This is a Scream

By Carolyn Chen

Description

“This Is a Scream” is an audio essay that began as a program note on a piece about a scream. It begins from an enigmatic clip from Kanye West’s “Monster” that inspired a through-composed piece for chamber ensemble dissecting and reassembling that scream, slowing down its sound to search for the feeling and the music in it. The essay traverses how I hear this scream, how I tried to remake it, and how I try to learn to scream myself, while accounting for my cultural upbringing. Featuring interviews with computer music pioneer Miller Puckette and my parents, Ya-Chen and Ting-Chung Chen.