A veil barely seen

Composed in 2001, this piece was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, violist Liuh-Wen Ting. It was premiered in New York in April of 2001, at Merkin Hall.

Ms. Ting commissioned A veil barely seen to be one of five pieces that would each represent one of the five Chinese elements (earth, air, fire, water, and wood). A veil barely seen represents water. Its electronic part consists primarily of the recorded sound of water, which is sometimes colored by filtering, and from which lingering tones arise and decay. In the viola part, single notes and melodic fragments emerge from the tape sounds, with many subtle variations in tone color, vibrato or lack thereof, and dynamics.

Ms. Ting performs A veil barely seen on my CD Centre Bridge from Mode Records

Site for A veil barely seen at the AMC Online Library (includes audio and an excerpt of the score)

Chapter 6 of the Tao Te Ching is about the Valley Spirit, an eternal female element associated with water. In a poetic translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, this entity is compared to "a veil barely seen."

I recorded the sound of water for this piece in the winter and early spring of 2000. Listening to the different streams, I felt myself pulled in by the sound. The water flows between, around, and through the rocks, and as it does, it produces different pitches and rhythms. They change in subtle ways, depending on where you stand. The longer I listened, the more I began to hear. But sometimes, I could not tell whether the pitches that I heard were really there, or were only sounding in my imagination. Finally, I felt myself disappearing into the water.

An excerpt of the piece is available for download at the AMC Online Library here.

An excerpt of the score in PDF format is also available for download at the AMC Online Library here.

On Mode Records: Centre Bridge.