Interviewers: Sarah Chau, Tiffany Tam, Jade Wong
I would like to clarify that my profession is composing. Music has a number of areas, and composing is one ofone of the specialties. Music can be divided into two large divisions: one is more of personal experiences, like composition and performance. These need first hand experiences in the process of making music. The second division is things that are rather theoretical – an example is the objective knowledge of the music. Let’s put it it in this situation. I am to understand a piece of music and have to play it in a performance. It is not enough just to keep on practicing the music, correct all the pitches and technical details. To understand all that arerelated to the music, the interpretation, the cultural background, the historical background, all these are ofare of rational cognition. To conclude, learning music can be divided into these two categories, one tends to be more practical and related to personal experiences, and the other is more theoretical. The. The two categories are equally important. As for me, I am a person more into creating and composing, or taking part in performing activities as one of the períormers, you you can put me into the first category. What I compose would have to be performed. I would have to ensure that the way performers interpret my music is how I expect it to turn out. I. I think that it is best for a conductor to be able to interpret the music together with the singers. Therefore, I always prefer to participate in the performance. If it is choral music, I would become one of the singers or the pianist, where I can participate in the interpretation of the music and convey the music. As you know, a conductor is the weakest one in performance; he cannot do anything but keep silent, even if the performers would not follow his conducting. Nothing can be done.
I enjoy teaching others, because I could have more opportunities to interact with different people at close quarters. Here, I could be with the students, not only during lessons but also afterwards. In music education, the learning experience is not limited to lectures – students and teachers work together to make music. It is more obvious when I teach composing – together with the students, we work on the details of the music. If I am to teach them how I compose, it will be like applying my thoughts on individuals and expect them to think and do it my way. This will make me the worst teacher, for everyone is unique and have their own values and thoughts. Teachers are there only to lead and assist students in a way that their creation will not be distorted. As a professor, if I would like to blend into my students’ thoughts, and interpret things from their viewpoint, I would have to spend more time interacting with them. The nature of my work needs me to live with my students. This enables me to have more time interacting with my students, and this explains my passion for this job and work. My belief in music education, in short is, “Music is a part of life.” It means the quality I put in music education is equivalent to the quality that exists in my everyday life. For example, if I pay a lot of attention to details in everyday life, I will also emphasize details in discussing music with my students, as I believe this is highly important. I personally enjoy the process rather than the outcome of various activities. My enjoyment of the “creating process” is often also brought into my music. To conclude, my belief is that “Music is part of everyday life”, so my personal views and morals about life should often be reflected in my daily life. Also, music does not take up my entire life – it is only a small part of it.
This has to be related to the meaning of existence. Starting from birth, we have different roles. I like to talk with people. This is part of my life. If a person has a clear priority on how he should allocate his time, he would then make choices. If I know you want to talk with me, and I regard this as important, then I would squeeze some time for it. So the answer is, the weighting of being your advisor should be quite high. What drives me to make this decision is a long, long story. The time we have is limited. If you ask me what are the most important things in my life, music would have low priority. You can try to write out all the roles you have in your life, prioritize them, and when you realize you have many roles at the same time, then you know which is more important or which is not. Usually you would not be that conscious about your roles. If you are not that clear about the priorities, sometimes it would be very difficult to make decisions. One of the examples is that many people are inclined towards their career too much. I witnessed some of my colleagues who focused most of their time on their career and they had accomplishments that made people and themselves proud. They were also highly respected. A professor was still very healthy all through his career path, but his health deteriorated tremendously after his retirement. This is not because of lack of exercise or any other reasons. A more crucial reason is that he focused too much on his career and neglected most of the other roles all those years. And when his role of being a professor was over, he could not adapt to his own life so many problems then arose. I reflected much after hearing this. One cannot incline too much to a certain role as some of our roles in life will eventually come to an end. I go to church every Sunday, and this represents the identity of my religion rather than one of my roles. It exists through my entire life. And as for being a professor, it does not count as a role as the concept is very ambiguous. The job of being a professor would be a role instead. For example I have a chance to think with teenagers around 18 to 22 years old, like they would like to be a better person, which is an attractive yet vague idea. Still, ‘a better person’ can be one of your roles in your life. So think about it.
I totally support the beliefs in music education of Festive Chamber. Only thinking of outmatching all rivals is a very rotten theory: People glorify this kind of theory as “To improve through competition”. This has been a concept our leaders have always tried to impress on us. It seems noble, but deep inside, it is very vulnerable. In life, there are a lot of obstacles. If you are to overcome all of them in order to build up your value, this kind of thinking would be very delicate, because one can fail. I have observed my students, especially the PhD students, are all doing better than I. Looking back, my progress was far behind when I was a PhD student compared to the students now. With regard to the difference between time and society, people now are fortunate to receive music education at an early age, like playing the piano since they are 3 years old. In my time, I remember that I was 15 when I started playing the piano, and began to receive proper music education by the age of 18. The younger generation has started early. Therefore, my students are all at a more advantageous position than I. If I had the concept that, “Being the supervisor of the students, I must not let my students surpass me”, then I would have been someone who is always miserable and anxious. There are a lot of talented people in the world with great potential. If we want to gain a sense of security through competing with others, the feeling would be nothing but an illusion, temporary and insubstantial. This is why I do not wish to surpass anyone. In my opinion, failure is a good thing, a valuable experience that all should embrace. If a person never experienced failure, hopelessness or desperation, he never knows the feeling of those who think lowly of themselves, as there are always more “losers” than “winners”. A person, who can not share the common feeling with the ones beside him, is a grave regret, because he will be all alone for not being able to understand others or being understood. Even those who are well respected have had experienced depression in the midst of failing; people respect them for they have the ability to look on issues from the view of different people. Students nowadays are learning to perceive things through multi-perspectives, through their Liberal Studies. It is difficult to be in another person’s shoes when you have never shared the feelings of others. If leaders could perceive an issue like an act of crime in public, he would not only criticize the one committing the crime, but also analyze the reasons behind the act from the committers’ standpoint. In conclusion, I think that Festive Chamber has a very noble belief.
I wish that all of you could learn to be contented. When you have to get something done, I hope that you can use a very happy attitude to face it, in a way that would have a desire to treasure it and think of it as a joyous memory in the future. Being able to see that you girls, members of Festive Chamber, are singing together for celebration and joy, makes me feel glad, because by observing you, I have already shared your enthusiasm for music. I sincerely hope that the Festive Chamber will continue with what it has started, and every one of you will enjoy participating in it. You do not have to focus on your singing standard, or aim to see the result for your effort during practice. All these will happen naturally when every member enjoys progress in singing and practicing.
