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Wild Grass
Su (Tracing Back)
ZHOU LONGCHEN YI
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Introduction
After one of the sessions on this disc, members of the
Beijing New Music Ensemble invited Zhou Long for
baodu cow tripe boiled al denteand served with asalty sesame dip. He came, but preferred just to sit
and watch a motley crew many of us immigrants to
Beijing and some from far outside of China eat while
he smoked his pipe.
Zhous long view of history is always at work, and
I am sure he saw a poetic balance in our homely meal.Born and raised in Beijing, he was once a foreigner
experiencing New York City as an outsider. Now,
he was the visiting American, watching old Beijing
traditions stay alive. So went our recording sessions,
with Zhou at the helm, punctuated with snacks and
meals, and smoothed over with layers of cultural
exchange probably incomprehensible to any onlooker.
To Zhou, who had recently come from BBC
commissions and recordings, it must have felt like a
time-warp. The China Record Company is Old School
Beijing. Its alley-way studio has not changed, only
weathered, in the last three decades. Peeling acoustic
panels and stained carpet are palpable signs of its past.
For these world premire recordings none of us would
have wanted it differently. After all, Zhou Longs
professional composing life did not start in the United
States, but in the studios of Beijing in the 1980s.
present for this recording, but she and Zhou Long,
both composers, teaching colleagues, and marriage
partners, are used to taking turns and standing infor each other. The ensemble has benefited from
her frequent visits to Beijing, and her musical
consultations sound through clearly on this record.
This record would not have been possible
without the initial support of Sarina Tang and the
Currents Art and Music centre, one of Beijings fewnot-for-profit art spaces, which funded and hosted
the first collaboration between Zhou and the Beijing
New Music Ensemble in 2006. Many of these pieces
saw their China premires there, including the world
premire version of Wild Grassnarrated in Chinese by
Zhou Long himself.
Eli Marshall
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Zhou Long (b.1953)
Su (Tracing Back) Pianogongs Taiping Drum
Wild Grass Taigu Rhyme
A landmark study in translating traditional
instrument technique into a contemporary language,
Su (Tracing Back) has usually been performed
in the west in a version for harp and flute, but the
original piece was composed in 1984 for flute
and guqin at the request of the contemporary qin
scholar Wu Wenguang, writes Zhou. Since then,
Su (Tracing Back) has enjoyed an underground
reputation among guqin players of mainland China,
with generations of photocopies of the score and
bootleg cassettes from a sole master copy of a studio
recording at China Record Company passed along
over the last 24 years. This is the first worldwide
recording of the original version.
Taiping Drum
Written only a year earlier than Su (Tracing Back),
while Zhou was still a student, Taiping Drum employs
a different musical language. One can imagine a
nationwide audience enjoying a broadcast of the
work during Zhous years as composer-in-residence at
Radio Beijing. In a traditional rondo form employing
an introduction and two episodes, both instruments
frequently imitate the dan gu drum in free-tempo
passages. As Zhou states, the piece uses pentatonic
folk-tune material found in er ren tai, a form of duo
singing and dancing popular in northeast China
The Taiping drum (also called dan gu) is a percussion
instrument that originated in north-east China in
the Tang dynasty. Made from a single membrane
(16 x 20) in a round fan shape, the drum is held
in the left hand with iron rings linked under the
handle, while the right hand beats it with a piece of
rattan. Originally used by shamans Taiping Drum
became the name of a popular form of song and dance
among the Han people, as well as the Mongolian and
Manchurian ethnic groups today. While playing the
drum, the performer dances in rhythmic patterns.
Wild Grass
The evocative Wild Grassmay be performed by solo
cello, or viola, with or without vocal recitation fromthe foreword to Lu Xuns Wild Grass. Until recently
that text was always performed in English translation,
Pianogongs
Intended as a solo (the keyboard and two gong parts
together), Zhou Long changed his mind after hearing
violinist Gao Can improvise on percussion instruments
between takes, and invited him to record together
with Michelle Yip. Of the piece, Zhou writes: I have
used piano as a percussion instrument along with two
Chinese opera gongs (laid on a soft mat and placed
on top of the piano lip). The combination forms akind of per for min g f orc e of the Bei jin g O per a
percussion ensemble . The three main elements
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passages, seeking to capture the exultant quality of
the poem, with its refrain...
Foreword
When silent, I feel content; when moved to speak, I feel
empty inside.
The past life has perished. Its death inspires joy in me,
because it means it once survived. A dead life has decayed.
This decay inspires joy in me, because it means it has not
yet vanished.
Lifes waste, cast on earth, does not give rise to tall trees,
but does bring forth wild grass, my indulgence.
Wild grass has no deep roots, no pretty flowers; but it
absorbs dew, and water. It consumes the flesh and blood
of the laid-out dead, while all try to rob it of its own
existence. Throughout its life, it is trampled, or cut away,until it dies and decays.
But I am unmoved. I am joyful. I will laugh aloud, and
sing.
I revere my wild grass, yet the ground I loathe, which
merely decorates itself.
Wildfires spread underground, and surge; once molten
lava gushes forth, it will consume all wild grasses, and
even combust the trees and nothing will be left to decay
laugh or sing. In light and dark, through life and death,
past and future, to friend and enemy, to man and beast, to
the loved and unloved, to all I offer this bit of wild grass
as witness.
For myself, friend and foe, man and beast, for the lovedand unloved, I look to the impending decay of these wild
grasses. If it does not come, it is as if I never existed and
that is a fortune far worse than death and decay.
Go on, wild grass, follow my foreword!
26 April, 1927
Lu Xun, Baiyun Estate, Guangzhou(translated by Eli Marshall, 2009)
Taigu Rhyme
Lu Xun, like many of his generation, enjoyed many
years in Japan, but when he died in 1936, it was on thecusp of a new era Japans invasion and occupation of
China. To this day relations between the two cultures
are strained.
Taigu Rhyme, for clarinet, violin, cello, and three
traditional drummers, was written for a Concert of
Remembrance and Reconciliation initiated by the
Bridge of Souls organization in 2001 and performed
in 2003 by the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota
and Theater Mu, a Japanese Taiko ensemble.
Zhous artistic basis of the piece is an imagined
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drummers on the chu (medium drum) and odaiko
(large drum) beating a slow rhythmic pattern. The
middle section is inspired by ancient Zhihua temple
music from Beijing. The clarinet evokes the sound
of the guanzi, a double reed instrument used in the
temple ensemble, with a singing melody accompaniedby a haunting free-tempo ritual atmosphere in the
ensemble. The last section breaks in with a return to
the opening motifs and a vivid tempo drives the work
to the end.
Chen Yi (b.1953)
Monologue Romance of Hsiao and Ch inChinese Ancient Dances
Monologue (Impressions on The True
Story of Ah Q)
And this was all an introduction, is how the narrator
of Lu Xuns True Story of Ah Qends the lengthy gal-lows-farce. From there Chen Yi picks up with what she
calls a meditation of introspection on what might
have happened to Lus most famous antihero, a two-
bit, semi-anonymous loser known only as Q.
Keith Lipson, who plays here, gave the Chinese
premire of the piece. This, and Zhous composition
Wild Grass, were given their premire together at a
concert The World of Lu Xunin 1993 in Birmingham.
R f H i d Ch i
nature. The piece became the first movement of the
duet Romance and Dance, but was first conceived
as a violin duo with string orchestra, given its first
performance by Shlomo Mintz and Elmar Oliveira
and the Orchestra of St. Lukes, conducted by Yehudi
Menuhin in New York. The violin-piano duet wasgiven its China premire by Gao Can and Michelle
Yip, who perform here.
Chinese Ancient Dances
Each of the two movements in Chen Yis Chinese
Ancient Dances evokes a different historical time period.The maowu(Ox Tail dance) was a preparatory ritual
of the Zhou Dynasty, employing props of feathers
and ox-tails. The huxuandance was one of the most
popular dances depicted on art of the late sixth to the
late eighth century, during the Tang Dynasty. This
foreign whirling dance performed on a mat was
probably introduced into China from Sogdia, but theearliest origins of both the maowu and huxuan are
unknown. Keith Lipson and Michelle Yip gave the
Chinese premire of the piece.
Chen Yi and Zhou Long
Chen Yi and Zhou Long were trained side-by-side
in Beijing at the Central Conservatory, and in New
York at Columbia University and are now partners
on the faculty at the Conservatory of the University
of Missouri Kansas City. They are also married to
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of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her
music is published by Theodore Presser Company,
commissioned and performed world-wide by such
ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra and the New
York Philharmonic, recorded on BIS, New Albion, CRI,Teldec, Angle, Nimbus, Albany, New World, Quartz,
Koch & China Record Co., among others. She has been
elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in
2005, and appointed the Changjiang Scholar Professor
at the CCOM by the China Ministry of Education in
2006, which has brought her to Beijing for intensive
residencies with young composers the last three years.Zhou Long was born in Beijing in 1953. Following
graduation from the Central Conservatory in 1983,
was appointed composer-in-residence with the China
National Broadcasting Symphony. Zhou has received
fellowships from the NEA, and the Guggenheim
and Rockefeller Foundations, the Mary Cary Trust and
the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. He has been therecipient of commissions from the Koussevitzky and
the Fromm Music Foundations, Meet the Composer,
Chamber Music America, and ensembles around the
world. He is the recipient of the 2003 Academy Award in
Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
During the 2008-09 season, Zhou has been working on a
flute concerto for the California Pacific and SingaporeSymphonies, a new chamber work for PRISM Saxo-
phone Quartet with Chinese instruments, and will start
his first opera co commissioned by the Opera Boston
Beijing New Music Ensemble
The Beijing New Music Ensemble is the only
independent musical ensemble dedicated to new
music in China. Since 2005 the ensemble has been
presenting chamber music in a revolutionary way
(Macao Daily). A young, vibrant group of diversebackgrounds, the ensemble has performed across
greater China and in South Korea, in concert halls,
bars, universities, and art spaces, and was featured
on BBC Radio Three in the summer of 2008. Often
collaborating with musicians of traditional Chinese
backgrounds, BNME has created a grassroots forum
for contemporary music in Beijing and, in three years,has presented over three dozen China premires
to growing audiences. This is the dbut CD of the
ensemble.
Wu Na (Special guest, guqin)
Nikola Atanasov, fluteMichelle Yip,piano, Gao Can, luo
Gao Can, violin, Michelle Yip,piano
Keith Lipson, clarinet
Gao Can, violin, Michelle Yip,piano
Keith Lipson, clarinet, Michelle Yip,piano
Zhou Long, narrator, Zhao Xuyang, cello
Keith Lipson, clarinet, Gao Can, violin,Zhao Xuyang, cello
Special guests on percussion:
Li Congnong Ma Rui Chen Bingye
Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
Track 4
Track 5
Track 6-7
Track 8
Track 9-11
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Currents-
2006
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1953
1984
MichelleYip
.
2006
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2001
Bridge of Souls
2003Chamber MusicSociety of MinnesotaTheater Mu
chu()(odaiko)
1953
Q
QQ
Keith Lipson1993
-
Yehudi Menuhin
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()(Sogdia)
1
234
567
89
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1953
BIS, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Angle,Nimbus, Albany, New World, Quartz, Koch& China2005
1953 1983
MaryCary
(Aaron Copland),
,(Chamber
Music America)20032008-09
PRISM
2010
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2005
Photo: Kendra Fehr
(): :Back row from left to right: Gao Can, Michelle Yip. Front row from left to right: Zhu Mu, Keith Lipson, Nikola Atanasov, Eli Marshall
Beijing New Music Ensemble
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DDD
8.570604
&
2009
NaxosRightsInternationalLtd.
BookletnotesinEnglish&Chinese
MadeinHongKong
www
.naxos.com
Playing Time
52:05
8
.570604
8
.570604
CHINESE CLASSICS
Trained side-by-side in Beijing at the Central Conservatory, and in New York at ColumbiaUniversity, Chen Yi, the first woman to receive a masters degree in composition in China, andZhou Long are now partners on the faculty at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Despite theclose ties, their compositions enjoy distinct identities, frequently bringing into fascinating
juxtaposition Western and Eastern instruments as well as traditional and contemporarycompositional techniques. The Beijing New Music Ensemble is the only independent musicensemble dedicated to new music in China. This is its dbut recording.
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ZHOULONGCHENYI:WildG
rass
Su (Tracing Back) (version forflute an d qin)Pianogongs (for piano and luo)
Taiping Drum (for violin and
piano)
Monologue (Impression on
4:50Romance of Hsiao and Ch in
3:29
Chinese Ancient Dances
II. Hu Xuan Dance 2:27
Wild Grass (for narrator
and cello)
Taigu Rhyme (for clarinet,
violin, cello and percussion)
I. II.
III.
I. Ox Tail Dance
5:20
7:26
6:58
7:58
5:44
5:52
2:47
3:14
(version for violin and piano)
The True Story of Ah Q)
Producer: Zhou Long Associate Producer: Eli Marshall Engineer & Editor: Shen Yuan Zhi Recorded at the China RecordCompany, Beijing, China, 10th, 14th and 15th September, 2007 Booklet Notes: Eli Marshall Cover Image: Yecaoby
Shao Yan Photography by Kendra Fehr Technical assistance: Alexander Beels Chinese language editing: Patrick P. Lee
and Joanna C. Lee Publishers: Oxford University Press (Zhou Long); Theodore Presser Company (Chen Yi) Special thanksto Alexander Beels, Joshua Kidwell (Lighting Design), violin maker Shen Fei (for lending his Huang Shan violin) andJudith Mann Recording of this disc supported in part by the generosity of the M. Ng Fang Chou Memorial Foundation
Please see pages 6 and 10 for a complete list of the performers
ZHOULONG
CHENYI:WildGrass
ZHOU LONG CHEN YIWild Grass
Zhou Long (b. 1953):
Chen Yi (b. 1953)
Zhou Long:
Beijing New Music Ensemble
8:11
11:53
DDD
8.570604
&
2009
NaxosRightsInternationalLtd.
BookletnotesinEnglish&Chinese
MadeinG
ermany
www
.naxos.com
Playing Time
56:04
8
.570604
8
.570604
CHINESE CLASSICS
7
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06047
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