Chinese Classic Zheng music

1. Xiang Shan She Gu (The Temple Fair at the Xiang Mountain) 1981 
Composer: QU   Yun
Zheng     : SUN Zhuo
　

QU Yun (b. 1946), a professor at the Art College of Shaanxi, is also a well-known zheng soloist and composer. Her representative pieces include ‘The Sound of Drum in Temple Fair’, ‘Joy of Spring Breeze’ and ‘Lily Pound’. She holds several positions within the zheng society and other Musician’s Associations in China.

This piece is based on Xi’an drum music. In terms of the form, content, melody and playing technique, the piece follows ancient traditions dating from the Tang dynasty. This music was inspired by a traditional celebration, which takes place annually at the temple fair during the festival on the Guanzhong plain in Shaanxi province. The deep and devotional melody reflects a dignified praying mood. During the later part, the music imitates the rhythm of local drums and gongs that represent the festive atmosphere. This composition won the outstanding music award at the 6th Asian Music Forum.
　

2. Hangong qiuyue (Autumn Moon Over the Han Palace) zheng duet

Classic Zheng music of the Shaandong School transmitted by Gao Zicheng
Zheng: QU Yun and SUN Zhuo

3. The Rain Falls on the Apple Blossom
　

Classic Zheng music of Chaozhou School transmitted by Xu Shoucheng
Zheng:  SUN Zhuo 


Contemporary Zheng Music


1  Lin Quan (Spring in the Forest) 2001 

Composer: YE Xiaogang
Zheng     : SUN Zhuo

Water has been a favourite theme of Chinese poets and musicians. It often characterizes and bestows philosophical meaning. The composer depicts the characters and transformation of water within eleven sections. Pentatonic and hexatonic scales have been pre-set for the piece in varied octaves and keys. The lento section is characterized with rich colours on harmony and its variations; its melody theme is developed from the repetitions of the same motives. The fourth section requires a virtuoso performance in toccata style, until the repetitions of harmony lead to the climax in the ninth section while the melody of the first section reverberates into the final section. In this piece, the expression of dynamics includes ff, fff and sfz, which is quite rare in the traditional zheng pieces.

YE Xiaogang (b. 1955), is a composer and deputy director of the Chinese Musicians’ Association. In 1984, his ‘Moonlight in Xijiang’, started to receive international attention at the Asia-Pacific region Festivals and composer Assembly. His earlier representative compositions include the symphony work ‘Winter’, ‘Threnody’ for piano quintet and ‘Horizon’ for soprano, baritone and orchestra. He has received many awards: the Alexander Tcherepnin Prize (1982), the Grand Prize of the First Orchestral Composition Competition, Taiwan (1991), the U.S. "Hawode Hanson" Award (1991) and the Masterpiece Award from the China Cultural Promotion Society (1993)。
　

2  Circuit for zheng solo 1996
Composer: CHEN Xiaoyong
Zheng     : SUN Zhuo

This work evolved step by step, in a manner, which was rather untypical for my way of working. After the completion of an initial sketch, I had it played and recorded. The sketch was then changed and developed further. The second version was then recorded and altered and so on. This evolutionary process went through several generations of sketches and transformations and brought about a result, which was quite different from what I would have written had I done so directly. The work evolved like an organism during a long evolution. Out of initially simple forms, highly complex and colourful structures are formed which gradually begin to dissolve so that a sort of cycle (or circuit) is produced. This piece was written for the Chen Portrait Concert, on the occasion of the awarding of the Bach Prize by the Hamburg Senate in 1996. Its realization was largely due to the devoted engagement of the soloist, XU Fengxia.
CHEN Xiaoyong, translated by Robert Darroll


CHEN Xiaoyong (b. 1955), is a professor of composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He studied composition under SU Xia at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and later at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater in Hamburg with György Ligeti. He has received a number of prizes, including first prize for his String Quartet no. 1 in Donaueschingen in 1987, and the J. S. Bach Prize awarded by the Hamburg Senate in 1995. His compositions are published by the Internationale Musikverlage Sikorski, and have been performed by leading orchestras and ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta, Orchestre Philharmonique Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris, Ensemble 2e2m Paris, Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam, Silk Road Ensemble New York and Arditti String Quartet. In 2004, his ‘Speechlessness, Clearness and Ease’ for Klangforum Wien and China Found Music Workshop (2004) gave its performances both at the Maerz-musik and Huddersfield Contemporary Music festivals. Presently, he is working on his first opera ‘Chuge’ for some festivals in Europe.



3  Greening 
Composer: Minoru MIK
Zheng     : SUN Zhuo

This contemporary composition features a 20-string koto - a modern version of the traditional 13-string koto-developed in 1969 by the composer in collaboration with Keiko Nosaka. The piece is the fifth in Miki's Ballades for Koto Solo, Vol. II. a cycle that depicts the various phases of the spring. Hanayagi describes the period when spring passes into summer - when the trees and plants approach the height of their vitality.

Minoru MIK Born in Tokushima, Japan in 1930 and graduated from Tokyo National University of Music a composition major. Miki invented 20-string koto (two years later became 21-strings) with Keiko Nosaka in 1969. He composed variable pieces for this instrument, but main solo works are Tennyo, Venus in Spring and Autumn, From the East and 20 Ballades for koto solo including Hanayagi (Greening). His next four record album "Minoru Miki- Keiko Nosaka / Music for 20-string koto" won the Prize of Excellence in 1979 Festival.