SONUS - v2
Moonlit Night (for zheng and electroacoustic sounds) (2003), 00:09:31Kevin Austin
Nationality: Canada, United Kingdom
Residence: Canada
Biography: Kevin Austin lives in Montréal, Canada, teaches at Concordia University and has been active in almost all aspects of ea/cm. He is a Charter and Founding Member of the CEC (Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / Canadian Electroacoustic Community).
Chih-Lin Chou
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Biography: Chih-Lin Chou, born in Tai-Chung City Taiwan, started her music training at the age of five. She was Miss Talent of Tai-Chung Ling Dong College (1989) and has won many prizes in Zheng contests including Champion of Zheng contest of Tai-Chung City (1988&1989), Runner-up of National Zheng contest of Taiwan (1990). She was a member of Zheng Xin Zheng Orchestra of Taiwan from 1986 to 1991, and received a Diploma of Oriental Music from Hawaii University in 1989. At age of 18, she held her first Zheng Solo concert. After immigrating to Canada in 1991, she was an invited Zheng Soloist at Holiday Inn Select Montreal from 1992 to 2002. She obtained a Bachelor of Commerce, major accounting from Concordia University in 1996 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts, major music from Concordia University in 1998. Her main interest is in reviving this ancient instrument and bringing oriental music to the western world.
Program Notes: Composed in February 2003, and premiered at the Oscar Peterson concert Hall (Montreal, Canada) on March 08, 2003 by Chih-Lin Chou, Moonlit Night is the third of three related pieces for zheng (chinese zither) and electroacoustic sounds. This is a mixed work where all of the ea sounds have been created from a recording of the zheng playing the traditional chinese piece entitled, “Moonlight over the Spring River”.
A variation form, theme, seven variations and coda, the work depicts the bell calling the fishermen; the moon rising; the flower’s shadow; the reflection of the mountain, fishermen singing (across the waters); the rising sun; and the returning boats. Each variation is terminated with a two note cadence (A - G), which is echoed in a number of variations in the ea part.
The sound materials were assembled in the composer’s home studio, with the main ea techniques used being time-stretching, pitch-shifting, narrow band eq and reverb. Some parts have as many as 14 layers. Software used was SoundMaker and Logic running on a 1gHz dual-processor G4. The ea materials have been assembled as two solo ea works, Three Zheng Études, versions 1 and 2.
The work is somewhat unusual in the ‘mixed’ ea repertoire for it is too adventurous compared to works aimed at a ‘popular’ audience, and too ‘conservative’ for the new music community. It has set out to be what Chih-Lin Chou has wanted it to be, an introduction of traditional chinese musics with the possibilities of modern western ea resources. The ea part is in nine sections which play without pause. The zheng part is virtuoso both in terms of traditional zheng technique and in Chih-Lin Chou’s ability to remain within one second of the ea part throughout the 9 1/2 minutes with minimal cues. Recorded by Dr Mark Corwin in the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, March 08, 2003.
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CEC: Sonus
