The Awakening of Insects

Abstract

The Awakening of Insects is the third of the twenty-four solar terms in the traditional Chinese calendars. In China, people believe that during this solar term, thunderstorms will wake up the hibernating insects, indicating warmer weather is coming and chilly winter will soon pass. In 2020, human society faces challenges caused by the COVID-19 virus. I apply the third solar term as the title of my piece because I wish people all around the world could overcome difficulties and challenges together, just like what this title implies. This piece was built around seven chords. I inputted them into Open Music and generated an interpolation patch. Thus, extra interpolated chords with microtones could be calculated among seven initial chords, causing a smoother harmonic progression throughout the entire piece. There are two major motives in the music. Motive A, appearing first in the clarinet part, is a contour-based motive. While specific pitch content was not my primary concern, the ascending motion created by Motive A was what I desired. Motive B, on the other hand, decreases its melodic function. Occurring firstly in string sections, it contains a repeating rhythm. Structurally, this piece is divided into three sections. The first two sections are dominated by different motives, and the last one is a quiet coda where all major musical motions reappear. The first section, following the thunder of an orchestral tutti at the beginning, focuses on melodic motives. Although Motive B occurs in strings, it serves as a background to support the pitch-based motive. By contrast, the second part of the music focuses on a rhythmic motive, which firstly appear on bassoons. Motive A, by reversing its direction and applying with micro-counterpoint, is slowly introduced as a textural background.