The Trial of the Ants

I started this piece about two months ago, after abandoning a piece I worked on from last summer, for that I tried to mimic Debussy's style in fluidity, natural sonority and melodic figuration. The reason why I abandoned it was because I did not like it anymore; and I did not know why.

The new piece that I now tentatively gave a name of The Trial of the Ants, started with a thought of being new, new to me. I wish to do something I never did before. So I threw in the first two bars of wholetone scale, not knowing I liked it or not. I just did. I had a hard time continuing this initial thought. I would sporadically spend a few minutes on the piano, trying to come up with something and gave up when I did not hear what I liked. I could produce nothing for two weeks and then have 20 bars done in an hour on a particular day, and then did nothing for a whole month or simply forgot about it for a long time. To be honest, I would not have produced 10 pages now if it were not because I had to meet my mentor every two weeks on Skype. Sometimes I produced some bars only because I had to!

Wholtone, is undoutedly "modern"; it is the other extreme from Bach, who I so far love the most. Wholetone scales literally hurt my ears, making me feel very uncomfortable, uneasy, and interrupted. Most of the body of the work was completed before Christmas and after I came back to Canada from Hawaii vacation. I wondered around trying to find connecting rhythms, melodies, ideas. Sometimes I created something that was non-modern only because, not knowingly, it has been what I am comfortable with, for example, major-minor tonality kind of resolution - very Bach.

Writing moderning work is more than just filling in untraditional scales; it is further about denying what you have alreay known and fighting against it! I finally have come to the stage where I can think of wrapping up this work - The Trial of the Ants.

The title suggests a few meanings in this work. The very dissonant wholetone scale was largely adhered to throughout the piece, indicating a story that belongs to a world that is very unfamiliar. In addition, the linear figuration of the wholetone and repetitive rhythmic patterns suggest a ruly and orgnized being; dialogues between characters speaking their particular languages are found everywhere. You can certainly hear disputes, discussions, panics, order, disruption and re-organization. Does it sound like The Trial of the Ants? The listeners are free to judge!

To perform this work will not be an easy work. First we will need to deal with fingering issue, for wholetone scales. Then the awkwardness in the flowing of the sporadically scattered melody lines, the syncopation, the frequent use of accidentals and the unconventional expressiveness will demand high level of performance skills.

Looking for interested pianist to perform it for me, for sure!!