Quanta

When I first came to China with a group of my colleagues I was often asked how is China different from the US? Implicit in the question is that it is indeed very different, and of course in many ways it is. But touching down in Beijing from New York, one cannot but note the many similarities. Sure, when one visits the treasures of the past, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, one encounters difference. But that is to travel far back in time. The more modern the context the more similar do we seem. The grid structure, the materials used for roads, the design of traffic lights, the more modern architectural structures, all have close parallels in the not only the United States, but in most modern cities. But there was one thing, totally ubiquitous, that did remind me at every turn of my head, and that was the written Chinese language: a testament to not only a divergent past, but a different present. To a westerner one is immediately struck both by it's aesthetic beauty and it's total incomprehensibility. The piece I wrote, Quanta, starts from this perspective.

Quanta, creates a sonic analogue to a series of Chinese characters, but from an outsider's point of view. That is, they exhibit energy, gesture, form and emotion, but not meaning per se. In doing this what I wanted to create was a dialogue between my world and yours. I am fascinated by the Chinese language and like to look at it without comprehending it, but feel drawn to it. I hope that you will listen to my piece in the same spirit. As we traveled around China on our wonderful trip orchestrated by the NCPA, driving through stunningly beautiful rice growing regions, boating down the Li River, walking through the electrified streets of Shanghai, seeing the awesome view from the Great Wall, as time went on, I would start to recognize certain characters and felt that the slow process of decoding had started. I wanted my piece to parallel this process. As one listens it first seems like a series of (hopefully pleasing) random gestures, but as time goes on, one starts to recognize some of them and the piece starts to take on a larger, less fragmented form.