MUSICAL WORKS

WANG Chi / 王驰

Ling Yin / 灵隐

Birth Y: 1985 Birth C: CHINA Gender: Female

Media Specification: Live electronics

Media: https://vimeo.com/190948993

Prog. notes: Ling Yin is a real-time interactive composition for the Gametrak three-dimensional position-reporting system, custom software created in Max, and Kyma. The Ling Yin Temple (灵隐寺) is a Buddhist Temple in Hangzhou, China that I frequently visit. The temple’s name can be translated literally as Temple of the Soul’s Retreat. It is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the region and contains numerous pagodas and Buddhist grottoes. There are nine main buildings, eighteen pavilions, and seventy-seven temple halls built within the temple grounds that are located on a hill. The most formal recitation in each temple is different and occurs at different times during the day. The four main sutras studied in Ling Yin Temple are Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Suvarṇaprabhāsa-uttamarāja-sūtra, Sad-dharma Puṇḍárīka Sūtra, and Karunika-rāja Prajñāpāramitā sūtra. I am moved each time I visit the temple. These essences of the Ling Yin Temple provided the spiritual breath of the composition. The performance of Ling Yin starts with pulling the string of the Gametrak and ends with gently releasing the string back to the original state of the Gametrak. The passage from “nothing” to “nothing” metaphorically reflects Buddhism’s awareness of nothingness and the avoidance of the self, while simultaneously striving to share and love during the process of life’s journey.
灵隐寺 is a Buddha Temple in Hangzhou that I frequently visit. There are nine main buildings, eighteen pavilions and seventy-seven temple halls built on a hill. 灵隐, meaning “pure mind”, 灵隐寺 is the temple to purify the soul. In this piece, the performer interacts with the two contractible strings of the Gametrak controller that move between different states of tension and release to express the emotional journey between the individual and the exposure to the Buddha Recitation.

The Gametrak controller outputs data streams based on the position of the two strings in three-dimensional space. I direct those data streams to control sound-producing algorithms in realtime with the objective of creating an expressive musical performance.

Editor: MB