G flat. B, C, D flat. A sustained G sliding into an E flat. The slight crescendo into an explosive phrase, with violinists and cellists furiously sawing at their instruments. The clash of harmonies, melodies, tone and tambour — all on a single piece of paper. Sitting in his bed or at his laptop, junior Yueheng Wang creates melodies and harmonies, weaving together entire orchestras through the scratch of a pencil against sheet music. Should he write in another hairpin dynamic, continuing the movement? Or would it be better to fade into virtual silence, allowing the bassist to play an ethereal solo accentuated by slight pizzicato from the violins? The possibilities of musical composition are endless, which is why Wang craves it. As a trumpet player, pianist and composer, he has an endless desire to learn and write as much music as physically possible.

“[My musical composition journey] started with me just sitting at the piano, improvising, and then listening to other composers and wanting to create my own music,” Wang said. “But it wasn’t like some inspiration was beamed into me — it actually started with a competition that I wanted to join, and there was a cash prize for $200. I joined, and ended up getting [the money]. It didn’t start off as a passion, but it developed into one.”

At Ladue, Wang has found a meager musical community, making it hard to feel a sense of belonging within composition. However, he has been able to collaborate with senior Ovya Diwakaran, a composer herself. The two met at Mizzou’s compositional festival June 2023.

“We’re in different grades, and we run in different circles, but because of composition, we’re friends no matter what,” Diwakaran said. “Sometimes he’ll [bring] scores for me to look at and we’ll just talk about that stuff. There’s an automatic understanding between us.”

As a high school student, it’s often difficult for Wang to find time to compose. However, music has provided an outlet of expressing emotions in a medium different from language. When working, he starts by entering a meditative state and pulling on his composition socks. They are teal and ankle-length, featuring small yellow dinosaurs:  a triceratops, a tyrannosaurus rex and a brachiosaurus.

“The process of composing is different for everyone,” Wang said. “For me, I have a lot of pre-compositional thinking. Before I write anything down, I’m just laying in my bed and thinking, ‘What do I want to write about?’”

Wang self-studied compositional techniques from third to seventh grade, when he started working with an instructor at Webster University. His style is constantly changing — as a result, many ideas don’t come to fruition.

“[Disappointment] happens every step of the way,” Wang said. “It has never gotten easier, because I’m always trying to experiment. With each [composition], knowing when to discard an idea is just as important as knowing when to continue it. Sometimes I have an idea and it snowballs because I really like it but it just does not work in the piece. I keep writing, keep writing, and there’s no way I can make it work. Knowing when to stop [is] one of the challenges.”

20 of Wang’s pieces have been professionally performed, but he has actually written over 100. One such piece, “Of Mountains and Seas,” was performed by Ladue Horton Watkins High School’s top orchestra and band classes Apr. 4. Orchestra director and conductor Twinda Murry admires the piece’s uniqueness. 2023 was when she first recognized Wang’s love for composing, and has since enjoyed seeing him blossom through his work.

“I really like [what the orchestra] is playing this year,” Murry said. “I like that it’s very original. When we play it, I can’t say it sounds like this composer or that particular style. I like that [Yueheng] is taking a chance on adding in some different colors, with slides and things that aren’t common in orchestral music.”

These unusual compositional techniques are often the result of where Wang draws inspiration from.

“I find music in objects,” Wang said. “You can recreate [any sound] with objects. One time, I was sitting in a classroom, and it was super silent but there was rummaging [of] stuff. It sounded like a percussion ensemble, and I wanted to recreate it. The world just became musical [to me].”

When in a musical slump, Wang enjoys reading to find inspiration. He even thinks about composition while sleeping, dreaming of melodies that are only truly apparent to the subconscious brain. He is often influenced by his own heritage, as a first-generation Chinese-American.

“I like using traditional harmony and rhythms,” Wang said. “And not just from my culture. I like watching different cultures’ music and getting influenced by that. [For my next piece], I plan on using instruments from my culture.”

Murry enjoys seeing how these numerous cultural aspects affect and elevate Wang’s compositions.

“I encourage him to continue to explore the music that he connects with, from his heritage, and then see how he can combine that with Western music and contemporary music,” Murry said.

Some classical composers shun modern genres, which rely less on a music theory education. Wang doesn’t feel the same. He even creates pop songs and rap beats, with hopes of releasing on Spotify and collaborating with popular artists in the near future. Additionally, he dreams of composing a film score, for a movie, later in his career.

“I’m not a music elitist,” Wang said. “I think all music has value. [Take] Taylor Swift — the production on that is a culmination of music knowledge. Some people say, ‘Oh, it’s not elite enough.’ But you have to think of the purpose, of why she wrote that piece and how she executed it. With art, that’s all you can ask for — the artist’s vision and if they did it well or not.”

When composing, the process of selecting instruments is no easy task, forcing Wang to draw from years of theory education. Tambour, the unique sound an instrument creates, is an example of criteria he looks for.

“I choose instruments based on the tambour and their technical ability,” Wang said. “For example, a piano’s tambour is very different from a violin’s. When you hit a key on a piano, it becomes softer as time goes on. On violin, you can sustain one note, continuously, without stopping. When I think of a piece, if I want something that sustains, I won’t pick piano. If I want percussive attacks, or other things you can do with a piano, I’ll pick piano.”

Despite his love for music, Wang recognizes how hard it is to thrive in such a subjective field. At competitions, for example, judges have preconceived notions of music they enjoy, as they are composers themselves. However, Wang has found a way to push through and find internal value, rather than relying on external validation.

“What are you composing for if you’re comparing [yourself] to other people?” Wang said. “Are you composing for yourself, or are you composing for how other people see your music? That feeling is terrible. [But], sometimes I think, ‘I’m not doing this for other people.’ It’s a very liberating feeling. I’m a composer, I can do what I want. I’m making sounds that I want to hear; I don’t care about other people’s opinions.”

Wang hopes to pursue music, with conservatories such as The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory of Music as his top picks. But he’s unsure if this path is right.

“Johns Hopkins has a really good music school,” Wang said. “So, I could major in music and minor in something that will make me money. But, the difference between conservatories and universities is, at conservatories, your life is to compose. At universities, there’s a big social [aspect] too. You have to learn other things and you’re surrounded by a diverse cast of people. At a conservatory, everyone has the same goal as you.”

A conservatory’s application process is also different from a university’s, with applicants submitting their favorite pieces. But even after secondary education, Wang is concerned about his future in the music industry.

“There’s this quote that goes, ‘If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,’” Wang said. “I don’t know if I agree with that, because there’s a counter to that, which is, ‘If you do what you love as your job, you’ll start liking it less.’ I do want to do music as a job for the rest of my life. But I worry about what that will do to my love of [music].”

To add on to these fears, in a society that values monetary gains, it’s hard to break out in such a subjective field.

“I want to make a living off of composing, but it’s really difficult,” Wang said. “You have to be really good at networking and expand your web of influence with people [to] get connections, gigs and jobs.”

Because of this reliance on relationships, some alter musical norms to satisfy modern interests. Wang especially notices this with a piece’s form, how long the music stays on one idea and develops into another.

“With the commodification of music, with how people consume it, [form] has been lost,” Wang said. “A lot of songs don’t even have bridges now. And that’s not comparable to avant-garde, people wanting to break the mold of music. No, it’s to accompany people’s short attention spans.”

However, Wang draws a distinction between this and new styles of music, which truly are different from what has come before. One example is John Cage’s infamous “4’33’,” whose score contains no notes or markings whatsoever — it is music totally devoid of sound.

“If you make a [piece] that’s only silence, that’s super easy to make, but who has thought of it?,” Wang said. “And who did it? John Cage thought of it and did it. No one before him did. That, to me, is groundbreaking. [John Cage] is defining music.”

While Wang admires the composers Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc and Anton Webern, he recognizes that classical music has declined in popularity and hopes to break down negative stereotypes.

“I want to make a change in how we view music and how we create music,” Wang said. “The majority of people in [our age group] don’t like classical music. I want to find a way to bring it back, not just by taking the old, [but] by adding modern influences and making it popular again.”

Diwakaran loves seeing how various musical interests create the unique pieces Wang composes.

“[Yueheng’s] thing is always pushing the limits of sound and trying to write music that you haven’t really had before, this modern 21st century music,” Diwakaran said. “That is a huge influence for me, because I’ve never really thought to do that before.”

While a composer’s journey is difficult, Wang is prepared to brave whatever challenges come his way.

“Right now, I could take any other path pretty easily; I could just not do music,” Wang said. “But I just have this deep yearning to understand it more, study it. So, I’m just following my passion and seeing where it leads me. I’m not thinking about [whether] I’ll be successful or rich. I’m just trying to do what I love.”

This story was originally published on Panorama on February 23, 2024.