Scored for viola and recording, sisila ila ila brings together three kinds of singing: The singing of whales, the singing of the Taiwanese SaySiyat Indigenous people and singing of the viola, so reminiscent of the human voice. In order to bring the singing of the SaySiyat vocalist ’iban a’iti to life on the stage, this piece* *uses his original, recorded material from 1966. In the beginning of the piece, the viola presents a newly-composed whale-song passage, culminating in a dialogue with ’iban a’itih's distinctive and powerful voice. Sung in a simple and repetitive phrase structure, the melody is echoed, imitated and elaborated upon by the viola, creating a contrapuntal texture, and resulting in a rich sound world.

sisila ila ila, saying goodbye brings echoes of the SaySiyat people’s song, preserved in the Ostasien-Institute, and the rise of whale-preservation efforts, both transpiring in 1966, to modern ears. It suggests hopes and possibilities. The merging of and conversation between the voice of sea creatures, the old song from an Eastern Indigenous people, and the Western voice of the viola is a beautiful interaction among disparate worlds.