Two Chinese contemporary piano works. "Combination of Long and Short Meter” and "Thunder in a Drought"

Abstract

Abstract This paper will analyze two contrasting Chinese pieces written in the late twentieth century. The researcher will address related aspects of Chinese folk music and present a comprehensive analysis discussing how composers apply western composition techniques to Chinese folk music. The “Combination of Long and Short Meter” is a three-movement work written in 1985. This work uses modern western composition techniques such as clusters, polyrhythm, bitonality, and pitch-class set. The composer combines these techniques with Chinese folk idioms resulting in an ingenious and well organized new work. The title "long and short" refers to one specific kind of Chinese folk music, which is highly influenced by Chao Xian ethnic music. Chao Xian music is characterized by using long and short rhythmic patterns. In this work, each movement has its own title, “Deng De Kong”, “Jin Yang Zhao” and “En Mao Li.” These titles indicate a different rhythmic pattern, tempo, meter, mood and style. This work has been well received and was chosen as the commission work for 1st China International piano competition in 1994. The “Combination of Long and Short Meter” is a popular work for advanced pianists demanding high level keyboard technique and musical ability. Many professional pianists and advanced students play this work in China. "Thunder in a Drought" is a piece that is transcribed for piano from another Chinese instrument’s music with the same title. There are many passages that imitate the sound of other Chinese instruments. This piece is from Guang Dong province in Southeast China. It has original tunes from Guang Dong and uses local musical idioms. The music depicts the festival scene of people celebrating the rain after a long drought. This piece is in intermediate level of keyboard technique and has been very popular especially for young pianists.