This year marked my doubts about my music career. It also marks the beginning and end of my bid in the music career. I still consider music as an inseparable part of my life, but I don’t think the theatre culture and the current sham avant-garde trends are suitable for me in the long run. It’s funny how many people on Reddit and other forums where they don’t have to pay consequences for their speech express similar pity for the music industry. Many people express frustration with the theatre culture and the new music trend, which isn’t as inclusive and tolerant as it appears to be.I am interested in genuine avant-garde expressions. Stockhausen, for example, has such interesting tastes in music, to the point of extremes. At some point, experimental music indeed becomes a tool to challenge what is not normally allowed. It’s an interesting movement to challenge formality and social bureaucracy. However, as time passes, experimental music becomes part of a new social bureaucracy. When you ask those electroacoustic musicians about their view of music, they would tell you that experimental music breaks the borders of time and becomes timeless, or they would tell you this is quantum art or whatever fancy terms. However, I have questioned this again and again. What timeless are people talking about? I have heard many people complain about theatre bureaucracy, from big-named theatres to small unions. Whenever they mismanage their deadlines, they become hostile toward one another, trying to gaslight whoever they can find. What borders does modern experimental music break? All I see are superficial organizers caring about their audience count and theatre bureaucracy. Many people would pretend to be esoteric and tell you that experimental music is not about music. If not, what is it about exactly? I am a huge fan of early avant-garde movements; however, I need to make a clear distinction between protesting spirits in music and cheesy single-trick ponies with subtle excuses just for that tokenism and pretending to be diverse. In other words, I am not interested in the modern new music movement where so many people are only advocates for those old gimmicks with new excuses, but I am more interested in the old processes that lead to new interpretations and have a solid history of thought exchanges.
Thus, I came up with the idea of referential experimental music. This album, which I call referential experimental music, has 8 pieces. The first 3 pieces are titled Joint Union and Conditional. It consists of only two main melodies, representing A and B. They are then rearranged into different parts, completely free from counterpoint rules. This reflects the three possibility formulas: Joint, Union, and Conditional. It also signifies that whatever gimmicks emerge, they ultimately trace back to their hidden algorithms. Thus, it is better to understand what’s genuine than to follow fleeting trends.
The most important piece of this album is “Zero Zero Zero.” It consists of a folk melody transcribed from a Fuyu Kyrgyz singer. Then it reflects three hidden melodies in golden goose scripts. Within different parts, there are electronic drones in the background. Following this piece are the next few pieces in the album, including “Joint Union Conditional” mentioned above, transformed into an electronic style, as well as a few jazz practices converted into electronic format. Professor Jeryl Johnston became one of my favorite professors this semester. I had a conflict with the school theatre earlier this spring, which led me to become interested in reading Professor Jeryl’s jazz class materials even more, which are always thought-provoking and meaningful. The “referential” aspect refers to all the jazz practices we had. However, to bypass copyright concerns, I converted them all into electronic pieces and added them into different sections of this piece to make every part meaningful to me.
There are also hidden beats representing different rhythms I explored this semester. Since I was young, I’ve known the Yamaha piano piece “La Reine du Saba,” where the suggested beats are “Rumba”. Up until now, I’ve encountered so many melodies, and subconsciously, I thought those fancy melodies were the standard of Rumba. However, through Professor Jeryl’s class, I learned about a different history of Rumba, and I decided to watch more documentaries about it. I’m glad that Professor Jeryl has brought this topic to our attention. There’s a lot to talk about regarding this topic, which I may want to skip for now until I have acquired enough information one day. However, I’ve listened to a few documentaries and read some research paper on the history and usages of these rhythms. So I decided to express this sentiment in an unconventional way, which is what experimental music was first invented for – to express what is not allowed. I put together a collection of beats in Guaguanco, Yambu, and Columbia styles into different tracks to create unnoticed hidden melodies. Then, I transcribed Azande folk tunes from a valuable documentary at the end. I have a lengthy topic on the Azande people and my empathy towards them, which I regard as Saharan Steppe. It’s fascinating how they continue to keep their traditional music while cooperating with the new Christian faith and creating unique tunes.
Have you ever wondered what those choirs have been singing so far? Are they random? Are they atonal? The answer is none of them. They were hidden messages in a music tradecraft style I created this early spring, which I call Golden Goose craft, aimed at overcoming media dictatorship. It begins with Deling’s speech, a “pro-west” Manchu princess, followed by a phrase from a famous Manchurian Japanese song called “Pechka,” referring to the Russian stove bed or Tatar bed common across the eastern Steppe. In the end, it features a speech by Puyi during the Tokyo Trial, which I found a bit melancholic.
When Puyi was asked about his family, the translator impatiently translated his mom’s name wrong until Puyi had to interrupt and correct him. It seemed to me that everyone was impatiently waiting for him to say that “Sun Yatsen is a great man.” Ironically, neither the West nor the East won political influence in Manchuria. Both Manchuria and Siberia became sensitive centers of controversy, leading to endless theories and irresponsible novels such as “The Manchurian Candidate.” Princess Deling’s fancy words were no more than tokenism used by a different political establishment.
Is music really a universal language? Then why do different musicians speak different languages? Why do those sham avant-gardes only recruit those who speak the same language as them? Are some music theaters as tolerant and inclusive as they appear to be? Why did someone such as Yamaguchi Yoshiko exist? Also, during Professor Lewis’s class, one of my favorite classes, I made a presentation on Prokofiev expressing my criticisms of his choices. It was also a reminder to myself that although I fled Eastern multi-populism, I shall never join Western multi-jingoism nor become part of its multi-tokenism.
I have a different philosophy on music and the so-called music technology. I think music is a bridge linking different universes, and a technician can be like those nice professors I had who made complicated things simple for me, where it doesn’t have to be filled with wires or exaggerated esoterism. Finally, below are those three texts I incorporated into my piece converted with Golden Goose craft method.
Princess DeLing:
The world today is passing through the most tremendous period of a real adjustment that mankind has seen, and the real desire to do away with war is being manifested. Peace on earth and good will towards men can only be accomplished by the mutual respect and understanding of one nation towards another.
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Печка/ ペチカ
On a snowy night, the cheerful stove. Stove, burning up, someone is coming. A guest perhaps, how delightful, stove.
I3S4 F5 A4S4I3A3A2 S4I4F3I5C4, C4I5F4 C5I5F4F4L4C3L5A5 A4C4I3I6F4. A4C4I3I6F4, L3L5L4S4I4S4F3 L5L6, A4I3S3F4I3S4F4 I4A4 C5I3S3I4S4F3. F5 F3L5F4A4C4 L6F4L4I5F5L6A4, I5I3A3 S5F4A5I4F3I5C4C3L5A5, A4C4I3I6F4.
Aisin Gioro Puyi:
Uh in 1909(nineteen o nine) when I was enthroned, my father was in Peking, name is Aisin Gioro Zaifeng. Uh my mother was in Peking also, her name is Aisin Gioro. Uh my mother was in Peking, her name was Guwalgiya.
L5I5 I4S4 1909(S4I4S4F4C4F4F4S4 I3 S4I4S4F4) A3I5F4S4 I4 A3F5A4 F4S4C4I5L4I3S4F4S5, S3A2
C3F5C4I5F4L4 A3F5A4 I4S4 L6F4F6I4S4F3, S4F5S3F4 I4A4 F5I4A4I4S4 F3I4I3L4I3 S6F5I4C3F4S4F3. L5I5 S3A2 S3I3C4I5F4L4 A3F5A4 I4S4 L6F4F6I4S4F3 F5A5A4I3, I5F4L4 S4F5S3F4 I4A4 F5I4A4I4S4 F3I4I3L4I3. L5I5 S3A2 S3I3C4I5F4L4 A3F5A4 I4S4 L6F4F6I4S4F3, I5F4L4 S4F5S3F4 A3F5A4 F3L5A3F5A5F3I4A2F5.
