Breaking glass, bubbling water and the rasp of a knife being sharpened are some of the sounds that are likely to be heard in an upcoming concert by Taiwan native Chin-Chin Chen, an internationally recognized composer of electroacoustic music and a member of the music faculty at GVSU.
Chen, presenting her first full concert since joining the Music Department in 1999, will perform at 8 p.m. on Monday, November 20 in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center. She will be accompanied by several other music faculty members. The concert is open to the public free of charge.
The term electroacoustic refers to music that uses electronic technology for its creation or performance. Her instrument, explained Chen, is sound itself. When I write music I usually create different kinds of sounds first, and they become the instrument, she said. I usually try to find sounds I like, or to create a sound I cannot obtain from acoustic instruments.
Sounds she has used include bubbling water, glass breaking, a handful of marbles rubbing against each other, percussion instruments and gunshots. Chen records the sounds and then manipulates them through use of computer programs, digital processors and synthesizers. When weaving the sounds together, she usually has a theme in mind, Chen said.
To me, melody is something missing in contemporary music. Whenever I write something I try to include some kind of melody. I hope that's a helpful way for the listener to appreciate the music, she said.
Her music has been performed and broadcast in cities around the world. Two of Chen's scores won First Prize and Honorable Mention in the Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo in Varese, Italy.
For Monday's concert, Chen will be accompanied by Arthur Campbell on clarinet, Eric Tanner on violin, Paul Austin, horn, Jason Redmond, baritone, Tim Church, marimba, and Gregory Secor, percussion. Including sopranos Cara Terbrack and Mary Asadorian, all are either music faculty or students of GVSU.
The program gives a retrospective of Chen's works from 1995 to the present. Her most recent composition, Next Door, features an opera-theatre-like acoustic and vocal performance that is based on a poem by GVSU Poet Laureate Patricia Clark.
Chen, 36, is director of the GVSU Music Technology Center. She holds a doctorate in Composition and master's degrees in Music Theory and Piano Performance from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and a BA in Social Work from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan.
