Chamber Music Piano,
soprano Saxophone
SKU:
PR.114419290
Composed
by Chen Yi. Edited by
Chen Yi. Arranged by Wong
Tak Chiu. Sws. Score and
parts. 44 pages. Duration
20 minutes. Theodore
Presser Company
#114-41929. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.114419290).
ISBN
9781491135235. UPC:
680160676118. 9 x 12
inches.
Supported
by a major commissioning
award from the Serge
Koussevitzky Music
Foundation in the Library
of Congress, my Chinese
Folk Dance Suite is
written for violin solo
and orchestra, and
premiered by The Women's
Philharmonic with violin
soloist Terrie Baune,
conducted by Apo Hsu, on
March 10, 2001, at Yerba
Buena Center For the Arts
Theater in San Francisco.
Inspired by various
Chinese traditional folk
dances, I've composed
three movements in the
suite: 1) Lion Dance.
Traditionally, people
dance with richly
decorated hand made
lions, accompanied by
percussion ensemble, to
celebrate happy occasions
and major festivals
throughout the country.
In the composition, I use
Chinese drum and other
percussion instruments in
the background, to form a
dynamic and rhythmic
texture responding to the
solo part, which imitates
the tunes played on the
suona (traditional
Chinese trumpet). The
pitch materials came from
traditional Guangdong
Music tune and Chaozhou
Music tune ; 2) YangKo.
Originated in northern
China, it's a major folk
dance form in mass
performance popularized
in the country. In YangKo
performance, people
always play rhythmic
patterns on the drums
hung around their waists
while singing and
dancing. In my second
movement, I have imagined
a warm scene of YangKo
dancing in distance. The
solo violin plays a sweet
and gracious melodic line
while all members in the
orchestra sing the
non-pitch syllables in
different layers as the
soft background, to
imitate the percussion
sound which produces the
ever going pulse. 3)
Muqam. It is a large
scale traditional music
and dance form from Uygur
nationality in Xinjiang
province, originated in
the 15th century. In my
third movement, I keep
the meter of seven eight
and the melodic style of
Muqam music. The fiery
dancing gesture cumulates
the sustained climax
section at the end of the
work, after a colorful
violin cadenza in both
improvisational singing
style and polyphonic
writing with woven lines.
Scored for 2 flutes (2nd
doubling piccolo), 2
oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb,
2 bassoons, 4 French
horns in F, 2 trumpets in
Bb, 3 trombones,
percussion 1 (3 congas,
low tom-tom, temple
block, paddle castanets),
percussion 2 (snare drum,
6 small Beijing opera
gong, 12 big Beijing
opera gong, crotales,
tambourine), percussion 3
(suspended cymbal, a pair
of 6 Chinese cymbals,
bass drum), solo violin,
violins I, violins II,
violas, cellos and double
basses. Duration is about
16 minutes. The work is
recorded on Bis [CD-1352]
and released in 2003,
performed by Cho-Liang
Lin and the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra, cond.
by Lan Shui. Reduction
for B-flat soprano
saxophone and piano by
Wong Tak Chiu (2017) and
edited by Chen Yi (2018)
The second movement
YangKo is premiered by
Dr. Wong and Korak
Lerpibulchai at the
Singapore Saxophone
Symposium on 8/13/2017.
The American premiere of
the saxophone and piano
reduction version of
Chinese Folk Dance Suite
is given by Chi Him Chik
and Hao Yin at the
Society for American
Music National Conference
in Kansas City, MO on
3/2/2018.
