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- Tan Dun
Cello Concerto: Intercourse of Fire and Water (Yi1) (1994)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 2(2pic).2.1+bcl.1+cbn/2220/4perc(timp)/hp.pf/str (min 6.6.4.4.2 players)
- solo cello
- Cello
- 23 min
Programme Note
Balance and counterpoint are two of the most important things to me in writing music — not only from note-to-note in a single style and tempo but also in a much broader sense. Through the Yi-Ching (the Chinese philosophical work Book of Changes, 5th century BC), I grew interested in the balance between that which already exists and that which has not yet come to be. I learned that ways of balancing the existing and the potential are truly unlimited. This idea enlarged my understanding of counterpoint. I began to think that it could include not only the relationship of notes but of styles, tempos, timbres, dynamics, structures — including, even from different time periods and through the converging worlds of East and West.
Intercourse of Fire and Water is the first work in my Yi cycle. To create this series of concerti, I begin with an Ur-piece — my orchestral "concerto" Yi0 — and each time I superimpose an independent work for a solo instrument. The orchestra is "that which already exists" while the solo signifies "the potential" which is to be discovered. Musical materials are not mixed haphazardly; I seek to discover relationships or similarities between the elements and then weave them together into a new entity. (Consequently, each of the Yi concerti, which also includes Yi2 for guitar and orchestra and Yi3 for bianzhong, cello solo, and orchestra, is distinctive in sound and style.) The orchestral Yi0 is likewise a counterpoint of the old and new; it utilizes fragments from Marco Polo (1996), Silk Road (1989), In Distance (1987), and Eight Colors for String Quartet (1986-88), all to symbolize my own musical "journey" since moving to New York City from China in 1986.
Intercourse of Fire and Water (Yi1) was written for and dedicated to cellist Anssi Karttunen. He premiered the work on March 13, 1995, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Helsinki Biennale.
—Tan Dun
Intercourse of Fire and Water is the first work in my Yi cycle. To create this series of concerti, I begin with an Ur-piece — my orchestral "concerto" Yi0 — and each time I superimpose an independent work for a solo instrument. The orchestra is "that which already exists" while the solo signifies "the potential" which is to be discovered. Musical materials are not mixed haphazardly; I seek to discover relationships or similarities between the elements and then weave them together into a new entity. (Consequently, each of the Yi concerti, which also includes Yi2 for guitar and orchestra and Yi3 for bianzhong, cello solo, and orchestra, is distinctive in sound and style.) The orchestral Yi0 is likewise a counterpoint of the old and new; it utilizes fragments from Marco Polo (1996), Silk Road (1989), In Distance (1987), and Eight Colors for String Quartet (1986-88), all to symbolize my own musical "journey" since moving to New York City from China in 1986.
Intercourse of Fire and Water (Yi1) was written for and dedicated to cellist Anssi Karttunen. He premiered the work on March 13, 1995, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Helsinki Biennale.
—Tan Dun