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- Bright Sheng
Four Movements (1990)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Programme Note
Bright Sheng, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and cellist Eric Kim introduce and perform Four Movements
Composer Note:
Four Movements for Piano Trio was based on the musical materials of My Song, a work I composed for solo piano in 1988. Similar to the piano work, I was trying to search for my "own" concept of tonality. For me, the best way is to unify my mother tongue (Oriental classical and folk music) and my father tongue (Western classical music). In addition, I was very much aware of the virtuosity of the Peabody Trio during the process of the composition.
The folklore style and prelude-like first movement is constructed through the development of heterophony, a typical device of Oriental music. The third movement is a savage dance in which the melody grows through a series of "Chinese sequence" (a self-invented term to describe a way of melodic development in Chinese folk music, in which each time the initial motive is repeated, it increases the number of notes and consequently enlarges the spaces of duration and tessitura). The last movement is a lonesome solitude of Nostalgia.
—Bright Sheng
Composer Note:
Four Movements for Piano Trio was based on the musical materials of My Song, a work I composed for solo piano in 1988. Similar to the piano work, I was trying to search for my "own" concept of tonality. For me, the best way is to unify my mother tongue (Oriental classical and folk music) and my father tongue (Western classical music). In addition, I was very much aware of the virtuosity of the Peabody Trio during the process of the composition.
The folklore style and prelude-like first movement is constructed through the development of heterophony, a typical device of Oriental music. The third movement is a savage dance in which the melody grows through a series of "Chinese sequence" (a self-invented term to describe a way of melodic development in Chinese folk music, in which each time the initial motive is repeated, it increases the number of notes and consequently enlarges the spaces of duration and tessitura). The last movement is a lonesome solitude of Nostalgia.
—Bright Sheng
Media
Reviews
These chamber works show Sheng as a skilled and expressive composer, who very effectively communicates with his listeners…these scores leave a powerful impression on the audience, and combine Chinese and Western music elements to expand their expressive vocabulary. The listeners at the concert were suitably impressed; Sheng seems to have struck the right chord.
[The] Four Movements for Piano Trio [was] inspired by the folk singing style that Sheng had heard while living in Qinghai, near Tibet…Sheng is a master at evoking moods in his music, and is inventive and demanding in his use of a broad variety of techniques from musicians.
Discography
Sheng: Silent Temple
- LabelBis
- Catalogue Number1138
- EnsembleShanghai String Quartet
- ReleasedJanuary 2003
- LabelMsr
- Catalogue Number1103
- EnsembleTriple Helix
- SoloistBayla Keyes violin; Rhonda Rider, cello; Lois Shapiro, piano
Bright Tide Moving Between
- LabelRattle
- EnsembleNZTrio