Still contemplating on my idea of starting the ALEA series. Perhaps I should just embed this idea into my Katachi IV, which will be a commission for saxophone and live electronics. It might be hard to justify having the live electronics completely aleatoric, but I'm sure that makes it very comfortable for the performer. The patch would be very easy to make basing on all these templates that I have developed lately. I just need to map out the range of the effects and their relative amplitudes to the raw input level.

I have also been toying with this idea of compiling my patches into applications and make them available for download. Max/MSP, however, did not like this idea and crashed my laptop, so that I could NEVER use the program again... There, perhaps, is a better way to do it. But isn't it awesome that others can make cool sounds with my patches?

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Non-electronically, I am working on a commission for flute, cello, bass trombone and percussion , very slowly. Originally intended as a collection of five pieces, I might cut some and just make each one longer.

I have been quite busy, not composing, but patching with Max/MSP, just exploring different ways to route my signals and building instruments/effect modules. The results are couple patches that I can well use in the future, and I also generated a fixed media piece (Stargaze) with them.

I am expecting to write one new fixed media and two new interactive electroacoustic pieces with these patches. I will continue the Katachi series, and start a new series called ALEA.

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And, having come back from the UAHuntsville New Music Festival this weekend, I feel fresh and inspired. It was a nice event with seven concerts and over 40 guest composers. Duo for Two Flutists (2008) was performed.

I haven't visited this blog for so long... I feel like it's time to write something. It has been a real adventure this first semester at UMKC - it's difficult, but I know I wouldn't like it if it's too easy.

I just finished a paper on Lutoslawski couple days ago, and am quite satisfied with it. I also read many of his writings and interviews. There is something he said that is so interesting (irrelevant to my paper topic): L regarded two main trends of music in the 20th century, that of the Second Viennese School's and Debussy's heirs'. The Second Viennese School is generally regarded as the complete opposite to the main stream because they disregarded the function of pitches by equally distributing the chromatic scale, but L suggested that they were the one that continued the tradition by completely disregarding it. The other pole was Debussy's harmonic language, which completely revolutionized functional music and its order and construction.

I could not agree more. Schoenberg consciously avoided tonal function; Debussy just ignored it.

I am liking Kansas City. There seems to be everything here, except for a job... This is looking to be a great academic year. I'll be studying with Chen Yi this semester!

Here comes the end of my summer vacation, again. I'll miss Hong Kong dearly.The longer I stay here, the more I feel that I cannot be seperated from this city - its people, its culture, its spirit, its breath...

This summer has been great! Mum and sister came for two weeks, and we took a road trip in the mid-west and around the east coast; we visited cities and places including:

1. Chicago, Premiums outlets;
2. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo;
3. Niagara Falls;
4. New York City - Statue of Liberty, Time Square, bus tour, Top of the Rock on Rockfeller Center, etc.
5. New York City - Met Museum of Art, Central Park;
6. Philly - Independence Hall, National Constitution Center, Liberty Bell, City Hall, etc.;
7. Washington D.C. - Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, White House, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History/Air and Space, etc., Shenandoah National Park;
8. Shenandoah National Park

It was SO tiring... now rest for a couple days before I head to Hong Kong!

I am done with everything for the semester. I feel such a big relief. There is a moment of sadness though--I had to return my office key today. I'm going to miss having an office; I'm going to miss everything in BG. A Master's degree goes by too fast. Two years go by too fast. I feel like I just arrived here yesterday, and now I have to go. But life moves on, right?

Thank you BG. I will not forget this place, and you will remain special in my heart.

Anyhow, I'll be back for the New Music Festival in fall to hear my Five Songs of the Von Seggerns (2010)! I received an email today from a teacher in Nebraska, whose student is researching about the train accident in Amanda's poems, and came across my piece. I am very glad that my music is making connection with people - this is what keeps me and all musicians working. We make music because we care; we make music because we want to communicate.

I think my composition style is constantly evolving. Since the composition of my Apparitions - a fantasy for chamber ensemble (2010-11), I have found a new style to work with. I personally see my Five Songs of the Von Seggerns (2010) as a sum of my early style, which is always harmonically exact, rhythmically defined and structurally strict. This set of songs also serves as a bridge to my more current style, which pays less attention to exactness and allows more aleatoric chance operations; pays more attention to instrumental timbre/color, building up of texture, achieving intensity through density of pitches, emphasizing on different sound properties and acoustic in general. This is fascinating--I can't wait to hear what I will come up with in the future!

After deciding to attend UMKC instead of the other school, I am so released now. I feel so much more settled down. Today was the premiere of my thesis - Apparitions - a fantasy for chamber ensemble (2010-11). It went very well--I now have a good recording thanks for Conrad Chu (conductor) and the fabulous players from BG. This piece is so different from my earlier compositions.

And, right now I have been looking to acquire a car so that I can travel to my new school.

April is a very unsure month. I need to make my final decision on what school I will attend for my doctorate, which will directly affect my travel plans in the summer, and whether or not I should go to the soundSCAPE Summer Festival in Italy. This is a really difficult time for me... hopefully everything will clear up soon.

Sometimes, I think maybe I'm too tired for more schooling...