Program Notes

This cello solo, Flowing Water, reflects ancient Chinese melody from 722 BC to 481 BC, and reflects Eastern aesthetic philosophy reminiscent of Buddhist music. Eastern philosophy believes everything, whether animate or inanimate, has life.  Flowing water, then, is seen as having life. A composer of Eastern aesthetic philosophy has the imaginative ability to reflect life functions within the Arts.  Metaphorically, then, it is easy to imagine that water flowing through a landscape is like the blood flowing in our bodies, and the pitch vibrations are our breathing.  The rhythm of the melody becomes the heart beat driving the blood, and breathing is developed with the rising and lowering of pitch.

In Flowing Water, I use the timber of the cello to imitate flowing water. To do this, I incorporated the vibrato, followed by a phase of sliding up and down on the strings to describe a small amount of flowing water; long glissandos describe fast and large amounts of water; harmonics give the sensation of flowing water heard from far away, while plucking depicts very close flowing water. The occasional plunk of stone hitting water requires the solo player to use one hand or both hands to play the arco and pizzicato at the same time. The composition structure has an A section based on the pentatonic scale, and a B section based on the whole-tone scale.

Flowing water expresses my feelings about my own life which I relate to the tender and harmonious manner of water in motion.  I chose water for its pure and plentiful, free-flowing nature.  This reflects my own philosophy of art which demands purity, free-flowing thought, for never-ending inspiration.  I see beauty in flowing water, not only with my eyes, but in my heart and mind.  Beauty is the result of the spirit.