Zugl.: Innsbruck, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-99).

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Göttingen, 2004. / Music transcriptions: pp. 171-279. Includes bibliographical references (p. 148 - 157) and index.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-99) Also available in print.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Maryland, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-116).

“Traces of Wind” is a through-composed work in three movements: "Wind Chimes", "Incantation" and "Meditation". It is scored for a Western sinfonietta ensemble with the addition of a traditional Chinese instrument, guzheng — a 21-stringed traditional Chinese zither, one of the most common instruments of the prominent Chinese musical tradition. In this work, guzheng's role alternates between that of a soloist and of an orchestral instrument. As the piece develops across movements, guzheng takes on a progressively soloistic role: its solo sections become longer and more frequent, with the final movement, "Meditation" being completely a work for guzheng and orchestra. Guzheng's unique sound and obvious reference to the Orient informs the material and orchestration of the work. One hears frequent use of pentatonic scales and imitation of guzheng through Western instruments, such as strings (pizzicati) and harp. Each movement bears an imprint of Chinese music. The opening movement, "Wind Chimes", is based on the idea of repeating pitches, imitating the effect of wind chimes - an attribute of Chinese Feng Shui culture - tossing and bouncing against each other. We hear randomly struck pitches, yet each pitch repeats with a certain regularity. Much of the material of the first movement is derived from an unrelated endeavor: computer programming. I became involved in writing mobile applications for iPhone and Android devices. One year prior to starting my work on "Wind Chimes", I wrote a unique iPhone app, “iSonics”. This app was an attempt to enable performers of electroacoustic music to interact with music physically: a performer prerecords a set of short sounds and taps the empty screen to manipulate these sounds by stretching them in time, pitch-shifting them (by tapping the screen in various locations) and applying various filters by means of tilting the device. I used a guzheng to pre-record a set of 8 different sounds and then improvised a composition. iSonics provided the ability to react to the generated musical material in real time and to inform myself where on the screen to tap next in order to create a convincing musical line. Tapping to the left of the screen rendered the same sound object played slower and at a lower pitch, thus I was able to create harmonies. The first minute of the resultant electroacoustic work is my improvisation of one and the same sound object, while the first minute of "Wind Chimes" is that minute orchestrated for the ensemble, minus the microtones (which are present in the original improvisation). Thus, guzheng being the “pre-recorded” sound serves as the generator of the material for this movement: the original sound object created with guzheng is the foundation of "Wind Chimes". Much of the subsequent material of "Wind Chimes" is derived from the same process of ii instantiating the sound object in different registers and pitch level. Consequently, “striking” this sound object creates complex melodic content, most notably used in the climactic section of the movement (m. 197). "Wind Chimes" flows directly into the second movement, “Incantation”, which is quite different in character, being more dark and dissonant. Spontaneous woodwind passages, which surface throughout, the movement are evocative of the style of singing one hears in a traditional Chinese opera. In the "Meditation", I call for a pair of back-up violins, if available, to perform the opening harmonics section of the movement. The violins are to be retuned to specific microtonal tunings. I carefully selected these tunings by experimenting with various combinations of frequencies with my own violin. Although optional, using microtonal tuning for the opening of the "Meditation" adds a dimension of exoticism to the already Asian-influenced sound world of the complete work.

published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

Développée à partir d’un corpus documentaire de plus de 200 représentations iconographiques réparties entre le IXe et le XVe siècle, cette thèse s’appuie aussi sur des sources musicales en latin et des éléments pris dans la littérature profane médiévale en langues vernaculaires. Ce travail de recherche est réuni et organisé dans une base de données qui s’articule à la thèse tout au long de l’argumentation. La description de ce corpus et de la création de cet outil forme la première partie de cette thèse. Une deuxième partie, consacrée à l’étude organologique physique des instruments, vise à proposer un discours objectif sur la nature de l’instrument et de ses éléments constitutifs : formes, cordes, chevilles, chevalets, modes de jeux, tenues etc. Cette partie se termine par un exercice de reconstitution organologique. Une troisième partie étudie l’image sociale et symbolique des instruments en essayant d’englober l’ensemble des discours associés aux cithares planche autour de la notion de translatio propre à la littérature médiévale, que l’on nommera alors translatio musicae. L’ensemble du travail réalisé permettra de former en conclusion une proposition de classification instrumentale propre aux cithares planche médiévales, qui pourra être éventuellement adaptée à l’étude d’autres instruments de musique. / Developed from a corpus of over 200 iconographical sources divided between the 9th and the 15th century, this thesis also draws on Latin sources in and musical elements taken from the medieval secular literature written in vernacular languages. This research is compiled and organized inside a database articulated to the thesis throughout the argument. The description of this documentary corpus and the creation of this specific tool are given in the first part of this dissertation. A second part, devoted to the study of physical characteristics of these instruments, aims to provide an objective discourse on the nature of the instrument and its components: forms, strings, pins, holding manners, playing modes, etc. This part ends with an instrumental reconstitution exercise. A third part examines the social image and symbolic image of the instruments trying to encompass all speech – both literary and visual – related to the board zithers around the medieval notion of translatio, which will be in this particular case called translatio musicae. This work will conclude with a proposition of a specific organological classification for medieval board zithers, which might possibly be adapted to the study of other musical instruments.

Dans la Chine du IIIè siècle, les mutations politiques et intellectuelles considérables survenues après l’effondrement des Han favorisent l’éveil d’une conscience inédite de l’individu, ainsi que l’émergence de nouvelles tendances philosophiques (le néo-taoïsme de l’Étude du Mystère) et l’apparition d’une activité artistique en rupture avec la tradition qui s’est imposée durant quatre siècles d’hégémonie confucéenne. La musique, qui occupe une place d’élection dans la vie des lettrés, voit évoluer le statut et la pratique auxquels elle était jusqu’alors confinée, l’outil moralisateur au service de la concorde sociale s’affirmant désormais comme une distraction libre et privée, affranchie de ses finalités politiques et civilisatrices. Notre travail prend pour objet les conceptions de la musique qui ont vu le jour dans ce contexte de l’avènement esthétique et d’une valorisation sans précédent des émotions individuelles. En nous concentrant plus particulièrement sur Ruan Ji 阮籍 (210-263) et Ji Kang 嵇康 (223-262), figures de proue de la pléiade des Sept Sages de la Forêt de Bambous et éminents poètes, philosophes et musiciens, nous avons cherché à étudier la réflexion esthétique qui s’élabore dans leurs écrits autour des questions de l’origine et la nature de la musique, de ses fonctions morales et sociales, de son utilisation politique ou macrobiotique, de ses vertus éthiques ou diététiques, ou encore de son lien aux émotions. L’analyse textuelle est complétée par celle de pratiques ou de gestes musicaux : le sifflement chez Ruan Ji, la cithare chez Ji Kang, qui donnent corps aux discours et illustrent leur mise en œuvre concrète dans la vie de ces auteurs. De sorte que l’esthétique ne se définit plus seulement comme un discours, mais aussi comme un ethos, et que l’effort d’affranchissement de la musique est contemporain d’une d’émancipation des sujets mêmes de l’expérience esthétique. / In third-century China, the huge political and intellectual mutations occurring after the collapse of the Han dynasty result in the awakening of a new self-consciousness of man and the emergence of new philosophical trends (the so called Dark Learning), or also an artistic activity breaking off with four centuries of Confucian orthodoxy. Music, which occupies a privileged position in the life of literati, evolves as well, as far as its traditional status and practice are both concerned. No more considered a tool of moralization for the sake of civilized order or social harmony, it becomes a private and free distraction, emancipated from political or any other pragmatic purpose. The conceptions of music appearing in this context of nascent aesthetics provide the subject matter of our research. Focusing on Ruan Ji 阮籍 (210-263) and Ji Kang 嵇康 (223-262), two leading figures of the well-known literati group “the Seven Sages of the bamboo grove” who were also famous poets, thinkers and musicians, we attempt to examine their aesthetic thought throughout their main writings on music, concerning issues such as the origins and nature of music, its moral or social functions, its political or macrobiotic use, its ethical or dietetic virtues, and also its relation to man’s emotions. The textual analysis is completed by the study of musical practices or gestures (Ruan Ji’s whistling, Ji Kang’s playing the zither), that illustrate the effective application of their ideas in concrete life. Therefore, aesthetics does not only consist in a mere discourse, but becomes a kind of ethos, in which the emancipation of music is inseparable from that of the individual himself, through his aesthetic experience.