Why Ask Questions?

Why Ask Questions? was commissioned by Danny Yung as background music for an installation art exhibition. At the time, the 1997 Handover was on the horizon, and many in Hong Kong were questioning what the future would bring. Others asked, "Why ask questions? Why not just accept fate?" I composed the original 30-minute microtonal piece (which was called Deep Structure of Chinese Culture) algorithmically (using the computer to make some of the compositional decisions). Then I added multi-effect processing to Chinese voices and Chinese computer instrument designs for dizi, xiao, erhu, pipa and gong. The 9-minute concert version uses the same program.

《为何提问？》一曲由丹尼·杨委托创作，作为装置艺术展览的背景音乐。彼时，1997年的政权交接在即，众多香港市民正对未来的走向感到困惑。有人提出疑问：‘为何提问？为何不直接接受命运的安排？’我通过算法创作了原始的30分钟微音作品（被称为《中国文化深层结构》），并运用计算机参与部分作曲决策。随后，我为汉语语音及汉语计算机乐器设计中的笛、箫、二胡、琵琶和钹等添加了多效果处理。9分钟的演出版本采用了相同的曲目。