I Am Dancing Blue Flame - Ying-Chen Kao
Text by H. A. Kares and electronics by Jenny Beck
live performance by Bonnie Lander (soprano), Zach Herchen (tenor saxophone), and David Witmer (piano)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Program Notes:
I am Dancing Blue flame is a musical work that portrays the female perspective of the soul reaching and extending into a dualistic vision of oneself. We are often over stimulated in society and forget to identify with who we really are from an organic perspective. Therefore I tried to create a world of stasis and meditation to counter the hectic and confused state that we often live in. I did this by using a mixture of dark and bright colors with intertwining melodic lines. The idea behind the prerecorded voice and sound samples is to interlace the metaphoric inner voice of the protagonist.
This piece is written for my dearest friend Bonnie Lander whom I have known for a long period of time. I as well would like to thank Jenny Beck who helped me with the computer aspects. Most of all I would like to thank Heather Kares for writing this dramatic and meaningful poem that inspired me to write this piece.