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Ziporyn,
Evan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Balinese Music in America:
A look back, a look forward"
1952
saw the release of Bob Hope’s “Road to Bali,” a film which amply
demonstrated the West's almost complete lack of knowledge about Balinese culture
at the time. During the same year, the acclaimed Gong Peliatan toured America,
performing in Broadway and in Las Vegas, thereby opening a new era of true cultural
exchange. Mantel Hood founded the UCLA gamelan in 1958, and at present there are
over 100 traditional Balinese and Javanese ensembles in the US. Both the explosion
of interest in this music and the ways in which this is manifested are emblematic
of the complexes ways in which Asian traditional music is received, understood,
and practiced in the West. The ongoing residencies of Balinese performers and
teachers, the regular appearance of American gamelans at the Bali International
Arts Festival, and the plethora of new works for gamelan and Western instruments
by American and Indonesian composers all represent aspects of this process. This
talk will briefly summarise the history of this exchange, highlight certain key
moments and works, pinpoint problematic areas, and speculate on the future of
this vibrant, ongoing dialogue.
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Santos,
Ramon Pagayon
University of the Philippines
"An ethnomusicological
view of composition and creation, tradition and modernity, in musics of Asia"
Asian
creative music artists have espoused the concept of music composition as practiced
in the West from centuries of encounter with Western culture and Western civilisation.
To a significant degree, adopting the modalities of music creation inherited from
Europe has contributed to notion of modernity in the artistic life of literate
urbanised communities all over Asia. Moreover, Asian contemporary artists have
had to contend with the tension between tradition and modernity in defining and
re-inventing their expressive identity. At the same time, modern music research
under the banner of ethnomusicology has provided insights into musical practices
outside the Western art music tradition, under the broad purview of society and
culture. The present discussion intends to examine the inescapable relationship
between ethnomusicology and composition, towards an enlightened and more comprehensive
view of the latter based on the theory and practice of musical arts in Asia.
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Atherton,
Michael
University of Western Sydney
"Rhythm speak or functional metamusic"
Are
the vocalisations used by musicians as mnemonics for learning more than simply
functional? How does the speaking of pitches and rhythms become music making per
se? Is this at the core of improvisations? These questions are approached from
a critically reflective position based on observation and collaboration in intercultural
contexts. Examples from India, Africa, Australia and the Asia-pacific region will
form part of an analysis of vocalised percussion. The audience will be encouraged
to interact with the topic through guided improvisations of rhythm speak.
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Ayers,
Lydia - Hong Kong
"Synthesizing the Chinese Suona"
This
presentation describes a new Csound additive synthesis design for the suona which
captures more of its subtle timbral and expressive characteristics. This paper
considers the spectral properties of a Chinese double reed instrument: the suona,
and gives a brief description and short musical excerpt with its notation, idiomatic
phrasing and typical ornaments. This model produces a tone that is very similar
to the original. The source material section describes its spectral characteristics,
and then this paper describes an expressive Csound additive synthesis design used
to model the dynamic spectra of the instrument. Finally, a traditional musical
excerpt illustrates the expressiveness of the design. This design also works for
other wind instruments, and allows for expressive modelling of the tones.
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Baes,
Jonas
University of the Philippines
"From 'ading' to ‘nothingness':
questions on Maceda’s music and imagin-ation of Philippine society"
From
1968 onwards, Jose Maceda’s works utilized large numbers of voices, gongs
and bamboo instruments, signalling the emergence of new directions in music composition.
Building from the aesthetics of sound densities and its diffusion into physical
and symbolic spaces, and latter reflections on his musical outputs have also induced
Maceda to invoke theories of society, so that in addressing the Asian Composer’s
League in Taipei thirty years later (1998), he speaks of a “renaissance”
of/in Asian music. What then is the extent of this “renaissance” in
terms of the present world order and the global political economy? How has Maceda
imagined the societies that are to be recipients of his music? The critical perspectives
I use in this paper are aimed at an understanding of the levels of significance
of Maceda’s music in present-day Philippine society.
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Brunt,
Shelley
University of Adelaide
Victoria University of Wellington
"Battling
sex, performance gender: scenes from a Japanese popular song contest."
Ethnomusicologists
have long been fascinated by the many and varied con-structions of gender in Japan's
performing arts. From the stylised femininity of the male onnagata in the kabuki
tradition to the idealised representations of masculinity by the female otokoyaku
in the Takarazuka theatre review, gender is consistently brought to the fore through
the heightened setting of the stage. This paper considers gender as performed
within a contemporary, mediated context: the televised popular song contest Kouhaku
utagassen (‘The Red and White Song Contest]). In this annual ‘battle
of the sexes’ contest, singers are divided into men]s and women’s teams
and they alternate performances on stage until one team is declared the victor
at the end of the evening. Using selected performances by the contest]s favourite
male and female 'battle rivals', Mikawa Ken'ichi and Kobayashi Sachiko, this paper
examines how gender is performed through song texts, costumes and stage designs.
This reveals a range of conventional and subversive identities—such as 'good
wife' and grand seductress—which are reinforced, contradicted and negotiated
through these live performances. It not only demonstrates the spectacle of gender
construction but also highlights broader issues of sexuality, sex roles, mimesis
and gender play in Japan as seen through a prime-time, mainstream family programme.
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Burns, Mike
"Three
tribe trek: Intersections of composer, performer and ethno-musicologist"
Working
as a freelance performer and ethnomusicologist/composer has brought me to work
with some astonishing pioneers and mavericks, including Alice Moyle and Bernard
Suryabrata, and some wonderful performers in Java and the Northwest of Australia.
But running throughout my journey have been the ethnic investigations of the 1960s
– J Hendrix, G Harrison, B Jones, G Martin, Ravi Shankar and Akhbar Khan
– and my cross cultural works such as My Spiritual Dreaming and The Wayang
Kelly are affected by the popular music of a radical generation. There is a third
realm beyond the emic/etic where those who belong 'Here' meet those who belong
'There', and what is shared goes deep, yet may bear juicy academic fruit.
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Chen,
Biao
China Nanjing Arts Academy & Shanghai Conservatory
I. "Though one note’s world" Introduction
A short introduction about my composer’s way
Present my composition "Si l'ame, c’etait ce ciel [Yun2]", (for guitar, 4 women’s voices and chamber orchestra), and to listen to the passages of the 1st and 4th movement.
II. Thinking about my musical writing
Chinese philosophy – Taoism, especially the thinking of the Yi’King, which influenced this composition.
A short presentation about Chinese traditional music; the technique of the traditional instruments the Qin and the Pipa; and to analyse the part of the guitar in the score.
To
analyse the poem and phoneme (voice part) in the score.
III. Coda
To
listen to the 4th movement of the work. Conclusion.
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Collins,
Megan
New Zealand School of Music
"The performing observer"
Fieldwork
is a practice central to ethnomusicology and participant observation is a fieldwork
mythology used in ethnomusicology and other social sciences, such as anthropology,
to further strengthen a researcher’s interpretation of another culture. The
experiential in music has become a strong focus of much writing in ethnomusicology
(Kisliuk 1997:23). Not content with only listening and observing, many researchers
want to play an instrument or dance to a level of proficiency that enables them
to be considered musicians in the society they are studying. This is the approach
I took to understanding the music and culture of the Minangkabau people from West
Sumatra, Indonesia. In anthropology, the above approach has been dubbed "dense
participation". An ethnomusicologist who uses “dense participation”
becomes what I call a "performing observer". My paper for this conference
will explore the process of becoming a performing observer. I will discuss how
a performing observer is able to access in an intimate way the aesthetics and
creativity of the music studied. I will cover issues of “composition”
including the boundaries of a "good performance", and also demonstrate
the relationship between Minangkabau musical performance and other forms of cultural
expression.
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Collins,
Philip
New Music Works
Santa Cruz
“Thai and Western temperaments:
Embracing differences”
The development of compositional solutions to accommodate the differences between the music of Thailand and the West.
Intonation
Notation
Performance Practice
Scarcity of accomplished Thai musicians and instruments
in the U.S.
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Conyngham,
Barry
Wollongong University
Southern Cross University
“Takemitsu
and his impact on Australia”
Except
for a few very direct connections it is possible that Takemitsu’s music may
be no more influential in Australia than his position in world 20th century music
would demand. But I believe because of his knowledge and love of many things Australian,
his friendships with a number of Australian composers and performers, and the
fact that one of his dearest friends and champions of his music Hiroyuki Iwaka
had such a strong connection and presence in Australia, Toru Takemitsu has had
a lasting impact on Australian music. By the time he made his first visit to Australia
in 1969 his music was already known. His music had been performed by the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra and recordings of his work were becoming available. But from
1969 his impact was to be more significant. This discussion will look at Takemitsu’s
influence on Australian music from two perspectives: the personal and the public.
It contains the view that Takemitsu’s life and music output coincided
with a need in Australia to find another way musically, culturally, even spiritually.
Was it the highly individual and personal language he created? Perhaps the fact
that while connected and retaining much of what his fellow composers in Europe
and the US were doing he looked to his own experience and culture to inform his
music? Or was it his willingness to use any source to trigger his music; dream,
water, number, poem, book, film or experience of another music culture? Whatever
it was seems to have struck a chord with Australian performers and audiences.
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Dadson,
Philip
Auckland
“New instruments, new sounds”
A
survey of instruments I have invented and the sounds they produce. A description
of the material used and the cultural influences on the design of these instruments.
Presented as an audio-visual and with some live performance.
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Danielson,
Janet
Simon Fraser University
“Bridging East and West on a Stretched
string”
The harpsichord and zither
are variations on a common theme: they each produce sound via plucked steel strings
over a wooden resonator. Yet their commonality provides backdrop for the key distinctions
between the ethos of Europe and Asia. The precision clarity of the harpsichord
gave voice to the ideals of the Descartes and Bacon, its fixed tuning and mechanical
plucking system ensuring a stable and uniform sonic palette. Developments in tuning
enabled the same musical theme to be transported from key to key, mirroring the
17th century Enlightenment universe of infinite but uniform time and space. By
contrast, the zheng allows for instant flexible micro-tuning and timbral changes,
as its strings are animated by the infinitely variable human touch. Mysterious
in its origins, its legend-filled history goes back at least four thousand years.
The difference between the two instruments raises questions at the deepest level
not only about the merits and limitations of fixed versus flexible tuning, but
also about the means and ends of musical notation, and the nature of the tone
itself. Is it possible by means of a musical model to make the best of both the
enlightened and enchanted worlds?
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Demopoulos,
Panayiotis
York University
“Neo-imperialist dogma and oriental folklore
in the West”
The 21st century is
recognized as the epoch of mediocratic establishments and identity theory domination,
so much so that all incorporeal, musical quality has transformed into a shrinking
sector of the culture industry. For reasons which remain absurdly economical,
Asian cultures have been associated with the more spiritual niches in new music.
The paper will demonstrate how globalist doctrines are based on plain logical
antinomies and how the Western arts realm is actively, if involuntarily, seeking
to undermine all non-commodifiable activity in music. Those distinct musical civilizations
which originate in oriental folklores are best suited to pursue a detached and
autonomous development of their music, however a conscious effort is made by populist
ethnomusicology to franchise and brand much of oriental culture as exoticism.
The paper will conclude with a question pertaining to the identification of a
liminal point between the right to musical autonomy and the dangers of seclusion
and cultural stagnation.
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Dunlop,
Ros
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
“A presentation of the traditional
music of East Timor”
Between 1975
and 1999, East Timor lost not only a huge percentage of its people but also its
culture. There is now a great need to recover whatever possible and to facilitate
it taking its rightful place in people’s lives. East Timorese people are
inherently musical. While there is plenty of music for them to play and sing,
very little of it is East Timorese. For the past four years, Ros Dunlop has been
going to the remote parts of East Timor and recording the traditional music. This
music is unique and in each of the 13 districts of the country has its own flavour
and is handed down to each generation aurally. The young in East Timor are more
interested in identifying with their western neighbours and don’t think it’s
“cool” to listen to their traditional music. This distresses the older
generation. There is no music curriculum in East Timor so it seemed logical that
their own music not only be recorded and preserved, but also is the foundation
for a music curriculum for primary and secondary education which may help engender
an interest and pride in their own culture which is so unique.
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Edwards,
Peter
National University of Singapore
“Transcription across time and
space”
My orchestral work ‘Puer
natus est Nobus (zu irgendeiner Zeit)’, written in 2005, is an attempt to
transcribe the Christmas Day Gregorian chant for a medium far removed in time
from its historical origins. But how does one move from the world of a monody
to that of one of extensive polyphonic possibilities offered by the modern orchestra?
And what about the equally explosive number of possibilities in terms of timbre?
Additionally, how far from the original source can a transcription venture before
it can no longer be considered a transcription at all? These questions, along
with other issues, guided my work that in some regards hides the chant source
but in other ways strictly adheres to the chant’s form and pitch content.
In this presentation, I will play a recording of my short orchestral work and
discuss the ways in which I approached a transcription that attempts to remain
true to both the source and my individual artistic goals as a composer.
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Forlivesi,
Carlo
Japan
“’Nuove musiche per biwa’ & ‘Nachtlied
– Fragmente’: a case of semiotic liaison”
My
composition “Nachtlied – Fragmente” (2004) for voice, bass clarinet,
C trumpet, violin and cello, comes from the fourth piece of another work of mine
titled “Nuove musiche per biwa” [New music for biwa (2003)]. More than
a transcription we can call it a ‘re-composition’: returning to the
images lying at the source of the music in order to reconstruct it. Some things
are easy to do on biwa that are impossible on a Western instrument (and vice versa).
In “Nachtlied – Fragmente”, I kept some of the ideas of the piece
for biwa, but I modified several others in order to obtain a similar result, so
the image had sometimes to change in the course of this work, It’s like thinking
a poem in different languages. But we cannot speak of translation for when I re-composed
the work, I was not simply the translator, I was the poet, since I knew the initial
idea. Some of the modes of play of the cello (sense of time and techniques) were
actually inspired by the biwa: gestures and noises which are either violent or
gentle, sound well on the cello; so the cello acts as a semiotic bridge or liaison.
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Frykberg,
Susan.
Taranaki, New Zealand
“Gregorian Chant: A potential site for
contemporary music practice”
This
paper briefly outlines the author’s experience of singing Gregorian chant
in the contemporary Catholic Church, exploring the potential of Gregorian chant
for contemporary music practice, including compositions. It looks at the original
culture of chant, including issues of composer, ownership, compositional process,
aesthetics, ethics and theology, before postulating a new model of pedagogy and
creativity with chant as its basis.
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Gong,
Hong-Yu
UNITEC Institute of Technology
Auckland
“The Introduction
of Western Music into China in the late Qing dynasty…”
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Grenfell,
Maria
University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music
“Education and
inspiration: processes in writing education music”
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For
many children in school today, the only occasion they have to experience live
orchestral music is in attending education concerts offered by a symphony orchestra.
Music education programmes bring the world of orchestral music closer to young
people, and many orchestras take the opportunity to commission living composers
with a view to encouraging school children to compose music. As well as promoting
composition, the commissioning of education music allows music educators to direct
the focus of a piece towards specific aspects of music and its processes, whether
it be orchestration, rhythm, melody, harmony, or to develop the programmatic focus
of a concert. In addition to music for performance by professional symphony orchestras,
composers are often asked to write music to be performed by students within an
educational context. This paper will discuss a compositional approach to the conception
of ideas for education music, with musical illustrations from the composer’s
works.
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Harahap,
Irwansyah
University of North Sumatra
“Compositional process and aesthetics
based on ‘world music’”
In
this paper I will discuss and share the concept, aesthetics and compositional
process of my compositions which have been performed by the Suarasama music ensemble
in Indonesia. Suarasama consists of musicians who have a background in ethnomusicology.
The main characteristic of Suarasama’s musical pieces is based on so-called
“world music cultures”. Elements of world musical instruments, concepts,
and practice have been taken and explored to become the “new concept and
practice” of the music. Through discussion I will share how studying and
experiencing music of world cultures has become a valuable source of knowledge
for me to mix and synthesize with existing elements from various different musical
cultures to create new compositions.
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Holloway,
Samuel
Auckland
“Complexities in recent New Zealand music”
In
1988 Richard Toop wrote a pioneering article that sought to both identify commonalities
and explore individualities in the work of four composers (Barrett, Dench, Dillon
and Finnissy) and bring attention to their artistic aesthetic that was often overshadowed
by their critics’ obsessions with the visually-complicated scores. Attention
was lavished on Toop’s titular phrase ‘New Complexity’, and though
it was partially a ‘journalistic convenience’, it did serve to highlight
increasingly important areas of musical thought. Almost twenty years later, a
significant number of composers have recognised the necessity of musical complexity
in an age of free market economics, fundament-alisms and ‘postmodernism’(and
the resulting screeds of ‘capitulationist’ music); many believe that
music ‘which is not complex represents a deficient mode of contemporary modernity’
(Mahnkopf).
This paper seeks to do two things: first, to make an attempt at
defining what might constitute complexity in music and distinguish between complicated,
complex, and complexist music; second, to look at how complexity in new music
is represented and received in New Zealand.
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Hosoya,
Ichiro
“The essence of percussion in Japanese music”
In
Japanese traditional music, there is a style of performance called Iccho Ikhan:
a duo played by a melodic instrument and a drum, upon both of which is placed
the same level of importance. It is a simple style formed by the human breath,
the most primitive and essential medium. In the first half of this piece, I tried
to express this style using a vibraphone and a drum. Generally speaking, the rhythm
of triple time is not rooted in Japanese traditional music. But a phrase of triplet
beats has appeared in improvisation by some excellent players, and in different
parts of the music. In the latter half, I have expressed the feeling of this triple
time rhythm, which is said to have its origin in the continent, but which we in
Japan have also potentially had access to. In my piece, I have tried to interpret
Japanese music through the aspects of both melody and rhythm.
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Hu,
Xiao
Sichuan Conservatory of Music
“The traditional culture elements
applying to modern music composition”
Traditional
cultural elements, meaning the particular cultural phenomena which different countries
and nationalities have created through the acts of living and working, have recently
been used widely in contemporary music. The lively characteristics of these traditional
cultural elements bring huge energy to modern musical composition, and give inspiration
to the composer to create works of vitality and cultural interest.
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Hyvarinen,
Asko
Helsinki
“From tradition to the future”
At
this conference I would like to demonstrate briefly my own way of approaching
the traditional Finnish instrument, the Kantele. Firstly, I will present a short
background of the modern concert Kantele and its repertoire. I will then focus
on my own solo piece “Valse Giffyre” (2002), which moves far away from
traditional (and so-called “modern”) ways of composing for Kantele.
Secondly, I will give some examples of how to use the Kantele as part of an ensemble.
The Kantele is quite a quiet instrument, and is difficult to use in large ensembles
without amplification. The illustrative material will be my work for percussion
soloist and chamber ensemble “Erg/Hamada” (2003) that consists of some
challenging parts for the Kantele player.
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Jeong,
Yeon-ok
Sook-Myung Women’s University Korea
“Spiritual vision
through musical composition”
My
music begins from the spot where the thoughts imminent in my consciousness meet
the accumulated composition techniques and various musical materials. As if a
towel uncovered in front of my eyes, to have joy from feeling, seeing, hearing
and perceiving something obvious might be the powers that could lead me to discover
something which is to be imparted from another sphere. Open the ears and concentrate
on the inside, so that one could be attracted by the abundant sounds from the
imagination about the objects to be expressed. Let’s light up the impressions
of various sounds occurring from the heart, and let’s be free from them.
I recommend that you share the imparted sphere with me.
Like
a dove
“Clean Water Towards the Source”, for flute and piano.
The
gift
“By White Stone”, for trumpet, trombone and piano.
Cry
and hope
“Lamentations: Chapter III – My Mind’s Eye”, for
piano trio.
Praise the LORD
“AMEN”,
for soprano, trumpet, violoncello and piano.
“Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you”
(Isaiah 60:1)
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Keam, Glenda
University
of Auckland
“Shotgun weddings: approaching notions of style through a
marriage of analysis and socio-musicology.”
New
Musicology has been a movement which insists on acknowledging the connectedness
of musical works with the circumstances of their creation and existence. However,
attempts to align musical analysis with contextualized socio-cultural studies
of music have proven
problematic, and there is little agreement as to how
this might be successfully achieved. Some studies have resorted to making generalizations
about certain musical works or styles, coercing the ‘musical findings’
into supporting a particular version of musical and cultural history. Other treatises
have scolded analysts for failing to acknowledge music’s inextricable connection
with society, and for treating the musical work as having its own distinct existence
and identity. In studying late 20th century New Zealand orchestral music I have
attempted to investigate notions of a national style using a two-pronged approach,
referring to musical detail arising from analytical observation and aligning these
with statements and claims made for music’s role in contributing to the nation’s
cultural identity. This paper suggests ways in which detail arising from ‘the
music itself’, and the cultural notions which surround music, may be brought
together—despite themselves—into a methodological approach which fosters
connections between them.
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Kim,
Cecilia Heejeong
Sang Myung University Seoul, Korea
“Unreal reality
and the art”
In this paper, I raise
a question regarding the role of the art in the age of unreality. The question
is motivated by my experiences and evaluations of contemporary classical music.
As a female composer in an Asian country, I have found it difficult to understand
the ways in which contemporary classical music deals with the international and
regional issues and events we have to face everyday. Contemporary classical music
certainly describes, interprets, and symbolizes the current issues and events.
But the ways it deals with them are deeply entrenched by romantic and/or cynical
visions of art, which in turn seem to be influenced by the self-awareness of powerlessness
in dealing with the issues and events. Art has been an alibi for failing to matter
to the imminent experiences that control and govern us. I propose an idea of ‘art
as a strategy to cope with the unreal.’ My assumption is that the reality
consists of unreal experiences in that without an adequate aid of asking questions
about them, they are incomprehensible and inexplicable. I think an art work is
a question to ask about the unreal reality. And a work of art helps us to cope
with the unreal by having us having questions about it. When an art work does
the job of describing, interpreting and symbolizing some issues and events, it
actually makes them more elusive. But by asking a sincere question about the issues
and events, they can be made more attainable and understandable. I will provide
two cases to elaborate my point: the one regarding the way Korean broadcasters
covered the 9/11 terrorism and the other about the way Korean government has dealt
with the Korean ‘war-time comfort women - sexual slaves’ in Japanese
colonial time. For ordinary Korean women, these two events are just a mess of
remote and inexplicable images In this paper, I raise a question regarding the
role of the art in the age of unreality.
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Kim,
Eunhye
Suwon University Korea
“Unity & Variety in my work ‘Zodiacal
for piano’”
People have the
“Zodiacal sign” they were born under. The Zodiacal signs, consisting
of twelve animals – Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep,
Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig – are deeply related with human life. Having
different characteristics and appearances, these animals are picture quite differently.
Among these twelve pieces, two pieces (Snake and Chicken) will be analysed and
performed.
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Knopoff,
Steven
University of Adelaide
“On the use of indigenous elements in
music by Peter Sculthorpe”
One of
the aims of this paper is to distinguish between cultural appropriation on the
one hand, and cultural representation on the other. My thought here is that these
issues are sometimes conflated in the raising of ethical concerns. Two other,
related aims of the paper are to reflect on the ways in which composers actually
integrate Indigenous material into their work; and to consider the short to medium
term ramifications of appropriationalist work in a cultural environment marked
both by ongoing injustice and genuine good will. In terms of repertoire the focus
of this paper looks at the way the Central Arnhem Land sacred chant Dijilili (Whistling
Duck) is referenced in compositional work by Peter Sculthorpe. For a variety of
reasons Sculthorpe provides a compelling example of a (sometimes) appropriationalist
composer; over the course of a long and prominent career Sculthorpe has composed
a good number of appropriative works; in these works he has used or invoked Indigenous
elements in a variety of different ways reflecting many but by no means all the
ways in which other Australian composers have borrowed from Indigenous musics.
Part of Sculthorpe’s public image relates to the idea that some of his art
involves engagement with Indigenous cultural elements.
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Korde,
Shirish
College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts, USA
“The raga/rasa
spectrum”
In my presentation, I
will describe and discuss the importance of Balinese, Indian and Japanese music
in my recent compositions. Specifically, I will analyse the pitch and rhythmic
systems that I have employed in two instrumental works: ‘Tenderness of Cranes’,
for solo flute, and ‘Blue Topeng’, for Gamelan soloists and chamber
ensemble. In addition, I will talk about the influence of specific Asian theatrical
and dance traditions, and ways in which they have influenced two of my large scale
music/theatre works, ‘Rasa’ and ‘Chitra’. The presentation
will illustrate the important analytical and theoretical issues using appropriate
examples on CD and DVD from the works mentioned above. In my presentation, I will
also touch on important aesthetic theories that I have encountered in Indian and
Balinese music that provide the underpinnings for my recent work. In summary,
my presentation will focus on my search for a new language that synthesizes Asian
and contemporary Western compositional approaches.
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Lai,
Ada
University of Hong Kong
“The Issues of Time in Quatrain II by Toru
Takemitsu”
This study focuses on
the projection of time in ‘Quatrain II’ (1977), written for clarinet,
violin, cello and piano by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1930 – 1996).
It involves the examination of a variety of concepts rooted in the traditional
notion of time in Japan, such as the unique spatial-temporal concept of ma, and
the more linear perception of time in the West. This East-West approach in observing
the essence of time in ‘Quatrain II’ is based on Takemitsu’s exposure
to both Japanese and Western cultures, which played a major role in the development
of his musical language and aesthetic. By tracing the links between the temporality
in ‘Quatrain II’ and the notions of time in traditional Japanese and
Western cultures, this study positions ‘Quatrain II’ as a defining moment
among Takemitsu’s oeuvre in the investigation of time in his music.
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Lee,
Boknam
Myongji University in Korea
“On my compositional methods combining
western and non-western musical languages”
My
music shows two major inclinations: some pieces reflect Korean motional characteristics
and the others pieces are based on the interest of time and rhythm. ‘Abaca’
for percussion quartet which belongs to the latter category shows very complicate
and constructive rhythmic manipulation. I think we are subject to some social
restrictions consciously or unconsciously. In the piece I tried to express my
desire of being liberated from the kinds of obstacles which control or govern
my mental and physical world. Although the piece is constructed in rondo-form,
the structure of it brings up the image of a continuous stream of powerful energy.
I employed many rhythmic cells, such as Argentine Tango, Afro Cuban, etc. in the
piece. I created ceaseless tensions both by reorganizing these rhythmic cells
contrapuntally (retrograde, augmentation, diminution, juxtaposition, displacement
etc.) and by forming multi-rhythmic layers with them. I combined this kind of
rhythmic manipulations with the idea of traditional Korean Music at “Puri”
for percussion trio composed in 2004.
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Lee,
Kayoung
Seoul
“Korean contemporary music, past and present: Chan Hae
Lee’s ‘Five Pansori Works’ and ‘The Womb of the Earth’
”
My paper will explore one of the
most important composers of Korea, Chan Hae Lee, and her two works “Five
Pansori” and “The Womb of the Earth.” In these two works, Chan
Hae Lee combines Korean traditional musical Language with the Western compositional
technique, thereby creating truly original compositions. In Lee’s works,
the Korean aspects do not simply function as the musical materials that the composer
relies upon. Rather, they form a fundamental basis, playing an integral role in
determining the most important musical characteristics in these works. My paper
will examine various ways in which the composer creates these two works on the
basis of both the Korean tradition and the Western musical language. Also, I will
explore how the composer reinterprets the Korean traditional genre, transforming
it into a completely new genre, analysing various aspects of the composer’s
compositional procedures. Also, I will illustrate how the composer explores a
Western musical genre in terms of Korean musical languages.
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Lodge, Martin
With
Richard Nunns & James Tennant.
University of Waikato
“Hau: some
issues of aesthetics and practicalities encountered when combining traditional
Maori and western concert music…”
In
recent years, Martin Lodge has worked with taonga puoro exponent Richard Nunns
and cellist James Tennant, and others, to bring the very different worlds of traditional
Maori instruments and musical traditions together with Western classical music
instruments and techniques. Such work raises a number of questions, including
well traversed political issues such as ownership vs sharing, and appropriation
vs engagement, but it also necessitates finding practical solutions to immediate
musical problems, such as appropriate notation. If such ventures are to succeed,
there is an artistic imperative to find common musical ground between the traditions,
beyond celebrating their obvious differences. In the work ‘Hau’ (2004),
for taonga puoro and ‘cello, these issues were addressed in a creative context.
In this presentation, some of the issues involved in bringing together the Maori
and Western classical traditions as they were encountered in creating ‘Hau’
will be outlined, then the work will be performed.
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Malone,
David
University of Tasmania
“The Collaborative composer”
It
was the view of Aaron Copland that creative collaboration between composers and
performers is the mark of a healthy musical community. Although some composers
find their best work has been achieved without particular regard to the needs
of the performers, many composers have found collaboration with performers to
be productive and stimulating. While an interpreter comes to a score as a finished
piece of work, a collaborative performer is involved with the composer’s
creative process before the composition obtains its final form. Naturally, collaborative
composers and performers establish their own lines of demarcation in finding ways
of working together effectively. This paper discusses the vastly different attitudes
of composers towards working with performers, and the author describes the collaborative
process he engaged in with six composers that are included on a CD of new works
for guitar. ‘Fretsongs’ (Tall Poppies, TP 178), features works by Australian
and New Zealand composers including Maria Grenfell , Russel Gilmour, Raffaele
Marcellino, Don Kay, Graham Southwell Brown and John Lockwood.
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Milicevic,
Mladen
Loyola Marymount
University of Los Angeles
“Globalisation
and Music: Electronic Sampling of the Ethnic instruments”
Globalisation
has become the most important economic, political and cultural phenomenon of our
time. This process is reshaping the world economy, creating new social classes,
and reordering the lives of thousands and thousands of people. The word globalisation
stands for all kinds of different things depending on who uses it. One of the
important aspects of globalisation has to do with the :tyranny of the place”
that was always a synonym for restraints on liberty that puts restrictions, both
political and economic, on where people can live and go, what to buy, eat, read,
hear or see. Globalisation by its nature brings down these barriers and empowers
the individual with “unlimited” choices. Electronic music sampling has
enabled worldwide computer savvy musicians to use virtually any musical instrument
that ever existed on this planet. All this increases musicians’ freedom to
shape their music identities in a way that their ancestors could not have possibly
imagined. This picture of the world as a global village may appear to be very
appealing and interesting to dwell in, but this is only one side of the coin –
the Western imperialistic side of the coin, which is rather limited to the wealthy
1% of the world’s population who own a computer.
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Narushima,
Terumi
Sydney
“Extensions of the koto tradition”
Composers
are often tempted to exploit the ‘exotic’ new sounds of non-western
instruments such as the Japanese koto, but what are the effects of taking such
an instrument away from its traditional context and placing it in a western musical
setting? This paper will discuss the extent to which the tuning of the koto contributes
to its idiomatic sound and the significance of traditional performance gestures
in conveying the distinctive character of the instrument. Traditionally the 13-stringed
koto is tuned to a pentatonic scale but its moveable bridges lend themselves to
experimentation with alternative tunings. Does retuning the instrument compromise
its identity? How can non-traditional playing techniques, including the use of
electronics, be applied appropriately to a traditional instrument such as the
koto? These extensions of the musical capabilities of the instrument are discussed
in relation to composition for film music using retuned koto as well as a semi-improvised
performance using live electronics.
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Nash,
Claire
University of Auckland
“Sound worlds of the solo voice in New
Zealand”
A recital-lecture on unaccompanied
solo vocal writing in New Zealand, and the distinctive sound worlds created by
composers when writing for solo voice. I focus specifically on three contrasting
works, giving performances of ‘Pikeri’ from ‘Pao, by Gillian Whitehead,
‘Old Songs IV’ from ‘Home Ground’, by John Elmsly, and excerpts
from ‘Chaos of Delight II’, by Eve de Castro Robinson. I examine how
studying and performing these works as a student has influenced my own composing
of a recently completed graphic score, ‘Television.’
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O’Connor,
Jennifer
Perth, Western Australia
“Asian and European Influences:
A personal perspective”
My compositional
style changed when I discovered Liza Lim’s music. Lim’s rhythms flow
seamlessly. Chinese by birth, her music has a distinctly oriental sound. My piece
‘Night Dances’ draws on the words of Sylvia Plath’s poem of the
same name and is influenced by the rhythms of Lim’s music. The texture includes
quarter tones, glissandi and a bird-call motif to create and outside environment
inspired by the words “the comets have such a space to cross.” The inside
environment is inspired by the words “of your small breath…warm and
human, smell of your sleeps, lilies, lilies” with a texture of repeating
notes and a melodic element. The two musical ideas intertwine during the piece.
My style has evolved further, incorporating influences from Europe, in particular
the music of Ligeti. Ligeti’s interest in the great diversity of non-European
musical cultures is reflected in his later music and its complexity is a rich
source of inspiration, with its instrumental sounds and techniques, texture and
variety of presentation. My work ‘Notes from a Reedy Pond’ for wind
ensemble reflects this influence. Whereas in ‘Night Dances’ the same
mood continues throughout the piece, ‘Notes from a Reedy Pond’ has much
more variation. This talk will include the playing of excerpts from recordings
of the presenter’s compositions.
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Pertout,
Andrian
University of Melbourne
“Theory versus performance practice:
Azadeh for Santur and tape”
'Azadeh
for Santur and Tape’ represents the composition of a work for Iranian artist
Qmars Piraglu (1965-), utilizing the Iranian santur or Persian 72-string (or 18
quadruple-stringed) box zither together with an electronic CD playback component.
The work, among other things, attempts to represent a comparison between the two
viable tuning systems of Persian music: the 22-note division of the octave (proposed
by Persian scholar Mehdi Barkesli in the 1940s) and performance practice, as well
as the third proposition for a theory on intervals and
scales of Persian music
– the theory of flexible intervals or of the five primary intervals of performance
practice – advocated by Hormoz Farhat in opposition to both 24-quarter tone
(equally tempered) and 22-note scales of Ali Naqi Vaziri and Mehdi Barkesli. “Both
theories suffer equally from a tendency to accommodate certain western concepts,”
explains Hormoz Farhat. “Each theory, by suggesting very exact intervals,
remains oblivious to the fluidity and flexibility of Persian intervals.
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Plush,
Vincent
Queensland Conservatorium
Griffith
“Grainger’s vision
of a pan-pacific music”
“Here,
out here [in the Solomon Islands], is a new Scandinavia for me, the relics of
another Viking life: islanders, roaming, fighting, loving, with the joy of life
hot in their nostrils, the pride of the body lithe in their limbs, & red flowers
scattered in their hair.” (Letter from Percy Grainger to Karen Holten, 18
February 1909). As a seven-year-old in Melbourne, Percy Grainger first heard Maori
war chants sung to him by the English painter, A.E. Aldis. 20 years later, on
an extended concert tour of Australia and New Zealand, Grainger heard recordings
of Maori and Rarotongan music made in Christchurch in 1906-7 by A.J Knocks, a
resident of the Otaki district. This consolidated what was to become a consuming
lifetime interest in the music of “the South Sea Islands”, an early
manifestation of what we used to call “World Music.” That interest also
embraced the ‘bell-orchestras’ of Bali and the ‘gong-orchestras’
of Java – resulting in his creation of orchestras of ‘tuneful percussion’
instruments – a handful of transcriptions, encompassing Australian Aboriginal
chants, music from China, Indian and, most importantly, from the Cook Islands.
Scores and recordings of these “Fierce Rarotongan” war chants have recently
come to light, revealing Grainger at pains to capture their rhythmic intensity
and vitality – two ultra-manly characteristics that appealed to his idiosyncratic
personality. Grainger’s interest in Pacific culture was not confined to indigenous
musics and features of geography; it embraced aspects of religion, crafts, cultural
traditions and the physical and behavioural characteristics of these ‘cannibals’,
as well as language, particularly the Maori tongue – “after Icelandic,
the most lovely sounding speech I know, heroic, rhythmic, and reckless…a
joy to hear it sung & chanted out of bare brown dancing bodies built like
Greeks.” (letter from Percy Grainger to Herman Sandby , 11 September 1909.
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Qin
Wenchen
Central Conservatory of Music
Bejing
“The influence of environment,
religion, culture and music of Mongolia on my works”
This
presentation addresses how the unique natural environment, religion, human culture
and music of Mongolia have influenced my works, and how Mongolian music elements
are applied and developed in my music.
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Regan,
Marty
University of Hawai’i
Manoa
“Composing for the Shakuhachi
and 21-string koto”
Despite the
widespread globalization of Japan’s representative end-blown flute, the shakuhachi,
and the hundreds of non-Japanese performers who reside throughout the world, information
specifically geared to composing for this instrument is relatively scarce. This
is even more so the case with the 21-string koto, which has become the most frequently
performed traditional instrument within Japan. In this workshop, I will discuss
how to compose idiomatically for these two representative Japanese instruments.
For the shakuhachi, topics will include various types and their corresponding
ranges, the distinction between fundamental and derived pitches, how to construct
effective scales and runs, various idiomatic grace notes and ornaments, special
breath techniques, and pitch inflection. For the 21-string koto, topics will include
basic tuning and tuning modifications, left hand pressing techniques, and right
hand timbral modification techniques. Finally, I will address the technical limitations
of each instrument and ways that composers can try to overcome them. Discussion
will be supplemented with score excerpts and recordings, and a handout containing
a recommended listening list, bibliography, and other pertinent information will
be provided. The purpose of this workshop is to encourage composers to promote
these two fascinating instruments as vital mediums for art music in the twenty-first
century.
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Ritchie,
Anthony
University of Otago
“Learning from oral tradition”
One
of the leading composers of the twentieth century, Bela Bartok, developed a style
based on the thorough absorption of elements from his native Hungarian folk music,
and other East European countries. He developed an individual approach to timbre
in his work, based on the 'sound world' of peasant singing and playing. His fastidious
transcriptions capture every idiosyncratic aspect of folk performance, and this
influenced his own compositional methods. It is possible to discover 'mistake
imitations' in his work, and this leads to a wider understanding of his approach
to pitch. These aspects of Bartok’s style have relevance to contemporary
composers when considering their approach to the organisation of their materials.
What elements of spontaneous ethnic performance or improvisation can be integrated
into a compositional method that still values intellectual rigour and well-crafted
creativity? This paper addresses the question with reference to three works by
the author that integrate Maori elements into his music.
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Sato, Yoko
Sujisawa
City
Japan
“On the influence of ‘place’ in the compositional
process”
I believe that the
cultural origins of composers are unconsciously reflected in the compositional
process. In my presentation, the term “place” is used to mean a new
environment, and that “place” can cause composers to view their origins
from different perspectives. When one goes to a new place and experiences new
influences, at some point one starts reflecting upon one’s original cultural
background. This marks the starting point of the reflective level. As one continues
to become aware of and reflect on his/her cultural background, one moves to a
deeper level of understanding which I call the “individual level.” This
stage is characterised by the assimilation of both native and foreign elements
seamlessly into the composer’s style. I will discuss how being in a different
place can play the role of a mirror to more clearly reflect composer’s origins
and encourage them to rediscover their own cultural backgrounds through new perspectives.
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Sharpley,
John
Singapore
“Kong (emptiness): a presentation of two movements”
I propose to present two movements
from my work ‘KONG (Emptiness).’ This will be supported by the simultaneous
projection of the score. During the presentation I will discuss: 1) the combining
of Western and non-Western instruments; 2) Dealing with recitation in Chinese
as a
non-Chinese speaker; 3) Reflections on spirituality of Asian origins;
4) Compositional process. ‘KONG (Emptiness)’ is a 16-movement work based
on texts from the Taoist Tao De Ching by Lao Tsu, the Buddhist Heart of Wisdom
Sutra and Chinese Zen poetry (kung-an). It is scored for string quartet (two violins,
viola and cello), huqin quartet (gao-hu, er-hu, zhong-hu and ge-hu), bian-zhong
(chromatic bell frame set dating from the Han Dynasty). Chinese drums, tam-tam
and a wide variety of hand-held percussion instruments. It also includes a large
choir and two Mandarin speakers. Themes of duality, balance, contradiction, death
and compassion concurrently complement the central idea of emptiness. The music
flows seamlessly without break for 70 minutes. Maximally seizing variety, each
movement explores a different instrumentation. The music does not try to represent
or describe the texts. Rather, it serves as a comment and sometimes a contradiction.
‘KONG’ is both dramatic and a spiritual journey, aimed to provoke, sooth
and uplift.
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Shepherd,
Patrick
Christchurch
“From Ice to Music”
In
2004 Patrick Shepherd traveled to Antarctica as part of Antarctica New Zealand’s
Artist and Education Programme. Being involved with the programme allowed him
to realize a lifelong dream to head south to experience Antarctica first-hand.
Antarctica provides an enormous wealth of inspiration, visual and distinctly spiritual,
but also, as the explorer Shackleton said, “it is a journey within”.
This lecture is a personal view of the creative process that has taken place during
and since his visit using examples of his original compositions to highlight the
personal journey he has embarked upon. A number of these works reflect the physical
characteristics of the landscape while others deal with the historical context
of “The Heroic Age” of Antarctic exploration. Shepherd has also worked
with primary and tertiary students in producing, respectively, compositions and
resources based on Antarctica. In addition, he will share some of the poetic writing
and visual work he has produced alongside his musical compositions. This presentation
outlines Shepherd’s experience of being part of the Artists’ and Education
Programme. For those interested in applying for this or similar schemes, he will
also be briefly discussing the issue of project management and how to prepare
proposals and applications.
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Stern,
Max
College of Judea and Sumaria
“Cross cultural composition”
During
the thirty years I have lived in Israel, the sacred songs of my Oriental Jewish
neighbours have become a part of my musical vernacular. The composition ‘Quartet
from the East’ for violin, clarinet, cello and piano, based on the sacred
songs of Jews from Arab lands is a synthesis of the techniques of contemporary
classical music and that of the Middle East. Using excerpts from this work I discuss
how the hypnotic pulse of hand drums, rapidly plucked strings of the ud, filigree
figurations of the violin, tremolos of the qanun and nasal rumination of Oriental
voices entered my Western ear and coloured its ambiance with the sounds and traditions
of the ancient Near East.
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Suiter,
Wendy
University of Woollangong
“Making music from natural sounds”
Digital
sound recording and reproduction provides a means to use naturally occurring sounds
in music. Each naturally occurring sound (mass) has its own inherent ‘beauty’.
The perception of this sound depends on the social and cultural background and
contemporary context of composer and listener. This can be used to challenge the
listener to engage with their aural surroundings differently. The goal of my compositional
research is to encourage people to listen to and appreciate the richness and implications
of sound in the world around us. The aim here, however, is to use one naturally
occurring sound (mass) as a compositional source, while remaining itself as a
recognisable, distinctive sound, thus using the extra musical associations that
are attached to particular sounds as part of the compositional idea. There are
two core issues that arise out of this quest. The first is to provide the elements
of the composition through using the rich characteristics of an individual natural
sound purely as a unique but complex timbre. Secondly, is to provide the compositional
system in which there sound elements can be used in an organised way to create
music. This could be achieved through using pre-existing instrumental compositional
techniques and procedures.
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Sutanto
Studio
Mendut, Indonesia
“The wild dream of mountain community art”
For
25 years I have been active in the arts community of the 'five mountains' that
encircle Borobudur temple - Mount Merapi, Merbabu, Andong, Sumbing, Menoreh and
others - organising every year since 2002 local and Java-wide mountain community
festivals, as well as dozens of other events. The performers are mostly farmers,
closely in tune to the land and livestock, with lifestyles refined to the biological
rhythms of crops such as rice, tobacco, potatoes, fruits, vanilla, bamboo, corn,
etc. I like the way the English word 'agriculture' encompasses what modern Indonesian
differentiates between 'farming' and 'cultural art'. I have become disaffected
with the dominant urban arts bureaucracy that relegates rural culture to the stereotypical
'farmer's strength'. 'Unique potential' could easily be another descriptive of
this 'village' culture, while in reality the diversity is much broader and richer,
with its aesthetic vision and perspective of function in art. Further, and still
more 'wild' descriptions of rhythm, melody, visual arts, theatre, ritual, literature
and religion, myth and mystery, philosophy and politics.extend to the unexplainable
and unfathomable. Combined with all the European theory, local tradition, modern
day phenomena, natural reality, as well as individual instinct and imagination
despite the pressures of social constraint, who could not 'dream wild'? It is
this culture that I wish to represent, and which this Asia Pacific forum may be
better suited to, rather than the official Indonesian identity that has difficulty
with such unconventional concepts. To this end, my productivity is aligned with
the rural mountain communities, in spite of their wild dreams.
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Suzuki,
Akio
Japan
“New Instruments, new sounds
A survey of instruments
I have invented and the sounds they produce. Presented as an audio-visual presentation.
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Tang,
Joyce
University of Hong Kong
“Mimesis as compositional practice in
Lou Harrison’s transcultural works”
The
imitation and borrowing of musics from other cultures has been attacked by some
critics as indicative of a lack of innovation and originality. However this view
ignores the hybridisation processes that underlie musical practices across time
and place. Many composers and critics, including Lou Harrison, believe that there
is nothing but the hybrid. As a composer, Harrison was highly influenced by his
studies of various musics from Asia, especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and
Indonesian. Harrison’s approach to integrating non-Western musics into his
own is through imitation – in a broader sense, mimesis – which was also
considered as central to an understanding of aesthetics by Aristotle. However,
this long-forgotten approach to artistic creation that we find in Harrison’s
music was nevertheless strongly criticised by critics as “cheap imitation,”
“orientalism,” and musical colonialism.” This paper discusses Harrison’s
‘Pacifika Rondo’ (1963), which involves musical elements from the West,
China, Korea, and Mexico. This paper also argues that Harrison’s compositions
are not merely ‘organised sound,’ but also a “medium of ethical
responsibility,” to use Lawrence Kramer’s words. Harrison explicitly
uses imitation to “strengthen” the two sides of the “hybrid”
as well as to subvert Western domination through the ironic imitation of Western
militaristic music.
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Tenace,
Antonio
University of Melbourne
“Perceived melody and rhythm in speech
patterns: prosody and compositional process in ‘Out Takes’ for amplified
string quartet and tape”
This paper
will explore musical processes which investigate the rhythmic and melodic contours
of human voice inflections as a means of generating pre-compositional material.
Of particular interest will be the selection of pre-recorded samples of individual
speech patterns which are used as a primary source, and the realisation of pitch
and rhythm complexes through prosody to create infrastructure. Furthermore, this
discourse will focus on the integration of these speech patterns within the context
of a contemporary string quartet, and the deployment of compositional minimalist
techniques to produce a successful electro-acoustic work. ‘Out-Takes’,
composed for amplified string quartet and Tape is an example of this approach,
which challenges the aleatoric properties of perceived speech melody and associated
rhythmical structure which occur naturally in language.
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Teo,
Joyce an Timothy O’Dwyer
College of the Arts , Singapore
“Gamelan
vs Free Jazz”
The use of Western
instruments with the Javanese gamelan has been of interest to gamelan musicians
and composers for several decades. Composers such as Lou Harrison, Steve Everett,
and Wahyu Roach, to name but a few, have composed a significant number of pieces
for gamelan and Western instruments. Most of these compositions, however, have
tended to approach the inclusion of Western instruments within the traditional
gamelan framework. This paper presents and analyses the recent collaborative works
of Joyce Teo and Timothy O’Dwyer which combine the Javanese gamelan ensemble
with Jazz trio of saxophone, drum kit and double bass and explores the issues
relating to composition, combining not just two different groups instruments,
but more importantly, combining two different genres of music. In the process
of their compositions, issues relating to improvisational language; free improvisation
and gamelan; comparing the notion of improvisation between gamelan and jazz; free
jazz aesthetic and gamelan aesthetic; rhythmic ideas of swing and irama; are explored.
While there are obvious differences between the two genres, the works cited will
show that they are also complimentary and by consistently using these elements
in the works, this could possibly lead to the creation of a new hybrid genre of
gamelan and jazz.
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Tomlinson,
Vanessa
Queensland Conservatorium
Griffith University
“Sichuan
Folk Traditions and the Brisbane Avante Garde…”
It
is possible to conjure a picture of what disappearing music may refer to in terms
of current Sichuan culture – arcane practices being lost in the scramble
for capitalist advantage, or diverse, regional variations being filtered down
to a single presentable form. And within Australian culture the case for survival
of non-dominant cultural practices during a political climate that scoffs at intellectualism
and elitism may conjure empathy. But what happens when you link the disappearing
musics of Chengdu, a city of 10 million undergoing intense “progress”,
rebuilding and redefinition, with avant garde musicians from Queensland steeped
in the traditions of jazz, Western Classical music, free improvisation and experimental
music? This experiment has been an ongoing collaboration between composer/pianist
Erik Griswold, percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson and composer Zou Xiangping since
1999 when they first performed interactive electronic music based on Sichuan folk
music in Chengdu’s major concert hall. They have since produced ‘Sichuan
Fantasy’ in both Chengdu and Perth, Australia and are now embarking on their
most ambitious project yet – Wide Alley – for the Queensland Music Festival.
This paper will examine various techniques of fusing cultures and traditions through
discussion and live percussion performance. Instruments used will come from the
impoverished folk traditions of the Sichuan basin; Zhuqin – a unique cylindrical
bamboo drum; Jintian ban, - money sticks, that create rhythmic lines; video of
street songs collected since 1999 accompanied by live music.
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Tsuda,
Muneaki
Tokyo
“Performance on Shakuhachi. ‘Ethos/pleasure and
pure land’”
BRIEF OUTLOOK
I.
Objectives
II. Materials
III. Outlines of presentation
IV. Aim
I.
Objectives
To share my ideas with the
audience
To discuss about ideas in relation to the relevant topics of this
Conference, such as combining instruments from West and East.
To communicate
with the audience using mediums of language and music
To seek advice or feedbacks
from the audience
II. Materials
Audio CD recording of my submitted work
and scores of it
III. Outlines of presentation
Brief introduction and description of my work from subjective point of view
Listening to the CD
Structural analysis of my work with scores being distributed to the audience.
Analysis in relation to performance of this work
Sharing
ideas behind my musical work in relation to combining Western and Eastern elements
such as instruments and aesthetics
Conclusion and feedbacks from the audience
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Utz,
Christian
University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Graz, Austria
“Myth
reception and myth criticism in recent works for the Japanese mouth organ.”
The
Japanese sho has figured prominently in a number of recent works by both Western
and Asian composers. This lecture tries to analyse the transformation of myths
attached to this instrument and partly inherent to its traditional performance
style in works by Hosokawa Toshio, Helmut Lachenmann, Chaya Czernowin and Takahashi
Yuji. The analyses are guided by the concept of “hypolepsis”, derived
from Jan Assmann’s eminent study on “cultural memory”, designating
a conceptual approach which does not completely negate traditional symbolism and
functions, but also allows for their criticism and reflection during the process
of appropriation. The different positions in the area of conflict between myth
reception and myth criticism are apparent in all analysed works and they obviously
are connected with both the composers’ sociocultural surroundings and the
ways in which specific ethno-musicological knowledge is acquired. The analyses
make obvious that cultural stereotyping based on mythological essential-ization,
occasionally harking back to 19th and 20th century exoticism, is not necessarily
characteristic for Western composers’ aesthetic concepts only. Indeed, an
“intercultural history of composition” has to offer concepts that reach
beyond such colonial / post-colonial historical and musico-analytical representations.
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Vosganian,
Mihaela
University of Bucharest
“My creation between tradition, transformation,
contemporaneity – main directions in composition."
Directions of transformation in my music from tradition to contemporaneity:
1. Exploring the traditional resources in:
the use of traditional genuine Romanian folklore
the connection with the traditional universal sources.The cycle Interferences - finding a possible interfering zone between European and Extra-European cultures, expressed in different vocabulary elements (lyrics, instrumentation, modes, structures).
the use of different paradigms as: modal structuralism, heterophonic or polyphonic linearity, rhythmical or metrical asymmetry and microtonal intonation;
the
introduction of traditional elements in a contemporary structural way of thinking.
2. The introduction of dramaturgy in the musical development. A musical
outlook on imaginary space or inside projections. Glass Circle – Ballet,
Hypostahsis for orchestra , Clarinet Concerto.
3. Architectonic structural game in composition: the classical patterns, adapted to a modern language; symmetrical patterns; genuine, new open forms, using the idea of circular permutation.
4. The relation with the theoretical approach Sax-Symphony Concerto, Second Symphony, Parallel time, - creations related with my books: “Modalities of Playing the Saxophone” and “Polyphonic typologies in contemporary music”.
5.
Creating paradigmatic cycles. Monologue for trombone and Mega –Dialogue for
soloist and wind orchestra: exhausting the reiteration of a semantic matrix.
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Watson,
Chris & Otto Sidhatta with Jack Body “Misattribution in the ‘Jangeran’
project”
In 2004, Jack body was
invited by the Orkes Nusantara Jakarta to compose a work for Balinese gamelan
orchestra based on a jangeran theme supplied by Otto Siddharta. Unable to accept
this commission, he passed it on to Chris Watson. The composition was completed
in time and the scored parts submitted. The orchestral management requested the
composer write a new ending for the work, a task that was duly completed. The
composer was somewhat baffled by the absence of a report on the performance or
the reception of the work. Moreover, he was astonished to receive the news indirectly
that the composition had been attributed to Otto Siddharta rather than himself.
What are the facts behind this strange case of misattribution? Otto Siddharta
and Chris Watson will present their view on this affair with Jack Body as mediator.
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Wesley-Smith,
Martin
“Music as political commentary and protest”
George
Orwell, in ‘Why I Write’: “I think there are four great motives
for writing…”, one of them being “Political purpose – using
‘political in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain
direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should
strive after. Once again, no book is completely free from political bias. The
opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political
attitude.” I am often accused of composing “political music” (always,
as it happens, by people with vastly different political views). This paper discusses
some of the pieces of mine most often attacked and denigrated, particularly the
audio-visual pieces that deal with situations in Afghanistan, East Timor and Iraq.
Reference is made to other examples of music with an overt political agenda –
from the so-called “serious” area (Cardew, Eisler, Nono, Rzewski etc)
to the so-called “popular” area (Bragg, Dixie Chicks, Dylan, Springsteen
etc), from the right (Toby Keith and others) and left (everybody else).
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Wullur, Sinta
Amsterdam
“A
child of two cultures”
In search
for new compositions using the Eastern and Western characteristics, one should
get acquainted with the Western music as well as the Eastern music by practicing
them. Sinta Wullur began her examination of the traditional gamelan at the island
of Bali as player of gender wayang and gong kebyar. The rhythmical development
was then much ahead. To compensate this she explored the melodic side of Eastern
music and took lessons in Indian singing, Javanese and Sundanese singing. In fact,
she explored these non-Western musical styles through practice instead of studying
ethnomusicology. These experiences she describes as: “The music has to be
programmed in your muscles.” That is, if you are improvising, then you always
improvise music which is already in your muscles, your hands automatically play
things which are somehow familiar to them. As a composer, it is nice to write
down the music that you hear in your inner ear. With these experiences she composed
crossover pieces for both the Javanese gamelan and the Western ensembles. When
she composed for the traditional gamelan she missed the possibilities of the 12
tones in an octave and felt limited by the tuning when she wanted to combine the
gamelan instruments with Western instruments. When she composed for a Western
ensemble though, she missed the tone qualities of the gamelan instruments. She
found the solution of the problem in the chromatically tuned gamelan which she
ordered in Yogya in 1995. Since then, many compositions were made for the Western
tuned gamelan orchestra. The compositions Sinta Wullur made for the chromatic
gamelan and other ensembles are like the several children of a couple of different
races. They can vary from a child with blue eyes, black hair, flat nose to a child
with brown eyes, fair hair and small eyes. In this paper she will present her
compositions which are all children from two cultures. In the compositions she
will point out which influences of Western or Eastern music they have originated
from.
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Xiangping,
Zou
“Sichuan High Pitch (Chuanju)”
I
have researched traditional opera singing, unique to southwest China, the so-called
“high pitch” female voice of Sichuan Opera (Chanju). The second of my
cello compositions is drawn from the female vocal style as well as speech and
percussion instruments traditionally used in this drama. The vocabulary of sounds
brought in to the Western instruments was worked out in collaboration with American
cellist Hugh Livingston. My piece adopts Sichuan Opera elements (style, pitch,
percussion instruments, rhythm etc). There are five different opera style (Kunqu,
Chanju, Huqing, Tanxi, Dengdiao) in Sichuan Opera. “Bang-Da-Chand” is
the fundamental form of Chanju. “Bang” is the off-stage female choir
that supports the ons-stage actress/actor’s singing, recitations and actions.
“Da” means percussion, “Chang” means singing. The inspiration
for my work comes from the folk music of the Yi people. I have been twice to a
Yi village, in 1985 and 2004, located in the mountainous and Red River area in
Yunan province, south-west China. I was very impressed by Yi music, dance and
customs. In my composition I created a scale: d-f-f#-g-g#-a-a#-c# (interval sequence
3-1-1-1-1-1-3), in which I avoided the octave to create interesting melodies and
vertical pitch relationships as my response to Yi folk music.
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Ying,
Kwang-I
National Sun Yat-Sen University
“My music language in ‘Solo
for one timpano only’”
Although
I was educated in both Western and Eastern cultures, I have realised that I should
no longer search for a unique style other than that which has been presented within
myself. The greatest part of the inspiration behind the piece comes from the experience
of daily practice in how to realise my obstinacy. Besides the humming sound, “wuo”,
“fang” and “xia” are the three Chinese characters in the voice
part of this work. In Chinese, “wuo” means “I”; “fang
xia” means “let it go”. No satisfaction or real happiness will
be gained until I cease the struggle chasing fulfilment. As many other solo works,
“Solo for One Timpano Only” allows the soloist to extend the boundaries
of his/her musical isolation as far as possible. This piece employs a great number
of variations in the mode of tone production on one timpano and also includes
the action of playing and performing in the notation of the structures for working
out the source of sound.
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Young,
Samson Kar Fai
Princeton University
“The voicing of the Voiceless
in Tan Dun’s ‘The Map’”
This
paper seeks to develop a theoretical framework that on the one hand sufficiently
acknowledges composers as global citizens and individuals, but on the other hand
allows for culturally-referential reading off their works. Borrowing from reception
and genre theories, the paper argues that the subscription to Chinese national
style, or minzuxing, is as much a conscious and deliberate artistic decision as
the choice of genre. A communicative contract is established though a composer’s
own active engagement and exploitation of a discourse that carries with it a horizon
of expectations. The paper further argues that when a composer actively enters
himself or herself into a generic contract of communication through the act of
scripting, he/she must be held accountable for any mishandling or trespassing
of the sets of limits that the communicative contract entails.
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Yu,
Julian
Melbourne
“Inheriting tradition the hard way: how I use Chinese
traditional concepts to create new works”
There
are two ways to inherit cultural tradition when writing new music. The first is
to use superficial material such as scales, folk tunes, ethnic instruments and
so on. The second way is to adopt one or more of the concepts underlying the musical
tradition in question. A work written in this second way may not exhibit any obvious
ethnic characteristics, but the deeper links with tradition may still add a new
dimension to the music being created. This paper focuses on he second way and
uses musical examples to demonstrate, firstly, how Chinese folk musicians develop
new pieces out of old ones through a process of ornamentation, and secondly, how
I have applied this traditional concept of ornamentation when composing new works.
By way of example I outline the process of transforming J.S. Bach’s ‘Prelude
and Fugue in C Major’ into a completely new piece, my ‘Reclaimed Prelude’
for two pianos.
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Zielinska,
Lidia
Academy of Music
Poznan, Poland
“Sound symbols in Polish
culture” - Presentation and excerpts from musical and audio-visual works
In Poland, a revival of interest in folk art is beginning. Folk culture is being rebuilt, however on new principles. My paper will concentrate on the sonic culture of Polish society and the transformations occurring within it. I want here to introduce the characteristic features of the sound culture in Poland within individual decades, six of which I participated in personally. I will put particular focus on symbols and emblems manufactured in the area of sound and music. These symbols and emblems came into existence as a result of the political situation, under the influence of media and new technologies, and in connection with economic transformations and changes in social aspiration.
Demonstration/workshops
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Piraglu,
Qmars
Monash University, Melbourne
with Mehmanpazir, Pooya Karimi, Samira
“Composing
for the Iran traditional instruments: santur, kemancheh, tar”.
An
explanation of the techniques of these instruments, their unique characteristics,
conventions of notation, and potential ‘extended techniques’.
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Huang
Mei
Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
“Composing for the Chinese
guqin.”
An explanation of the
techniques of this instrument, its unique characteristics, conventions of notation,
and potential ‘extended techniques’.
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Yi
Ji-Young
with Kim Woong-sik, Kim Jeong-seung, Park Chi-wan, Lee Hyang-hee “Composing
for the Korean traditional instruments: gaygeum, piri, daegeum senghwang &
Korean percussion”.
An explanation
of the techniques of these instruments, their unique characteristics, conventions
of notation, and potential ‘extended techniques’
