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About Isle of Dunes
One of the activities I enjoy the most is
traveling to this country's National Parks. In the 23 years that
I've lived here, I have been to at least fifteen of them, and
those in the great Southwest desert provide me with the greatest
inspiration. In that landscape, which has extraordinary power
over the human imagination and spirit, I see patterns and
relationships. The desert has taught me about light, color,
form, texture, and movement. I see its rhythms, its rise and
fall, its tension and release, that are very much related to our
own. Throughout this dance are movements that I created from
images of the American desert-the endless horizon, the cactus,
the rolling sand dunes, the gigantic rocks, the animals and the
myths of the Native Americans who embraced this land. From time
to time, subconsciously, images of the vast desert in Asia also
came to my mind and inspired me. -Nai-Ni Chen
Composer's note on Isle of Dunes/Desert Myths
Having spent eighteen years living in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, and traveling extensively around the American
Southwest, I have a vivid connection to the landscape, the brown
hills, the red rocks, the caves carved into the sides of
mountains where animals and people took refuge, the sweet smell
of precious rain as it moves across the desert, the storms that
can be seen from miles away, just beyond the next ridge or mesa,
the stark stone sculptures, monuments carved by winds, rain, and
retreating ancient seas. In my music I have tried to reflect the
undulating desert floor, sudden slashes of lightning, the
hot-white sunlight that bakes the earth, the golden glow of late
afternoon light, dust devils and tumbleweeds blown by dry winds,
cracked riverbeds waiting for the rushing torrents of flash
floods, striations of beige, grey, and pink colors in hills of
rock and broken stones, roiling clouds in the endless sky, the
shock of desert flowers, brilliant yellow, red, blue, purple,
violet, and the strange creatures that wriggle swiftly in the
desert dust. Some of the music is intentionally
"atmospheric." Certain elements are occasionally heard
as if from a great distance, like the wooden flute sounding
almost as if coming from a distant mountain, or perhaps in
memory. The pianist often plays inside the piano, directly on
the strings, with open palms or felt mallets, to give the
feeling of distant thunder. I have also drawn inspiration from
some of the marvelous myths and stories that abound in the
southwestern culture, especially those that involve trickster
Coyote and the whispering ghosts. Nai-Ni's focus on the elements
of earth, fire, water, and wind have also influenced the shape
and flow of my music, Desert Myths, for Isle of Dunes.
Ne(x)tworks are brilliant musicians, fearless and willing
interpreters devoted to realizing complex and sometimes unusual
ideas, and I am grateful for their consummate skill and
intelligence. -Joan La Barbara
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