Three Poems from Shi Jing is a song cycle composed to three texts chosen from the Book of Odes, an ancient collection of Chinese poems that dates back to the 11th century BC. The composition is written for voice and chamber orchestra, with the orchestra divided into five groups. The piece represents not only the culmination to this point of my studies in contemporary compositional aesthetics and techniques, but also my research into Chinese culture, all of which took place during the two-year master's program at Tufts University under the guidance of Professor John McDonald. The goal of this composition is not purely a creative work, but also a personal effort to provide a forum that allows negotiation between ancient and contemporary, east and west, and noise and music. In this essay, I will address the following issues: my motivation to work on such a project; my choice of texts in Chinese as well as in English translation; and my compositional process, specifically addressing the orchestration, structural design, and relationship between the language and the music.
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