Kara-Khitan Flying Carpet, Flying Through The Young New Age #newmusic #avantgarde #experimentalmusic

This piece is rooted in serialism and multiple stylistic currents. It is now complete, though its ideas continue to evolve. It was created as part of my Music Seminar class project on Morton Feldman. Three Research Projects in the Semester 1. The piano piece presented during the first seminar, inspired by Webern’s graph, through which I devised my own method of serialism. 2. The Turfan study, which reflected not only my frustration with elements of new music and the emerging tech field, but also with the broader challenges encountered during research. 3. This “101” piece, which was originally conceived to provide closure to events more than a year ago. Yet through research I uncovered more troubling trends. I have never regretted any confrontations—each was grounded in careful study. However, I always kept appreciation and confrontation separate. This final piece wove those two currents into one vast and intricate carpet. Over a year ago, I made a deliberate choice to reject what I called “sham avant-garde trends.” Yet, recognizing “sham” as a harsh word, I reframed it as “avant trends garde”—a category distinct from genuinely fearless artists such as Stockhausen, or even many classmates and ordinary individuals without official titles. Though the conflicts eventually resolved into harmony, and I grew more collaborative, I stand by every decision and statement I made. At most, I would temper my words for less confrontation in the future. Still, appreciation always outweighed conflict. Thus, my works carried the traces of every style I absorbed: from those I deeply admired to those I once opposed but later reconciled with. It was this very piece that opened dialogue with Chris and led me to invent a tradecraft of embedding secret messages into music. This 101 piece therefore became deeply personal. If I were to rebuild a 101 piece in the future dedicated solely to the EWI class, I would name it differently and let it stand apart from past struggles. The title KaraKhitan referred to non-native groups who migrated into the so-called “Aryan zone,” or whatever contrived gimmicks those carpet and linguistic propagandas sought to promote. The “flying carpet” in turn confronted an academic superstition. A professor once remarked: “Those oriental things, such as Aladdin, Turandot, and Nutcracker elements in Russian music, are no more than exoticism for Western audiences.” Harsh though it sounded, I ultimately agreed completely. Through research and observation, I discovered how “new rich” behaviors in music, art, and tech often treated external elements like lottery winnings. This piece did not counter her claim, but instead reframed the question: to perceive afresh, to appreciate differently, to define my own worldview rather than attempting to prove or defend another’s. Issues This Piece Confronted 1. Redefining indeterminacy and esotericism. 2. Critiquing the “Aurel Stein–style” of careless archaeologists and the situational monks such as D.T. Suzuki, while simultaneously recognizing Cage and Feldman for creating without yielding to trends. 3. Merging appreciation with confrontation. This piece was not “universal” but “situational.” Realists perceived realism, idealists saw mirages of reality trapped in fantasies, satirists heard echoes of Family Guy theatre. In appreciation of Prof. Jeryl, who helped me refine my endless text walls and structure my research topics, I created a tool to distill any large text into 120 words with an ellipsis. I transformed the 119 words of Josefran’s program notes into music notes and integrated them into this piece to provide a final cadence. A year ago, I removed a professor’s suggested melody in protest. Later, however, I reintroduced it into many of my works, alongside a newly invented serialism—not out of regret, but as a separate act of appreciation. That event catalyzed many further developments, which converged in a carpet too intricate to be reduced to mere stitches or superficial symmetries.