A Set of Chinese Folk Songs

SKU: PR.312416820

UPC: 680160050376. 8.5 x 11 inches.

Chen Yi’s most performed and most beloved choral music is a series of 10 Chinese folk songs adapted for S.A.T.B. Chorus (published in 3 volumes: 312-41731, 312-41732, 312-41733). This special version is a setting of the familiar collection, adapted for children’s chorus and strings.
Remembering when I studied composition in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, I learned to sing hundreds of Chinese folk songs collected from more than twenty provinces and fifty ethnic groups, and went to countryside to collect original folk music every year.  I got to know that the folk songs are a mirror of people’s daily lives, their thoughts and sentiments, local customs and manners.  They are sung in regional dialects and use the idioms of everyday speech with their particular intonations, accents and cadences.  This correlation between speech and music distinguishes folk songs of one region from another.  I learned all songs by heart and sang them back in the exams every week.  They melted in my blood and became my natural music language.  The more I walk into the music life,the more I treasure the rich culture I have learned from my homeland. When I became the Composer-in-Residence of Chanticleer and was invited to write the first work for its concert program, as well as another version for its Singing-In-The-Schools program, I decided to introduce A Set of Chinese Folk Songs to my American audiences, and add a new flavor to Chanticleer’srich repertoire.  The work includes ten folk songs, taken from eight provinces (Anhui, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Taiwan, Sinkiang, Jiangsu and Guizhou) and five ethnic groups (Han, Hasake, Uighur, Miao and Yi).  I arranged them for choirs (men’s or children’s chorus) with various combinations in voices, to be sung mostly in Chinese, some in English.   From the mysterious mountain songs originally sung in the open air with high and long notes that can carry over great distances, the sweet and delicate melodies of young love compared with nature, the humorous antiphony by little children, and the lively dancing tune by villagers, you may get an idea of various music styles in Chinese folk songs according to geographic, ethnic and linguistic differences, and appreciate the beauty of the Chinese folk music.  The pure choir sound and the sophisticated singing by Chanticleer, in terms of pitches, language and musical expressions, really attract and inspire me to create some more new works in the years to come.  In thisedition of A Set of Chinese Folk Songs for standard SATB mixed choir (with piano rehearsal score), I divided these ten songs into three volumes.  They are Fengyang Song, The Flowing Stream, Guessing, Thinking of My Darling, Mayila, Jasmine Flower, Riding on a Mule, Awariguli, Diu Diu Deng, andMountain Song and Dancing Tune.—Chen Yi.

SKU: HL.14024202

8.25x11.75x0.08 inches.

SKU: OU.9780193556911

ISBN 9780193556911. 11 x 9 inches.

For solo cello Conceived as a set, these eight songs are drawn from several Chinese regions. In this new arrangement the music has been refashioned for Western instruments, with stylistic bowing and fingering. Suitable for early-intermediate level students, the pieces are accompanied by programme notes.

SKU: CF.YAS226F

ISBN 9781491163085. UPC: 680160921836. Key: D major.

Chen Yi’s original A Set of Chinese Folk Songs included ten songs, first arranged for the vocal ensemble Chanticleer to perform with students in the “Singing-in-the-Schools” programs in the 1990's. Taken from a wide range of geographic regions in China, with rich characteristics and expressive contrast, the set has been sung by many choirs around the world in the past thirty years. Three songs from that collection have been thoughtfully arranged into a three-movement suite for intermediate string orchestras, bringing this beautiful Chinese folk music to even more young musicians. The celebratory Fengyang Song is from Anhui province which is popular in the whole country. The lyrical love song Flowing Stream is from Yunnan province in the southwest, and the passionate and vivid Mayila is from the ethnic group known as Kazakhs in the northwest.

SKU: PR.114423500

ISBN 9781491137758. UPC: 680160691531.

Commissioned 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.

SKU: KN.19531

UPC: 822795195316.

These 8 duets are destined to become a staple of school music libraries as they can be mixed or matched using any combination of the 10 different books for wind and string instruments. They can also be combined and played by a larger ensemble that has challenging instrumentation.

Contents:
Blue Light Special (Halferty); Canon In Two Parts (Halferty); Crescent Moon Rising (Chinese folk song); Dirty Dish Rag (Halferty); Farandole (Bizet); March (Bach); The Rakes Of Mallow (Irish folk song); and Two Russian Folk Songs.

SKU: KN.19536

UPC: 822795195361.

These 8 duets are destined to become a staple of school music libraries as they can be mixed or matched using any combination of the 10 different books for wind and string instruments. They can also be combined and played by a larger ensemble that has challenging instrumentation.

Contents:
Blue Light Special (Halferty); Canon In Two Parts (Halferty); Crescent Moon Rising (Chinese folk song); Dirty Dish Rag (Halferty); Farandole (Bizet); March (Bach); The Rakes Of Mallow (Irish folk song); and Two Russian Folk Songs.

SKU: KN.19534

UPC: 822795195347.

These 8 duets are destined to become a staple of school music libraries as they can be mixed or matched using any combination of the 10 different books for wind and string instruments. They can also be combined and played by a larger ensemble that has challenging instrumentation.

Contents:
Blue Light Special (Halferty); Canon In Two Parts (Halferty); Crescent Moon Rising (Chinese folk song); Dirty Dish Rag (Halferty); Farandole (Bizet); March (Bach); The Rakes Of Mallow (Irish folk song); and Two Russian Folk Songs.