/ Departure Tracings (2001)for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion
Departure Tracings
-for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion
Departure Tracings is the second in a series of works dedicated to the memory of my father. Each work in the series utilizes the pitches C and G# as points of departure and/or arrival (these two pitches come from my father's initials).
In Departure Tracings, C and G# are treated as focal pitch points on their way to and from each other. Each member of the ensemble traces a different time trajectory from and to these focal points. Ritual forms a significant subtext to the spirit of this piece, in keeping with the mysterious nature of the composition's subject matter... the death of my father.



Clarinet in Bb (scored in C)
Violin
Cello
Percussion
Piano
(breathy----------------------------------------------------------------
f
claves
ç
Ó . 3 ‰
· w
· œ
∑
∑
∑
Departure Tracings (Scored as sounding pitch) (Conductor has freedom to decide the length
of each fermata , but at least 5-second long) , 5
Ching-Wen CHAO
j œb
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for piano
In In an instant..., constantly changing, ever derivative objects shift in sudden moments. These objects, inspired by some behavior of Pipa and Gu-Jeng (Chinese instruments), hardly conceive their defined figures. They, however, generate themselves recursively and yet arouse others to form some distinctive events. Those events are always dissolved and gravitated by the timeless river- a spectrum based on symmetrical pentatonic harmony and presented in extreme registers. Beginning with a time of accelerating, the piece finally leads to a chaos of time, where all the recurring elements interwind each other to a labyrinth of dazzling complexity. The waves of sound speed up and down in time, and grow wide and narrow in space. The discourse, hopefully, is scarcely noticeable but perceived as a spiritual experience.






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Copyright reserved by Ching-Wen Chao, Aug 2004
accelerando...................................................................................molto................................................
ritard..............molto..........
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