Browsing by Author "Chen, Shih-Hui"
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Item Basically, this is not what we were looking for…(2008) Peres, Asaf; Chen, Shih-HuiBasically, this is not what we were looking for... is a piece written for symphony orchestra, which explores the option of maintaining interest in the music through the use of one simple motive (a cluster, which is repeated several times). That motive is presented in the brass section against a contrasting motive in the woodwinds, but very soon the woodwinds motive is abandoned, and will only be returned to towards the end, in rhythmic durations eight times as slow as it was presented at first. The cluster motive is kept in its original form throughout most of the piece, varied primarily by dynamics, duration, and a changing of background. The pitch level of the cluster remains static for the bulk of the piece.Item Gambit(2019-04-18) Lenz, Patrick W.; Chen, Shih-HuiA gambit is a device, action, or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage. The opening gesture serves as the origin of all the material in the piece, creating a unified and self-informed system. The goal of this process is that a listener might hear the simple units of material and follow them from moment to moment, gaining a degree of understanding of the music after the first listen.Item Nascent Dreams(2012-09-05) Ingmire, Bryce; Stallmann, Kurt; Lavenda, Richard; Chen, Shih-HuiNascent Dreams (2012) is a work for full orchestra that explores the elasticity of form as musical analogy. In a programmatic context, each thematic section can be interpreted as representing landscapes or events encountered while dreaming. Listeners are privy to the nascency of each section before the music whisks one away to the next soundscape. Musically, the work emphasizes melody and lyricism in order to establish a song-like quality throughout.Item ONEness(2015-04-22) Ouyang, Yuxin; Brandt, Anthony; Chen, Shih-Hui; Jalbert, PierreIn this work for chamber orchestra, I hope to convey the idea of growth: a simple element produces something more complex in an on-going process of development. For instance, a human being grows year by year from a naive baby to a person who experiences and learns more and more. For the living, though, that process of growth is not open-ended: as the Bible says, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust"-- life eventually returns to its simple state. "ONEness" begins with a simple motive: two parallel minor 7ths (C and B-flat, D and C) in the strings. These two sevenths are gradually filled with additional pitches that preserve the outward contour but create a richer harmony. A related motive--comprised of the pitches D, E and F#--is also introduced. As the paired sevenths become more harmonically complex, this melody of three pitches develops as well, becoming fragmented, twisted and inverted. The two main motives take turns being in the foreground. At the work's peak, the most complex statement of the sevenths motives is played by the full orchestra. As the music subsides from this climax, the parallel 7ths sink into the cellos and the clarinet echoes the three-pitch motive, creating an ethereal ending.Item Recombined Forces(2013-09-16) Hahn, Joshua; Brandt, Anthony K.; Chen, Shih-Hui; Al-Zand, KarimRecombined Forces, for full orchestra, provides contrast by changing the inner divisions of the whole. These divisions include the gradual separation of the orchestra into different choirs, evolving rhythmic and contrapuntal roles, and the harmonic reordering of one central recurring chord into smaller chords with contrasting characters. The orchestra begins as a whole divided into the traditional choirs, grouped by their physical similarities, and ends as a whole grouped by timbral characteristics. Grouped instruments enter and cutoff together, and play the same contrapuntal lines. Harmonically, the piece progresses through four stages. The recurring total sonority, set class [01234578t], begins as three members of set class [013], becomes three of [016], three of [025], an finally three of [037]. The piece develops by recycling materials rather than by replacing materials, and reveals how subtle changes in organization can lead to vastly different results.Item SYZYGY featuring music by Shih-Hui Chen Robert Gross Arthur Gottschalk Gunther Schuller Sunday, March 17, 2013 8:00 p.m. Lillian H. Duncan Recital Hall(Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, 2013-03-17) Syzygy; Chen, Shih-Hui; Gross, Robert; Gottschalk, Arthur; Schuller,GuncherPROGRAM: At The Space Age Vinyl Music Box Lounge / Arthur Gottschalk -- Our Names / Shih-Hui Chen -- Four Bacho Haikai / Robert Gross -- Five Impromptus for English Horn and String Quartet / Gunther SchullerItem The Evening Shadow(2013-09-16) Walczak, Christopher; Gottschalk, Arthur W.; Chen, Shih-Hui; Bailey, Walter B.; Sanders, PaulaThe Evening Shadow, a six-minute work for symphony orchestra, is a short symphonic poem composed with the intent of evoking a sensation of lament and eventual deliverance. Drawing from the “Neapolitan Complex” found in Beethoven’s string quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131 (exploitation of the semitone between C#-D), I attempted to create a dramatic “storyline” utilizing the semitone relation between E and F. From a programmatic standpoint, upward motion from E to F is meant to represent yearning (mm. 5-6, violins, mm. 14-15, violin/vibraphone, m. 18, cello, embedded in m. 20, flute 2) while downward motion from F to E (mm. 110-113, brass) symbolizes rescue and redemption. Motivic transformation was paramount to the construction of The Evening Shadow. Five primary motives are stated and developed. The first appears in the solo violin from mm. 3-4 and is transformed at m. 44 in the oboe and 2nd violins. The second motive is stated in mm. 9-12 in the 1st violins, and returns in canon from mm. 96-106. The third motive appears in the oboe in mm. 29-30 and is developed extensively (mm. 41-42, 47-48, 110-113). The fourth motive is stated in the 1st violins at m. 33 and returns in m. 52 in the 2nd violins. The final motive is first heard in the horns in mm. 39-40 and ends the piece from mm. 127-129. The motivic transformations make use of transposition, modal “adjustment,” and built in rubato effects, as well a large degree of fragmentation and recombination. Traditional contrapuntal technique was utilized throughout the work. Global harmonic motion of the piece, which makes use of skeletal tonic/dominant relations, can be heard as a progression through the following “tonicizations” and respective modalities: E/F (pitch-centric, no modality, mm. 1-33), D (Dorian, mm. 34-55), A (Dorian, mm. 52-54), E (pseudo-Phrygian, mm. 65-87), C (Mixolydian, mm. 108-121), G (Mixolydian, mm. 127-132), and E/F (pitch-centric, no modality, mm. 133-137). Atonal pitch-class set sonorities were used as structural rhetoric throughout. The aggregate collection, drawing from dodecaphonic theory, is used sparingly both melodically (mm. 16-17, violins and violas), and harmonically (mm. 2-3, 64, 66, 69, 137). Conceptual difficulties arise from orchestrational considerations in a contemporary work due to the broad array of possibilities demonstrated in the scores that span the history of orchestral music. I sought to create a hybrid of advanced traditional orchestration (Mahler, Strauss) and texturalist practices (Lutoslawski, Ligeti).Item The Tones of Bangle(2023-06-29) Leibovic, Daniel; Chen, Shih-HuiThis piece presents a conflict between gamelan music and forces that prevent it from fully emerging. The gamelan music is based on themes played by the ensemble of Bangle, Bali in their original composition and performance of “Tabuh Kreasi Baru” recorded in 2011 by the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva. I imagine some powerful energy from Bangle lingering around primordial metals. There is a conflict between the raw, unyielding metals and the Bangle spirit. The gamelan ideas try to bloom, but the resonating objects are heavy, disobedient, and vexing.