Dancing to My Shadow (2021)

for percussion, player piano, and realtime image

In ancient Chinese poetic literature, the combination of “moon,” “shadow” or “drunkenness” is usually the metaphor for inner hysterics when one is experiencing extreme loneliness and longing for the unreachable person or place. Some examples found in poetries include: “I raise my cup to invite the moon who blends, her light with my shadow and we are three friends...my shadow's a mess while I dance along...1” by Li Bo, or “...where shall I be found at day's early break from wine awake? Moored by a riverbank planted with willow trees, beneath the waning moon and in the morning breeze...2” by Liu Yong, and “...don’t lean alone on rails when the bright moon appears! Wine in sad bowels would turn to nostalgic tears...3” by Fang Zhongyan and so on. My composition Dancing to My Shadow is also inspired by such poetry: “how rare the moon, so round and clear...dancing to my shadow, I feel no longer the mortal tie4.” The piece, however, is not a description or reinterpretation of the poem, rather it holds personal meaning and resonance; Su Shi’s text deeply affected me when a series of changes happened in my life. Thus I borrow it to sublimate my emotional expression in my music.

Within this music, “shadow” and “drunken dance” are the two keywords. Worthy of mentioning, multidimensional conveyance and perception by spreading out and expositing the core concept(s) in various time units and sonic perspectives are something I have explored time and time again in recent years. After having read Bell Yung’s article, Choreographic and Kinesthetic Elements in Performance on the Chinese Seven-String Zither, I have expanded my exploration by including kines- thetic and visual components within the performance practice apart of this work’s conception.Dancing to My Shadow is dedicated to percussionist Yongyun Zhang and premiered by her on January 14th, 2022 at UC San Diego.