Meditations by Phyllis Chen

After focusing my musical life on the toy piano for nearly two decades, I felt a desire to return to the piano.

SumiTones II stems from a collaborative project I developed during my Cage-Cunningham Fellowship at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. For the residency, I collaborated with shodo artist, Masako Inkyo, to explore the intersection of movement and sound. The Japanese word “sumi” means “black ink” and refers to a particular style of ink wash paintings. Gradations of black are created by mixing water with ink and the foreground and backgrounds resemble sonic spatialization. The piece is organized with floating notes in different shades of grey.

Meditations are three semi-improvised works dedicated to my late piano teacher, André Watts, a world renowned concert pianist. As people shared his legacy after his passing in July 2023, I felt compelled to compose these pieces. André was an extraordinary human being; His generosity and wisdom were felt by all his students. It was during my time working with him I gained the courage to start composing music and shared my first toy piano composition with him.

Pianofall was inspired by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote, “flow like a river…not a drop of water.” During the pandemic, I felt the fierce interdependence of humans and their ecology.

Sensing the fragility of life, Pulse was created during the 14-day COVID pandemic shut down in March 2020. Each day, I recorded myself playing this same collection of notes, matching the speed to my pulse that moment, playing each note for each pulse beat. The 14 recordings are layered on top of one another to become a composite recording. The piece is dedicated to Pauline Oliveros.

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