Rather than directly imitating the natural sound produced by water and ripples, this piece is focused on the physical effect derived from the ripple collision. There is a total of 15 audio files triggered by either the pianist himself/herself or an additional electronic engineer. These audio files contain many different timbres made inside of the piano, such as plucked sounds from the strings inside, various glissandos, and percussive sounds from the strings by rubber mallets.
The materials of the whole piece came from the first two chords of John Cage’s Water Music. By analyzing the interval relationships, I received a serial. Everything from this piece is organically connected by these two chords and the serial. For example, I used all kinds of transformations of these two chords throughout the piece, sometimes changing the order of the interval pitches, and filling the intervals to create clusters. Every rest in the first part is followed by the serial. In the middle section (from measure 137 to 170), I created a twelve-tone row by deconstructing those two chords. Then I used this row to create a chord double fugue (Start at measure 141): The first chord fugue states on the eighth notes and the acciaccaturas expressed the second chord fugue. The recapitulation section (from measure 170 to 246) includes different materials from the previous parts. Finally, the coda was considered a direct analogical imitation of water and ripple sounds. Under the surface of the delayed effect, I reintroduced some fragments from previous materials.
Sample Score of RIPPLES: