I was excited to receive notification from Cambridge Scholars Publishing that the Proceedings of both the 2022 and 2023 sessions of the International Symposium of Contemporary Music Research, which I organise under the auspices of Nanhua University, have been accepted for publication. The titles I’ve chosen for the two sets of Proceedings are: 2022: Shifting…Continue Reading “Exciting News! Symposium Proceedings accepted for publication (Aug ’23)”
From April to June 2023, I organised for the third year running an international academic symposium for the department of ethnomusicology of Nanhua University. This symposium took the status quo and future trends of contemporary art music in Taiwan and abroad as its research theme. The goal was to assemble contributions (papers and compositions) from…Continue Reading “2023 Third International Symposium of Contemporary Music Research “Contemporary Music, Present and Future”2023年第三屆國際當代音樂研討會與座談 「當代音樂的現況與未來的趨勢」(Apr.-June ’23)”
2022年上半部分我曾經改編一首《讚佛歌》，該首歌曲使用約翰·奧德威的歌曲《夢見家和母親》之旋律，歌詞由佛光山的創辦人星雲大師撰寫。我編的版本有重新設計和聲、副旋律和配器。結構2022年的佛誕節音樂會被取消，所以我只能等到今年才有機會聽它的演出。 我改編的《讚佛歌》首演於2023年4月30日在彰化市福山寺舉辦的「山間有福 人文饗宴 走進星光雲遊樂音中」音樂會活動，由南華大學民族音樂學系的學生演奏。 沒想到，再過不到三個星期，我就有機會再聽它一遍。南華大學、佛光山圓福寺及叢林學院於2023年5月19日晚上在嘉義市文化局音樂廳舉辦了「禮讚偉大佛陀暨緬懷星雲大師音樂會」，本人改編的《讚佛歌》由民音系的三位老師— 蕭呈叡 、 劉辛宜和張誦芬演奏。 演出前一天，聽完排練以後，我感覺樂曲可以編得更好，所以我先沒有回家，而找了一個星巴克可以坐一個小時改一改。沒想到，四個半小時以後我才能把它改成令自己滿意的樣子！
I wrote the open score piece flourishing as incidental music to be used in the “Crossover Music Theatre” performance, put on by Nanhua University Dept. Ethnomusicology at the All Nations Cinema, Dalin, Chiayi, Taiwan on Christmas Day 2022. 我寫了一首「開放樂譜」《欣欣向榮》作為配樂，用於南華大學民族音樂學系於2022年聖誕節在台灣嘉義大林萬國戲院上演的《樂舞串流》跨域音樂劇場表演。 It was performed by mixed Chinese and Western instruments. There was very little rehearsal time, I…Continue Reading “Crossover Music Theatre incidental music “flourishing” 樂舞串流：《欣欣向榮》(Dec. ’22)”
Over the last eighteen months I’ve been engaged in an ongoing project to familiarise myself with the ancient and charming instrumentarium of Chinese court ceremonial music, known as Yayue, a close ancestor of the Japanese gagaku. I’ve approached this from the point of view of first understanding the characteristic atmosphere of a traditional Confucian ritual,…Continue Reading “Yayue project update 雅樂項目更新: Three (More) Yayue for the Confucian “Capping Ceremony” 《三加禮》第二套 (Dec. ’22)”
An update on the video/audio recordings of the pieces selected for inclusion in the “Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers” (organised by Nanhua University Dept. of Ethnomusicology) : We have reached an important milestone. Po Wei Lai (violin), Yi-Chung Chang (violoncello) and Yun-Yao Kao (piano) (members of the Dominant5 piano quintet) worked…Continue Reading “Symposium of New Works: Recordings of Selected Compositions (July/Aug.’22) 當代作曲家新創作交流會：入選作品的錄影（2022年7至8月）”
I’m was excited to be able to organise once again the Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers which is took place online on May 21st, under the aegis of Nanhua University Dept. of Ethnomusicology. The academic committee* chose eight papers and six compositions for inclusion in this year’s event. I’m was very…Continue Reading “Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers (2022.5.21)”
藉由南華大學研發處的資助，本人已開始進行新的專題研究：“人工智慧作為作曲的輔助工具以及靈感的來源：探索機器學習的風格轉移在音樂創作中的運用之潛力”。 Supported by funding from the Nanhua University Research and Development Office, I’ve begun a new research project: “AI as a compositional aid and a source of inspiration: exploring the potential application of machine learning style transfer to musical creativity”. 我2022年1月應研究中心總監Emily Howard的邀請曾參觀英國皇家北英格蘭音樂學院的音樂與科技研究與實踐中心（PRiSM）。我在研究中心裡有機會了解到他們令人贊嘆的超級電腦「PRiSM sample RNN」的功能，並與學者討論它在輔助作曲上的可能性。我們有討論我初步的研究方向，並規劃進一步的討論。 In January 2022 I was invited by Emily Howard, director of…Continue Reading “人工智慧與作曲的研究項目（音樂與科技的研究與實踐中心 2022年1月參觀）AI in Musical Composition Research Project: visit to PRiSM research centre (Jan.’22)”
I’ve been working with the Yayue ensemble in the Ethnomusicology department at Nanhua University to compose some new works for this ancient and very special group of instruments. The Chinese name for this music, Yayue (雅樂), literally translates as “elegant music”. the most common English translation is Gagaku, but this is not completely adequate, as…Continue Reading “Yayue Project with Nanhua Ethnomusicology Dept. (Dec. 2021) 跟南華大學民族音樂學系的雅樂團合作：雅樂現代創作研究（21年12月起）”
My recent article on rhythmic notation has been published in Nanhua University’s “Journal of Arts and Design”. Owing to its distribution being very limited, I’ve shared the paper below. For non-Mandarin readers, here is the English abstract: This paper considers practical and ideographic aspects of various notations of rhythms using non-power-of-two divisions of the whole…Continue Reading “Article Published by Nanhua University “Journal of Arts and Design” 南華大學「藝術與設計期刊」發表學術論文（Summer 2021）”
My recent posts are all a little out of order: I’ve just finished re-editing the videos of a performance from May with the students and professors at Nanhua Ethnomusicology. I was invited to make two arrangements of Buddhist songs celebrating the Buddha’s birthday for the combined forces of the department’s western and Chinese orchestras and…Continue Reading “Songs for the Buddha’s Birthday (performance of song arrangements for western and Chinese orchestras and choir) (2021.5.8)”
On July 3rd 2021 I organised a one-day online symposium discussing contemporary music under the aegis of Nanhua University, Taiwan. The title of the symposium was “Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composer”. The theme for this year was “Avant-Garde and Experimental Creative Considerations in Art Music”. Over 70 people signed up and…Continue Reading “Nanhua University: Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers “Avant-Garde and Experimental Creative Considerations in Art Music” 2021.7.3″
I invited my mentor Michael Finnissy to deliver the keynote address at the Nanhua University Dept. of Ethnomusicology’s “Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers”. See my more detailed post on the symposium here: Nanhua University: Symposium of New Works and Research into Contemporary Composers “Avant-Garde and Experimental Creative Considerations in Art Music”…Continue Reading “Michael Finnissy Keynote Address at Symposium”