Tsang’s musical poetry (2018-2020) for 'Twisting Ways' from the WJO album _Twisting Ways_ (2020)

Tsang, Lee ORCID: 0000-0002-3122-9639 (2020) Tsang’s musical poetry (2018-2020) for 'Twisting Ways' from the WJO album _Twisting Ways_ (2020). .

	Text The Hand (Lee's Key) with cello (part for trio version).pdf - Unspecified Download (56kB) | Preview
	Text [2] Braid's new ballad piano sketch (pre-text, subsequently for The Hand).pdf - Unspecified Download (52kB) | Preview
	Text [5] Cote piano sketch for Winnipeg in reponse to The Hand (pre-text, subsequently for Hope Shadow).pdf - Unspecified Download (37kB) | Preview
	Text [6] TWISTING WAYS - Score - Tsang_Braid_Cote.pdf - Unspecified Download (1MB) | Preview
	Video [4] 2019-03-13 (VGM, Liverpool) The Hand - Lee Tsang (baritone), David Braid (piano).mp4 - Unspecified Download (77MB)
	Audio [1] Twisting Ways - Tsang, Braid, Cote in production (Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, vocalist Sarah Slean) 11.11.2020.mp3 - Unspecified Download (65MB)

Abstract

The research explores improvisation as an extended collaborative, fluid creative process, and specifically metamorphic development of musico-poetic responses in that process. In 'Twisting Ways'[1], Tsang provides a textual, narrative core and structural bridge to the jazz-classical crossover music of collaborators Braid and Côte, using as architect-theorist Goel (2014) puts it ‘convergent’ and ‘lateral/divergent’ transformations of their musical sketches[2,5]. Such transformations are undertaken in turn: Tsang writes[3], performs[4] musical poetry (‘The Hand’ premiere, 2019); Braid improvises accompaniment to Tsang’s performed text[4]; Côte responds, second musical sketch[5]; Tsang responds musico-poetically (‘Hope Shadow’, 2019), provides process details[3]; Côte/Braid orchestrate [6]; WJO records[1]; vocalist readings of Tsang’s text, added later, are developed collectively in production[1]. Tsang describes as chimeric the strategic structural methods of the project’s collaborative creativity: methods involve brief-responding through independent working, followed by various stages of stitching by all agents for coherence; whilst blend is achieved, partly through stitching, creative agents’ original contributions retain distinctiveness. The metamorphic processes of Tsang’s work are rooted in phonological improvisation that responds to (and inspires) melodic-harmonic sketches. Tsang’s approach, which involves intuitive timbral proximity matching of vowels to melodic-harmonic sonorities, draws on his timbre theorist experience (Tsang 2002), McAdams et al’s timbre space model (1995), and Cook’s Musical Multimedia theory (1998). Phoneme anchoring precedes metaphor layering, which in turn provides substance and mystery to narrative development. Invoking Wilde, Jung, the Confucian, and the Biblical, Tsang’s image frame orientates the work’s crossover musical responses and transformational structures towards Western-Daoist commonalities, thematically rejecting Western egoism in favour of Western culture aspects that align with Wuwei principles (Puett and Gross-Loh, 2016). Whilst his text is balanced to accommodate readings that cover a light-dark spectrum, the vocal line’s flips and twists in album production lead to darker characterisations that draw out the underlying narcissist thread set out by Tsang.

Item Type:	Other
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	12 Nov 2020 13:09
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 23:25
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3105525

Available Versions of this Item

• Tsang’s musical poetry (2018-2020) for 'Twisting Ways' from the WJO album _Twisting Ways_ (2020). (deposited 12 Nov 2020 13:09) [Currently Displayed]
  • Tsang’s musical poetry (2018-2020) for _Twisting Ways_ (Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, 2020). (deposited 18 Dec 2020 16:27)
    • Tsang’s musical poetry (2018-2020) for 'Twisting Ways' (Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, 2020). (deposited 30 Dec 2020 19:09)