A composer’s individuality is reflected in his/her composition/ A performer’s individuality is reflected in his/her interpretation.

「創作者(作曲家)的作品反映著他/她的獨特性，表演者(演奏家)的表演反映著她/他的獨特性。」

“Yours Mine” is a project that explores a cross-cultural/ creative role collaboration process between a composer and the performers.

How do we cultivate cultural awareness in a creative process?

How do we break from the traditional composer/performer roles allowed for open dialogues in a collaborative process?

In the project, the performers will take part in the process of composing by choosing the various musical materials in a questionnaire given by the composer. As each person comes with different life experiences, cultural backgrounds, preferences to different sounds, the outcomes of each composition will be unique.

In part one of the piece, the performer will take a quiz that will determined the musical content. The form of the piece will be controlled by the composer but the performer will be asked to think about the meaning of chosen materials drawing from his or her own experiences.

There are three layers: instrument, voice, and tape. The instrument is opened to the interpretation of the performer. The voice part involves two languages: my native language Mandarin and performer's native language. The electronics part is a series of sound examples(flexible tape set) based on the questions in the questionnaire Q3. The performer will decide the samples content and three layers will be played at the same time during for a recording or for a performance. The combination of these three layers is almost infinitive, since everyone has different life experience.

During my years of living aboard, I had become interested in creating connections with people from different cultural backgrounds and from all walks of life. This project is inspired by the continual exploration, but most importantly, I want to reflect more deeply about our own identity and to explore diversity by this project.​

《你的我的》此計畫致力於探索作曲家與演奏家之間的跨文化與跨領域對話：

我們在創作過程中如何交流文化意識？我們如何打破傳統的作曲家與演奏家角色，以共同創作的方式打開彼此間的對話？在此計畫中，演奏家將實際參與創作，在設計好的問卷與架空樂譜之引導下完成作品。由於每個人來自不同的文化背景、人生經歷，創作的結果都是獨一無二的。

第一部分，演奏家需要填寫問卷，以決定作品的動機、聲音素材...等。整個作品的架構依然由作曲家決定，但演奏家必須要仔細思考這些素材的意義，依照自身的經驗。

音樂的部分共有三個層次：樂器(instrument)、人聲語言(voice)、預錄聲景(electronics)。

樂器演奏的音樂素材與詮釋方式是完全開放。而人聲部分包含了兩種語言：我的母語以及演奏家的母語。預錄電聲部分是一系列的聲景素材，由問卷內容引導演奏家反思生活中的聆聽經驗，進而挑選放入作品之中的聲景。演奏家藉由填寫第一部份的問卷，決定作品中所有音樂素材，進而發展成現場演奏或完整錄音之作品。由於每個人與生俱來的獨特性，這三個層次組合的可能性幾乎是無限量。

與其說《你的我的》是個作品，不如說是個計畫：一個聆聽與分享的旅途。在異鄉居住後，才感受到自己的文化是深深地刻在自己的血液裡，同時也對於接觸他人的文化產生興趣。就算來自同一個城市，演奏同一個樂器，每個人也有著不同的人生經驗、不同的性格，除了文化外，記憶與個人性格，都會改變一個演奏家或作曲家的特質。而我希望藉由這個作品，去探討這些特質。

Questions and Reflections:

反思與回饋：

• if you are struggling, because you're being through a composing process.

你感到糾結，因為你正在經歷一個創作的過程。

• let's think about the normal cooperation process. First, the composer is responsible for the score, the music, guiding performers to understand the work and make the performance happen properly. The performer is responsible for the performance, interpretation, even sometimes whether to be loyal to the written music. There might be some struggle during the process, but the boundary is clear. That's the boundary this project wants to challenge and research into. In this project, the performers may feel unclear to play an empty score, may feel confused to fill out everything by themselves, may feel more time-consuming for working on this kind of piece, because this work is not about following composer's instruction, nor practice makes perfect. The composer may feel confused to be not able to control primary materials, may feel insecure/ uncertain about the result, may feel more time-consuming for communicating/ explaining this process, because the composer can't make decisions for the performer in this case. Nothing is clear until the performer is sure or happy about his/ her choices.​

先假設我們處於一個正常的合作過程工作。首先，作曲家有責任引導演奏家理解作品，並讓演出理想進行。演奏家對於詮釋、表演都有責任，有時甚至必須思考是否該忠於原著。在合作過程中總是會有掙扎，但作曲家與演奏家的界線與角色是明確的，而此計畫正是要打破這界線。在計畫的過程中，演奏家也許對於一份挖空的樂譜會感到不明瞭，對於創造自己的素材而感到困惑，對於演奏此種作品的程序感到耗時，因為這不是一首需要遵照作曲家指示，也不是關於熟能生巧的作品。而作曲家，也許會對於無法控制創作素材而感到困惑，對於作品結果感到不確定，對於溝通與解釋過程感到耗時；因為在此計畫中作曲家無法為演奏家作任何的決定，直到演奏家對於自身的決定感到確認與滿意。

• "Can I fill out the questionnaire and send it to you, then you finish the score for me?" Sorry, no, because the questionnaire and the score are connected, the performer has to be aware of creating materials. Even though I have decided the structure/ form, but how this piece would sound like is the performer’s decision, including the sound materials/ music/ recording qualities. During the process, I can guide and help the performer how to finish the score; besides, the performer will discover the composing process in the meantime.

「我可以填好第一部分問答的資料後傳給你，然後請你完成樂譜嗎?」抱歉不行，因為問答的資料與樂譜是相關聯的，演奏者必須有意識地創造素材。既使我已經決定了曲式與架構，但樂曲聽起來會如何是關乎於演奏者的決定，包含了內部聲音、演奏素材，甚至錄音品質。在執行的過程中，我會引導演奏家如何完成樂譜，同時演奏者也會體會到作曲的過程。

• How many materials would a composer control, and how much would a performer control in this project? Does the performer feel comfortable to compose and to make decisions?

Some performers are not used to compose music/ a piece, they might have no idea how to make the first step. However, this struggle has to be through, and it's exactly one of the main points of this project: Why not to challenge the relationship between composer and performer?

在此計畫中，多少素材是由作曲家控制?又多少是由演奏家控制? 演奏者是否對創作和決定素材感到自在? 有些演奏家不習慣作曲，也許第一步會有點難跨越。然而，這個障礙必須要克服，也正是此計畫的核心之一：為何不挑戰作曲者與演奏者之間的關係?

• why I choose those personal questions? Because I'm curious about different performer’s backgrounds and stories. I'm willing to free/ modify the instructions of part one, if the performer feels like to have more freedom. In the long run, all the instructions are only for guidance, nothing needs to be precise. For instance, one section could be more or less, it depends on the performer’s chosen melodies( music). 10 seconds could be longer or shorter. Please remind, put the quality of your chosen materials in a higher priority than the instructed time frame. I'm happy to listen to your quests/ thoughts/ struggles, this is not about limitation, more about to learn to listen to yourself.

為何在問答裡我選擇了這些關於個人的問題？因為我好奇不同演奏者的背景與故事。如果演奏者希望在素材決定方面有更多的自由，我很樂意修改與開放第一部份的問題。畢竟問答的部份只是引導，不需要嚴格侷限。例如，一個段落可彈性為多於或少於一個段落，視選擇的旋律作調整；問卷內的時間長度也都可彈性變動。請演奏者優先考量素材特性，不要受給予的時間侷限。我很樂意聆聽任何來自演奏者的想法、障礙、問題，此份問答並非要限制演奏者，而是要引導演奏者學習聆聽自我。

• About my decisions in this piece, the highest priority is the structure, like most composers, and the second is the performance note, the questionnaire, will transform into the performer’s idea/ decisions and primary materials/ motivation of this project. Therefore, I have the responsibility for guiding the performer through the connections between questions and scores, make them understand the whole process.

關於我自身在此計畫中的優先決定權，如大部份的作曲家，一是曲式架構；次之為樂曲解說，即為第一部分的問卷。而問卷這部分也會蛻變為演奏者的想法與決定：此作的主要動機素材。因此，我有義務引導演奏家了解整個過程，讓他們理解問答與樂譜之連結。

The feedback of 2020

2020年之反饋

• The soundscape does change during Covid-19 period: if I could go to some public spaces I used to go, the result of my questionnaire would be different. Besides, since the quarantine and curfew issue, it does change the soundscape of 2020 enormously as well.

Covid19期間大大了改變我們生活周遭的聲景：如果我能去那些平常能去的地方，問卷內的聲音選擇必然會不同。此外，由於隔離與公共場所管制的緣故，2020年的聲景也產生了巨變。

• I choose the melody I play, however I could not say it’s my favorite one. In this process, I have to look all the context together, and take care whether the melodies fit in this piece, rather than my favorite.

我選擇我自己演奏旋律，然而我無法說這是我最喜歡的旋律。在整個過程中，我必須顧及作品整體連接狀態，選擇適合整體的旋律而非我最喜歡的旋律。

• As a performer, I follow the instruction from the composer, I try my best to make things work, perform it well. In this project, I am a performer and composer as well, this double role may put me in the dilemma: to make it happen and to question it at the same time. Which one should I follow: my artistic ideas or practical aspects?

作為一個演奏者，我遵循作曲家給予的指示，我盡力做好演奏的職責。在此計畫中我是表演者也是作曲家，這個雙重角色有時會讓我陷入兩難：該質疑這問題或者嘗試讓它發生?我該遵循我的美學思考或是實際考量?

• Regarding the questionnaire and context, I start looking into the quality of my instrument during the process of this project.

由於這個計畫內容，在執行過程中讓我更深入探索我的樂器質地。

• Is a readable score important? Usually, the answer is “yes”, but in this case, performer composed all the sound materials and perform it as well, then the score became a bit personal. It seems not necessary to make everyone understand the score, since I would be the only person to play this piece.

製作一個大家能讀的樂譜在此計畫是否重要? 答案通常是肯定的，然而在此作的情況，表演者組織並演奏他們所選的素材，這份樂譜在過程中變得十分個人化。由於表演者是唯一演奏此作的人，讓每個人讀懂這樂譜(手稿)似乎不是必要的情形了。

•Why even though the tempo was not designated, all the performers’ final tempo/pulse is similar? Allegedly, human being’s heart beats would affect the playing/ performing pulse, and we have a “general heart rate”.

即使此作品並未指定演奏速度，為何所有表演者的速度卻相似? 據說人類的演奏會受心跳速率影響，而且大部分人有著正常的心跳速率。

This project is supported by National Culture and Arts Foundation