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Located in the USA
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- Tan Dun
Elegy: Snow in June (1991)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Programme Note
The image of snow in June comes from a 13th century Chinese drama by Kuan Han-Ching, in which a young woman, Dou Eh, is executed for crimes she did not commit. Even nature cries out for her innocence - her blood does not fall to earth but flies upward, a heavy snow falls in June, and a drought descends for three years. Elegy sings of pity and purity, beauty and darkness, and is a lament for victims everywhere.
The work is a set of free variations. Beginning with sparse, searching phrases, it coalesces to the theme which emerges in the middle then disperses again. The voice of the cello opposes and joins four groups of percussion which each are given solo passages. The singing of the cello contrasts with the sound of tearing paper or the roughness of stones and cans.
Elegy was commissioned by the New Music Consort and was first performed by Madeleine Shapiro (cello) with Claire Heldrich conducting.
—Tan Dun
The work is a set of free variations. Beginning with sparse, searching phrases, it coalesces to the theme which emerges in the middle then disperses again. The voice of the cello opposes and joins four groups of percussion which each are given solo passages. The singing of the cello contrasts with the sound of tearing paper or the roughness of stones and cans.
Elegy was commissioned by the New Music Consort and was first performed by Madeleine Shapiro (cello) with Claire Heldrich conducting.
—Tan Dun