Xiá Xiǎng Suite no. 3

Xia Xiang Suite no. 3
Everyday our world's population moves closer together—news travels fast; cultural symbols move as quickly as satellites can beam them or networks can stream them and habits and customs are exchanged and intermingled.

Because of music's ability to transcend verbal expression yet interconnect us in a mode of symbolism that explores the unknown in ourselves, it was my desire to create a composition that explores multiculturalism and telecommunication by probing the world's musical spirit and interweaving tradition and experiment with past and present musical styles.

Xiá Xiǎng (pronounced she-ah she-ahng) has several meanings, a few of which are: to travel forward to the past; to allow what is forbidden; to obtain that which is elusive. Throughout the composition simple pitch and rhythmic materials are transformed into different ethnomusics that melt into each other. The "melting points" or "cultural gateways" are often clusters or polychords since they allow the music to flow into any country. The soundscape ranges from tonal to atonal, from American jazz to Arabic orientalisms, from simple homophony to dense mikropolyphonie, from soft, delicate rustlings to loud, chordal conglomerates.