Futures of the Past (2011)
soundscore for online video
Welcome to a new spin on the graphic novel!
Creators Ray Hsu, Chloe Chan, and Michael Park asked. "What would happen if the words and images of a graphic novel were created in tandem with music that explores the same theme?"
Testing the conventions of graphic novel presentation, this collaboration examines the links between frontiers in rail transportation in Canada and China.
More Than Containers (2010)
for Baritone and Piano
A short song for baritone, setting a poem by Ray Hsu as a conversational dialogue between piano and voice. This song was premiered by baritone, Michael Broder and pianist, Laura Lowen at the Vancouver International Song Institute as part of the inaugural Art-Song Lab.
Click here for a PDF of the Score.
Songs of Ray (2010)
It's Cold in here
In the cliff-light
for SATB Chamber Choir
text: Ray Hsu
This set of two songs, uses texts by Vancouver poet, Ray Hsu. Commissioned by Charissa Bagan and Jake Funk for The UBC Chamber Choir.
Premiered by the UBC Chamber Choir Spring Concert, 2010.
Gramps Ain't No Namby-Pamby (2010)
for Bassoon and Baritone
Using text written by the composer, this piece is a dialogue between a grandfather and grandson where the audience only ever hears half of the conversation. By having the bassoonist perform their role, playing the rhythm and contour of the (un)spoken text, this piece explores the power of music to create syntactical meaning through the association of speech and musical gesture.
Commissioned by bassoonist, Susan Durnin, Gramps Ain’t No Namby-Pamby has also been performed by bassoonists Margaret Fay, and award winning soloist, Allen Harrington.
Click here for a PDF of the Score.
Peter Meets Susanna (2009)
for Speaking Pianist and Chamber Orchestra
Written for my Master’s thesis, this piece was my first formal composition for Speaking Pianist. Using Wallace Stevens’ Peter Quince at the Clavier, this 20-minute piano concerto presents the unique challenge of requiring the pianist to speak while playing complicated, idiomatic piano writing. The chamber Orchestra is scored for: 1 Fl, 2 Ob, 1 Cl, 2 Bsn, Tpt, Tbn, Percussion.
Premiered by the UWO Thesis Orchestra, conducted by Jim McKay, with pianist Alison Wiebe, and narrated by Michael Park.
Click here for a PDF of the score.
Parts available upon request.
Double Double, Toil and Trouble
(2008)
for Voice and Tape
instrumentation: soprano, MaxMSP, PCM digital processer
text: Shakespeare
duration: 7 minutes
Performed by Rachel Wood, soprano; Michael Park, electronics
for solo piano
Duration: 8’
These variations aim to convey in musical terms the effects that Alzheimer’s disease has on the individual.
The theme represents the individual in their prime: before the onset of the disease. The music of the theme imitates the type of music which would have been popular at that point of an Alzheimer’s patient’s life. The theme should encapsulate the vitality and charisma of the individual.
Variation 1 should have the same spirit as the theme, but with the addition of mistakes. As with the early signs of Alzheimer’s, these mistakes should be heard as ‘little things’ which are often mistaken for simple signs of aging.
In Variation 2, these mistakes become more serious – they begin to affect the actual melodic line, mimicking the noticeable changes in the Alzheimer’s patient with mild cognitive decline.
Variation 3 aims to highlight the growing gap between the individual and the rest of the world by temporal misalignments between the left-hand accompaniment, relentless in its rhythmic stability; and the right-hand melody, which struggles to stay in time.
Variation 4 portrays violent bursts of anger that are sometimes present in Alzheimer’s disease. These bursts are based on short motives taken from the theme, showing the narrow and stubborn nature of anger in Alzheimer’s.
Variation 5 In the last stages of Alzheimer’s, all that remain are fading glimpses of the patient’s former self. While references to the theme remain, it is obvious that the music, and person, have become something completely different.