SIN-YAN SHEN, MUSIC DIRECTOR Critics call this magic, a contemporary, rare musical experience. This is a new music movement that is challenging the borders of sound and culture alike. American and European audiences moved by this spectacle "cannot wait for the next performance."In a fury of sound and color the Chinese Orchestra takes the listener on a powerful journey into the realm of China's musical heritage. Led by Dr. Sin-yan Shen , a foremost authority on Chinese music and a virtuoso artist on the erhu, the python-skin vertical fiddle, the performance of this Orchestra is famous for its passion, virtuosity and provocative sound generated by its unique instrumentation.
The Chinese Classical Orchestra, Shen Sin-yan, Music Director, has in the last decade "internationalized" Chinese music. Its concert performances and master class teaching in North America and throughout the world have caused a lustrous history of musical and cultural exchange to be written. Recently, its ensemble represented the United States in a "Fourth-of-July" concert in Italy.
The Chinese Classical Orchestra is renown for its classical and modern repertoire. Its performance and recordings are said to be "extremely high energy" and "most accessible", and characterized by "color, intensity and virtuosity". The Orchestra uses in an improvisational setting four groups of instruments (1) the reeded winds, (2) percussions, (3) plucked strings, and (4) bowed strings. Today it draws first-rate performers from all over the world through international auditions.
The Orchestral repertoire performed originates from a large number of regions in China, and the pieces for each thematic concert are hand-picked by Dr. Shen Sin-yan. The Chinese Classical Orchestra is also known for its highly popular concerto repertory with yangqin (grand dulcimer), Jinghu (Beijing Opera fiddle), pipa (grand lute), bawu (free-reeded bamboo flute), and erhu (vertical python-skin fiddle) as lead instruments.
Special concerts are highlighted with the enormously popular informance on the musical, cultural, and historical background of the program by Dr. Shen during the concert.
The Chinese Music Society of North America was organized in the 1960s to increase and diffuse the knowledge of Chinese music and to encourage international exchange. Members of the Chinese Classical Orchestra and the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble have been invited to perform in China, Italy, Japan and India. The vigor, color, and virtuosity of the performances of the Chinese Music Society of North America and the publication of the highly successful international journal Chinese Music have broadened the artistic climate internationally for the appreciation of music for what it really is.
This new sound has attracted music lovers of all kinds, both young and old, guaranteeing you with an evening and an experience which you will never forget !
Contact: Dr. Yuan-Yuan Lee, Director, Concert & Lecture Division, Chinese Music Society of North America, PO Box 5275, Woodridge IL 60517-0275 USA. Tel: 630-910-1551. FAX: 630-910-1561.
This is one of the most exciting and inspiring music ensemble in the world. The ensemble, led by Dr. Shen Sin-yan, is a premium chamber music group based in Chicago and internationally known for its classical repertoire and performances based on tonal interests and just intervals. Members of the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble have been invited to lecture and perform in China, Italy, Japan and India. Shen, himself a master on the Chinese vertical fiddles, leads the Silk & Bamboo on head fiddles and leads research which establishes much of the backgrounds of the instrumental compositions the group plays. He is today a popular television personality internationalizing Chinese music on both British and American television.
The ensemble is named after the ancient tradition of silk strings and bamboo winds, utilizing varied number of strands of silk fiber for lute and fiddle strings, and bamboo air columns for reeded winds. Dr. Shen is the first to systematically introduce Chinese orchestral music and silk and bamboo music to the west. Conductor, composer, erhu recitalist, lecturer, television personality, and author, Shen is called a cultural ambassador and musical renaissance man. He is best known, however, as a music director who internationalized and popularized Chinese music since his professional debut in 1963. In the 1970s and the 1980s respectively he founded the Chinese Classical Orchestra and the Silk & Bamboo Ensemble, today among the most sought after music programs in the U.S., in Europe, and internationally. A dynamic personality with an acute musical intelligence and acoustical knowledge, Shen reached a large following with his informance and lecture/educational programs in the U.S.
Shen built an impressive career as a musician who is loved by audiences of both serious and popular music today. Performing more than 70 concerts a year at festivals and performing arts series and appearing as lecturer on cultural acoustics and Chinese music from continent to continent, Shen's work focuses on the artist-audience interaction, and on the creative music making process. He is best known for making everyone in his audience understand "What Music Really Is?"
His major works include A Tune of Southern Anhui (silk and bamboo ensemble), Moon over the Western Water (silk and bamboo ensemble), Lily Blossoms Crimson and Bright (arrangement for the Chinese classical orchestra), The Stream (vocal) and many works for large orchestras. He is the author of What Makes Chinese Music Chinese?, Foundations of the Chinese Orchestra, Acoustics of Ancient Chinese Bells, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, China: A Journey Into Its Musical Arts, Chinese Musical Instruments, and many other popular text books making the study of music, musical performance and Chinese music completely accessible.
Instruments of the Silk & Bamboo EnsembleErhu (the most popular Chinese vertical fiddle)
Gaohu (high-register vertical skin fiddle)
Tuoyin erhu (the supporting erhu)
Banhu (high-register wood fiddle)
Yangqin (Chinese grand hammered dulcimer)
Pipa (Grand lute)
Di (side-blown reed-membrane flute)
Xiao (End-blown flute)
Hengxiao (side-blown flute)
Dadi (large side-blown reed-membrane flute)
THE
SILK AND BAMBOO ENSEMBLE
SHEN SIN-YAN, MUSIC DIRECTOR
MOON PROGRAM
Program Notes
Moon Over the Mountain Pass
AnonymousComposition of the military music of the Tang dynasty (618-907) to which the great poet Li Bai wrote his famous poem "Moon Over the Mountain Pass". Musicologists Yang Yin-liu and Hou Zuo-wu in the 1950s analyzed the structure of the music and poem and found that they matched completely. It is a surviving classic in the style of the Gujiao Hengchuiqu, ensemble music led by the flute, of the 8th century.
Processional
Shanghai Silk and Bamboo"Processional" is among a large class of ensemble music which has been popular all over China since the 13th century or earlier. It is improvisational within a well-known framework. It is said that "you never hear the same processional twice" because every performance is a function of the space and time and audience present. The music is technically demanding and most intriguing for the audience.
The Grand Overture
Music of HenanMusic from the central state. This classic for the banhu (vertical wood fiddle) originated from the "pre-curtain" music used before the performance of ballad singing in historical Henan, the province south of the Yellow River in which almost all of the ancient empires founded their capitals. The music is lively, delightful, shrewd, and playful. It expresses warm, uninhibited, happy feelings. It makes extensive use of large position changes and gliding vibrato, all of which are unique characteristics of the Central State - Henan. The banhu belongs to the family of Chinese fiddles which became popular in the Tang (618-907) period.
Rain Drops on the Plantain
Traditional Silk and BambooThis is one of the best known compositions from the early period of Cantonese instrumental music. It abounds with the beauty of Southern China. The lively rhythm and modulation evoke the pattering of raindrops on the plantain leaves as the trees sway in the breeze. Delicate instrumentation using the gaohu (Cantonese vertical python-skin fiddle) and the yangqin (grand hammered dulcimer) as lead bowed and plucked strings is fully demonstrated.
Moderately Embellished Liuban
AnonymousThis piece is the best-known classic of the silk and bamboo school of Jiang-nan, which is a popular style of chamber music in Southern Jiangsu and western Zhejiang Provinces in Eastern China. The Liuban is a class of composition based on the "Lao Liuban", old Liuban. Embellishment is a common method of composition using a known note-sequence. In this version, the liuban is moderately embellished and decreased in tempo, making the music highly lyrical and colorful.
Moon Crescent Before Dawn
Music of Northeastern China
Lee Yuan-Yuan, Yangqin SoloistTraditional music popular in the Northeastern Provinces of China. This is an emotional and musically-moving composition. Tension altering glissando glides on the yangqin (the grand hammered dulcimer) are employed to express the inner feelings. The cadences fall on "re", "do", "la", and "so" which are unheard of in Western music.
Intermission
Autumn Moon on the Lake
Traditional Silk and BambooFavorite repertory of the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble. This music was made popular by Lu Wen-cheng. It uses incredible embellishments on the gaohu to show the beauty of southern Chinese music.
Song of Emancipation
Northern Music for the FiddleThis music was probably written for the banhu, the Northern wood fiddle capable of great leaps in glissando and dynamic open- stringed resonance. In this version made popular by Zhang Xiechen and Wang Guotong, the prelude on the yangqin and the opening passage on the erhu is swift and lively. It is so liberated as to be somewhat unpredictable. The erhu performance utilizes northern style techniques of downward glissando of the middle finger on the F-sharp, and upward glissando of the fourth finger on the A (inner string) and E (outer string) and large glissando of the third finger to the high A (outer string), to decorate the harmonic skeleton E-A-E.
The middle section is highly expressive, making maximum use of right hand long-bow techniques. It proceeds via overlapping skeletons of E-A-B-E and A-D-E-A, emphasizing the low E (first finger) with an open-string grace note D.
The last section is more bouncy on both the melodic progression and bowing than the first, and concludes with a large downward glissando to C-sharp, followed by step progression to A.
The Moon Mirrored in Erquan
A BingThe best known modern composition for the erhu. Only six compositions of A Bing (1893-1950) survived. It is not possible to determine the date of this composition but we can be sure that the composition was fully developed when A Bing recorded it in 1950 for Yang Yin-liu. Yang subsequently transcribed the music from the recording. A Bing had already stopped playing his erhu and pipa in 1950 and was only willing to play six compositions for Yang. He promised Yang that he would have many more compositions to offer if he had six to twelve months to practice. Unfortunately he died in December that year before Yang could return to make the second batch of recordings.
A number of the most important methods of expression on the erhu is to be noted: 1. open-string grace note to decorate the note a whole step above, 2. sudden pause of the bow following a long bow ending on a minor third above the main note, 3. fixed position glissando, and 4. bowing to alter the relative weight of strong and weak beats.
Listen to the Pine
A BingDuring the Song dynasty (960-1279), Jin U-Zu, commanding general of the Jin army, was defeated by Yue Fei of the Song dynasty in a number of battles, and retreated to the Hui-quan mountain of Wu-xi. He lay on a large stone known as the pine-listening stone, and listened nervously to the Song Army. This music is full of power and grandeur. Through the praise of strength and integrity for the pine tree, the erhu (vertical python-skin second fiddle) expresses its admiration for righteousness and confidence. The melody presents itself like sturdy boughs of a pine tree and has an outstanding personality. The introduction is bold as the whistling waves of pine. The first and the third sections surround the middle thematic section, and use tremolo in pianissimo and detache to offer a bugle call melody. The middle section begins with lento poi accelerando. Its melody is made up of large leaps in interval, and ever-changing tempo. Continual syncopation provides one high point after another. The lead instrument, erhu, performs separate bowing and is forceful and clear on even the most rapidly moving sixteenth notes.
Born in 1949 to Shanghainese parents, Sin-yan Shen studied music at very early age, mastering the vertical fiddle family of Chinese instruments. Today he is by far the best known master artist, and most important scholar on the art and aesthetics of Chinese music, as well as the cultural acoustics and musical acoustics of China. His dual career in music and physics culminated in the development of cultural acoustics, a discipline addressing scientifically the cultural molding of our ears and brain when it comes to music. Dr. Shen's life-long work centers on the question of "what music really is?" His teaching in North America and abroad has created a new understanding of music, its creative and social functions, and provides inspiration to a new generation of composers and music practitioners.
Dr. Sin-yan Shen pioneered the teaching of cultural acoustics at Northwestern and Harvard. He is currently Music Director of the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble and the Chinese Classical Orchestra, both touring internationally under the auspices of the Chinese Music Society of North America. He is editor of the international journal Chinese Music, music authority for the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a Fulbright Scholar. He serves as Technical Advisor to the Shanghai Musical Instruments Factory.
Conductor, composer, erhu recitalist, lecturer, television personality, and author, Shen is called a cultural embassador and musical renaissance man. He is best known, however, as a music director who "internationalized" and popularized Chinese music since his professional debut in 1963. In the 1970s and the 1980s respectively he founded the Chinese Classical Orchestra and the Silk & Bamboo Ensemble, today among the most sought- after music programs in the U.S., in Europe, and internationally. A dynamic personality with an acute musical intelligence and acoustical knowledge, Shen reached a large following with his informance and lecture/educational programs in the U.S.
Shen, the Chinese music master, built an impressive career as a musician who is loved by audiences of both serious and popular music today. Performing more than 100 concerts a year at festivals and performing arts series and appearing as lecturer on Chinese musical art and aesthetics from continent to continent, Shen's work focuses on the artist-audience interaction, and on the creative music making process. He is best known for making everyone in his audience understand "What Music Really Is?"
His major works include A Tune of Southern Anhui (silk and bamboo ensemble), Moon over the Western Water (silk and bamboo ensemble), Lily Blossoms Crimson and Bright (arrangement for the Chinese classical orchestra), The Stream (vocal) and many works for large orchestras. He is the author of the popular books What Makes Chinese Music Chinese?, Foundations of the Chinese Orchestra, Acoustics of Ancient Chinese Bells, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, China: A Journey Into Its Musical Arts, Chinese Musical Instruments, and many popular text books.
Sin-yan Shen and the Silk & Bamboo Ensemble Sin-yan Shen and the Silk & Bamboo have in the 1980s and 1990s taken the American music scene by storm. A master fiddler who typically showcases several of his Chinese vertical fiddles in any given concert, Shen captures his audience with the acoustics of his first bow. Receiving rave reviews from all major newspapers in North America and Europe, he and his two ensembles are among the faster-growing music groups on college and university campuses and at international music and dance festivals. Shen recently completed a tour of France and Italy with twenty concert and lecture appearances in three weeks.
More than just a master virtuoso, Shen Sin-yan believes in establishing a dialogue with his audience. His witty and highly informative commentaries have been a corner stone of success for the groups' international concert tours.
Their recent program in their west coast tour features the all time "MOON" favorites of Shen and the Silk & Bamboo, spanning in time compositions from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) through the Twentieth Century. They have developed the Moon theme during one of their Ravinia Festival residencies, and the Italian audience fell in love with their Moon pieces, among which "The Flowers are Blooming and the Moon is Full", "Moon Crescent Before Dawn", "The Moon Mirrored in Erquan", "Autumn Moon over the West Lake" feature the Gaohu (Cantonese Fiddle), the Erhu (the most popular Chinese Vertical Fiddle), and the Banhu (the Northern Chinese Wood-Membrane Fiddle). The fiddles in silk and bamboo acoustics are supported in ensembles by the end-blown flute, the reed- membrane side-blown flute, the pear-shaped lute known for its five-finger strum, and the grand dulcimer.
Contact: Dr. Yuan-Yuan Lee, Director, Concert & Lecture Division, Chinese Music Society of North America, PO Box 5275, Woodridge IL 60517-0275 USA. Tel: 630-910-1551. FAX: 630-910-1561.
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