Sun Junqing: Introducing my own music...

[Sun Junqing]

My last post was not passed by admin because I didn't follow the board rules. I am very sorry I was reckless...
But I have learned from my mistake~
I wrote some romantic style works,too. So I think this time I can fit the rules~
Symphony No.1~ It's a Brucknerian style work dedicated to Bruckner~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVU-wddfiQ

Symphony No.10~ Obviously a romantic style~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z50NcClfVww

My other works maybe don't fulfill the rules here but you can hear them on my youtube channel~

Thank you

[Alan Howe]

Could you tell us why you call these pieces 'symphonies', please? What is symphonic about them?

[Sun Junqing]

Sorry my English is poor~So I wrote them in Chinese and English then maybe it's better understanding~
交响性如果从听众的角度来说是一种听感。这很大程度上也依赖于一支成熟的交响乐队，我的乐曲都是由软音源构成的。这里就产生了一个很大的区别。单单一个音符，如果是由实际演奏而成，实际上由于混响、泛音（音色）、空间、感情、动态等等因素，一个音符在实际演奏中将大大扩充它原本在乐谱中包含的信息（乐谱中它就仅仅是一个音符）。听众的耳朵和大脑通过接收这些信息产生反应和回馈。对于习惯于聆听音乐的爱好者来说，这种感觉就会产生所谓的交响性，这是一种经验。而我的作品，一个音符由软音源演奏，包含的信息量尚达不到实际演奏能够传递的信息量，造成爱好者们不容易去理解把握。所以可能这就造成了你会问我这个问题，交响性在哪里？
对于作曲者来说，回答的问题为何一部交响曲被称为交响曲。这个问题其实比较宽泛，常理来说交响曲首先是大型的乐曲体裁，通常由管弦乐队（配器）演奏，展现的是较为深厚丰富的情感和内容，表达的是较为深层次的思想。但这也不是绝对的。对于我来说，我的这些曲子其实均符合上述常理，所以均是交响曲。而从您的提问中我感觉到您认为我的作品不是交响曲，那么我也想知道，您觉得我的作品作为交响曲欠缺在哪里？这样我们更便于讨论。

Google translate maybe can work
Symphonicity is a sense of hearing from the perspective of the audience. This is also largely dependent on a real symphony orchestra and the environment. My music is composed of soft sound sources. There is a big difference here. A single note, if it is actually played by human, actually due to factors such as reverb, overtone (tone), space, emotion, dynamics, etc. a note will greatly expand the information it originally contained in the score in actual performance ( It is just a note in the score). The listener's ears and brain react and receive feedback by receiving this information. For those who are used to listening to symphonic music, this feeling will produce so-called symphonic feeling, which is an experience. In my work, a note is played by a soft source, and the amount of information contained is not up to the amount of information that can be delivered by the actual performance, making it difficult for listeners to produce the same feeling naturally. So maybe this will cause you to ask me this question, where is the symphonic feeling in my works?

For composers, the answer to the question is why a symphony is called a symphony. This problem is actually quite broad. It is common sense that the symphony is first of all a large-scale music genre. It is usually played by an orchestra (orchestration), which shows deeper and richer emotions and content, and expresses deeper thoughts. But this is not absolute. For me, my works are in line with the above common sense, so they are all symphonies. From your question, I feel that you think my work is not a symphony, then I also want to know, where do you think my work is lacking as a symphony?

For example if my symphony No.1 is performed by a real orchestra you may get a very different feeling~Also if a Beethoven symphony(and you don't know it's Beethoven at first maybe me instead) is performed by synthesized orchestra you maybe will ask the same question.But for me a synthesized orchestra or a very very poor performance is no bother because I know a note is there~ I can somehow distinguish the performance and the thinking of the composer behind of it. But for listeners I know it depends mostly on hearing and feeling~ It maybe very different.

[Sun Junqing]

You can find some orchestral works(I found a lot of baroque and renaissance composers' works) performed by synthesized orchestra on youtube~You can give them a try~But there is a good thing that a note is a note by synthesized orchestra so for me although these works sounds very poor but I can still judge and enjoy them~I can complement in my brain the lacking information due to synthesized orchestra.in But I know it's not the way for most music listeners~

[Alan Howe]

Traditionally, symphonies have had structure. Can you tell us how your symphonies are structured? What, for example, makes them symphonies as opposed to, say, tone poems?

[Alan Howe]

Sorry to be brutal, but...

With regard to Symphony No.1, I can hear Brucknerian gestures, but I have absolutely no sense of the music going anywhere. It seems to me merely a series of episodes - and the occasional magnificent, but irrelevant orchestral climax. Unless my ears deceive me, gestures do not a symphony make...

My suggestion: listen to a real Bruckner symphony!

[Alan Howe]

With regard to No.10 much the same applies: the music meanders (very pleasantly for much of the time, I admit), but, although there are climaxes, they don't seem to emerge with any logic from what has gone before. If the music is getting louder, there must be a reason. Unfortunately, I don't sense that here.

I'm sorry to be critical, but I just don't 'get' this music. It doesn't go anywhere - at least, as far as I can tell.

[Alan Howe]

...I should add that my observations have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the music is rendered by a computer program.