Interior Migrations
personnel:
- Wang Guowei - Erhu
- Ronald Lawrence - Viola
- Min Xiao-Fen - Pipa
- Michael Lowenstern - Bass Clarinet (Bb)
Original score: July, 1998
Revised: May, 2002
Interior Migrations expresses movements within the mind. I often wondered how my parents were transformed by America when they arrived in the 1940's. Moving into the logic of a new culture demanded a myriad of both intellectual and emotional adaptations. If this music were heard as the energy of their thoughts, their interior migrations would become luminous images incarnated within the sonic universe of the erhu, viola, pipa and bass clarinet. Within Interior Migrations, the ancient tradition of each instrument is challenged by the larger musical language spoken. Even as one hears the unity of sonic gestures, fluent and unpredictable like a school of fish, the individualism of each timbral strand is undeniable. This is how our thoughts journey forward to reside in a new land.