Sheng! L'orgue à bouche - séminaire 20
Forest of Bamboos - Ornithology
Julie Zhu, Alexis Baskind, Wu Wei and Liao Lin-Ni
The Forest of Bamboos - Ornithology project concerns acoustic, organological, musical and cultural analyses on the sheng! Mouth Organ (2019-2026), a traditional Chinese instrument, and additionally supports contemporary repertoire and new commissions for the sheng. In Ornithology, we are once again inviting the Chinese-American composer - Julie Zhu (carillonnist, mathematician, visual artist) for a second commission following her work Forêt de Bambous - Somme et Différence, commissioned, recorded, and broadcast by Radio France and CNCM-GMEM in 2023.
This new 2024 work pairs the sheng with an instrument the composer designed herself: a wooden box outfitted with contact mics that she draws on, the sound of which is processed through Max/MSP. Her live drawing gestures duet with and alter the sheng’s sound, which is amplified by a custom microphone system - a hybrid instrument designed by Alexis Baskind (electronics and live sound) and Wu Wei (sheng master).
In this seminar, we will focus on the musical, aesthetic and technological evolution of this second work by Julie Zhu for the Forest of Bamboos system. The project is intricately linked with previous research on the amplification and sound of the sheng created by the Forest of Bamboos team, and for this seminar, all four members will be physically present, as the seminar will be directly the day after the premiere of Ornithology.
