Program Notes: Lunar New Year

Arirang is a song of great flexibility: its lyrics and melody have been modified over the years to such an extent that musicologists have identified about 60 principal versions and at least 3,600 variants. Its malleability has led to a variety of uses in the North and South, from protest to solidarity to sporting events. At the Opening Ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, athletes from South Korea and North Korea marched together in unity as the song’s most common version, Jeongseon Arirang, was played.

The concerto is scored for a standard-sized Western orchestra, and utilizes a variety of traditional Chinese techniques and styles to create a sound world suitable for its story. Among them are the use of a five-pitch pentatonic scale and a number of melodies from Chinese folk songs and from a well-known Chinese opera version of the Butterfly Lovers story. Across the concerto we follow Zhu and Liang as they meet in childhood, attend school and grow closer. The tale turns tragic as Zhu is betrothed to another man, Liang becomes ill and dies, and Zhu throws herself into Liang’s grave. In closing, the lovers’ spirits emerge as butterflies.

The Butterfly Lovers, which premiered in 1959, is often used in figure skating routines, memorably for Chen Lu’s free skate performance at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, at which she became the first Chinese athlete to win a medal in figure skating.

Son, one of the great figures in 20th-century Vietnamese music and art, wrote more than 500 songs and poems, many relating to love and the hope for a peaceful Vietnam. Circle of Unity dates from 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, with lyrics outlining the dream of reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. In 1975, as the war was coming to an end, Son accepted an invitation to perform Circle of Unity on a radio broadcast from Saigon, urging all Vietnamese people to join hands and unite.

In the Dark Night comes from a suite by Wu describing the ill-fated story of Xiang Yu, a rebel leader during the fall of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), and his concubine Yuji. The music begins with a low-pitched flute solo and continues with a Chinese drum passage, over which the orchestra crescendos and stops, leading to the entrance of the jing hu and yue qin. Those two featured instruments play continuously in free-flowing melodies for the rest of the piece, through varying textures, tempos and meters until the final measures, marked fff with trills and tremolos abounding.

“Sketches of Singapore utilizes the broad musical palette of the symphony orchestra to unlock expressive possibilities lying latent within four popular Singaporean melodies. The simple elegance of these tunes provides the ideal foundation upon which to weave elaborate textural layers, lively rhythmic elaborations, colorful tonal shading and flavorful harmonic tapestries. The development and transformation of fragments derived from these tunes generates fresh dramatic dimensions that unfold upon a symphonic canvas…The work begins with the triumphant energy of Stand Up for Singapore. Next, the folk tune Rasa Sayang is presented in the comic style of a scherzo. Cast in a passionate yet elegant orchestral glow, the deep Romantic essence of the third tune, Where I Belong, is fully unveiled. In the grand finale, the venerable Di Tanjong Katong is symphonically expanded to radiate all its innate glory.”

“Guangxi is a province in southern China that sports a rich diverse population that includes 48 counties with 12 different ethnic groups. This piece is in three movements: Dance of Tiaodan, Summer Cicadas and Celebrating the Harvest.

Dance of Tiaodan. “The first movement depicts Tiaodan people as they carry goods on their shoulders with bamboo sticks. The music describes the people as they work happily in the field. People one-by-one come from far away with the bamboo sticks on their shoulders, creating ‘biandan’ up and down movements which simulate dancing.

Summer Cicadas. “In Guangxi, the weather is very hot and the cicadas are very noisy. But in the Dong minority, the most famous song is inspired by the sounds of the cicadas. The music describes a hot summer day, with young men and women looking for lovers during work breaks in the field.

Celebrating the Harvest. “A plentiful harvest is cause to celebrate in Guangxi, and I depict this celebration with sounds of percussion bands and celebratory words near the movement’s end.”

The overture is the first and best-known movement of Li’s four-part Spring Festival Suite, composed in 1955 and 1956. It depicts a scene in the Shanbei region of revelers celebrating the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, and the music’s themes come from that region’s folk music. In the overture we hear sounds reminiscent of fireworks and parades, along with a gentler inner passage that is built on a traditional melody conveying greetings for the New Year as well as prayers for peace and good fortune.

Program notes by Carl Schroeder.