Yosemite • Aubrey Qian

Yosemite

Aubrey Qian (2003)

Yosemite is an electronic music piece depicting the stark contrast of the image of the Yosemite mountains and trees in the background against the cars in the parking lot. I find this juxtaposition startling as it is a duality between nature and industry. In this composition, nature is represented by calm and beautiful interwoven melodic lines of the flute, violin, and harp. The mechanical and somewhat repetitive bass and drums embody the lot of cars, evoking the scene of an automobile mass production factory. Other instruments such as the water pluck add to the atmospheric nature of the piece.

Image: Rondal Partridge, Pave It and Paint It Green. Collection of the California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTS