Living colours : an Asian-Pacific conceptual frame for composition

In this chapter I consider three recent compositions, tracing the hybrid aesthetic each embodies. The works are: In Gentleness and Suddenness (2003), Not Broken Bruised Reed (2009) and Gentleness-Suddenness (2012). In Particular, I trace how my aesthetic of living colours emerged from my experiences of Cantonese opera and Japanese calligraphy, and how it reflects an attitude of openness or friendship, an attitude requiring 'lateral thinking'. In another context, Steven Nuss has referred to such an aesthetic hybridity as 'cross-cultural action and interaction', drawing attention to the resonant cultural flux of such creative actions. For me, the cultural interactions of the Asian-Pacific are a confluence of place and individual creative actions that resonate in contemporary compositional practice as living colours of musical sound.