QIN

Qin is a real-time interactive composition of approximately eight minutes in duration for two custom-made performance interfaces, custom software created in Max, and Kyma. Qin is a special symbol in Chinese culture and literature that is associated with delicacy, elegance, confidence, power, eloquence, and longing for communication. The symbol Qin appears in literature as early as the time that the Book of Songs was collected. Qin is also a Chinese instrument. Qin has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by scholars and appeared in literature as an instrument associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. In my composition Qin, I took as inspiration the shape of the original Qin instrument and mapped some of the traditional functions on to my custom-made performance interface, replacing the traditional Qin performance techniques with newly developed techniques that draw the desired data from the controllers.