Creating a new composition
Jerry Yue Zhuo's composition integrates strictly notated and improvisatory elements that require performers to collaborate in producing specific sonic and visual outcomes. Our performance has been selected to be presented during the Music Since 1900 International Conference, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (June, 2022). Dream: Pavilion by the Water (2020-2, hereafter Pavilion) for piano and mezzo-soprano witnesses the ongoing trend of revitalising composer-performer practice since 2020. The piece was inspired by the poem with the same title, written by the Song Chinese poet Qingzhao Li (1084—1155). The autobiographical and nostalgic tone made the poem an ideal subject for my research on identity — how a composition reflects a multi-layered, ever-changing identity construct. The concept of ‘poetic space’ was used when conceiving such a construct; Pavilion aims to present simultaneously the composer, performer, and the poet’s multiple identities in a ‘poetic’ way that leaves freedom of interpretation to the audience.
