Mountain Song

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: FJ.FJH2252

ISBN 9781619281110. UPC: 674398233038. English.

The beautiful, hazy-blue mountains, flowing rivers, waterfalls, and magnificent vistas of the Smokies are highlighted in this collection. Some titles are: Deer in the Cove, A Peaceful Mountain Trail, The Newfound Gap, and Smokey Mountain Laurel. Other pieces bring to mind traditional Appalachian music: The Happy Fiddler, Autumn Hoedown, and Old Settlers' Waltz. Most of the nine pieces are three pages.

About FJH Composers in Focus

Composers in Focus is a series of original piano collections celebrating the creative artistry of contemporary composers. It is through the work of these composers that the piano teaching repertoire is enlarged and enhanced.

SKU: HL.1107786

ISBN 9781705177792. UPC: 196288103097. 9.0x12.0x0.382 inches.

Get ready for some play-along fun with your fellow pickers! Bluegrass Songs provides melody, lyrics and chord diagrams for five popular folk instruments in this new, easy to use format. Enjoy strumming and singing these bluegrass standards with any combo of friends who play ukulele, baritone ukulele, banjo, guitar, or mandolin. A great resource for stringed instrument players who are ready to experience the fun of making music together! This collection features a stellar lineup of 70 bluegrass standards everyone should know: Ballad of Jed Clampett • Blue Moon of Kentucky • I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow • The Long Black Veil • Nine Pound Hammer • Rocky Top • Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms • Turn Your Radio On • Wabash Cannonball • Wayfaring Stranger • Will the Circle Be Unbroken • The Wreck of the Old '97 • You Are My Sunshine • and more.