Daughter of Bird and Earth
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Abstract
The single movement symphonic poem Daughter of Bird and Earth draws its inspiration from my own long poem in modern Chinese, The Resurrection of Poems, which narrates an imaginary woman’s life journey, both internally and externally, in an abstract poetic language. Beginning with the low woodwinds and low strings that represent the “earth,” with a variety of imagery, I establish the heroine’s image from both her outer physical appearance and her inner spiritual character. This orchestral piece follows the biography of this imagined female character within a modern mythology. The juxtaposition of timbres, special effects, themes, gestures, and dynamics is audaciously sharp and dramatic. These features can be very obvious and easy to capture for the listener. This power and creativity reflect the many feminist-influenced artistic and social movements from the early modern era to our current time. The musical language in this piece is poetic and textural. I used a chord, a designed scale, two traditional melodic themes, a short motif, a series of designed atonal chords, and 12 single repeated note to build continuing structures with dramatic expressions. The orchestration method is different from motivic or melodic development which has been used in classical symphonic music tradition in the past hundreds of years.
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Program notes -- Selection from the Resurrection of Poems in Chinese -- Selection form The Resurrection of Poems in English -- Approval page -- Instrumentation -- Music Score
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D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts)