Consort Yu

In the piece 'Consort Yu' (with Max/MSP), I was inspired by the traditional Chinese Peking Opera 'The Hegemon-King Bids His Lady Farewell', which is about the fight between two kings, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. In the opera, Xiang Yu is surrounded by Liu Bang's forces and on the verge of total defeat. Realizing the dire situation that has befallen them, Xiang Yu's wife, Consort Yu, begs to die alongside her husband, but he strongly refuses her wish. Afterwards, as he is distracted, Yu commits suicide with Xiang Yu's own sword. I tried to create connections between traditional Peking opera and contemporary electronic music. First, I used timbres and rhythms similar to those used by 'The Hegemon-King Bids His Lady Farewell'. Also, the musical use of unstable pulses, such as tempo rubato and voice glissando in Peking opera, can relate to the color of contemporary music. Second, I used traditional Peking opera singing style throughout the vocal part. I also used some similar lines from the Peking opera but changed some notes to add different harmonic colors. In the electronics, I sometimes imitated the rhythms the Peking opera, and at other times made different granulated layers of various singing styles in Peking opera. Moreover, I used Leap Motion to better control the gestures of Peking opera in a live performance setting.