Chamber Music
Saxophone(s)
SKU:
PR.114423500
Composed
by Chen Yi. Performance
Score. Duration 3
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #114-42350.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.114423500).
ISBN
9781491137758. UPC:
680160691531.
Commi
ssioned by The Juilliard
School’s Music
Advancement Program,
IMPRESSIONS FROM THE
CHINESE ZODIAC is a suite
of three characteristic
pieces within reach of
advanced pre-college
saxophonists, and
introducing advanced
techniques. The work is
equally satisfying and
impressive for top-level
performers. The movements
are titled:1. Rooster
Singing Out in the
Morning2. Monkey Jumping
Around in the Forest3.
Tiger Walking Down from
the
Mountain.
Commissioned
by The Juilliard School
for Juilliard’s Music
Advancement Program,
Impressions from the
Chinese Zodiac was
composed for any size
saxophone in 2022. It
consists of three
independent movements
featuring different
musical characteristics
with various performing
techniques. The
inspiration for the music
came from impressions of
three animal signs
(rooster, monkey, and
tiger), from the twelve
in the Chinese Zodiac.The
first piece begins with a
repeated phrase imitating
a rooster’s loud
singing in the morning;
the pitch with
fluttertongue sounds like
the noise from the
rooster’s throat),
followed by phrases of a
pentatonic melody drawn
from The Sun Is Rising
With Our Joy, a Chinese
folk song from Sichuan
province. There are
descending passages,
simulating the
dropping-down sound of
the singing. Each passage
is different from others,
each of which should be
played accurately and
smoothly. The melody is
moved up a step with
variation, followed by an
echo of the rooster
singing at the end of the
piece. Now the sky is
bright, so the rooster
call returns up four
scale steps!The second
piece includes two
Chinese folk songs:
Thinking of My Darling
(from Shanxi province)
and Guessing (from Yunnan
province). Both songs
have large interval skips
spanning different
registers, as well as
microtonal intervals in
their original singing,
which show the
characteristics of the
regional musical
languages respectively.
The tone colors should be
matched when registers
are changed. The
microtonal pitches
(quarter-tone flat or
three-quarter-tone flat)
may be done by bending
the tone with one’s
lips. The image is the
monkey jumping around
lively, and the music is
played humorously. The
high and long pitch with
a yelling-down effect at
the end of the piece
brings the music to an
exciting peak.The third
piece features the strong
and brave tiger, with
accented tones in the
lowest register. The
first 3-pitch motive is
developed throughout the
piece, while peristaltic
chromatic material is
formed in various shapes
and directions, to show
the gestures of a mighty
and fierce image.Getting
accustomed to special
fingerings for the
chromatic passages and
trills, along with
precisely notated
articulations, and the
techniques of tongue slap
and key clicks, are the
basic goals to achieve in
this piece.
The Chromatic Interval Song
