Tuesday Night New Music: Kim, Ha, Wei, Li, Chaves, Gu, Lanning, Boxley, Bian

Dohyun Kim | The Great Wave (2022)

Changjin Ha | Chiaramentissimo (2022)

Program note

Chiaramentissimo is my first piano solo work, meaning ‘very clearly.’ I was imagining a polyphonic scene with exceedingly bright lights; the rhythm and pitches are determined by very intuitive process within somewhat loose whole tone/octatonic framework for quasi-arbitrary and where-are-we-going experience. 
        This piece is commissioned/dedicated to Wanjoong Kim for his graduation recital.                                                                                                    
– Changjin Ha

An-Ni Wei | Frozen Land Suite (2021)

Dancing on ice  
Listen!  It’s the whisper of the elves  
Sound, Sunshine, Crystal  

Yunqi Li | Kan 坎 (2022)

Program note

Like, 
An iron chain. 
Like, 
A sharp knife. 
Pierces the skin, 
Spills out the blood, 
In the sea of charcoal flowers, 
It is the place for dreams.                                                        
– Yunqi Li

Ethan Antonio Chaves | Septet

Program note

Each movement of this septet has a different goal, though some unifying themes prevail. In the first movement, I wanted to write a contrapuntal piece in a new style, while still retaining some Baroque characteristics. One of these characteristics is the idea of switching to an inversion of the main theme at around the half-way point and combining it with the original motif. Augmentation and diminution also present themselves throughout the movement, though often in less-than-obvious ways that do not rely on standard 1:2 relationships.
           The second movement concerns itself with nostalgic, almost overly-sweet melodic lines that are meant to evoke the film music of Hollywood’s Golden Era.
           The final movement is a perpetuum mobile that is fixated on a single winding motive presented at the opening of the movement. The form is a non-strict rondo, with sections inspired by popular music, jazz, Steve Reich’s phase music, and traditional American fiddling.
           All in all the piece is light-hearted yet deadly serious. 
– Ethan Antonio Chaves

Didi Gu | Ci Cycle (2021)

如梦令 The Dream-like Song
江歌子 The Riverside City
点绛唇 The Rouged Lips

Mathew Lanning | Three Arias (2022)

Rigaudon
Lullaby
Sofiatto

Ethan Boxley | Envelopes (2020)

Program note

The piece is inspired partly by stress and partly by the free interplay of water between stones, with itself and around obstacles. The multiphonics represent the pellucid appearance of water under light while at rest or rippling gently.           
– Ethan Boxley

Yuchen Bian | Insomnia (2022)

Program note

“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.”
– Leonard Cohen