Eight pieces for solo cello
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: 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: PR.114419730
ISBN 9781491132333. UPC: 680160681686. 9 x 12 inches.
Chen Yi describes the cheery interplay of HAPPY TUNE as: “When one instrument plays a livelymelody, the other plays a vivid rhythmic pattern in the accompaniment. The pair of string instrumentsimitates the sound of primitive Chinese folk song singing, as well as the Chinese traditional windinstrument sheng, a mouth pipe organ.†Published as a shared score and extracted parts, and writtenas a celebration piece honoring the 25th anniversary of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.Composed to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, my violin and viola duet HAPPY TUNE was written for Kim Kashkashian and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, and premiered at the festival on June 16, 2018.I fondly remember being invited by the GLCMF (directed by Prof. James Tocco) to be the dual Stone Composers-in-Residence with my husband Zhou Long, along with the Stone Composer Fellow Nicholas Omiccioli in 2011. We had a dozen of our chamber works performed excellently by the outstanding chamber ensembles and musicians during the week, meeting enthusiastic audiences and supporters of new music in various venues at the festival. The experience was truly inspiring, and I created HAPPY TUNE to honor the GLCMF, with hopes to carry on the high spirit in our new music society.In this duet, when one instrument plays a lively melody, the other plays a vivid rhythmic pattern in the accompaniment. The pair of string instruments imitates the sound of primitive Chinese folk song singing, as well as the Chinese traditional wind instrument sheng, a mouth pipe organ.
SKU: PR.11441684S
UPC: 680160625253. 9 x 12 inches.
On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the ensemble Music From China commissioned Chen Yi for a new work, which became Three Dances from China South, scored for Chinese instruments. Its three descriptive movements (Lions Playing Ball, Bamboo Dance, Lusheng Dance) are each inspired by folk dances from the southeastern provinces of China.My chamber ensemble work Three Dances From China South is commissioned by Music From China tocelebrate its 30th anniversary, and scored for Chinese traditional instruments dizi, erhu, pipa, and zheng. The commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical CommissioningProgram, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.  The world premiere is given at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York City, on November 21, 2014.  My Three Dances From China South is dedicated to Susan Cheng, the founder and Executive Director of Music From China, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of MFC. There are three movements in my Three Dances From China South for dizi, erhu, pipa, and zheng.  Thematerial in the first movement Lions Playing Ball is drawn from a folk tune played in the accompanyingensemble for the folk dance under the same title in Chaozhou region in Guangdong province.  The image of the folk dance is vivid and entertaining.  The movement includes several variations on the theme.  The variation methods are inspired by the various rhythmic patterns used in the traditional ensemble playing. The melodic material features a special mode with a tritone interval taken from the folk tune.  There are also lyrical sections with polyphonic layers in the variations.The music in the second movement is inspired by the folk Bamboo Dance, which is popular in Li minoritypeople from Hainan Island in the south.  The aged old folk dance is for ritual ceremony and harvest celebration in the history, in which there are pairs of people holding the ends of the long bamboo rods and clapping them loudly in stable pulse, for groups of dancers to dance between the bamboo shapes on the floor, in musical rhythms and ensemble patterns.  A musical motive with a jumping interval and articulation is used throughout the movement.The third movement is called Lusheng Dance.  I have witnessed the folk dance performance of the Dong minority people in Guangxi province in the 1980’s.  The exciting scene inspired me to imitate the large lusheng ensemble playing style in my ensemble of four Chinese instrumental musicians without using the sheng (a wind instrument with metal pipes that is popular in concert music, and similar to the folk lusheng).  On top of the rhythmic patterns, I imitated a two--voice folk song of Zhuang minority people in the same province.  The melody is played by the leading erhu and dizi.—Chen Yi.
