Chinese New Music In Concert

-- About "Premiere Works II"

       At last year's "Premiere Works" concert at Merkin Hall, Music From China brought American and world premieres of new and innovative works for traditional Chinese instruments.This year, "Premiere Works II," at Merkin Hall on Saturday, October 3, presents an even more varied spectrum of music. Included this time are works by the co-winners of Music From China's First International Composition Competition -- Wang Ning's "Guo Feng" (trio) and Fang Xiaomin's "Five Elements" (quintet) -- as well as American composer Daniel Palkowski's "Two Peas in a Pod" (a duo for pipa virtuosos Tang Liangxing and Wu Man), Zhou Long's setting (soprano and pipa) of Tang poet Bai Juyi's "Pipa Ballade," Li Binyang's "Nine Variations" (zheng solo), and Taiwan composer Wen Loong-hsing's "Nostalgia" (ensemble and tape).
       The following are descriptions of the works, some by the composers themselves, and brief biographies.

Guo Feng - Wang Ning
       "Guo Feng" (for dadi, erhu & zheng) is a contemporary interpretation of the "national" character of Chinese music and instruments. This trio representing each of the wind, bowed and plucked string instruments exploits the richness of their timbres and tonal textures. Tuning of the erhu and zheng depart from the traditional to accommodate the use of incidentals, while the character of traditional performance techniques is retained. Rubato passages provide transitions for changing meters and tempos. The work's form is borrowed from the Tang dynasty daqu [grand opus]: an opening sanxu [unmeasured prelude] is gradually developed into the zhongxu [slow, song-like section], followed by the rupo [prelude to dance] and gunbian [dance-like allegro], and a return to the mood of the opening. Controlled intensity of development, polyphonic writing, and organic unity characterize this composition.
Wang Ning graduated from the Shenyang Conservatory and later entered the Central Conservatory of Beijing for a master's degree in composition. Since 1987, he has been on the faculty of the Composition Department of the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Five Elements - Fang Xiaomin
       In this work, the composer expounds the Chinese view of life as a continuous cycle of change and development embodied in the five elements that are the sources of all life -- metal, wood, water, fire, earth -- which may be complementary or diametrically opposed. Through the movement of its music, making use of Chinese instruments' timbres and the pentatonic scale, the composition explores this metaphysical thought of ancient China. In the arched structure of slow -- fast -- slow tempo, the slow opening and ending represent water. The middle section consists of an allegretto passage representing wood; a sparkling allegro for fire; a passage leading to the climatic earth; and the exultant brilliance of gold. This work has logic in its musical thought and displays to the fullest extent the traditional techniques of every instrument. Musical imageries help to express the composer's understanding of the five reciprocally productive and destructive elements of life. This work is scored for erhu, di, pipa, yangqin, and zheng.
A graduate of the Shenyang Conservatory in 1982 majoring in music composition, Fang Xiaomin later studied at the Shanghai Conservatory. He is presently a lecturer at the Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou.

Two Peas in a Pod - Daniel Palkowski
       My interest in Chinese music began in college, where the library had a large assortment of non-Western recordings. One album in particular featured a soloist playing an intriguing looking instrument which I now know was the pipa. The variety of timbres, dynamics and musical gestures evoked by this soloist went far beyond the typical range of musical devices employed by Western plucked-string instruments, and the expressiveness of some passages evoked qualities of the human voice, with its subtle shadings of vibrato.
       I have been an enthusiastic fan of Music From China for many years and was delighted at the prospect of creating a piece for pipa duo. The idea of two of the world's best players performing side by side immediately brought to mind certain musical images which translated themselves easily into this piece. The first image that came to mind was of a "duel" between the two, utilizing some of the effects found in the "military" style of playing. This element was then to be coupled with lyrical passages, where one pipa would carry a melody while the other would provide changing types of accompaniment, the roles switching occasionally.
       The natural tuning of the four strings of the instrument, A,D,E,A, seemed particularly fascinating in light of my previous studies of ancient Greek instruments, which employ a similar arrangement of strings. This lent an extra bit of “ancient inspiration" to my endeavors. In order to realize the full scope of harmonic language however, I found it necessary to tune one pipa down a half-step from the other. Thus, while Wu Man plays A,D,E,A on her open strings, Tang Liangxing will be playing G#,C#,D#,G#. This provides for a wide variety of colorations, harmonics, etc., while still allowing the player to perform intuitively (as opposed to only retuning one string, making it necessary to go through mental acrobatics in order to figure out each fingering). Since all relationships remain constant within the confines of the retuned instrument, the score can be written as if there were no retuning at all! The only challenge is in the initial tuning at the beginning of the performance, since there are no perfect intervals shared by the two players.
       One aspect of the pipa that I found particularly arresting was the depth of alteration of pitches attainable by bending the strings. Composers in this century are gradually rediscovering pitch as something flexible, something to be molded rather than encased in a pile of fixed relationships. Pitch bending is a technique used throughout this piece along with the traditional types of vibrato and strumming. While certain of these techniques may be evocative of other Eastern works, I have consciously avoided using classical Chinese musical gestures in an attempt to show the pipa's ability to truly span the musical continents and speak with its own voice.
       I find myself using puns in the titles of my pieces more and more frequently ("Low and Behold" for tuba, for instance), and the title for this piece arrived in like fashion, since I was looking for a title that incorporated the sound "pipa" Since one of the chief features of the piece is close rhythmic coordination between two pipa players, I borrowed the old saying "as close as two peas in a pod," which seemed singularly appropriate. D.P.
Daniel Palkowski began studies at the Manhattan School of Music in 1979, majoring in composition, and subsequently received a DMA from Columbia University. Currently residing in New York, he works as a composer, composition teacher, professor of electronic music, consultant in Macintosh music software, and recording engineer.

Nostalgia - Wen Loong-hsing
       This is a one-movement work for three kinds of bamboo flute, pipa, two zhengs, erhu, and an assortment of Chinese and Western percussion instruments. My chief intent is to convey the atmosphere of the musical theater in the performance. I let the instruments express themselves through monologues and dialogues, maintaining a gentleness throughout to highlight the unique colors of the silk and bamboo ensemble. To create a balance between tradition and innovation, I use the following methods:

1) Musical theater atmosphere: Moments of silence are punctuated by actions on stage. These visual stimuli lead to perceptions of subtle transformations of acoustical textures.
2) Ensemble combinations: Basic combinations of solo, duo and trio, together with other background accompaniment, highlight unique timbres and harmonious relationships between instruments.
3) Balance and phrasing: A mostly horizontal, linear progression of instrument parts prevails over discordant vertical movements; slow, gradual expansion also lessens disharmony among instruments.
4) Instrumentation: In considering articulation, performance techniques, and tonal texture, I gave special attention to the instruments' tonal range, fingering, and differences in timbre, using slowly expanding sonorities.
5) Combination of live instruments and tape: A magnetic tape containing various concrete and electronic sounds provides background support for the live instruments and adds to the varieties of tonal colors.
6) Percussion: Percussion groupings include traditional Chinese drums, bangzi (wood block), ba (small gong), African instruments, and such household objects as long-stem glasses, mugs, spatula, silverware, and chopsticks. This combination creates a contemporary sound and balances the textures of Chinese instruments. W.L.H.

Wen Loong-hsing was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1944. He graduated from the National Arts Academy with a degree in composition. His "Phenomenon II," a chamber work, won second prize at the 1975 International Gaudeamus Contemporary Music Competition in Holland. He currently lives and works in Taiwan as a composer.

Nine Variations - Li Binyang
       The composer's thoughts were perhaps on the qin composition "Three Variations on Plum Blossoms" when he wrote this solo for zheng. He says: "In my mind, the qin is an instrument of the utmost elegance. Its lofty music, however, is not to popular taste. Zheng music is just the opposite. A zheng composition like 'Crows Frolic in Winter Waters' can appeal to even an uncultivated person." Unlike the high-mindedness, quietude and serenity so valued by the Chinese literati, expressed in "Three Variations," this work aims to capture fully the zheng's expressive powers as a folk instrument, preserving its unique sound.
A 1985 graduate of the Beijing Central Conservatory in music composition, Li Binyang taught at the Conservatory for a number of years. He received a master's degree in composition from Louisiana State University in 1992.

Pipa Ballade - Zhou Long
       "Pipa Ballade" by Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi (772-846) is the most musical of the long, narrative poems in classical Chinese poetry. Until now, it had never been set to music. For a long time, I had been considering writing music for the entire poem, but had always dreaded this monumental task. At a gathering when a friend recited the poem in its entirety, my desire was rekindled. Afterwards, at the urging of singer Rao Lan, I finally completed "Pipa Ballade," for soprano and pipa.
       Because the poem's story takes place in Jiangxi province in southern China, I wanted to use a southern dialect for the work. Since Rao Lan comes from Guangzhou, I chose Cantonese. With its nine tones, the language has an innate musicality. As I am a native of Beijing, faced with the task of formulating a musical scheme that would fit the special tonality of Cantonese to the words of the poem, I gratefully relied on the cooperation and assistance of Rao Lan and composer Chen Yi.
       Another question was how to utilize classical music and techniques for the pipa. To form part of the work's basic structure, I used melodic material from "The Moon Rising High" in the Yang Zhengxuan Collection of Pipa Music. Some of this material appears in the solo sections for the pipa, and some provides the sung melody. At times it appears as counter melodies that enrich the tonal texture and impart a uniform coherence to the whole piece. Narrative vocal segments and independent pipa sections make this a duo work rather than a vocal piece with accompaniment. "Pipa Ballade" has been performed many times in Europe and is given its American premiere here. Z.L.
Zhou Long earned a degree in composition from the Beijing Central Conservatory in 1983, and was resident composer for the China Broadcasting Symphony. He is now a DMA candidate at Columbia University.

Training for the Stage:
An Interview with Two Cantonese Opera Performers

by Chen Yi

Luo Weihua, formerly a principal performer with the Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Company, and his wife Zhu Yingying, also a performer, will be guest artists at Music From China's lecture-demonstration on Cantonese opera stage movements at The Educational Alliance on October 25. Because they represent today's generation of performers in a long tradition of many distinguished artists of the Cantonese opera stage, we asked them to talk about the process of becoming professionals.

Q. Can you tell us something about your training?
A. In the early 1970s we were both in the forefront of the arts among Guangzhou high school students. When they selected us for the training program of the Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Company we had already developed our singing voices and had a certain amount of performing experience. During three years of rigorous training we got a firm grasp of the "four disciplines" -- singing, acting, recitation, movement -- and the "five skills" [an intricate set of coordinated movements involving the hands, eyes, torso, arms and legs] which set a firm foundation for our subsequent performing careers.
       We lived in dormitories and practiced every day, going home only on weekends. Half the day was spent on singing; the other half was devoted to movement and rehearsing opera excerpts. Evenings were for private practice. After two years, we were allowed to perform with the company. We would do voice exercises early each morning for half an hour; this was followed by voice training with piano. We had instructors for Cantonese opera singing as well as those who taught Western methods of voice production and breathing. So you see, besides mastering the traditional singing styles, like all Cantonese opera students before us, we also absorbed some Western vocal techniques, which helped our voices become smoother and brighter.
       For the operas that emphasized action, we worked arduously to acquire martial arts skills. Since we hadn't begun this training during childhood, it was so excruciatingly painful at first that we couldn't even walk up stairs. Later, after years of performing on stage, with a lot of hard work, ability and enthusiasm, we were able to attract a sizable audience. I (Luo Weihua) personally owe a debt of gratitude to the teachings of the distinguished artists Bai Yanzi, Liang Shaojia, Tan Peiyi, and the great Cantonese opera actress Hong Xiannu, who for eight years was my mentor, supporter, and colleague.

Q. In terms of singing and performance styles, how does this generation of performers differ from those of the past?
A. In comparison to our predecessors, our generation has received more formal schooling and is generally more cultured. Also, with the influence of Beijing opera, movies, plays and various art forms, we are concerned about how to incorporate more detailed, realistic and down-to-earth elements into traditional stylized performance. By combining the slightly angular characteristics of the southern performance style with the smoother, more rounded style of the north, I think Cantonese opera has become a more broadened and beautiful art form.

Q. Are there any institutions in Guangzhou devoted to the training of Cantonese opera performers?
A. The Cantonese Opera Academy trains students from the age of twelve in a program that spans seven years. Besides intensive study of Cantonese opera, the curriculum includes comprehensive studies of all Chinese theatrical art forms. Hong Xiannu, too, has opened up classes to instruct the next generation of performers. She's also writing articles and a memoir of her life and experience on the stage. This will be of tremendous historical value to those working to preserve this tradition and those researching the art of Cantonese opera.

Q. Are there any textbooks on Cantonese opera performance, videotapes and publication for people with interest in the subject?
A. Some books and manuscripts have been published in China in the form of collections of opera songs arranged by noted veteran performers. These, however, are neither as systematic nor comprehensive as those devoted to the art of Beijing opera. To compensate for the lack of authoritative resource material, some institutions have begun to document Cantonese opera performance. A basic introduction to Cantonese opera is also included in the elementary and high school curriculums today. Audio and video recordings of Cantonese opera songs and performances are available commercially as well.

Q. What kind of employment opportunities are there for Cantonese opera performers, and does this art form continue to appeal to today's audiences?
A. Upon graduation or completing training, performers are assigned by the government to various opera companies or institutions. Major companies at the provincial or municipal level are government supported, smaller ones are not. Aside from the professional companies, there are amateur troupes, mainly associated with trade unions and work units. While urban audiences attend professional performances in theaters, the tradition of performing Cantonese opera at social functions is popular in the rural areas, where weddings, folk festivals and communal ceremonies are occasions for inviting troupes from the city to perform.

Composition Prize: Call for Entries

1. The competition is open to composers of all nationalities, with no age limit.
2. Works must be written for a chamber ensemble of from two to seven performers, and should be from six to ten minutes in length. Instrumentation must be from the following (one instrument apiece): dizi, pipa, zheng, sanxian or liuqin, erhu (doubling on gaohu or banhu) or zhonghu, yangqin, ruan, and percussion.
3. No works that have previously won awards, or have been previously published, performed in public, or used commercially in whole or part or in any other version are eligible.
4. Composers retain the copyright to their compositions.
5. All submissions must be accompanied by an official entry form, available from Music From China.
6. Scores will not be returned; applicants should keep their original scores and submit copies only.
7. The decision of the judges will be final. The judges reserve the right to divide awards, or to decline to make an award.

Notes

Music From China and the Alliance Stage of The Educational Alliance jointly present "Cantonese Opera Stage Movements." A demonstration-performance by Luo Weihua and Zhu Yingying of the Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Company takes a fascinating look at how performers use their eyes, head, torso, hands, arms, and legs in their acting. An orchestra of traditional instruments and percussion provides musical support. Sunday, October 25, 1992 at 2 p.m. The Educational Alliance, 197 East Broadway, New York City. Tickets: $7, $4 seniors/students.

"From Speech to Song: The Art of Singing in Cantonese Opera." presented by Music From China with guest lecturer Professor Bell Yung of the University of Pittsburgh's Ethnomusicology Department and demonstrations by singers and musicians. Professor Yung talks on the rich variety of techniques and styles of "speaking" (baak) and "singing" (cheung) that form a spectrum of various modes of aural communication. Saturday, November 21, 1992 at 2:30 p.m. Chatham Square Regional Library, 33 East Broadway, New York City. Free admission.

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Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 3
Autumn 1992
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