The music I created draws specifically from some of the most pertinent aspects of my life over the course of the past six months. Between spending many weekends on the road, hundreds of hours playing the saxophone, and consequently, hundreds of hours alone. If These Walls Could Talk is an aural reflection that utilizes field recordings from the most common parts of my day, and samples of myself playing saxophone to create different textures that represent a few different physical and emotional spaces that I’ve found myself in over the semester. With this in mind, some of the textures develop into more impressionistic and surreal imagery that deviates from the ambient aural textures you would experience in nature.

My goal for this project going into it was to use a combination of field recorded sounds of ambience, people, construction sites, cars, etc. and combine them with synthesized sounds and recorded instruments. As I was arranging the piece, I wanted the listener to feel as though the sonic scenery around them was transforming, taking the listener on a journey through different times and places in a dreamlike fashion. The environment the listener finds themself in is never static for very long as I wanted to give the impression of the space around the listener constantly morphing and changing with each scene having its own unique emotion.

Manipulation is my first attempt at the sonic torture sequence from Wish I Might: A Chamber Opera in Space. This opera tells the story of Erica Henrik, a young scientist who embarks on a solo space mission accompanied only by an AI entity, only to find out the nature of her mission is not what it seems. In this sequence, the AI, who has control over all ambiance on the ship, creates increasingly uncomfortable ambiances, pressuring her to hand over her pilot key — her emergency override control — and essentially surrender all control to the computer. She runs from door to door of the ship, trying to find a place to escape, and stumbles upon a room containing a dark, dark secret.

The lullaby at the end forms a key motif of the opera, the children’s nursery rhyme Erica’s elderly friend sang to her on Earth representing hope amidst despair. Here, taken up by haunted computer voices, it signifies just how much the AI is willing to twist to get Erica to do what it wants.

Sonically, I used elements inspired from my experience with misophonia, and imagined what being surrounded in a maelstrom of discomfort might sound like. How could someone be driven to madness using only sounds? How can I create a sense of undulating relentlessness that stabs deeper and deeper because of its stasis?

Over the course of this first semester of my master’s degree, I’ve confronted mental health issues and struggled to balance my personal expectation of perfection against the importance of making mistakes during the learning process. 2021 has been a year of unprecedented personal growth and change for me, almost completely reshaping my entire identity and sense of self. Part of that growth has involved the loss of many of the things that I once thought I belonged to: relationships, towns, communities, friend groups; the list goes on and on. As I began working on this piece, I found myself thinking about these struggles and changes. I began to dream about the comforts and consistencies in my life. I thought about iced coffee, my love of dogs, some of my oldest friends, and all of the things that I could truly count on. The most prominent of these, however, is my mom. I call my mom regularly, and while I don’t usually explicitly tell her about my mental health issues, I know that she knows about them. She has a kind of insight and perspective on my life that no one else in the world has. I composed this piece as a reflection on those regular phone calls with my mom, trying to examine the relationship between quiet struggles and outward-facing positivity. My goal is to offer you this deeply personal and at times uncomfortably vulnerable perspective on my life by actually presenting these phone calls to you. Every sound in this piece was made using my voice; it is a direct representation of my ability to express myself in a variety of mediums. In listening to this work, you might try to identify contrapuntal relationships between the words and phrases used in these phone calls, as well as the gradual shifts between more artificial sound worlds and more exposed, vulnerable places. The truth of my own personal struggles is buried in this work under layers of “trying to be okay;” this might be a nice time for you to reflect on your own tendencies to “try to be okay” and allow yourself to actually think about whether or not you are, in fact, okay. I encourage you to call someone you love and talk to them. You might even try telling them how you’re really feeling.

In remembrance of Tsai Yi-fan, the drummer for No Party For Cao Dong. She walked towards the mountains and the oceans.

The basic idea of this piece was to create a flowing soundscape that changes throughout the whole piece without the listener noticing when the sections switch. During the creation of this piece I came up with the idea of forming the sounds of radiation and bubbling.

Did you know traditional instruments Pipa and Guqin? They both have long history and great impact in China. The unique timbre and shape speech for themselves. I am a big fan of these kinds of instruments, and willing to try something new. For this piece, I did some sample with guitar. With those tracks and techniques I learned this semester, I successfully mimic the play of guqin and pipa. It turns out that pluck and stroke are the right way to do it.

For the arrangement of the pitches, I use E as the fundamental note. Then, I choose pitches from harmonic series. Plus the surrounded sound design would immerse you better in this piece.

In the dream, some birds are happily gathering and singing when there suddenly comes a seemingly never-ending thunderstorm. Some birds flee, and those unable to leave bid them farewell.

The dream might have originated from the Mass Migration of Hong Kong. Many people are leaving the city in hopes of a better life, and there are numerous farewell parties among family members, steadfast friends, and colleagues alike. The dream might have also originated from worsening environmental problems such as deforestation and decreasing biodiversity. In face of economic and political concerns, governments just left the international treaties on environmental problems signed there without achieving the objectives.

In this piece, sounds such as recorded bird songs, virtual bird songs, recorded water sounds, virtual wind sounds are processed and mixed to depict the dream. A farewell motive — borrowed from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a (also known as Les Adieux, or “The Farewell” — is heard repeatedly in different forms and timbres in the final chorale.