The Yuha Archive :: “SONICFOLIO SCORES” Episode 9:: Means Without— FIELD NOTES
SONICFOLIO SCORES was a collection of graphic scores jointly produced by The Yuha Archive (Toronto), and The Operating System Liminal Lab (New York). From August 2021- August 2022, eleven graphic scores were produced. Each graphic score endeavored to introduce new perspectives in musical notation and interpretation. The full archive can be found HERE
“Means Without” is the ninth installment of the SONICFOLIO SCORES Project supported by the Operating System & Liminal Lab. To stay up to date with the Yuha Archive SONICFOLIO Series, follow the project on Soundcloud or the Archive’s website. For the introduction to this series here on the OS’ Medium platform, click here.
The expression “point of departure” is often signaled as an understanding that all intervals in life, do have a beginning. For the interpreter, these beginnings would be known as “starts” or “openings” from which musical scores prescribe departures as an equivalent pre-conceived choices.
In the graphic score MEANS WITHOUT, “points of departure” find no pre-conceived choices. Instead, choice becomes a departure that is either give or take. Choice becomes omni-directional; a state, and atmosphere that cultivates movements of departures that are in a flux of freefall. Contrary to gravity, a sonic freefall signifies beginnings that procure eternal textures in movement and sound.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MEANS WITHOUT
MEANS WITHOUT is a work for open instrumentation of an indefinite duration. All staves do not maintain a beginning. All staves conclude themselves at some point. The notes, while notated as circles do not have beginnings, you, the interpreter, is allowed a beginning. What do you do as you journey through the cycle of staves that deny your beginnings and notes that seemingly feel eternal? Notice the series of shapes and colours overcast above the staves. Notice how each quantic shape and colour are in limbo, free falling between state, atmosphere, and particle in proportion to the staves.
Stanford Cheung engages across a variety of creative hubs as a classical pianist, sonic artist, improvisor, and multi-disciplinary poet. From concerto performances with orchestras, poetry recitals, to electronic free-form improvisation for art installations, Cheung has collaborated internationally with a variety of artists and scholars, including Morgan Fisher, Steven J Fowler, Shahzad Ismaily and Nobuo Kubota. Cheung’s commissioned projects have been exhibited or forthcoming at the 43rd Rhubarb Festival (Buddies in Bad Times), Osaka University OCCA, Edinburgh University, Christchurch University, Banff Centre for the Arts, Orpheus Institute, Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tokyo Poetry Journal, among others. Presently, Cheung is pursuing his Doctoral degree in music at McGill University where his research is dedicated to the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He runs a multimodal soundscape project called The Yuha Archive.
You can find him here: https://stanfordcheung.com/
