Luo Jiang Yuan – A Bit Blue for String Quartet by Yangfan Xu 2019
“Luo Jiang Yuan – A Bit Blue,” an episodic single movement work, suggested a tableau of jazzy syncopations and riffs, contrasted with pizzicato pentatonic themes, probably not an unexpected combination from a Chinese-American composer, a protege of Mason Bates.” – San Diego Story
“Luo Jiang Yuan – A Bit Blue” was premiered by the Friction Quartet in San Francisco in 2019; it won the first prize in the 2020 Hausmann Quartet Composition Competition. Luo Jiang Yuan is the title of a Chinese traditional folk tune, meanwhile the title of a famous “词” (“Ci,” which is a type of poem). In traditional Ci, diverse poems by different poets share the same title with the same structure of the poem; just like in jazz tradition, the same title with various interpretations and improvisations. “Yuan” usually stands for “hatred, blame,” but the meaningin the context are more of the unspoken sadness, opression and melancholy. The music is lyrical and blue, in which I find it connected with Blues music.
This work has been selected for Sydney International Composers Concerts 2023 – Contemporary String Quartets concert on April 14, 2023, at TLC Theatre, Sydney Australia.
The composition “Paesaggio N°4” is part of a series of pieces entitled “Paesaggi” (landscapes). During this cycle not only real and physical natural environments are described, a bit like it would be for film music or documentaries, but also different emotional and sound suggestions, as well as rhythmic and harmonic, are explored. The language has abandoned the twentieth-century avant-garde to move on to a fusion of other experiences of the last century and of the contemporary, such as jazz and other genres of popular extraction. These short pieces, usually between 5 and 6 minutes, are concentrated in them an exploratory path, as if a single suggestion were never enough, so this evolves within it into something unexplored and unpredictable.
This work is inspired by a picture painted by Song Dynasty artist Liang Kai. The picture shows the Tong Dynasty poet Li Po reciting his poem. To depict the romantic charm, motion, and emotion of the picture, the music is constructed upon several isolated and contrasted phrases. The pianist portrays that poet at times in a soft murmur and at times in impassioned broad outburst.
Composed in 1999, this work has been performed at many music festivals across the world.
This trio was written in 2000, inspired by an ancient Chinese poem from the Tong Dynasty. It expresses the flowing water of the yellow river implying the constancy of the passing of time and the mortality of our lives.
In a single movement, the music is divided into 4 sections. Derived from a Chinese folk tune, a flowing background passage is transferred from one instrument to another, symbolizing the movement of the Yellow River.
The music in the second section of the trio imitates the theme of the original song. Accompanied by the cello’s tremolos the violin plays the song fragmentally and leads to a fresh blooming passage.
The 3rd section is a retrograde variation of the first section which builds to a limas before fuming to the final tune of the song and later, it is taken over by the cello. the music suddenly becomes joyful led by the piano.
In the final section, the violin emerges in with the background music slowing the tempo and moving to the high register and finishing off the music on its high lonely harmonic.
Three Passions for our Tortured Planet for solo piano by Brian Field (USA)
With the increasing buildup of greenhouse gases across the planet, we are threatened with a climate crisis whose long- term impact is greater than world wars, political unrest or the coronavirus pandemic.
To bring further awareness to this danger that—in the end—will impact all citizens of this earth, I have composed “Three Passions for our Tortured Planet” for solo piano which focuses on three areas of climate change.
The first movement (“…fire…”) is a reflection on the forest fires raging across California and the American West on a re- curring, and increasingly alarming basis. The work starts with a “spark,” that flickers and quickly spreads, growing more complicated. The fire begins to rage loudly, and across register, building to a climax which eventually becomes more controlled, as it burns itself out and dies.
The second movement (“…glaciers…”) is a distant, stately movement that depicts the enormous ices on earth’s poles. These slow, ponderous moments are sporadically interrupted by rapidly falling, thundering episodes, depicting the shear- ing of the glacial ice with ever-warming temperatures.
Concluding the set is the third movement (“…winds…”). This virtuosic finale begins with running winds that become increasingly intense and hurricane/typhoon-like in their destructiveness before dissipating into a barely-noticeable breeze.
It is my hope that this work will play a role in continuing to bring further awareness and dialog around climate change, and our need to act quickly.
Brian Field’s music is an eclectic fusion of lyricism and driving rhythm that brings together elements of post- romanticism, minimalism and jazz that Gramaphone notes “has a winning melodic flow and harmonic translucency,” and Fanfare comments “stretches tonality to and beyond its limits, but always in a soaring, lyrical manner.”
He has received a host of awards, including a McKnight Foundation Fellowship, the Benenti Foundation recording prize; First Prize, Briar Cliff Choral Music Competition; and First Prize, Victor Herbert ASCAP Young Composers’ Contest among dozens of others.
Mr. Field began his musical endeavors at age eight with the study of piano, and began his first serious compositional efforts at sixteen, earning his undergraduate degree in music and English literature from Connecticut College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. At Connecticut, he studied composition with Noel Zahler, piano with the Polish pedagogue Zosia Jacynowicz, organ with John Anthony, and harpsichord/figured-bass realization with Linda Skernick.
Devoting himself to composition, Mr. Field continued his musical studies at the Juilliard School in New York City where he was awarded his Master of Music degree. At Juilliard he was a student of Milton Babbitt. From Juilliard, Mr. Field attended Columbia University, earning his Doctorate. At Columbia, he was a President’s Fellow and studied composition with George Edwards and Mario Davidovsky.
Mr. Field’s compositions include music for television and stage; solo acoustic, chamber, ballet, choral, vocal, electroacoustic and orchestral works. His compositions have been performed extensively throughout the United States and internationally and are recorded on RMN Classical, Olim Music, Navona Recordings and Ablaze Records.
Shifting States is a work for solo piano in one movement of approx. 8′ 20″ duration.
The compositional idea of this work is the way a relationship between two states, one peaceful and more passive, and one more aggressive and dominating interact and change thoughout the piece. Most of the work is derived from events that happen on the first page.
The inspriation came from how divided the U.S. was becoming, and then becoming aware that it wasn’t just this country, and since the time I had written this piece it seems that things have only gotten worse.
It’s not like other piano pieces that I have composed, have more ‘gestural’ content consisting of shorter spans of music. It is a piece for our times.
Richard Campanelli received his M.M. degree from Hartt School of Music where he studied with Donald Harris. He was a Nikos Skalkottas fellow at Tanglewood during the summer after graduating from Hartt School where he studied with George Perle. Mr. Campanelli received his DMA from the University of MI where he studied with Leslie Bassett, George B. Wilson, William Bolcom and Eugene Kurz. Mr. Campanelli’s awards include yearly ASCAP grants, a Meet the Composer grant, a Charles Ives Fellowship and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, The Holtkamp Award for new organ music, a Marimolin prize for new music for violin and marimba, and 2 Michigan Council for the Arts grants. He has had two orchestral pieces premiered by the Detroit Symphony. Mr. Campanelli has also received commissions from the Detroit Symphony, Oboist Harry Sargous, and the Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, DC where he was on the production board. His piano duo was premiered at the Busan Cultural Center by pianists Seung-Hwan Kim and Hyo-Jin Jang.
Ishtar & Gilgamesh for flute, bass clarinet, duduk, horn, harp, violin and ‘cello
The Epic of Gilgamesh, from ancient Mesopotamia, begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC). The Epic is recorded on a set of twelve clay tablets dating to the seventh century BC, found in the Library of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Gilgamesh became the hero par excellence of the ancient world—an adventurous, brave, but tragic figure symbolizing man’s vain but endless drive for fame, glory, and immortality.
This musical work depicts a moment from tablet six (“Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven”) where the goddess Ishtar—enamored of Gilgamesh—seeks to wed the hero. Gilgamesh, who knows how fickle Ishtar is with her suitors, spurns her which sets her into a rage. She ascends to the heavens and persuades her father, Anu, to lend her the Bull of Heaven to wreak havoc on the city of Uruk and kill Gilgamesh. As the Bull charges through the city in its calamitous fashion, Gilgamesh and his comrade Enkidu slay the Bull.
This musical work is presented in four continuous parts that follow this narrative: the work begins calmly, with the almost meditative “Ishtar’s Song,” where Ishtar attempts to woo Gilgamesh “singing” a five-note theme that represents our hero; this is followed by “Gilgamesh Scorns Ishtar” that is somewhat mocking and up-tempo. The third section, “Ishtar’s Wrath & the Bull of Heaven” features a thumping, heavily-galloping motif, and a broken, disruptive counter-theme. The work concludes with “Gilgamesh and Enkidu Battle the Bull” that interposes the themes of Bull and hero to a resolute conclusion.
String Quartet No.4 The Music in Edvard Munch’s Three Paintings by Brian Chatpo Koo
Inspired by three of Edvard Munch’s pictures, this string quartet consists of three movements in the following order:
The Dance of Life
Melancholy
Scream
The order of these three pictures seemingly represents the artist’s cataclysmic experiences of his life and his philosophy – longing for love, sadness for lost family and friends, and expounding the merciless reality of life – a fearful, infinite scream.
The first movement, The Dance of Life is dominated by cheerful music throughout depicting Munch’s stages of womanhood: youth and innocence; love and passion, and inexorable coming of old age.
The second movement ‘Melancholy’ is a slow, quiet and pensive movement, expressing one’s feeling of gloom. The last movement ‘Scream’ is full of fear and uneasiness. In this movement, a soprano recites the text written by Munch.
Composed in 1999. Presented by Arditti Quartet in ‘Composer Workshop’ Wednesday 18 February 2009, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, Vic. Reported by Mark Viggiani:
“…. Brian Koo’s String Quartet No. 4 featured flowing textures and chromatic bands of sound – an evocative work, in which much use was also made of slow upward glissandi and microtonal slides. After much discussion and many suggestions, the sight-reading Quartet then proceeded to do exactly what the composer had requested, revealing the awesome chemistry and empathy that can evolve in an experienced ensemble.”
Unlike a 5-minute orchestral exposition in a piano concerto from the Romantic times, this piece starts with a piano monologue of almost 5 minutes. As it lures the listener into the fantasy of post-romanticism, the harmony suddenly dissolves. The music continues to take the guise of more traditional harmonies and passages that sound like classical or romantic clichés, while at times being interrupted by psychic beats from percussions or blended with eerie voices from the piano. It ends on a question mark instead of an exclamation mark, and the question is shared by many artists of our time: how much tradition should I absorb as I am forming my own style?
Shuang Xu is a Chinese composer, physicist and engineer. His portfolio consists of more than 30 works of a variety of genres, among which are three piano concertos, one violin concerto, several pieces for string quartet and a quintet for Asian instruments.
Born in Nanjing, China, Xu took an unusual path in musical education. Beginning with piano playing around the age of fourteen, he delved straight into the analysis of contemporary music and compositional theory before studying music history and composition by himself. For ten years in higher education institutions pursuing a degree in physical science. Xu was heavily engaged in musical activities at the same time. Asa pianist, he was a keen advocator of contemporary music and performed a lot of new music including his own in his undergraduate school in China. Little known as a composer, nonetheless he has received several private commissions, and his works have been performed in China, USA, France, and Austria.
Xu’s music style spans over a broad spectrum, and his work often exhibits modern techniques applied to conventional sound materials. A notable aspect in his output is that many of his compositions are rooted in nature in a unique way owing to his specialty in physics. He has observed that many natural processes, viewed at a fundamental, physical level, bear remarkable resemblance to the composers’ methods of organising, processing and developing musical materials, sometimes termed as “musical logic” in music theory (Taylor 1974; Ries, 2000). With such realizatdion, he has attempted at musicalising natural phenomena of nature-inspired music that is not, in the conventional sense, an emotional expression invoked by nature, but rather a musical organism following certain patterns originated in nature.
The highlights in his category include Schrodinger’s Violin, Fractals, Silica, BasisTransformation and Phaes Transition, all of which are musical representations of the title. Xu has gone even further and borrowed concepts in subjects besides science. For example, in his string quartet Satin, the four instruments are orchestrated to knit a certain musical texture, and in Ballade, the music materials role-play as different social classes in a setting of ancient China.
In addition to music, Xu enjoys molecules and mountains. He holds a PhD in chemical physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. He is currently living in San Diego California.
Written in 2997, this Impromptu consists of three movements. Based on the same material of a series of major triads, these three movements are linked, related to and contrasted with each other.
The 1ist movement, Prestissimo, is a running movement. After the thematic statement, a pouring sound erupts and runs throughout the entire movement in a very fast tempo.
The 2nd movement, Adagio moderato is a singing movement. contrasted with the first movement, it is slow in pace and soft in dynamic.
The 3rd movement, Allegro con brio is built upon a theme and six variations. It brings up a brilliant character and sororities of the instrument by constantly using large range changing and contrasting high and low registers combining.
