Like Breath was inspired by a series of art works in different media. The oldest of these art works is an ink painting by 14th-century Chinese artist Tsou Fulei entitled A Breath of Spring. This painting depicts a plum branch in blossom, and is delicately executed in ink on a scroll a little over one foot in height and seven feet in length. Numerous poems, tributes, and seals annotate the surface of the painting around the plum branch, including a poem by the emperor Ch-ien Lung:

Like breath is spring, it goes but must return.
Who gave the tidings to the winter plum?
A sage from Jui-chu envying NŸ-i's art,
Craftily stole a march on the East Wind.

The calligraphy is in itself very beautiful, especially that of a poem written in the hand of Yang Wei-chen. It was this calligraphy that centuries later inspired a poem by Michael Ondaatje entitled The Great Tree. It was through Ondaatje's poem and his cited sources that I eventually found a reproduction of the painting and translation of the calligraphy in an article by A.G. Wenley published in 1957. (The translation above is taken from this Wenley article.)

My work owes not only its title but its general structure to the poem by Ch-ien Lung. Like the Chinese characters on the scroll, the music comprises a series of discrete gestures, each roughly the same length. These passages recur in an expanding sequence, implying a grammar of musical gestures that reflects both the characters inscribed on the painting (a visual/musical metaphor) and the regular patterns of breathing and changing seasons compared in the poem (a textual/musical metaphor).

Like Breath was commissioned by the Windsor Symphony Orchestra with the assistance of the Canada Council’s composer-in-residence program. This recording was made by the CBC and features the Windsor Symphony Orchestra under John Morris Russell. The full recording is freely available through the Canadian Music Centre music streaming service. -BL

Like Breath (2003) Excerpt

From Higher Ground is a chamber work for violin, cello, and harp of about 15 minutes duration. The central metaphor for this piece reflects the idea of hard-won freedom and shelter, and also the possibility of seeing things anew from a superior vantage point. To this extent From Higher Ground is a companion piece to my String Quartet No. 1 (Leaving a Place) composed in 1999. From Higher Ground was commissioned by harpist Amy Ley with the generous assistance of the Ontario Arts Council. This is an excerpt of a CBC recording of a live performance at the Windsor Canadian Music Festival and features Amy Ley, Besnik Yzeiri, and Andrea Yun. The full recording is freely available on the streaming service of the Canadian Music Centre. –BL

From Higher Ground (2008) Excerpt

In beginning a new work, the choice of instruments is almost invariably made by the commissioner rather than the composer. Thus it was a rare and much appreciated opportunity to compose a work for Vancouver New Music and score it for several of my favourite instruments: alto flute, soprano sax, flugelhorn, tenor trombone, vibraphone, contrabass, and Hammond organ. Circadia is something of a neologism, a combination of circadian (“designating physiological activity which occurs approximately every twenty-four hours, or the rhythm of such activity” - OED) and Arcadia (“the ideal region of rural contentment” -OED). I don’t know too much about rural contentment, but I do appreciate the natural rhythms of the day and especially the simultaneous repetition and endless variety in the passage of time day by day. This idea is the genesis of the work: cycles of repetition and variation, changes of colour and texture. The chosen wind instruments share a rich middle register, allowing musical gestures to be passed from one instrument to another and for harmonies to be re-orchestrated without being restructured.

Research has indicated that while circadian rhythms are acquired in animal activity, they are a physiological necessity for plants, specifically the alternation of periods of light and darkness. This alternation is also an aspect of the central metaphor in this piece, both on a musical level and by extension on a personal and spiritual level. This recording is an excerpt from a live performance by the Vancouver New Music Ensemble recorded by the CBC. The full recording is freely available on the streaming service of the Canadian Music Centre. - BL

Circadia (2003) Excerpt

Braga, is entitled after a lithograph of the same name by noted Canadian artist John Snow. I knew John through his association with New Works Calgary, an organization he co-founded in the early 80s.  I had the pleasure of composing a short piece on the occasion of John and Kathleen Snow’s 50th wedding anniversary; John presented me with one of his lithographs (Braga) in appreciation.

I’m not certain of the origin of the title, but I assume it is named after the city in northern Portugal. The still life has a sense of intense summer heat, and the flowers suggest to me simple geometrical figures as much as blossoms. I have tried to capture something of the character of this lithograph in the composition. 

The text is from a trovador poem entitled Cantiga d’amor written by Airas Nunez in the late 13th century. The language is Galician-Portuguese, a medieval dialect popular with poets throughout the Iberian peninsula at that time.  This recording is an excerpt from a CD recording made by the Ensemble Resonance on the Cantare Music label.–BL

Braga (2009) Excerpt

“The clocks of the world” is a phrase I heard many times in association with the Heiner Müller play, Quartet, for which I composed incidental music in the spring of 1988. The metaphor in the play reflected some ideas I was considering regarding time in music and time in general. The piece was written for, and is dedicated to, the gems ensemble of Montreal. The final version of the piece was completed at The Banff Centre in the fall of 1989, and was recorded for McGill Records that same year. This is an excerpt from the McGill recording and features John Goulart, Deborah Nyack, and Brent Lee.

The Clocks Of The World (1989) Excerpt

Haddingjar is a chamber work for five performers with live audio and video. The work is scored for alto saxophone, violin, guitar, percussion, and piano. In the spring of 2014 I spent several weeks in Norway working on a number of projects, and shot a considerable amount of video in Hallingskarvet National Park. The park is situated at the top of the mountain range in central Norway, and lies above the tree-line in many places. The severe glacial landscape is spotted with small huts and houses used by locals interested in hiking and skiing. I love the images of a sparse occupation of a very bleak and spacious landscape, and imagine a musical work that likewise emphasizes moments of focus and unity within expanses of rugged emptiness. These video clips form the basis for the optional video component to this piece, and also inspired the title: the Haddingjar are a mythological people said to have occupied this area in ancient times. The work was commissioned by the Rubbing Stone Ensemble with the generous assistance of the Ontario Arts Council. This recording is an excerpt from a live performance by the Noiseborder Ensemble performance in 2018. –BL

Haddingjar (2016) Excerpt

BERLINER is a feature-length documentary directed by Kim Nelson. I created most of the music for the film, including the cues included here. In Kim’s words, “The struggle between multiculturalism and assimilation plays out daily in the districts of Berlin as women’s clothing and the soccer team one cheers for become politicized proclamations of religious identity and cultural belonging. Since the wall fell, many Germans of Turkish descent have felt that Germany wants them to go home. But where is their home if not in Germany? 
“BERLINER is a meditation on immigration, religion and class. The film explores the world of first, second and third generation women and their real struggles, as Muslims, and as part of the largest minority group in Berlin: navigating wearing (or not wearing) the headscarf, a classist education system and sensationalist media stories about their lives, post-war, post-Wall and post 9/11.”

Berliner Audio Cue 15

Berliner Audio Cue 13

Berliner Audio Cue 08

Berliner Audio Cue 03

Berliner Audio Cue 02

Brent Lee is a composer, media artist, and musician whose work explores the relationships between sound, image, and technology, especially through multimedia performance. He has created more than one hundred works, ranging from orchestral music to interactive media pieces to film soundtracks. His most recent project is entitled Homstal, a set of multimedia pieces featuring saxophone improvisation in an interactive audiovisual environment. He is a co-founder of the Noiseborder Ensemble and the Electric Improv Lab, and teaches in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Brent Lee

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