soundstreams commission catalogue, please visit our SoundMakers website: http://www.SoundMakers.ca/composers/fuhong-shi

About the Composer

Distance by Fuhong Shi

Gate Study 05a uses samples from the following pieces commissioned by Soundstreams:
- Hatch, Peter "Time Zones" (2010)
- Hui, Melissa "Fred and John Were Having Tea (When I Dropped By)" (2004)
- Ka Nin, Chan "The Charmer" (1994)
- Staniland, Andrew "Hex" (2011)
Check out http://www.soundmakers.ca

Escher Creak (2014)

East Winging It - Ft Black Bear

Charms

Vorwissen
Duration: 7 minutes
Instrumentation:  Piano Trio
Performed by:  The Gryphon Trio
Commissioned by:  Roger D. Moore, for Soundstreams Canada

Dedicated to Karen, Cézanne, and Kuusta

The bedrock of Vorwissen is the retrograde/palindrome problem. In a temporal medium such as music, retrogradation is a concept or sensation, but ultimately an artificial distortion of time.  Presenting material forward and then backward creates a central fulcrum of energy around which material is outwardly distributed.  Movement is made from the beginning toward the centre point (without knowledge of its location or existence), followed by the journey away - tracing unrealistically backward through the material while time moves forward (a 1 2 3 2 1 statement of materials competing against time’s momentum of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9...).  The mercurial conflict between forward and implied backward motion is like two flints being rubbed together, their friction both complex and inflammatory, outward and inward.  

As well, the contrapuntal overlapping and superposition of normal-form and retrograded materials highlights the issue of objectivity.  Material presented simultaneously in opposite directions (as in Bach’s “crab” canons) implies a predetermination outside of the work.  Otherwise, how would one know the location of the middle and end points that are folded over one another?  Simultaneous and varying attenuations of the primary material heighten the stress of the objectivity, and the conflict with time’s forward momentum.

In a page right out of history, the plethora of retrogradation in Bach’s music is matched only by the palindromes of Olivier Messiaen.  Both are devoutly religious composers, and therein rests the problem that for years necessitated my compositional ban on retrogrades.  Are objectivity and material predetermination metaphors for the “Hand of God” in music?  Are retrogrades and palindromes artistic symbols of faith?  Such backward thinking was the inspiration for Vorwissen.



Vorwissen (excerpt), by Paul STEENHUISEN

Recording of John Kameel Farah's live performance from Roy Thompson Hall during the Toronto Symphony's New Creations Festival, March 7, 2013.
Presented by SoundStreams, as part of Farah's Residency with SoundMakers.

containing orchestral samples from the SoundMakers database; samples from pieces by Andrew Staniland, Peter Hatch, Kelly-Marie Murphy and James Rolfe

http://soundmakers.ca
http://www.soundstreams.ca



Soundscape from New Creations Festival, Mar26,2013 @ Roy Thompson Hall

I worked in Logic to mashup Sarah Vaughan singing Thou Swell with Hui's piece.<p>Composition was created using following commissions from soundmakers.ca:  Fred and John Were Having Tea (When I Dropped By) </p>

Fred and John Rent A Charming Two-Room Flat

Soundstreams is a Toronto-based music presenter that commissions, develops and showcases the work of contemporary Canadian composers and their international counterparts. 

Distance by Fuhong Shi

Soundstreams

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