COMPOSER

Composing for me is the process of writing down and recording the sonority or the sound effect which has already emerged from my mind. Before I sit down and hold the pen, I usually have “heard” the music I want to express. Then I “translate” and “decode” the idea from scratch to stave by specific composing techniques, instrument combinations and details organizing. 

 

My composing inspiration can be triggered subconsciously in any way, and many musical or non-musical sounds can nourish my soul and open more resources for my imagination of music.

It would be a single note played by a violin, a simple triad incidentally pressed on the piano, or a down-bow on a string instrnmuent’s bridge. Also, even other non-musical messages from nature, such as a smell hung in the air and a bell blown by the wind will stimulate my passion of composing. Additionally, I frequently incorporate themes and ideas from different genres of Western and Estern literature, not only by turning my favorite poems into lyrics in my vocal creations, but also seeing my music as a personal interpretation of literature, one of my orchestra pieces, Stray Birds, is inspired by a short poem by Rabindranath Tagore. 

 

I always regard writing a new piece as asking a new “question” for myself, and all I need to do is to answer the question in a logical way. Since 2009, I have focused on solving new “problems” while creating various genres of music, from writing for solo to orchestral, from applying Westrn  instruments or Chinese traditional instruments or to mix both of them. Which greatly helps me to re-conceive my thought in music composition as well as to explore and refine my own music vocabulary. 

 

Most of my compositions are based upon a small collection of pitches, or sometimes a concise motif which govern large sections of music. Part of my compositional technique focuses on linear and detailed voices movement and the complexity and inner structure of sound itself which I see as a growing entity. Since 2020, I have started to incorporate a wider range of musical elements into my further compositions, from chants, folk music to synthesized sound and resonance and extraneous noise created by instrumentalists, in which I rethink the roles of timbre, texture, and sound itself in my works.