TrebledJ's Pages

Relay

2024-01-20T00:00:00Z

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.

– Isaiah 9:2

What is a relay? A race—passing a baton from one to the next. The passing of packets by a router or a gateway server. Or used plainly as a verb without technicalities, a relay may simply mean to receive and pass on information.¹

It's worth taking a moment to reflect: what are we relaying? As time passes, more responsibility falls on our shoulders—the responsibility to be helpful (or useful?) in society; the responsibility to mentor; the responsibility to work, to execute; the responsibility to lead.

What are we relaying? What torch are we passing on? What is our light? And what keeps us moving?

The average human works 90,000 hours. There's only so much experience, wealth, and knowledge we can accrue.

Light the torch and guide us through the dark.
Shadows, dispelled by balls of flame.
Relay to us this bright white shining spark.
Ready, for the race to carry on.
^{(Some words to go along with the climactic sections.)}

Similar to Remorse, Relay was featured as part of a challenge in the HKUST Firebird CTF 2024 competition, a competition where teams hunt for hidden pieces of text.

Footnotes

It might also (in my mind) be a play-on of "rhythmic delay". ↩︎

Midnight Enigma

2023-04-13T00:00:00Z

Midnight Enigma is composed for a musical challenge constraining pitches within two octaves, with the bonus theme of game music.¹ Pitch and range constraints aren't that unusual. When writing for any instrument or voice, it's important to keep in mind its range and register. You probably don't want to see (let alone hear) a bass singer singing an A5 note.

Though being limited to two octaves bordered on draconian, I made do. I had to cut some corners melodically, since imitation was more difficult and flamboyant melodies couldn't be expressed. Nonetheless, I focused on exploring other aspects of music: the rhythm, extended chords, microtones, and whatnot. I also decided to have fun with the Phrygian mode a bit more.² I started playing with this mode in Remorse (without knowing about it 🫢), and still find it very interesting to use. (Perhaps this will become the topic of a blog post?)

I decided to go with a band/minimalist/electronic fusion with a mix of drums, Reichian phasing, and electronic-inspired delay. I took (mental) inspiration from open world games such as Minecraft, where a huge number of possibilities lie at your fingertips and consequences aren't drastic.

A majority of the piece was composed during midnight hours in the days before the challenge deadline, hence the title. (Yes, I messed up my sleep schedule then.)

On another note, this was my first time using MIDI vocals. They sound better than I expected; might play with them in future pieces. :)

Enjoy~

Footnotes

The octaves I chose were G2-G3 + G4-G5. Pitches can be anywhere inside these ranges, but not between (G3-G4) or outside. ↩︎
The Phrygian mode is characterised by the flat-2nd. As Midnight Enigma is primarily in C minor, the flat-2nd would be the D-flat. ↩︎

Déjà Vu – Cycle of Power

2023-04-09T00:00:00Z

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever…

— Daniel 2:44 (NIV)

Organisations, institutions, nations, governments, civilisations. Whether big or small, strong or weak, aggressive or meek, each eventually fades and another rises to take its place. Though on the outside, they seem different; in the inside, they are underscored by a common denominator: the human nature of selfishness and stupidity (or put bluntly, sin).

Does this mean we should dissolve into anarchy? Well, no. Organisation, with enough trust, is better than disorganisation. Proper care should be taken to manage resources, especially on a nation-wide level.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

— Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)

"Gibberish, ChatGPT is new under the sun!" But if we take into account all history and the timeline of events, there’s really not much new. Did you know before computers were invented, a computer used to be a job title? It wouldn’t be surprising if, later on, an engineer or artist refers to a computer program.

My point lies in the cycle of power and time. Developments, alliances, wars, laws, technologies, and disasters become mere motifs in the grand scheme of things. Standards of living, science, technology, and health have all improved over the past millennia, but nations still rage like a ceaseless tempest. Conflicts arise, almost inevitably, as if they were meant to be. Such is human nature.

Déjà Vu – Cycle of Power is my impression of all the above. The musical ideas in this piece were not without inspiration. Some notable inspirations were Fauré's melodic tune in Libera Me, Holst's militaristic rhythm in Mars, and John Adams’ minimalist works.

This piece is scored for orchestra, with repeated sections to capture the essence of a cycle. Throughout this timeless journey, civilisations rise and fall. They come in different shapes and sizes, from the grand to the subdued, from the pacifists to the militarists. A fleeting escape is made into a lucid dreamlike passage where flourishing arpeggios elevate us from reality; yet order lurks in the background. The piece culminates in an oddly familiar setting as history seemingly repeats itself.

Each motif and section comes to an end, their place taken by a new motif—and ultimately silence. But there’s a motif which doesn’t end—which can’t be captured on sheets of music.¹

Although the world we live in may seem like an inescapable matrix², each of us has the opportunity to learn, to teach, to experience different perspectives, and to share the hope of something unseen—something more.

On this Easter Sunday (and well… all Easter Sundays), we commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, remembering the glorious occasion of His power—and victory—over death, sin, and evil.

Footnotes

How do you apply dimension reduction on the infinite without discarding an ounce of its beauty? Good luck trying to use PCA or whatever dimensionality reduction algorithm is popular at the time of reading. I mean, I suppose it's still possible to focus on some aspects and reduce accordingly. Maybe for a later time. ↩︎
Alluding to the movie. Go watch it if you haven’t already. _{cough - You know who you are.} ↩︎

Amorama

2023-02-14T00:00:00Z

Amorama was composed for a fun little musical challenge on the theme of love ❤️ with the constraint of using the rarely-sighted 13/16 metre. Often, music is made for more balanced, basic metres such as 4/4, 3/4, and 6/8. For some reason, we seem to prefer small subdivisions of 2 or 3. We can still apply this principle with 13/16 though, and it turns out that's what most contestants did. :)

I chose to blend Cuban rhythms, some sweet little tunes, and—since it's February—various love themes (see if you recognise any!). The piece is scored for violin, piano, double bass, castanets (the clacky things), and drums. The violin and piano are responsible for the melody, while the bass, castanets, and drums primarily generate rhythm and provide the swaying dance line.

As encouraged by Spotify advertisements, go and dance with abandon!

Happy Valentine's Day, God bless, and enjoy~ ❤️

Remorse

2023-01-27T00:00:00Z

A reflection of the past, composed and mixed during my 7-day covid quarantine.

Time ebbs past,
As anguish holds fast.
Without you I’m filled with remorse,
For you are my one driving force.

As the season turns,
My heart still churns.
I’ll leave my sins and remorse,
Heading on a different course.

The purpose of composing this piece is threefold: it served as an expression of faith and emotions, a challenge for a Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competition, and an enjoyable way to pass quarantine. There wasn't any priority to a particular purpose; all of them seemed to develop together.

This piece was composed for the HKUST Firebird 2023 Internal CTF. Such competitions are designed to challenge players with cybersecurity know-how. Once players identify and exploit a vulnerability, they are rewarded with a flag (a piece of text), which awards points to the player when submitted. Occasionally, some challenges deviate from the norm and test players in other areas. In this case, my challenge tested players in analysing music and patterns.

When composing this piece, I aimed to compose something listenable and motivic. I decided to keep constraints flexible within limits. If a music is too constrained, it sounds choked, inevitable, or unimaginative. Some music ciphers out there encode letters into pitches and duration. This was a bit too far for my liking, as it becomes painstakingly difficult to find a pleasurable tune.

As hinted by the title, I first translated the flag into Morse using an online converter with the extended Morse character set. This allowed for some punctuation such as (, -, _, and funky non-ASCII characters such as é.

With plaintext, we need to encode at least 50 distinct letters. With Morse, we just need to encode 3 instead: ., -, and space (as a word separator). So things are relatively simple.

I toyed around with a few ideas of encoding these three characters. Eventually I ended up with this mapping:

. → "Note On" in upper stave (treble clef)
- → "Note On" in lower stave (bass clef)
space → "Note On" in both staves

This lent the music well to a contrapuntal form, with the occasional grace-note or glissando to pack characters in a way that preserves the melodic contour. After composing the sheet music, I ended up mixing it with Reaper for some extra flair and charged resonance, making the night seem younger.

Enjoy the result!

Seaside Garden

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Seaside Garden is composed for HKUST's Call for Scores for the School Anthem.¹ I present my rationale below, at the expense of being cheesy.

Rationale

My journey with HKUST started three and a half years ago. This was a period of becoming, exploration, and development. To me, the university is like a garden: cultivating and nurturing flora and fauna, a peaceful sanctuary, a place of life and beauty. Situated near the sea, HKUST stands firm as waves ceaselessly crash against its foundation.

But what's a garden without birds? A garden is a place where birds can flourish and grow before departing and exploring the outside world. There are countless kinds of birds: wisened owls, agile peregrines, shrewd crows, and hardworking weavers among others. The garden and birds live in symbiosis. The garden provides nutrition and shelter; in exchange, birds spread seeds and pollinate flowers. It is well-known that birds digest fruit from one end and discharge (plus fertilise!) seeds from the other end, planting these gifts to who-knows-where. Without birds, the world becomes a very dark and dismal place.

HKUST's iconic sundial goes by many names. In Cantonese, it's colloquially known as the turkey (literally, fire chicken). Some university groups such as the Red Bird and Firebird teams name themselves after the sculpture. Indeed, it is difficult not to feel a fiery sensation when looking at the sundial.² The name it was officially given was "Circle of Time", a timeless tribute to humanity and a reflection of Earth's endless cycle. Although the two HKUST campuses are separated by a border, the two are united by such a monument.

Further references include the purple orchid, storms, and other subtle things. The purple orchid—aka the Bauhinia, Hong Kong's national flower—was included in view of HKUST's commitment towards the development of Hong Kong. Storms, on the other hand, are an inevitable part of life in Hong Kong and neighbouring ports.

Composed in the final week of the year 2022 and released on New Year's Day 2023, it is my wish that this song instils vision and harmony in learning and teaching throughout the HKUST community.

Lyrics

I'm no lyricist, but for completeness and posterity here are my jank lyrics.

Verse 1
Seedlings sprout forth
As purple orchids bloom.
And birds start the morning
As they sing a joyful tune.

Pre-Chorus 1
Oh the sun rises and falls,
In an endless Circle of Time.
And clouds can't hide the rays that shine from above.

Chorus 1
But though storms and strife may rage all night,
Our journey carries on.
Oh, the seaside garden,
Our community.

Through storms and strife we'll find our way
As one in unity.
In the seaside garden,
Our community.

Verse 2
Dandelions
Blow far, far away.
And birds leave the treetops
As they fly off on their way.

Pre-Chorus 2
The stars rise and fall
In an endless Circle of Time.
And clouds can't hide our voice and fiery call

Chorus 2
And through the books, the toil,
The sleepless nights,
Our journey carries on.
Though storms and strife may rage all night,
Our path is not forgone
Let vision guide all our hearts
Through vivid dreams and youthful hope.
In the seaside garden,
Our community.³

Chorus 3⁴
And through the times, the trials,
The countless miles,
Our venture knows no end.
Wind and water carry far
The gifts that we present.
Let virtues latch on our wings
With steadfast bonds and harmony.
Oh seaside garden,
Our family.³

Outro
From the seaside garden,
We fly!
We fly!

Footnotes

It didn't get accepted, sadly. But that's okay. ↩︎
Up to interpretation, of course. Perhaps it's a fiery love. A fiery joy. A fiery excitement. It could just as well be a fiery hatred, anger, or diarrhoea. ↩︎
May interchange between "community" or "family". ↩︎ ↩︎
May repeat Chorus 2 instead, or sing Chorus 3 twice. Ad lib. ↩︎

Space Penguin

2022-08-26T00:00:00Z

Dedicated to everyone feeling stressed, down, lost, or under the weather.

As we all know, penguins are great swimmers. Sadly however they can't fly (or so we think!). But as the "Learn to Fly" game series teaches us, with enough dedication, penguins can indeed fly. And with each attempt they reach higher altitudes, even if simply done using a tiny booster rocket.

Hopefully this little piece may be a booster rocket for you.

Joyride in D

2022-01-20T00:00:00Z

This upbeat track is an offshoot of Morning Rush, spawned from a melody in the latter's interlude. Couldn't resist going ham on the drums.

Unlike Breath of Life and Morning Rush, this piece doesn't have any particular meaning imbued into it, just a fun little composition. I enjoyed writing the keyboard solo (although in its current state, it's not exactly playable), as well as the guitar countermelody at 2:50. Also writing for drums wasn't as boring as I thought.

This is the third of my three 2021 compositions, uploaded to mark the start of 2022. Enjoy.

Morning Rush

2022-01-19T00:00:00Z

Do you feel the exhilaration of the morning air? The excitement of stepping out of bed? Chomping down breakfast?

This upbeat track is an offshoot of The Breath of Life, rendering its minimalistic elements with a modern instrumentation and at a faster pace. In particular, it combines the 1564 chord progression with the 332 rhythmic pattern in the rhythm guitar.

This is the second of my three 2021 compositions, uploaded to mark the start of 2022. Enjoy.

The Breath of Life

2022-01-18T00:00:00Z

Slow. Growing. Contemplating. Lush. Carefree. Hopeful. Yearning. This piece seeks to paint a diverse set of feelings. Listen for the string ensemble easing in and out of the void, the solemn moments of silence, the lightheartedness of the syncopated pizzicato, the relentless cycle of tension and relief.

In some sections, I aimed for a more contemplative and reflective atmosphere. One key inspirations was Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians (an hour-long piece!) where Reich demonstrates the idea of "pulsing", where a note is repeated rapidly at regular intervals with an increase then decrease in dynamics. The overall effect is quite serene, making the soundscape ebb in and out.

To capture this atmosphere of serenity in The Breath of Life but maintain a slow and steady tempo, I decided for the lower strings (cello + double bass) to play long breves. At the same time, the music would "breathe in" and "breathe out" both dynamically and sometimes harmonically. As the lower strings play a third, the measure tenses up a bit. Examples of these are at 2:24 and 8:00.

This is the first of my three 2021 compositions, uploaded to mark the start of 2022. Enjoy.

Reticence

2021-08-21T00:00:00Z

Something about the past few years has been very poignant—deep, memorable, touching yet almost hurting; somewhat close yet also far; cold and distant yet warm inside.

Reticence was composed as a final project for an introductory course to music composition. Originally, I wanted the piece to be faster and more brisk (akin to a stressed state of mind). But after some reflection (and on further advice by instructors), I settled with a slower tempo. Following further modifications, the final result attempts to capture a held back, cold yet comforting, and ultimately poignant mood.

The piece was performed by Galison Lau and Ka Lap Wong in the final concert of the course. The SoundCloud upload is a software rendition.