Fluid Measure

Shih’s (b. 1950) music seeks to express intense psychological states, often beginning in despair or distress, but offering at least some hope of progress toward light and redemption. The substantial orchestral pieces, Crossing the River and Separation, consist of organically evolving soundscapes, punctuated by tolling or thundering percussion effects, with, as one commentator has written ‘almost complete abandonment of melody and measure’ and indeed a considerable degree of license afforded to the performers in matters of pitch and ensemble. Harsh dissonances, clusters and extended techniques abound, and the results are undeniably impressive, especially the massed textures of Separation, with its organ clusters and 1960s-Penderecki sonorism.