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Chou Wen-Chung's Piano Music: A Study in “Re-Merger” Aesthetics
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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
CHOU WEN-CHUNG’S PIANO MUSIC: A STUDY IN “RE-MERGER” AESTHETICS
By
Mengqian Lin
A DOCTORAL ESSAY
Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts
Coral Gables, Florida
August 2021
©2021 Mengqian Lin All Rights Reserved
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
A doctoral essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts
CHOU WEN-CHUNG’S PIANO MUSIC: A STUDY IN “RE-MERGER” AESTHETICS Mengqian Lin
Approved:
______Kevin Kenner M.M. Santiago E Rodriguez, M.M. Assistant Professor Professor of Keyboard Performance of Keyboard Performance
Tian Ying, M.M. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Associate Professor Dean of the Graduate School of Keyboard Performance
Juan Chattah, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Music Theory
LIN, MENGQIAN (D.M.A., Piano Performance) (August 2021) Chou Wen-Chung’s Piano Music: A Study in “Re-Merger” Aesthetics
Abstract of a doctoral essay at the University of Miami.
Doctoral essay supervised by Professor Kevin Kenner.
No. of pages in text.(104)
The interaction between Eastern and Western cultures has inspired many significant musical works which highlight specific aspects from each part of the world. Wen-Chung
Chou (1923-2019), an American Chinese composer, fashioned a unique style by integrating traditional Chinese cultural elements with Western compositional techniques of his time; his music can be interpreted as an artistic response to the opposing cultural influences in his life. This project is a study of a selection of Wen-Chung Chou’s instrumental works for the purpose of investigating how Chou synthesized Eastern elements with the Western musical system. This study will explain how form and diverse styles interact and influence one another. Wen-Chung Chou was one of the first Chinese born composers who was successful in introducing an Eastern artistic conception into the field of Western contemporary music. The relationship between his social cultural background and Chou’s musical concepts will be explored. Chou’s solo piano work The
Willow Are New will be used as a case study for examining the mechanisms of his musical conception which operate towards the integration of Eastern ideas with Western
musical elements. It is hoped that this study will contribute to a greater awareness and understanding of cross-cultural compositions and the aesthetics of transcultural works.
Keywords: Wen-Chung Chou, piano, eastern, re-merger, western, cross-cultural
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to acknowledge the generous support and encouragement given me by my advisor, Kevin Kenner, who encouraged me to pursue this project during a challenging time. His wide-ranging experience as a concert pianist and comprehensive knowledge of music has deeply impacted me as a musician throughout my three years of doctoral studies.
I truly enjoyed working in a research environment that stimulates original thinking and initiative, which he created. Professor Kenner’s skillful guidance, innovative ideas and stoic patience are greatly appreciated. Throughout the entire learning years with Professor
Kenner, I have received a great deal of support and assistance from him. He taught me to carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to become better.
I will never forget the memories of all my lessons and talks with Professor Kenner.
I would also like to express appreciation to the members of my doctoral advising committee members, Professor Santiago Rodriguez, Professor Tian Ying, and Dr. Juan
Chattah for the generous amount of time and effort they expended in assisting me to complete this project.
My deepest appreciation belongs to my family and my friends for their patience and understanding. With regards to numerous questions about my future academic endeavors from family and friends I shall answer in the words of Sir Winston Churchill: “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is it, perhaps, the end of the beginning”.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF FIGURES...... vi
Chapter
1 INTRODUCTION...... 1
2 LITERATURE REVIEW...... 5
Wen-Chung Chou’s life ...... 6
Wen-Chung Chou’s musical and cultural synthesis...... 6
Approaches to Wen-Chung Chou’s music ...... 7
Wen-Chung Chou’s aesthetic...... 8
Wen-Chung Chou’s personal statement...... 11
3 METHODOLOGY...... 13
4 CHOU’S BIOGRAPHY AND COMPOSITIONAL DEVELOPMENT ...... 17
5 INFLUENCE OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITIONAL.
ARTS...... 21
Basic principles of the I-Ching, Confucianism and Taoism...... 21
Chinese Calligraphy...... 28
The Guqin and the Single Tone ...... 30
Ancient Chinese Poetry...... 37
iv
6 CHOU’S MUSICAL THEORY...... 39
Introduction of Chou’s Theory...... 39
Chou’s pitch organization...... 41
Variable modes...... 43
7 ANALYSIS OF THE PIANO WORK THE WILLOWS ARE NEW ...... 47
The concept of The Willows Are New ...... 47
Pentatonic modes in The Willows Are New...... 50
Mutation in The Willows Are New...... 54
Overview ...... 62
The Structure and Musical Languages in The Willows Are New ...... 62
Analysis of The Willows Are New by the method of Sonic Design...... 65
Musical Space ...... 65
Color of Sound...... 72
Time and Rhythm...... 74
8 A PERFORMANCE GUIDE AND PRACTICE STRATEGIES FOR The Willows Are
New ...... 81
CONCLUSION ...... 95
GLOSSARY OF TERMS...... 98
BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 100
v
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE
Figure 1 Eight Trigrams from I Ching ...... 23
Figure 2 Fu Xi circular arrangement of the eight trigrams...... 24
Figure 3 Chinese calligraphy...... 29
Figure 4 Range of guqin...... 32
Figure 5 mm.35-47 The Willows Are New ...... 36
Figure 6 mm.23- 34 The Willows Are New ...... 42
Figure 7 The Eight Trigrams of I-Ching ...... 44
Figure 8 Yin and Yang segments from He’s dissertation...... 45
Figure 9 Variable mode from He’s dissertation...... 46
Figure 10 Chinese pentatonic scale...... 50
Figure 11 m.1 The Willows Are New ...... 51
Figure 12 Form diagram of Willows Are New from Lai’s dissertation...... 52
Figure 13 mm2-16 The Willows Are New ...... 53
Figure 14 The Willows Are New m.1 (motive A, B, and C) ...... 54
Figure 15 The Willows Are New mm.48-58...... 55
Figure16 Transformation of motive B from Lai’s dissertation...... 55
Figure 17 mm.2-16 The Willows Are New ...... 57
Figure 18 mm.2-11 The Willows Are New...... 58
Figure 19 mm.17-27 The Willows Are New...... 58
Figure 20 mm.23-47 The Willows Are New...... 59
vi
Figure 21 mm.48-52. The Willows Are New...... 60
Figure 22 mm.143-144 The Willows Are New ...... 61
Figure 23 Formal comparison of Yangguan and Willows ...... 62
Figure 24 mm.53-54. The Willows Are New ...... 63
Figure 25 The complete sound space graphic for The Willows Are New...... 66
Figure 26 Sound space in The Willows Are New m.1 ...... 67
Figure 27 Sound space in mm.2-10 The Willows Are New ...... 68
Figure 28 Multilinearity in mm.1-11. The Willows Are New...... 69
Figure 29 mm.26-30 The Willows Are New overlapping of sound fields...... 69
Figure 30 overlapping of sound fields in mm.26-30 The Willows Are New ...... 70
Figure 31 mm.26-30 soundtrack The Willows Are New ...... 70
Figure 32 mm.52-58 sound spaces The Willows Are New ...... 71
Figure 33 mm.52-58 The Willows Are New” ...... 72
Figure 34 soundtrack of entire The Willows Are New ...... 72
Figure 35 mm.26-27 The Willows Are New ...... 74
Figure 36 mm.23-34 The Willows Are New...... 77
Figure 37 mm.136-145 The Willows Are New ...... 77
Figure 38 mm.94-100 The Willows Are New ...... 78
Figure 39 mm.1-6 The Willows Are New ...... 82
Figure 40. mm.17-28 The Willows Are New...... 85
Figure 41 mm.23- 47 The Willows Are New ...... 87
Figure 42 mm.48-58 The Willows Are New ...... 88
Figure 43. mm.59-70 The Willows Are New ...... 89
vii
Figure 44 mm.71-.82 The Willows Are New ...... 90
Figure 45 mm.83-.88 The Willows Are New ...... 90
Figure 46 mm.89-104 The Willows Are New ...... 91
Figure 47 mm.105-124 The Willows Are New ...... 92
Figure 48 mm.125-142 The Willows Are New ...... 94
viii
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
Wen-Chung Chou was the first Chinese composer born in China who had his
fundamental musical training in the West and made his mark in the Western musical world.
This thesis will present an analysis of a sample from Wen-Chung Chou’s instrumental
works, specifically his piano solo work, The Willows Are New, in order to determine how
Chou inserted Eastern elements into the Western musical system. An analysis of Chou's
compositional style will aid in understanding how form and style interact and influence
one another. As an American-trained Chinese composer, Chou played a significant role in
the building of a Western-Eastern musical synthesis. In an extended interview,
Wen-Chung Chou used the term “re-merger” to describe the fusion of these two different
cultures (Chou used this term in an interview on New York City radio WBAI, in which he
talked about a new combination of non-Western and Western music)1. He was a very
influential artist both in the scope of his output and in his approach to musical fusion. It is
generally recognized that polyphonic texture occupies a central place in the main musical
system, but this ignores the unique and significant characteristics of Asian music and the
distinctive artistic aspects which the East has mastered.
1 Wen-Chung Chou, “Towards a Re-Merger in Music”, interview by WBAI radio, Published in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1965.
1 2
In addition, Chou also borrowed the Chinese concept of wenren as the primary
material of his artistic inspiration. From what Chou presented, wenren is a group of people
with refined awareness and knowledge of arts and cultures. A wenren, for Chou, is not
only an artist of masterly achievement but also a scholar, philosopher, and statesman. The
aesthetic of wenren emphasizes a harmonious communion of humanity and nature.2
Wenren, as a notion, might have been the motivation behind Chou’s integrating the
concept of the I Ching as a device into his compositional idea of variable modes, both
wenren and the I Ching therefore provide the essential ideas governing most of Chou’s
compositional aesthetic and philosophy.
Chou lived a remarkable life. The socially unstable period into which he was born
and raised had a profound influence upon him. After experiencing the horrors of the
Second World War, he arrived in the United States to pursue a diploma in architecture at
Yale University. After only one semester of study, Chou switched his major from
architecture to music. Although Chou grew up in a very traditional Chinese environment,
he was able to study Western music from a very young age. Chou started to learn the
violin when he was nine years old, and it was the violin which became his lifelong love, as
well as the string quartet genre. Later, Chou moved to New York City and met his mentor,
Edgard Varèse, whose life and works impacted Chou's entire output. He started thinking
about his aboriginal culture and history. He felt it his responsibility to introduce traditional
Chinese culture to people all over the world. Chou believed that artists need to develop
their creativity continually, and that one of the essential ways to stimulate artists' minds is
by an ongoing exploration into the unknown. Once people have a sense of empathy,
2 Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau, “Wenren and Culture.” Locating East Asia in Western Art Music, ed.: 208–220. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. 2004.
3
heritage is like a buried treasure which awaits extraction. After encouragement from his
teacher, he decided to explore Chinese classical music.
After the Second World War, communication among countries all over the world
expanded more than ever before. The proliferation and fusion of various cultures attracted
many post-war composers worldwide. The integration of Western and Eastern music
became a popular trend in the contemporary music arena, especially since the 1970s. Since
the 19th century, many amazing Western composers, including Debussy, Messiaen, Cowell
and Cage, lived in different generations, but all of them were open to Eastern influence.
Conversely, many Asian composers were responding to Western influence, such as Isang
Yun, Toru Takemitsu, and the composer under discussion, Wen-Chung Chou.
There were four standard Western musical contemporary systems that Chou often
incorporated in his music: the modal system, the consonance-dissonance system, the tonal
system, and the twelve-tone system. Taking Chou's piano work The Willows Are New
(1957) as an example, this piece is based upon the Chinese pentatonic mode “zhi,” and
“yu” which shares similarities with the Western modal system. The Jewish composer Max
Helfman also pointed out the significance of the unity of East and West to his students: "In
the music of the East, there are scales and microtones which, when combined with our
Western craftsmanship, may lead to a meld which will bring about a great world
resurgence in creative music compositions which spring strengthened and renewed from a
base which unites East and West through the harmonies of the one and the techniques of
the other." 3 Chou's success set a tremendous example for composers who pursue
cross-cultural elements. This study is intended as a resource for helping musicians
3 Taylor, Timothy D. Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007.
4 understand this multicultural fusion. Chou's unique compositional techniques will be revealed, and it will be explained how he succeeded to uniquely fuse different musical languages.
Chapter II
Literature Review
The idea of a musical unity of West and East today is trending on a global scale.
Many musicologists draw attention to the importance of cross-cultural music. Authors
Elliot Schwartz and Barney Childs mention that“the fusion of Eastern and Western
musical languages has been a subject of great interest in this century. Both Europeans and
Americans, ranging from Debussy and Messiaen to Cowell, Partch, and Lou Harrison have
been concerned with its problems and implications. Chou’s approach, with its roots in
Chinese music, presents a unique and fresh viewpoint.”4 Generally, most academic
scholarship on Chou has focused on his innovative and successful compositional system
and his cultural experience. More specifically, scholarship has tended to emphasize the
subject of music theory by analyzing how Chou’s compositional techniques can be traced
throughout his works, specifically, his “re-merger” compositional techniques.5 Chou is a
prolific writer, who presented multiple ideas referring to his compositional aesthetic in
articles, essays, and many speeches. From his own statements, it provides the basis of
many studies that further explore his work.
4 Elliot Schwartz and Barney Childs, eds., Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1998), 308. 5 Lindsay Berg, "Inventing Tradition: The Influence of Chou Wen-Chung's Compositional Aesthetic and the Development of New Wave Composition." (master’s diss, University of Alberta, 2012.)
5 6
Wen-Chung Chou’s life
Peter M. Chang is a scholar who specializes in Wen-Chung Chou’s musical aesthetic,
and his scholarly research is meaningful for people who want to study Chou's
compositions in greater depth. Chang’s publication, Chou Wen-Chung: The Life and Work
of a Contemporary Chinese-Born American composer (2006), characterizes Wen-Chung
Chou’s life and works as a special and splendid manifestation of cross-culturalism. His
book is primarily a monograph on Chou’s life. Chang strived to present a foundational
volume focusing on the life and works of Chou Wen-Chung. Perhaps, the most significant
section of the book for the purpose of this study is his second chapter, an extended
biography of Chou in his various roles as a composer, teacher, diplomat, and cultural
conservationist.6 Chou’s early life in China, his years of study in the United States
(including his apprenticeship with Edgard Varèse), his more recent projects as a promoter
of cultural interchange with the founding of the Center for the U.S.—China Arts Exchange
at Columbia University, and his most recent efforts in cultural conservation in Yunnan
province can be found in the second chapter of this book.
Wen-Chung Chou’s musical and cultural synthesis
Chang’s 1995 dissertation, Chou Wen-Chung And His Music: A Musical and
Biographical Profile of Cultural Synthesis, mentioned Chou’s connections with influential
persons and organizations. This content is useful for those who wish to better understand
how Chou became successful in Western countries. Chapter three illustrates a
6 Eric Huang, review of Chou Wen-Chung: The Life and Works of a Contemporary Chinese-Born American Composers, by Peter Chang, American Music 26, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 118.
7
comprehensive timeline of the background of Chinese approaches to musical synthesis. It
explains why and how Chinese pioneers searched for answers, by either adhering to
traditional Chinese culture or adapting to a Western lifestyle in the early 20th century.
This chapter is conducive to understanding the historical background of Chou’s early years
before his emigration to America. Chang clearly and effectively explored Chou’s oeuvre
of twenty-four works (composed before 1995), tracing distinctive stylistic changes and
clearly illustrating Chou’s revolutionary process of musical synthesis.
Chang’s article, “Chou Wen-Chung’s Cross-Cultural Experience and His Musical
Synthesis: The Concept of Syncretism Revisited” (2001) develops a thesis on the idea of
syncretism. This article builds on Chou’s thesis and is constructive for learning about
syncretism (meaning the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions,
cultures, or schools of thought) within a historical context, and how it was perceived by
Chou and employed in his works. Chang stated that Chou made the rational choice to
integrate two musical cultures at the conceptual level by re-living and reinterpreting his
previous cultural experiences, a choice that was rationally made.7
Approaches to Wen-Chung Chou’s music
Music theory is a principal battlefield in the analysis of Wen-Chung Chou’s musical
works, as many scholars have strongly argued among themselves on this subject.
Approaches to Chou’s music have been primarily by analysis, including Eric C. Lai’s
7 Peter Chang, “Chou-Wen-Chung’s Cross-Cultural Experience and His Musical Synthesis,” Asian Music, Vol.32, no.2 (Spring-Summer,2001) :114.
8
monograph The Music of Chou Wen-Chung (2009)8 and his essay on the composer’s
variable modes (2004) which thoroughly examined Chou’s works through an analysis of
these modes in order to perceive the essence of his music. Each chapter of Lai’s 2009
study gives a detailed description of the different stages of progress in Chou’s artistic
philosophy. In particular, Lai explains the development of the system of variable modes
and other elements Chou applied to his music. Lai presents a complete timeline of Chou’s
life experience, which is beneficial for tracking Chou’s entire life path. Furthermore, Lai
delves more deeply into Chou’s unique compositional techniques, for example, the
evolving system of variable modes, which is a great contribution to musical fusion.
Wen-Chung Chou’s aesthetic
Other scholars have concerned themselves more specifically with Chou’s
compositional aesthetic, including dissertations by Chew Seok-Kwee (1990) and
Chun-Ming Kenneth Kwan (1996). Seok-Kwee Chew’s dissertation focuses on timbre and
register in Chou’s The Willows Are New (1957), The Fallen Petals (1954), and Pien
(1966). Chew investigates ancient Chinese aesthetics, especially qin aesthetics and I-Ching
principles, which Chou applied very frequently in his musical works. In Chew’s
dissertation, she briefly references The Willows Are New for its characteristics in terms of
sound space, formal structure, musical language, and tone color. In this dissertation, the
historical background of the title The Willows Are New will be discussed.
8 Lai, Eric Chiu Kong. The Music of Chou Wen-Chung. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009).
9
Chun-Ming Kenneth Kwan’s dissertation Compositional Design in Recent Works By
Chou Wen-Chung, specified Chou’s three different periods and directions. Kwan offered a discussion of Chou’s stylistic musical language in his compositions from different periods; taking his late period as an example, Kwan revealed how the I-Ching influences Chou’s modal system in detail. In the following chapter, Kwan addressed various aspects of
Chou’s current modal practice. Chapter two discusses many of the analytical concepts and tools that Kwan emphasized in the overview section. Chapter two offers a comprehensive view of Chou's Modal system, including the general features, modal complex as total chromatic, transpositions, modal progression, counterpoint, and harmony. Notably, Kwan put more effort into Chou’s works dating from his mature stage of compositional development; for example, analyses of Beijing in the Mist (1985), Echoes from the Gorge
(1989), Windswept Peaks (1990), and the Cello Concerto (1992).
Joan Qigong Huang’s dissertation “An early fusion of Oriental and Occidental ideas: A discussion of the characteristics of three orchestral works by Chou Wen-Chung and
‘Three Images of Tang’ for orchestra” discourses in detail on a combination of diverse elements in Chou’s music, including philosophy, calligraphy, and poetry. Huang referred to the influence of Chinese Philosophy on Chou's aesthetic attitudes. Taking Chou’s chamber piece Pien (1966) as an example, Huang described how Chou ingeniously fused the ideas of the I-Ching into his music. The ancient Chinese prophecy book I-Ching or Yi
Jing ( Chinese 易经), usually translates as Book of Changes or Classic of Changes.
Perhaps the most valuable contribution of Huang’s paper to this study is the in-depth discussion on Chou's musical philosophy. Mentioned in this section is “The World of the
Single Tone” which addresses the importance of single sound.
10
“In the history of Chinese music, Sound was believed to influence the harmony of the
universe. A man could not control the elements of time, space, substance, etc. But in
producing sound, he was able to either strengthen or endanger the peace of the universe.
Therefore, in Chinese music, each single tone is treated as a musical subsistence in itself;
each sound is a self-contained incident which expresses musical meaning.”9
Huang compared the single tone concept to Chinese which uses single tones for the
same effect. She explained that "many words having the same syllables or even the same
pronunciations; however, they may convey different meanings by subtly changing the
pitch inflections."10
Chou conveyed this principle as follows:" From the very beginning in the tradition of
Chinese music, the emphasis is on timbre and pitch. These two physical properties of
sound have equal value, and I have used this same principle in all of my works.”11 As a
result of his personal statement, scholars of Chou’s music have tended emphasize these
qualities of pitch and timbre.
Zong-Quan Huang’s (2018) interview with Chou includes Huang’s opinions and
ideas on Chou's musical path and missions. In this interview, Chou explained why he
insisted on inserting Chinese cultural materials into his music after his move to America
and for the rest of his life. Chou related his memories of early life in China, how the
sceneries of his youth were indelibly retained in his mind. Chou was able to preserve these
roots through Chinese traditional culture. Huang posed a question related to Chou's idea of
9 Joan Qiong Huang. "An Early Fusion of Oriental and Occidental Ideas: A Discussion of the Characteristics of Three Orchestral Works by Chou Wen-Chung and "Three Images of Tang" for Orchestra. (Volumes I and II) (with Original Composition);" Order No. 9214991, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991. 10 Ibid 11 Chou in Robert Kyr, searching for the Essential and Between the Mind and the Ear: Finding the Perfect Balance: Interviews with Earl Kim and Chou Wen-chung (Boston: League-ISCM, April 1990), 16.
11
a new Renaissance that might be facilitated in the present generation. Chou's response was
fascinating for contemporary musicians who look forward to a fresh beginning for
embracing various cultures. Chou introduced the word "confluence," which suggests the
trend towards a multi-cultural flow in which one’s heritage may cohere and be shared with
others.
Wen-Chung Chou’s personal statement
Chou spoke of his compositional inspiration in an interview on New York City’s
WBAI radio. He believed that composers' works are a manifestation of their gradually
crystallizing aesthetic concepts. This philosophy is likely in agreement with the Confucian
concept: music is "born of emotion"; tones are the "substance of music"; melody and
rhythm are the "appearance of tones."12
Chou continued that music's greatness lies not in the "perfection of artistry" but the
attainment of "spiritual power inherent in nature."13 He mentioned a philosophy that has
influenced him and which has guided many Chinese artists: affinity to nature in
conception, allusiveness in expression, and terseness in realization.14 As a result, he
pursued an interest in the art of Chinese calligraphy in his late fifties because of the flow
of ink through the interaction of movement and energy, and the modulation of line and
12 Wen-Chung Chou, “Towards a Re-Merger in Music,” interview by WBAI radio, Published in Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1965. https://chouwenchung.org/writing/excerpts-from-towards-a-re-merger-in-music/ 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid.
12
texture which gives a continuum of motion and tension in a spatial equilibrium.15 Chou
first devised the term "re-merger" in this interview. He explained, “If I seem to have dwelt
on certain Chinese philosophical ideas, it is because of my conviction that we have
reached the stage where a true re-merger of Oriental and Occidental musical concepts and
practices — which at one time shared a common foundation — can and should take place.
It seems to me that the music of China, India, Varèse, the Balinese gamelan music, the
Japanese gagaku, the Korean ah ak, and even our new electronic music all has much in
common, sharing the same family traits.”16
In Chou's essay "Whither Chinese Composers?" he expressed a belief that it is time for
Chinese composers to bring back the millennia-old Chinese wenren spirit. He stated that
"in today's commercially oriented 'world music' environment, there is an urgent need for
Chinese composers to acquire an intimate knowledge of their own cultural heritage in
order to contribute meaningfully and on equal terms with the West towards a true
confluence of musical cultures."17
As the overview of the literature makes evident, a number of musicologists have
studied the musical works by Chou. However, most of them have neglected to focus on his
solo piano work, The Willows are New.Those few studies that have addressed his solo
piano work have done so only on a superficial level, with little consideration of its
significance.
15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Wen-Chung Chou. “Whither Chinese Composers?” China and the West: The Birth of a New Music, edited by Peter Nelson, 501–510. Contemporary Music Review; v. 26, Part. 5-6 (2007) Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Taylor & Francis, 2007.
Chapter III
Methodology
This study will concentrate on understanding the merging of cross-cultural elements of West and East in Chou's works. Several chapters will examine the importance of
Wen-Chung Chou's impact on twentieth-first century contemporary music. The study will include aspects of Chou's biography which are relevant to better understanding his work and highlight the rich influence of Chinese culture on Chou's compositions, with an emphasis on the relationship between his music and many aspects of the culture, including
Chinese philosophy calligraphy, and poetry. Cultural connection theories will also be discussed as well as the concept of Chou's syncretic system and its anthropological roots.
Focusing on these elements will enable one to identify and articulate the specific characteristics of Chou's compositional language and use those characteristics to shed light on the analytical approaches to Chou's music. Some analytic concepts and tools with respect to specific pieces in Chou's different periods are necessary for the analyses in this study and will be presented as well. The body of this study is a detailed analysis of his piano solo work, The Willows Are New. The author will suggest an interpretative method for understanding Chou's approach for exploring aspects of his work that have yet to be analyzed by other scholars.
In recent years, scholars have increasingly focused on non-Western composers’
13 14
fusion process, which mainly refers to the practice of incorporating non-Western
traditional musical concepts and materials into Western contemporary post-tonal
techniques. For example, by investigating Wen-Chung Chou’s fusion process through the
method of stylistic characterization18 to separate diverse cultural components within a
musical merging, Peter Chang commented that contrary cultural elements could be altered,
or circumvented, and cooperative elements could be emphasized or developed to reach a
new level of syncretism. Therefore, Chou’s musical approach has developed “from the
impressionistic use of Chinese melodies, modes, rhythmic figures and percussion sound in
his early works to an abstract portrayal of Chinese subjects, aesthetic ideals, and principles
realized through structural manipulation in his later works.”19
After many composers' experiments, the author has found that diverse cultural
musical concepts and materials can be combined within the same composition which
inspire an appreciation of cross-cultural musical works. Furthermore, the writer will draw
support from an anthropological theory of syncretism as an analytical entrance for
identifying how Chou represents musical elements and aesthetics to achieve a flourishing
compositional union.
To learn Chou's unique musical concepts properly, theoretical systems and musical
analyses are necessary tools. According to Patrick McCreless, “first and foremost, the
analysis of music in the Western tradition [uses] both existing theories such as those of
Heinrich Schenker, the early twentieth-century Viennese theorist of tonal music, and
18 Chang took this viewpoint from Guido Adler’s Der Stil in der Musik, i:Prinzipien und Arten des musicalischen Stils (1911) and Jan LaRue’s Guidelines for Style Analysis (1970). 19 Peter Chang, “Chou Wen-chung and His Music: A Musical and Biographical Profile of Cultural Synthesis” (Ph. D dissertation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1995): p. iii .
15
newer theories .”20 As McCreless mentioned in his essay, most of the general theoretical
systems, for example, functional harmony, the twelve-tone system, set theory, and the
Schenkerian analytical method, are paying more attention to pitch structure within the
Western-oriented music world. Whereas the theory-based and Western-oriented analytical
approach seems not entirely suitable for most non-Western musical forms, as most
non-Western music does not rely merely on the pitch structure; some music forms might
not establish its musical language on pitch concept at all. As Leonard Meyer points out:
“two cultures may appear to employ the same scale structure, but the structure might be
interpreted differently by the members of each culture. Conversely, the music of two
cultures may employ very different materials, but the underlying mechanism governing the
organization of these materials might be the same for both.”21 Edward T. Cone maintains
that “the good composition will always reveal, on a close study, the methods of analysis
needed for its own comprehension.”22 He then doubts the reason why “analysis is no
longer applicable to certain recent compositions [in the 1950s], such as pieces that use
chance procedures, those completely predetermined by serial operations, or those in which
improvisation plays a significant role.”23 Striving to answer Cone's question about the
study of contemporary music, Robert Morgan suggests an improved analytical approach:
"If things are changing—if music and its social role are undergoing transformation—it
seems likely that analysis itself must experience some sort of analogous conversion."24
Based on many scholars' discussions and experiments, the author will aim to draw
20 Patrick McCreless, “Rethinking Contemporary Music Theory.” Keeping Score: Music, Disciplinarity, Culture. (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1997), pp. 17-18. 21 Leonard B. Meyer, “Universalism and Relativism in the Study of Ethnic Music.” Ethnomusicology, IV/2, 1960, pp. 49-50. 22 Edward T. Cone, “Analysis Today,” The Musical Quarterly, XLVI, 1960: p. 187. 23 Ibid 24 Robert Morgan, “On the Analysis of Recent Music.” Critical Inquiry, IV 1977-78: p. 35.
16
attention to discussing the composer's unique purpose and intention of his work rather than
focus only on a single system of analysis. Chou’s own essays about his work certainly
facilitate a better understanding of his compositional concepts and methods and give clues
as to how his compositions would best be analyzed. In Morgan's opinion, if the composers
themselves have presented the classification of the way in composition, the people who
conduct the study should go further: “He must examine the composers’ intentions in
relation to their compositional realization, must discuss the implications of the
compositional system in regard to the music it generates, consider how the resulting music
relates to older music and to other present-day music, examine its perceptual properties
and problems, etc.”25
The author will address the cultural elements of various components to understand
how the composer engaged with these components to build his compositional style in the
piano solo work of this study. Moreover, the composer's stylistic evolution will be
examined and analyzed by combining the historical, social, artistic, and cultural contexts
in order to better understand and interpret the structure as well as the composer's intentions
and compositional realizations.
25 Ibid, p.40.
Chapter IV
Chou’s Biography and Compositional Development
Wen-Chung Chou was a Chinese-born American composer and scholar who had a
substantial influential on the contemporary music genre. From 1979 to 2019, he
established the Center for US-China Arts Exchange, which is an organization that focuses
on the communication of professional artists and cultural figures from both countries. As a
composer, Chou's compositions were highly regarded over several decades, and his
dedication to teaching made him a sought-out leader in composition education. His unique
canon of work, a contemporary expression of the principles of traditional Chinese
aesthetics, has had a momentous impact on the development of modern music in Asia and
in post-colonial cultures. He exhorted young composers to study their own cultural
heritage and warned: “If you don’t know where you came from, how do you know where
you are going?” 26His students have represented an international mix of accomplished
composers, including the acclaimed Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Bright Sheng. His
vision for music of the future, however, extended far beyond the preservation of any
particular heritage. He foresaw a flourishing of creative output benefiting from the
“confluence” of many cultures, but also remaining grounded in the understanding of the
history and traditions of each.27
26 Michelle Vosper, “Biography,”Chou Wen-Chung, https://chouwenchung.org/about/biography/
27 Ibid
17 18
Born in Yantai, China, in 1923, Chou devoted himself to studying the violin at an early age. Intending to help rebuild a new China after the second world war, Chou graduated as a civil engineering student from university in 1945 and planned to study architecture at Yale University in 1946. After serious consideration, Chou decided to study composition instead of architecture after one semester at Yale. Chou studied with Carl
McKinley and Nicolas Slonimsky at the New England Conservatory in subsequent years until he met his lifelong mentor Edgard Varèse at Columbia University in New York City.
After many years of working together with Varèse, Chou started to experiment with the idea of integrating Chinese musical concepts with Western contemporary compositional techniques. Varèse encouraged Chou to seek his own unique musical language by learning Chinese traditional art. The author found some important influences from Varèse on Chou Wen-Chung's compositional style since Varèse inspired Chou to find his own musical language based on his own thinking process and overall artistic expansion. In order to enhance his knowledge of Chinese music, he studied classical
Chinese music and drama with the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation grant from 1955 to1957. After several years of study, a distinct change came about in his compositional style.
Chou’s advocating for an integration of cultural values drove him to venture into other fields beyond composition. Studying Chinese music led Chou to dedicate himself to the scholarly fields of ethnomusicology and ancient Chinese aesthetics. He published many articles that discuss the relationship between Chinese traditional music and western contemporary music, allowing his legacy to extend far beyond being solely a composer.
19
While learning traditional Chinese music genres, Chou formulated how he would use these resources to develop his unique style. In addition, he was able to differentiate between general aesthetic values of Western and Chinese arts and music. The author believes, in general, Western arts and music are relatively more straightforward; it is easy to clarify the meaning behind the music. Moreover, Western music focuses more on the aural impression and is “results oriented”; resolution to the home key signifies the end of a piece. In contrast, Chinese music prefers bent or embellished tones; it does not have to seek a result in the piece. Chinese traditional music may offer a more suggestive, unexplained character that is often more preoccupied with the experience of different colors and flavors. Nature also plays a centrally important role in Chinese art.
Chou’s cultural exchange organization aimed to promote a better cultural understanding between China and the US. This organization has sponsored and arranged various music activities, including concerts, theatrical productions, documentary films, and student/scholar/performer exchanges. Indeed, Chou’s efforts resulted in significant cultural interactions between China and the US, as well as in the fields of ethnomusicology and sinology. Although non-Western music experienced an increase in popularity during the post-war period, there was still a shortfall of performances of traditional Chinese works in America. Chou realized the importance of finding ways to make Eastern music more appealing to Western audiences. After much study and experimentation, his first work, Landscapes, emerged in 1949. This piece introduced
Western audiences to classical Chinese arts, painting and poetry, and captured their attention. Landscapes is an orchestral work in which Chou integrated concepts from traditional Chinese landscape painting into his music. Landscapes is an experimental piece
20 in timbre, as Chou attempted to combine the melodies of Chinese folk songs with Western orchestral instruments. The Suite for Harp and Wind Quintet (1951) is another work that, like Landscape, merges aspects of Eastern and Western music. In his early period, Chou focused more on including authentic Chinese characteristics in his works, such as the pentatonic scale. In subsequent years, composed two works inspired by the guqin, The
Willows Are New (1957) and Yü Ko (1965). Not only did Chou try to imitate the sound quality of the guqin in these pieces, but he also interpreted the sonic idea behind standard notations of guqin articulations. Chou applied different compositional approaches in the seven works he composed during the 1960s in order to merge Western and Eastern arts.
After the Second World War, the Western world explored more sonic sources from Asian culture. Many Western composers found the unique timbre, texture, and philosophy underlying Asian music attractive.
After the early 1960s, Chou had already achieved a mature and unique compositional style based on variable modes. Metaphors (1960) is representative of this period of his compositional output. Most of his compositions finished after 1960 belong to this category.
Besides variable modes, the wenren aesthetic of a harmonious communion of humanity and nature also influenced Chou's compositional style.
Chapter V
INFLUENCE OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITIONAL ARTS
Chou’s musical compositions were influenced by Chinese philosophies found in the
I-Ching, Confucianism, and Taoism, as well as traditional Chinese arts such as calligraphy,
the guqin, and Chinese poetry. In this chapter, the author shall first explore some primary
features of these philosophies and traditional arts and subsequently examine how they
manifest themselves in Chou’s piano works.
Basic principles of the I-Ching, Confucianism and Taoism
1. I-Ching
The I-Ching is one of the oldest classical documents of Han China. Ancient Chinese
wizards used the I-Ching as a divination manual for predicting good fortune or bad luck.
This book has been revered as one of the “Five Classics”28 since the Han Dynasty in
China.
The I-Ching consists of a set of symbolic forms; interpretation of these symbols is
meant to serve as predictions for the future. The readings of this text are influenced by
ideas in classic Chinese philosophy and cosmology. Using yin and yang symbols called
28 The Five Classics (wujing) and Four Books (si shu) collectively create the foundation of Confucianism. The Five Classics and Four Books were the basis of the civil examination in imperial China and can be considered the Confucian canon. The Five Classics consists of the Book of Odes, Book of Documents, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals.
21 22
“hexagrams,” the I-Ching represents the state of operation of all things in the world. The
idea of yin and yang forces in the I-Ching has influenced ancient Chinese philosophy,
religion, politics, economy, medicine, astronomy, arithmetic, literature, music, art, military,
and the martial arts. As a philosophy book, the I-Ching infers the universe’s formation and
the fundamental laws of nature. It includes a symbol system with eight hexagrams; the
original eight hexagrams can evolve into sixty-four possibilities, which are designed to
identify what seem to be chance events. According to the I-Ching, all the changes
experienced by humanity and the world result from the interaction of the two
complementary forces of yin 阴 and yang 阳.These two forces are dynamic and in a
cyclical way coordinate the balance of all life systems. By the 17th century, the I-Ching
was introduced to European and American countries by Jesuit missionaries. It generated
Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, and, later, even Christian commentaries.
The Great Treatise (系词传) is the most important and authoritative commentary of
the I-Ching. As stated in the first section of The Great Treatise:
Therefore there is in the Changes (易), the Great Primal Beginning (太極). The Great
Primal Beginning generates the two primary forces (兩儀). The two primary forces
generate the four images (四象). The four images generate the eight trigrams (八卦).29
Perhaps inspired by this statement, Chou based his modal theory on the I-Ching's eight
trigrams and transformations. There are two symbols in the Eight Diagrams in the I-Ching:
one is “⚊”，which means yang; another is “⚋”, which means yin. The Eight Diagrams
depict how the symbols of yin and yang are reflected in objective phenomena. Fuxi, the
29 Sung, Z.D. The Text of Yi King (and its Appendixes): Chinese Original with English Translation. Taibei: Wenhua Tushu Gongsi. 1978: pp.299
23
legendary founder of the Chinese people, created these eight trigrams (also known as eight
symbols, including heaven, lake, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain and ground which
present the fundamental principles of reality). To facilitate his discussion, Chou named the
trigrams after natural phenomena such as earth and mountain, denoted the yin and yang
I-Ching lines by the binary digits 0 and 1 respectively, and indicated the yin-yang
distribution of each trigram as a 3-digit binary number (e.g., 011 for the trigram called
‘wind’). This kind of arithmetic representation of the eight trigrams is central to Chou’s
thinking, evidenced by his specific marking of them in his studied sketches.30
Figure 1 below shows the eight trigrams, the name, and the natural phenomenon
associated with each of them. Figure 2 shows the arrangement of the eight trigrams in the
Fu Xi diagram.
Figure 1 Eight Trigrams
30 Sau Woon Rebecca Au. "I Ching in the Music of John Cage, Chou Wen Chung, and Zhao Xiao Sheng." Order No. 3586854, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), 2013.
24
Figure 2 Fu Xi circular arrangement of the eight trigrams
Chou successfully applied the I-Ching's ideas of change into his musical creations.
Taking his chamber music work Pien (1966) as an example, the philosophies of the
I-Ching can be discerned in this piece. The word “pien” in itself means change and
transformation and refers to a mode constantly mutating within itself. According to Chou,
pien “refers to, on one level, simplicity from which complexity is evolved; on another
level, phenomena out of complexity; on still another level, conglomeration and dispersion
of phenomena, and finally, invariability.”31
31 Wen-chung Chou, “Preface,” Pien (New York: C.F.Peters, 1967).
25
2. Taoism
According to the “Great Treatise” from the Ten Appendices of the I-Ching, the creative
rhythm of yin and yang constitutes what is called the Tao.32 Tao 道 (the Way), one of the
chief concepts in Chinese thought, is defined in different ways by Confucianists, Taoists
and followers of other Chinese philosophical schools. To Confucius (541-479 B.C.), Tao
was the “Way” of man, the “Way” of ancient kings, and the “Way” of virtue.33 According
to Confucius, the fundamental virtue was ren, which means humanity, love, or
righteousness. Human relationships, hence, are a significant focus of Confucian teachings.
Taoism is associated with the philosopher Lao Tzu. It is believed that Lao Tzu was the
author of the Tao De Jing, the principal text of Taoism which consists of a collection of
poems and proverbs from the third to fourth centuries B.C. that guide Taoist thought and
action. Taoist beliefs emphasize the importance of the balance that humans and animals
achieve with the Tao and the universe. Taoists also believe in spiritual immortality, that
the spirit of the body will merge into the universe after death. Although the Tao De Jing
has mainly been attributed to the philosopher Lao Tzu, some historians believe that the
Tao De Jing is actually a collection of writings by many different authors.
In an interview, Chou mentioned about his compositional idea of one to three
semitones generating new modes which can be traced back to the following statement by
Lao Tzu in his Tao De Jing:
32 Tat Wei An, Exposition of the I-Ching (Taipei: Institute of Cultural Studies, 1970):11. 33 The information on Confucianism and Taoism, unless otherwise stated, is based on The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., s.v."Chinese Philosophy,H by Wing-tsit Chan; Fung Yu-lan , A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1948), pp. 19-23 and 39-49; and John M. Roller, Oriental Philosophies, 2nd ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985),pp. 252-53.
26
Tao produced Oneness (“1”). Oneness produced duality [2]. Duality
evolved into trinity [3], and trinity evolved into the ten thousand things.
(「道」生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物。)
Tao means everything; if people use the concept of algebra to understand the idea of Tao,
then Tao is the equivalent of X in algebra. As Lao Tzu wrote in the Dao de Jing: “Man
takes his law from the Earth；the Earth takes its law from Heaven；Heaven takes its law
from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.” (人法地，地法天，天法道，道
法自然。) As shown in the statement, Taoism is relatively metaphysical, and its nature is a
challenging concept. Lao Tzu encouraged people to learn to dedicate themselves to others
according to what nature gives us in general. Humans should not desire control or power
over the world; instead, humans need to harmonize with nature. It is the Taoist belief that
this attitude will help humanity thrive in every corner of the world.
Indeed, an understanding of Taoism, which emphasizes a love of nature, can also lead
to a deeper appreciation of human relationships and a deeper desire to serve others. This
sentiment is also one of the main emphases of Confucianism. Chinese artists and poets
have combined Confucianism and Taoism for centuries, merging them into
Neo-Confucianism and Neo-Taoism. Historically, Chinese people prefer to apply
moderation conceptually in order to avoid extreme situations, a concept which stems from
both Confucianism and Taoism. A Chinese artist or poet is usually a Confucian scholar in
training and a Taoist ascetic in his longings. It is believed that the fusion of these opposing
virtues gives the artist balance and strength.34
34 George Rowley, Principles of Chinese Painting, 2nd ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1959): p. 13.
27
3. Confucianism
Confucianism is a belief system of ancient China, and its focus is on the importance of
personal ethics and morals. Confucius was a philosopher and educator who lived from 551
to 479 BC; this was a period of political instability in Chinese history. The disciple
collected his thoughts on morality, good behavior, and character in several books, the most
important and famous being Lunyu 论语.
Confucius said: "The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills."
To Confucius, the wise and knowledgeable are active and restless, like the water of a
stream, ceaselessly flowing.35 The virtuous, on the other hand, are firm and tranquil, like
mountains. If the Chinese people learned from Taoist teachings to possess a love of nature,
they learned from the Confucianists how to interact with people and serve others.36
Chou admired Confucius’ concept of merging. In an address delivered to the
International Music Symposium in 1966 in Manila, Chou said:
It is my conviction that we have now reached a stage in which the beginning of a
re-merger of Eastern and Western musical concepts and practices are actually taking place.
By "re-merger" I mean that I believe the traditions of Eastern and Western music once
shared the same sources and that, after a thousand years of divergence, they are now
merging to form the mainstream of a new musical tradition.37
35 James Legge, trans., The Four Books [Si Shu 四书], (Shanghai,1923; reprinted., New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1966), p. 74. The original Chinese text is: 智者乐水 仁者乐山 36 Wing-Yiu Lau. "THE INFLUENCE OF CHINESE CULTURE ON CHOU WEN-CHUNG'S EARLY ORCHESTRAL WORKS." Order No. 1328564, University of Georgia, 1986. 37 Wen-Chung Chou, "East and West, Old and New," Asian Music 1(1968): 19.
28
In other words, Chou wanted to see the intermingling of musical traditions in order to
form a new mainstream that would integrate diverse musical concepts and practices. In
addition, each individual culture would preserve its unique musical traditions.38
4. Chinese Calligraphy
Calligraphy literally means "beautiful writing;"39 its unique position in many
different world art forms and in Chinese culture itself is unparalleled. Throughout the
course of Chinese history and culture, calligraphy has not only been regarded as fine art; it
has also always been considered one of the top visual art forms, even more valuable than
painting and sculpture because of its juxtaposition with poetry as a means of
self-expression and cultivation. As an old Chinese saying goes, "the way characters are
written is a portrait of the person who writes them."
The flow of controlled brushed writing and ink strokes generates a continuation of
movement and tension in the spatial terrain. In other words, it is a spontaneous indication
of the inherent power in the controlled flow of ink. (see figure 3)
38 ______"Asian and Western Music: Influence or Confluence?" Asian Culture Quarterly 5/4 (1977): 66. 39 Charles Lachman, “Chinese Calligraphy”, Center for global education. https://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-calligraphy.
29
Figure 3 Chinese calligraphy
Chou incorporates Chinese calligraphic elements into his musical works. For example,
from The Willows Are New and Cursive, we can observe characteristics of the art of
Chinese calligraphy in the particular treatment of tension in these pieces. Since every
stroke in Chinese calligraphy requires different shapes, calligraphers need to draw
carefully with various gestures and speeds. Sometimes, the ink should be dark, sometimes
faint, heavy, or light. There is balance in the whole picture, but there are different spaces
between the strokes.40 Chou applied in these two works a unique musical "brushwork" in
a sound world characterized by its motion, tension, texture, and timbre, all of which
derived from concepts in Chinese calligraphy.
40 Yi Chen. "Tradition and Creation." Current Musicology, no. 67 (Fall, 1999): 59-72
30
5. The Guqin and the Single Tone
The guqin is a plucked seven-string traditional Chinese musical instrument; it is often
referred to as the Chinese zither. In ancient times, the guqin was the standard equipment of
the literati. In those days, it was a common belief that unless one could play the guqin or
the se (another plucked stringed instrument of China that was slightly more expansive in
size than the guqin), one could not claim to belong to the literati. According to the
pentatonic mode, the se is often used as accompaniment to the guqin, and the se is often
found in ensemble with the guqin. In Yue-Ji41, Zhuang-Zi 庄子 said that: “a sage declares
his ambition by sounding bell and drum, pleases his mind by playing the guqin and se”,
which confirms the high status of these instruments in ancient times in China.
Chou commented on instrumental techniques and performance practices in his
articles, "East and West, Old and New," mentioning that controlling and varying the
articulation, timbre, and intensity of individual tones have long been of primary
importance to Eastern music and are of increasing interest to many present-day
composers.42 Chou talked about many finger techniques related to the guqin in this article
that are of particular interest. The complexity of the guqin’s notation, which includes more
than one hundred symbols, makes it incredibly difficult to master guqin fingerings. As
complex as the systems are, however, the symbols indicate not only articulation and
intensity, but also deviations and modifications of pitch and timbre. Chou stated in his
essay:
A combination symbol for both hands would usually specify how a certain right-hand
finger is to pluck the string, inward or outward, with the flesh or the nail, or how two or
41 Yue-Ji is an ancient book on recording music. 42 Wen-Chung Chou, "East and West, Old and New," Asian Music 1 (1968): 19.
31 more right-hand fingers are to be used simultaneously or in succession, how a left-hand finger stops the string, or how a left-hand finger is to tap the string or to pluck it, upward or sideways, how the pitch is altered or inflected by means of glissando or portamento after the excitation of the string, and how the timbre is varied by the addition of a certain type of vibrato or by changing from one type of vibrato to another during the decay. Such a symbol implicitly would also regulate the duration and the intensity, since a subtle dynamic modulation goes with the left-hand movement and a proper rhythmic structure is clearly necessitated by the sequence of events to be accomplished within the limited time span of the decay. Just as important as the prescribing of physical details in ch'in (guqin) notation is the evoking of a certain state of mind for the execution of each detail. For example, a slide to the tone from below at the moment of the excitation is regarded in ch'in
(manuals as "hiding the head (of the tone)"and is accomplished by gliding the finger over the string very lightly until about halfway, when the finger is gradually pressed down more firmly against the string. This movement should, we are told, evoke the image of "a flying seagull touching down"
The instrument's seven strings provide a range of more than four octaves (See figure
4); additionally, the available tones can be used in two different ways.
“y(Yun)=s(Sheng), namely sound and rhyme. The term "Sheng" (声) refers to the work's main melody note, and "Yun" (韵) refers to the musical note used to decorate the
Sheng.
32
Figure 4 range of guqin
By manipulating the strings in different ways, three basic tones can be obtained:
stopped tone (press), scatter tone (spread, also means overtone), and harmonics tone (pan).
The stopped tone is determined by pressing down the string vigorously with the left hand;
simultaneously, the right hand quickly plucks the string. The characteristics of stopped
pitch are tactful and comfortable, round and delicate, like a person pouring out their
heartfelt feelings, with the metaphor of "the son and daughter."43Therefore, the stopped
tone symbolizes mankind. There are many types of stopped pitches, and the left fingerings
are incredibly variable and delicate, offering the most expressive tones of the guqin music.
The scatter tone is played only in the right hand. The articulation of the guqin
scatter-pitch is deep and vigorous; it has become the strong bass of the guqin music, the
sounds as concrete as the earth. The scatter pitch is a metaphor for warriors going to the
battlefield; this may account for its association with a symbolic land.
The method of producing guqin harmonics is similar to that of Western stringed
instruments. When plucking a string, a guqin player touches the string lightly to activate
one of the overtones of the string. When one produces the pitch of the harmonic, the left
43 “The Playing and Notation of The Left Hand – 2,” Chinese Guqin Playing and Notation, accessed February 2, 2020, http://www.peiyouqin.com/notation3b.html
33
hand touches the strings like a dragonfly44, while at the same time, the right-hand displays
the sound. Its timbre is crisp and lofty, sometimes looming, light and lively, like the sound
of the heavens, or "floating cloud catkins without roots."45Therefore, the harmonics
symbolize the sky. There are more than one hundred harmonics-pitches that can be applied
in guqin's music.
There are many fingering techniques: cuo is simply plucking multiple strings at once
using a pinching motion with the right hand. Chuo and zhu are two glissando techniques
(right and left, respectively), and yin is a vibrato technique in which the left-hand sweeps
down the string then returns to the original pitch.46
Qualities of "harmony," "elegance," and "lightness" characterize the aesthetic of
guqin music, and "extra-taste, rhyme, and sound beyond strings" distinguishes the
profound artistic conception of the guqin music from all other instrumental genres. The
guqin represents the crystallization of Chinese wisdom and expresses the pursuit of beauty
by generations of Chinese people. The guqin is an art form that condenses the essence of
Chinese traditional culture. It is a typical representation of fine traditional art and has
profoundly affected all aspects of Chinese traditional culture; its meaning and value far
exceed ordinary traditional music.
On December 2, 1977, the United States chose the famous guqin musical piece
"Flowing Water," which was performed by Pinghu Guan, as one of fifty human musical
selections onto the American NASA first human-made satellite. “Flowing Water” was
44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid.
34 composed by Zhang Kongshan, a Taoist priest of the Qingcheng Mountain at the end of the Qin Dynasty. It is significant that in an attempt to explore communicative possibilities between humans and alien creatures, a guqin piece was used as an example of human artistic accomplishment.
On November 7, 2003, UNESCO announced in Paris that the Chinese guqin belongs to the world's invaluable cultural heritages. Since then, many insightful people from different countries have come to China to purchase the guqin and learn how to play the instrument; meanwhile, many well-known Chinese universities have established research associations and other organizations related to the study of the guqin. The art of the guqin has a long history and profound cultural heritage; unfortunately, the guqin has not escaped the fate of a lost connection with younger generations. In order to continue the revival of traditional guqin art, many contemporary composers re-arrange and transcribe old guqin music for Western instruments, hoping that the guqin can avoid the prospect of being lost in modern culture.
During the horrific Cultural Revolution, Chinese composer Wang Jianzhong (王建中) transcribed the song Plum Blossoms for solo piano and wrote a series of variations on it titled Three Stanzas of Plum Blossoms (梅花三弄). A few years later, Li Yinghai (黎英海) transcribed Three Variations on the Yang Pass (阳光三叠, 1978) in a similar manner.
Chou was also deeply attracted by the guqin's art, and much of his music is inspired by guqin.
35
Ancient Chinese musicians believed that every single tone from guqin represented a
musical entity in itself.47 Chou's investigation of Confucian ideas supports his belief that
"single tones, rendered meaningful by their acoustic attributes, are musical entities in
themselves as well as musical events within the context of a composition."48
Tones are the "image," or substance, of music; melody and rhythm are the
"ornament," or appearance, of tones; therefore, one must contemplate sound to know tones,
and contemplate tones to know music. It is further stated that the greatness in music lies
not in the perfection of artistry but in the attainment of te - a term which is often translated
as "virtue" or "spiritual power" but should be understood as referring to "that by which
things are what they are". In other words, the emphasis is on the single tones and their
natural virtue or power by which these tones are what they are. Thus, music is sound, and
sound is "living matter".49
Chou discussed the idea of the single tone (monophony) as a musical entity in his
works, which was employed in works such as The Willows Are New (1957) for piano and
Yü Ko (Fisher man’s song) (1965). Both of these two pieces are based on traditional works
of the guqin. In Chou's work Yü Ko (1965), Chou applied various types of vibrato and
tremolo techniques to produce a sense of a single tone's intensity. Chou utilizes many
principles from traditional Chinese calligraphy. By weaving single lines and clusters
together, Chou adapted qualities from guqin music to specific properties of the piano,
lending it a new and vital sonority. Traditional Chinese calligraphic art pursues a
47 Chou, "Towards a Re-Merger in Music," op. cit., p. 311. 48 ______"Single Tones as Musical Entities: An Approach to Structured Deviations in Tonal Characteristics," American Society of University Composers Proceedings 3 (1968): 88. 49 ______"East and West, Old and New," op. cit., 19-20.
36 combination of activity and stillness. In The Willows Are New, one can see the employment of various techniques to create the perception of ebb and flow, such as crescendos and diminuendos as well as fluctuations of pulse.
Figure 5 mm.35-47 in The Willows Are New
From Figure 5, we can also visualize how Chou applies single lines, clusters, and their variations simultaneously to produce diverse sonorities, intensity, articulation, and timbre.
37
6. Ancient Chinese Poetry
Chinese is a monosyllabic language; every character possesses a unique meaning and
tone. All tones, furthermore, are divided into two categories: (1) ping sheng (level tone),
which is maintained without any change of pitch; and (2) ze sheng (inflected tone) which
may be ascending, descending, or retroverting.50 For these reasons, Chinese poetry and
literature feel, at times, like a literary game. Without these characteristics, Chinese poetry
would lose much of its musicality and flavor. Nearly all Chinese poetry was originally
intended to be chanted or sung.51
There is an innately lyrical quality in Chinese poetry. While narrative and dramatic
poems do exist, their length is shorter than the Western epics.52 Typically, Chinese poetry
classified into three main forms: Gushi (old poetry), Jueju (curtailed verse), and Ci (new
poem form). In either long or short verses, Gushi poems are usually arranged in five, six,
or seven syllables. There are two lines of couplets that rhyme rhythmically and
complement each other tonally. Jueju poems are always written in quatrains, with each
line consisting of five or seven syllables. Compared with the Gushi and the Jueju, the Ci is
a much more recent form of poem, as it appeared around the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
The title of Ci poems is usually unrelated to the content of the poem, and many Ci poems
share the same title. The format of Ci is much more flexible than the Gushi and Jueju. The
Ci is often composed to pre-existing tunes.
Chou got much inspiration from ancient Chinese poetry; he even translated some of
the poems into English. He tried to communicate Chinese poetry's qualities through sound
50 Lu Zhiwei, Five Lectures on Chinese Poetry (Shanghai: By the Author, 1935); new edition, ed. by LuShuxiang (Beijing: The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1982), p. 11. 51 Ibid 52 James Liu, Essentials of Chinese Literary Art (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury Press, 1979), p. 2.
38
with similar economical means: “affinity to nature in conception, allusiveness in
expression, and terseness in realization.”53 Chou said: “(a Chinese poem) is rich in its
terse allusions to nature's sight, sound, and poetry. Small in dimension but deep in
expression, economical in means but spacious in feeling, it immediately evokes... in ink
and music dots, lines, delicate shadings, open space, and motion.”54 The Willows Are
New is based on a familiar seven-character quatrain（Jueju) from the Tang Dynasty as the
background story. The poet Wang Wei expressed his reluctance to leave his friend; besides,
he also showed his best wishes for his friend through his detailed description of the natural
environment in only a few characters.
53 Wen-Chung Chou, " Towards a Re-merger in Music,” Contemporary composers on Contemporary Music (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967). 54 Ibid
Chapter VI
Chou’s Musical Theory
Introduction to Chou’s Theory
Regarding Chou's analytical theory, the author will mainly discuss two questions: 1)
How does Chou combine aspects of Chinese and Western music in his works, while
allowing each to retain its unique characteristics? 2) What is the appropriate analytical
method for analyzing Chou’s compositional techniques?
The 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris was a turning point in cross-cultural art.
This exposition inspired a large number of Western artists to experiment with the inclusion
of elements from Eastern culture in their works. Composers such as Debussy, Ravel,
Dukas, and Roussel were eager to create art that was inspired by other cultures. The
growing attractiveness of Asian musical traditions as compositional source material was
made evident in the assertions of minimalist composer Steve Reich, who asserted,
“Non-Western music is presently the single most important source of new ideas for
Western composers and musicians.”55 Chou's great success is due not only to the
innovative cross-cultural ideas he promoted but also because after World War II many
55 Steve Reich, Writings on Music: 1965-2000, ed. Paul Hillier (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 70; in Locke, Musical Exoticism, 286
39 40
avant-garde composers continually looked for new and meaningful compositional material
from all over the world. This has necessitated a re-examination of Western music’s
foundations and a recognition of compositional alternatives that were once considered
absolutes.56
Regarding the first question above, Chou's music theory is different from that of
many contemporary composers of the same period. Unlike many composers who divided
music into tonal or atonal, Chou's concept is relatively more innovative and inclusive.
Connections have to be drawn between Chinese and Western conceptions of pitch in the
formulation of the theory, so that it will not be a mere combination of two incompatible
systems, but an attempt to merge two different cultures. Chou’s theory is hierarchical, with
emphases on the structural significance of pentatonic pitches, the change in pitch function
resulting from modal changes, and the interactions between the pentatonic universe and
chromatic universe on different levels.57
In addressing the second question, as Chou's compositional system is based on two
distinct musical systems, the author does not think that traditional analytical methods are
suitable for Chou's music. Chou's theoretical framework is best approached through
Chou's own theoretical self-described descriptions.
56 Milton Babbitt, “Who Cares if You Listen?” (1958), in The American Composer Speaks: Historical Anthology, 1770-1965, ed. Gilbert Chase (Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1966), 236. 57 Eric Chiu Kong Lai. "A Theory of Pitch Organization in the Early Music of Chou Wen-Chung." Order No. 9539960, Indiana University, 1995.
41
Chou’s Pitch Organization
Chou spent more than a decade (1949-1959) looking for a creative system that fully
reflected the unique musical goals of his works. In the early years, Chou attempted to
incorporate aspects of Chinese music into his works by quoting pentatonic melodies,
which resulted in his early music bearing the foundations and framework of the Western
style with an Oriental flavor scattered throughout. These qualities are apparent in his
works Three Folk Songs for Flute and Harp (1950), Landscapes for Orchestra (1949), the
Suite for Harp and wind Quintet (1951), Yü Ko (1965), and The Willows Are New (1957).
Chou described his approach in a letter to Slonimsky, in which he wrote: “The application
of Chinese scalar-modal concepts in my music is principally a means for ordered
construction of the basic tonal material.”58 In particular, the concern for the process of
mode change can be seen in this description:
A change in tonal plane is generally affected by 1) using common tones as links
between the tonal planes, 2) emphasizing or sustaining a neighbor tone or a chordal tone
(unrelated to the scale tones) at the end of a running passage or after a fermata to usher in
a new tonal plane.59
These techniques of mode change are effectively applied in The Willows Are New.
Figure 6 shows a melodic fragment B-A-F#-A transposed up a half step to C-Bb-G-Bb. In
Eric C. Lai’s book The Music of Chou Wen-chung, he mentioned about this technique:
58 Nicolas Slonimsky, “Chou Wen-Chung,”American Composers Alliance Bulletin, 9 (1961):4 59 Ibid
42
This fragment is embellished linearly by chromatic upper neighboring tones (such as
the G and Bb) and vertically by chromatic lower neighboring tones (such as the A# and
G#). To affect the mode change, however, Chou uses both upper and lowering neighboring
tones. In the “modulation,” F# and G function as “pivot tones,” since they both exist in the
two trichords. (See Figure 6) On a structural level, the G that functions as an upper
neighbor to F# becomes a main tone later. Together with the contrasts in dynamics and the
subtle changes in tempo, this mode change generates one of the most intensely dramatic
movements of the piece.60
Figure 6 mm.23- 34
Summarizing his review of Chou’s early accomplishment, Slonimsky mentioned:
Chou Wen-Chung is possibly the first Chinese composer who has attempted to translate
authentic oriental melo-rhythms into the terms of modern Western music.61 He describes
60 Eric C.Lai, The Music of Chou Wen-Chung, Baylor University, USA,2009: 25. 61 Slonimsky Nicolas,“Chou Wen-chung.”American Composers Alliance Bulletin. 9 (1961): p.2.
43
his esthetic purpose as a recapture of the color, mood, and emotion of Chinese traditional
music “by means of its own transmutation, without adding whatever is not already
suggested in itself.”62
He poses the problem of conciliation between melodic pentatonicism and dissonance
in the following unambiguous statement: “The characteristic successions of transparent
intervals used in Chinese music are freely embroidered with opulent dissonances serving
as the palette from which the composer paints in orchestral sonority, timbre, texture and
dynamics. The changing mood and the emotional content are thus projected by means of a
tonal brushwork extending over the entire orchestral spectrum.”63And he asserts his
national heritage by concluding: “in my works I am influenced by the philosophy that
governs every Chinese artist, whether he is a poet or a painter, namely, affinity to nature in
conception, allusiveness in expression, and terseness in realization.”64
Variable Modes
Variable modes correspond to mutable or pien (变) modes.65“Pien” literally means
“transformation” or “change.” It also shares the same meaning of ‘I’ in the ‘I-Ching.’
According to Chou’s statement, the variable modes he utilized were inspired by classical
and secular Chinese modal systems as well as Indian raga. His interest in the I-Ching then
62 Ibid 63 Ibid 64 Ibid 65 ______preface to Pien (1966).
44 drove him to fuse concepts of yin-yang and ideas of continual change to his developing modal theory in the late 1950s.
A universal rule of the I-Ching is that anything can be generated from an original state through constant conversion. All opposites exist in relation to yin and yang. Yin and yang represent two polarities: in Chinese, yin refers to the feminine, passive, or negative principle in nature, while yang the masculine, active, or positive principle. As the author mentioned in chapter two, -- represents yin and ⚊ represents yang. There are eight possible arrangements of yin and yang lines in groups of three, as the author shows in the example below.
\
Figure 7 The Eight Trigrams of I-Ching
The combination of any two of these trigrams produces a hexagram, called gua in
Chinese. In total there are sixty-four hexagrams. Jianjun He summarized some
45 characteristics of variable modes Chou applied in his music, regardless of the compositional periods:
A. Each mode partitions an octave into three segments: each segment covers a major third.
This corresponds to the trigrams of I-Ching: each trigram consists of three yin or yang
lines.
B. The minor third is analogous to the yang line, and the major second, or a major second
followed by a semitone, is equivalent to the yin line. Chou uses binary codes “0” and
“1” to indicate his modal structure: “0” represents the yin segment, and “1” is
yang.
Figure 8 Yin and Yang segments from He’s dissertation
C. There are eight “variable modes” which correspond to the eight trigrams of the I-Ching.
Each mode can be in an ascending or descending pattern and both have the same
intervallic structure. He presents an example below from Chou’s Cursive for
comparing the structure of these modes. All the modes are transposed to begin with the
same pitch. The beginning note of a mode will be called the “principal tone” in this
thesis.
D. The modes are always used in a pattern combing a bimodal scale which moves in
different directions, one ascending and another descending. It corresponds to the
46
hexagrams of the I-Ching: each hexagram consists of a pair of trigrams. In most cases,
Chou uses two different modes in the modal pairs.66
Figure 9 variable mode from He’s dissertation
66 Jian-Jun He. "Chou Wen -Chung's “Cursive”." PhD diss., West Virginia University, 2000. Accessed 2000.
Chapter VII
An Analysis of the Piano Work “The Willows Are New”
The Concept of “The Willows Are New”
The Willows are New is a derivative work from a guqin piece "Yang Guan San Tieh."
In The Willows are New, Chou applies compositional techniques to the piano that allow it
to imitate the sounds from a guqin. On February 2, 1958, the work was premiered in New
York City by Don Shapiro, and it was later recorded by Yi-An Chang, who married Chou
in 1962. In the preface to The Willows Are New, Chou wrote:
“…Mutations of the original material are woven over the entire range of the piano
and embroidered with sonorities that are the magnified reflexes of brushstroke-like
movements. The restrained emotion of the poem and the subtle nuances of the ch’in (guqin)
technique are projected and amplified by means of the same principle that marks the art of
Chinese calligraphy, wherein the controlled flow of ink—through the interaction of line
and texture—creates a continuum of motion and tension in spatial equilibrium.”67
The piece "Yang Guan San Tieh" was based on the poem "Seeing Yuaner Off to
Anxi" by Wang Wei. Yang Guan was the name given to a pass near western China during
the Tang Dynasty. During this period, people were sent to the wilderness to protect the
67 The Willows Are New, 2.
47 48
western territory of China. Since the place was very removed and uncultivated, many
people left and never returned. "San Tieh" literally means multiple of three; according to
the context of this musical background, we can understand it to mean three variations on a
primary theme. In the piece "Yang Guan San Tieh," the primary theme returns three times
with slight modifications. Wang Wei's poem is shown below:
渭城朝雨邑倾城
客舍青青柳色新
劝君更尽一杯酒
西出阳关无故人
In this town by the river, morning rain
Has cleared the light dust.
Green, green around the tavern, the willows are new.
Let us empty another cup of wine. For, once west of Yang Guan
There will be no more friends.68
The title of Wang Wei’s poem is Song Yuan-Er shi Anxi, which translates to: “a
poem to be sent to Yuan-Er in Anxi.” The text of the poem gives readers the impression of
the writer’s reluctance in accepting his friend’s departure. In Chinese, the word for
“willow” shares the same pronunciation as the word for “stay;” therefore, we can infer that
the willow serves as a metaphor pointing to the poet’s wish for his friend to stay where he
is. The new willow, mentioned in the third line, also represents a new life cycle; the poet
hopes to see his friend again at the beginning of the next life cycle. Typically, the dust, of
which the poet writes in the second line, is equated with filth; the imagery of morning rain
68 Translate by Wen-Chung Chou.
49
clearing the dust expresses a feeling of freshness, which is the opposite of the poet’s mood.
This imagery could be interpreted as the poet sending his best wishes to his friend on his
journey, especially since Yangguan is a desert prone to sandstorms. In Ancient China,
wine drinking, which is mentioned in the fourth line, is a parting tradition; the poet
prolongs his friend's last moments by offering another drink of wine.
In Wang Wei's poems, he never mentions himself weeping. The entire poem has the
quality of restrained emotion, but even so, readers can feel the poet’s deep reluctance and
sadness in between the lines. When the poet Wang Wei wrote this poem, he did not intend
for this poem to be paired with song. It was only after this poem became famous that the
text was incorporated into guqin music. This poem's unprecedented success is due to
Wang Wei’s ability to subtly but in great detail portray the emotional impact of a parting
friend, eliciting empathy and understanding from all readers. Since then, the place
Yangguan has become synonymous with parting.
The primary theme of The Willows Are New is based on motivic fragments. As Chou
mentioned, “mutations, as extension mutations, in the form of truncation, or interpolation,
continually appear in this piece.”69
The text of "Yang Guan San Tieh" is written in ab/ac/ad form. Wang Wei's poem is
the primary text (a). Other dramatic texts (b,c,d) are paired with Wang Wei's poem and
repeated three times in the song.
69 Eric Chiu Kong Lai, "A Theory of Pitch Organization in the Early Music of Chou Wen-Chung." Order No. 9539960, Indiana University, 1995.
50
Pentatonic modes in The Willows Are New
The harmonic and melodic language of The Willows Are New is based on Chinese pentatonic modes. Many forms of traditional Chinese music use pentatonic scales, and this
music has its own unique system of modes. The five positions in a Chinese pentatonic
scale are gōng (宫), shāng (商), jué (角), zhǐ (徵) and yǔ (羽). If C is the root (gōng) of
this scale, then the resulting pitches correspond to C, D, E, G and A. However, there can
also be five modes built upon these five pitches, created by using a different position as
the starting pitch of the scale, as shown in Figure 10. Other scales with their own modes are created by using a different pitch as the gōng. In addition to the five notes of this scale and its associated modes, hexatonic and heptatonic scales can be created by adding notes, which Chou often referred to as “pien” tones, to the pentatonic framework. There are two hexatonic scales that are created by adding either an F or B to the C-D-E-G-A framework.
Figure 10 Chinese pentatonic scale
In addition to hexatonic scales, heptatonic scales are created by adding the pitches F,
F#, B, or Bb. The three heptatonic scales are noted below.
Qingyue Scale (清乐音阶) C-D-E-F-G-A-B
Yayue Scale (雅乐音阶) C-D-E-F#-G-A-B
51
Yanyue Scale (燕乐音阶) C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb.
Figure 11 m.1 in The Willows Are New
The author believes that the beginning of The Willows Are New plays an essential role in the piece because it sets the tone for the entire work. From figure 11, readers can observe the general melodic contour of the phrase: beginning with a low E, the phrase ascends up to a C#, and then changes direction. The shape of the movement also follows a similar arch-like pattern, as do the dynamic markings, apart from the final four notes of the phrase which are to be performed as a crescendo, creating a sense of expectation of something to follow. The lack of finality creates a sense of continuous circularity. From the author’s perspective, the opening musical pattern resembles the poem we have mentioned above; the sense of expectation is analogous to the wishes of the poet to see his departed friend again.
Eric Chiu Kong Lai’s analysis of the form of The Willows Are New offers a structural diagram of the work. Figure 12 below is the formal diagram from Eric Chiu
Kong Lai’s "A Theory of Pitch Organization in the Early Music of Chou Wen-Chung." As can be seen in the outline of the modal form, Lai attributes two modes, both the E Zhi and the F# Yu, to the prologue of the piece. However, this author believes that the prologue
(the author prefers to call it the main theme) may be best viewed as exclusively in E Zhi
52 mode, which includes pitches E, F#, A, B, C# throughout the first measure. The repeated bass dyad comprised of pitch E and B furthermore supports all three of the small sub-motives from underneath giving the impression that E is the underpinning tone for the whole measure.
Figure 12 Form diagram of Willows Are New from Lai’s dissertation
According to Lai’s formal diagram, mm. 2 to mm.27 remain in the single mode of
F# yu. However, contrary to Lai’s analysis, the author believes that the composer may have applied a multimodal technique to this piece, as can be seen in the following measures.
53
2
Figure 13 mm.2-16 in The Willows Are New
As can be seen in Figure 13, the author has marked several blue brackets around the
notes from this section, and these tones comprise the E Zhi mode in the right-hand melody
line. Following the left-hand line, we find pitches of the D# Zhi mode (orange brackets).
As the author mentioned in the above section concerning hexatonic and heptatonic
scales connected to the pentatonic modes, the notes D and G may be considered as two
pien tones that can be added to the E Zhi mode which transform it into a Yayue Scale.
Surprisingly, if we reorder all the pitches of all the bracketed notes across both hands,
including the two pien notes (D in m.6 and G in m.12), a complete twelve-tone chromatic
scale is realized. This can be interpreted as a portrayal of the concepts of yin and yang, two
different objects which interact in their duality to generate everything in the universe.
54
“Mutation” in The Willows Are New
A
B C
Figure 14 The Willows Are New m.1 (motive A, B, and C)
The theme of The Willows Are New is based upon motivic fragments; mutations appear continuously in this piece. As shown in figure 14, the beginning phrase is the main theme of the entire piece. The author found a relation between motives A and B, as shown in figure 14. Motive A contains a rising fourth starting from its second note F#. Motive B starts on the same F# and also settles on pitch B up a fourth. Therefore, a portion of motive
A exists in modified form within motive B. Such fragments as the rising fourth can be found in later measures, such as mm.54, in the pitches C# E F# and in mm.48 F# A B.
These fragments derive from the last three notes of motive A but are also a modified version of motive B. The motives overlap with each other. Motive C exists within motive
A and B in retrograde.
55
Figure 15 mm.48-58
Figure 16 from Lai’s dissertation shows how motive B displays a continuous
“mutation”, throughout The Willows Are New. This author’s analysis will reveal some different angles to this piece’s motivic mutation process.
Figure16 Transformation of motive B from Lai’s dissertation
56
As can be seen in figure 16, Lai mentioned that the entire mutation process of motive B covers the span of three octaves. B-B1-B2 move from the original lower register to a higher register, whereas B3-B4-B5 gradually return to the original register. On close observation, B3, B4, and B5 consist of the reversal of the last four notes of the theme. Lai divided the last four notes into two groups, namely the x and y group. This shows the transformations of thematic material designed by Chou. The entire guqin piece " Yang
Guan San Tieh " could be defined as a fundamental melody consisting of four phrases cast within a rondo structure.
As shown in figure 16, motive B first appears in mm.1, and motive B1 appears in mm.
5-8 (figure 16). Chou applied ninth intervals to produce a rich and resonant timbre, allowing the music to imitate the sound of the guqin. The author senses that the ninth intervals Chou applied support the main themes with a unique vibrational resonance.
Besides the change in register, the most significant difference between motives B and B1 is the change in tone duration, as the duration of pitches B and A are truncated in motive
B1.
As can be seen in figure 12, Lai believes that m.13 is an interpolation; he marked it as motive D. However, the author believes that the sections from m. 13 to m. 16 are also mutations of motives B and C. If one interprets the pitch A in m. 13 to be the start of the phrase, then the main notes of the phrase include pitches A, B, C#, and F#, in that order.
These are the same pitches which make up motives B and C. Therefore, the author interprets this section as a new mutation. The mutations do not have to be shown in the
57 way same as the primal motives; they could be approached differently from the primary motives through techniques such as inversion or comprising about a portion of the motive.
Figure 17 mm.2-16 in The Willows Are New
The author considers mm. 9 – 16 as mutations of the three main motives. Obviously, the fragment in m. 9 to m.10 is a mutation of motive A; m.11 to m.12 is a sequence of the previous phrase.
The author finds that the pitch B in measures m.3 and m.6 functions as a passing tone that provides the music with fluidity and smoothness. For example, in m.3, pitch B (yellow arrow marking in Figure 18) bridges pitch A and pitch C to create a small ascending figuration; in m.6, pitch B (blue arrow marking) connects C# and Bb to create a descending line.
58
Figure 18 mm.2-11
Figure 19 mm.17-27
According to Lai’s dissertation, motive B2 occurs in mm.19-22 (figure19). Unlike the first two motives, B2 includes a hidden voice in the left-hand featuring ninth intervals in the bass which supports the right-hand melody.
59
The author believes that motive B2 ends at m. 23 instead of m. 22, and the material from m. 24 to m. 27 is a mutation of motive C. The forte and piu forte marking on the score in measure m.26 and m.27 (shown in figure 19) correspond to the hairpin markings of motive C in its original form. Notably, in motive B2, the composer applied different time signatures within the motive; the motif begins in 2/4 and shifts to 5/8 in the second measure, which creates an erratic sense of pulse.
Figure 20 mm.23- 47
While Lai did not mention any occurrence of a mutation around m. 31, the author believes that this section contains a transformation of motive B. The pitches from m. 31 to m. 33 are a half-step lower from those of motive B. Chou did not take everything from the primal motive B; instead, he chose a fragment of this phrase to develop until m.47. In the original motive B, the melodic contour ascends, descends, and then repeats, but the
60 movement from m. 31 features a retrograde of the original motive. the last two notes. The author maintains that the section from m.28 until m.47 is a development section based on the intervals and rhythms from motive B in the G yu mode.
While Lai considers m. 34 to be the beginning of section B, the author believes that section B actually begins at m. 28 and ends at m. 47, which is all in the G yu mode.
(Figure 20) The author examines that the fragment starting from m.34 is an extension of certain pitches of the G yu mode instead of new thematic material which Lai proposes.
Elements from m.41 are a repetition of the elements in m.28. It seems like section B has a contains a complete exposition-like section, developmental section, and closing section.
According to Lai’s explanation, motives, B3, B4, and B5 differ from previous statements of motive B as they feature retrograde motion in the later notes of the phrase.
The motive B3 becomes noticeable in mm. 48-51, which features a tempo change. The slower tempo of motive B3 serves as a contrast to the following section D1(as shown in
Lai’s diagram, mm.52-63). Motive B3 not only omits the original incidental notes but also applies C instead of C# in m.49, to producing an interval of a minor second instead of a major second. The function of the pitch C in this section is that of a “pien,” not a main tone. (markings in figure 21)
Figure 21 mm.48-52.
61
Motives B4 and B5 occur as the piece reaches its end. Motive B4 is basically the same as Motive B3, but it reduced. This transformation technique is known as reduction, in which the composer omits some details from the repeated motive while leaving the main building blocks untouched. This technique results in the effect of a fade-out. (Figure
22) As can be seen in the coda, the composer did not finish the piece with motive C on the pitch F#; instead, extended the pitch B, and the fermata and ppp dynamic marking creates the effect of an ambiguous hover, which eventually fades out.
Figure 22 mm.143-144
Overview
Based on the above analysis, the author believes that Chou’s use of mutation throughout his composition is related to his inspiration from concepts of the I-Ching. In his composition, many fragments are built upon Motive A, B, and C, and their constant transformation and renewal. This is comparable to how the I-Ching describes the universe as beginning from a primal force from which all things are generated. The author believes that this piece borrows ideas from variable modes; however, since the work is a
62 transcription from a traditional guqin piece, many essential parts, such as the melodies, cannot be significantly changed.
The structure and musical language in The Willows Are New
Figure 23 Formal comparison of Yangguan and Willows
Figure 23 shows that Chou's transcription does not follow Yangguan's original format.
Chou’s adaptation includes an added prologue and epilogue. Moreover, Chou also omits the repetition of B and A'. Also, in Chou’s The Willows Are New, the coda is considerably more expansive in comparison to the original coda of Yangguan.
Chou composed The Willows Are New during the latter part of his early years. At that time, the chromatic elaboration of the Chinese modes was a primary compositional method Chou applied in his music. As a result, it is easy to observe that many chromatic tones appear in his works. The author believes this music may point to the influence of his mentor Edgard Varèse, who emphasized the importance of timbre and rhythm, and whose
“proto-spectral” interests in tonal resonance could have impacted Chou’s techniques.
63
Figure 24, for example, exhibits experimentation with overtones and specific resonances
(both below and above the principal tones) and the creation of a specific aura around the
primary tones. Chou may have applied chromatics in the piece, in order to produce
specific overtones akin to the guqin's scatter tone.
Lower chromatic neighbor tones are primarily used in the formation of dissonant
minor ninths in the low register, whereas upper chromatic neighbor tones ornament
melodic pitches in the form of a half-step "acciaccatura," and are occasionally realized as
minor ninths in the upper register, as in mm.26-30.70 The juxtapositions and
superpositions of these chromatic figures result in a complex dissonant texture that is
constantly transformed according to the unfolding of thematic material.
Figure 24 mm.53-64
70 Ibid.
64
The superposition of dissonant sound layers results in a dense texture in places, such
as mm. 52-61 and mm. 83-101.71 As the composer himself writes, “In this piece
dissonance is used to suggest the kind of attack you hear on this instrument where the
fingernail produces extraneous sounds which become associated with the pitches of the
melody.”72
Throughout the rest of the piece, ten distinct motives and their transformations appear.
In the prologue, three motives constitute the remote sound effect of the beginning. Another
notable aspect of Chou’s composition is that he only applied grace notes in the prologue
and epilogue; he changed the notation in the music's main body. When motive B1 occurs
in m.5, the original grace notes of motive B are replaced by sixteenth notes. This poses the
question as to whether the composer intended to imitate a lyrical dissonance guqin sound
in the beginning and coda rubato sections.
Analysis of The Willows Are New by the method of sonic design
Sonic design is an analytical technique created by Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot.
Their concept of sonic design functions to " develop modes of understanding for the entire
art of sound...to create a framework within which all music and the concepts that
genuinely illuminate it might be brought together."73 Sonic design originates within the
acoustical area. Four stages make up the complete analysis and they are: musical space,
musical language, rhythm and time, and sound color. Because the world’s music is
71 Ibid 72 Wen-Chung Chou, “The Aesthetic Principles of Chinese Music: A Personal Quest,” Canzona 7/24 (June 1986):76. 73 Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot, Sonic Design, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1976.
65
influenced by a wealth of diverse cultures, it would be misguided and inappropriate to
analyze music only via the Western music theory system. Different cultures perceive and
produce sound according to the unique and diverse values and tastes of the people of that
culture. As a more universal method for approaching world music, sonic design is
therefore more appropriate as one of the methodologies to apply to Chou's music. Multiple
stages of the sonic design in Chou's The Willows Are New can be observed and examined
apart from the musical language, as the author has previously given an analysis based on
musical language.
Musical space
In Sonic Design, graphic display is the most significant feature that helps people
understand the concept of musical space. Musical space may be subdivided, or it may be
regarded as a continuum without fixed partitions. These graphs show the motions of
linearity, multilinearity, range, texture and density of the musical lines.74As the author
mentioned in the previous chapter, the concept of musical space is similar to the art of
Chinese calligraphy; the movements of brushstrokes reflect layers and texture. A graphic
design facilitates a recognition of the stasis and motion of pitches below. Cogan and Escot
wrote about the concept of stasis and motion in this way: “Stasis contains the seeds of
motion, whereas the motion is the dramatic realization of the slightest turnings within the
stasis.”75 Examining the musical space, the researcher is able to provide an accurate and
74 Seok-Kwee Chew. "An Analysis of the Selected Music of Chou Wen-Chung in Relation to Chinese Aesthetics." PhD diss., New York University, 1990. Accessed February 1990.
75 Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot, Sonic Design, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1976.
66 adequate display of the work's acoustical design and lay the basis for later discussions on time and color.
The Willows Are New is based upon several voice lines with continuous register shifts.
Figure 25 The complete sound space graphic for The Willows Are New
(Y axis is pitch, X axis is passage of time, the bottom yellow balls indicate to the density of the texture)
From Figure 25, we can see various voices intertwining at different pitches from the beginning until the end in the piece. The bottom shows the density of the texture which is a result of the number of pitches in the music.
The beginning of The Willows Are New starts with the pitch E, and motive A ends on a B; this is a perfect fifth. The following examples are visual representations of the movement of pitches:
67
Figure 26 Sound space in The Willows Are New m.1
This graph clearly shows how the three basic motives A, B, and C appear in the prologue.
68
Figure 27 Sound space in mm.2-10
The graph becomes more layered starting at m. 2. As readers can see, since the direction of each line is moving upwards, the music is therefore moving in an ascending pattern.
69
Figure 28 Multilinearity in mm.1-11.
Figure 28 shows the linear progression from mm.1-11. We can see that while the bass
line maintains a stable movement, one line keeps climbing to higher registers.
Figure 29 mm.26-30 shows an overlapping of sound fields
70
Figure 30 overlapping of sound fields in mm.26-30
Figure 31 mm.26-30 soundtrack
71
From the above figures, it is apparent that m.26 to m.30 reach a primary climax. The pattern in this phrase (mm.26-30) is different from previous sections, as there are more crossings between each line.
Figure 32 mm.52- 58 sound spaces
72
Figure 33 mm.52-58
In m.52- 58, the theme D1 features wide registers in opposite directions.
The shift in sound fields ultimately heads to a close with fragments of motive B in the low register, which echoes the prologue. The registers of the piece cover the maximal ranges from A#0 to Eb7 in the piano.
Figure 34 soundtrack of entire The Willows Are New
Color of sound
The Willows are New has a unique sound color due to the composer’s attempt to imitate the guqin’s specific sonority on the modern piano. Various sonorities weave
73
together in different registers to produce unique sound colors in The Willows Are New.
The composer makes prominent use of minor ninths in the left hand, which the author
believes contributes to the creation of specific colors in the piece. Beginning in m.2, minor
ninths are widespread throughout The Willows Are New. As Chou mentioned in the score:
“All notes in the left-hand stave are to be played an octave lower than written, unless
marked “loco””. The author believes this is part of the composer’s intention to produce a
rich bass sonority in order to support the melodies in the right hand, which constantly shift
in wide registers. Chou also stated in the score’s preface that "to preserve the proper
dissonance, the left hand should never be played softer than the right. The two hands,
rather than dividing the melody and accompaniment, should always merge to create a
single sonority." This unique acoustical treatment provides a unifying effect.
Regarding the dynamic markings in The Willows Are New, dynamics not only play a
role in the phrasing, but also contribute to the coloring of the sound. The composer applied
many grace notes, rolls, accents, and stresses in this piece to create a variety of tones and
timbres. A sixteenth note followed by an eighth note in this piece, such as in mm.3, should
be played like a slow grace note. These pien notes are mainly used to color the main tones
that carry the theme. They should be played softer; however, their speed of attack should
vary with the intensity of the music.76
Chou employed accents in sections of rich sonorities, for example, mm.26-27, in
order to produce a climax. The Arpeggiation is another type of special grace note in The
Willows Are New which produces an effect that is similar to the sonority of a string
76 Seok-Kwee Chew. "An Analysis of the Selected Music of Chou Wen-Chung in Relation to Chinese Aesthetics." PhD diss., New York University, 1990. Accessed February 1990.
74
instrument. The composer specifies that performers should play these arpeggiations from
top to the bottom. As the author mentioned in chapter two regarding the guqin's tones, the
effect of these arpeggiations is similar to that of the scatter tone ( the fundamental
frequency produced by plucking a free string with the fingers of the right hand). Chou
used rolls to emphasize particular phrases and notes.
Figure 35 mm.26-27
Time and Rhythm
In Sonic Design, Cogan and Escot77stated that there are three levels of musical
rhythm: 1) duration of individual notes and silence; 2) duration of note groupings into
modules, measures and phrases. 3) Duration of sections and movements78. The tempo of
The Willows Are New is relatively free and is marked Lento ma non troppo. The meter
77 Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot, Sonic Design, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1976. 78 Ibid P.221
75 changes frequently within the piece, and the different meters include 3/4，5/8，2/4, and 7/8.
Guqin music usually starts in a slower tempo and becomes faster and more vigorous in the middle section, becoming calm again at the coda. The Willows Are New follows the quqin’s basic slow-fast-slow tempo template.
As the author mentioned in the previous section, it is customary for guqin players to sing along to their playing, and the lyrics of the song influence the pacing and flow of the piece. When the lyrics of a song contain more wistful content, for example, the musical content complements that specific emotion accordingly. In guqin performance practice, slow sections are associated not with emptiness or standstill, but with just as much emotional content and intensity as quicker sections. For example, the first measure of the piece conveys a peaceful and dreamy atmosphere. These are the lyrics of original
“Yang-guan-san-die” below:
Verse a:
Qinghe festival is coming with spring
In Wei-Cheng by the river, morning rain has cleared the light dust (this corresponds to the first measure of the musical work Yuan Guan San Tieh)
Green, green around the tavern
The willows are new
Let us empty another cup of wine
For, once west of Yang guan
There will be no more friends (The main content for the entire piece is based upon the text up to this point)
76
The first phrases of both the poem and the music set the tone of the entire piece.
Verse a is originally from Wang Wei's poem. Comparing Chou’s piece with the original
guqin piece, it can be seen that Chou added an extra motive, motive C, as a tail to
complete the primary theme.
There are many half notes and tied notes interspersed with shorter notes in the score
of The Willows are New. According to this author’s understanding, the more extended
notes are intended to create space for breathing between the phrases to accommodate
singing. The rhythmic flow of the text naturally expresses emotional shifts. Chou applied
different compositional techniques to depict emotional fluctuation in the music, including
tempo contrasts, dynamic contrasts, and different directions of linear progressions as we
can see in the examples from figures 5-25 and 5-26 below.
Chou’s idea of musical motion is akin to Chinese aesthetic principles of “motion in
stasis” and “stasis in motion” which is in accordance with Cogan’s concept. Additionally,
as Chou mentioned in the preface concerning the application of concepts of Chinese
calligraphy in the piece, we can see traces of brushstrokes in his music. Since every stroke
in Chinese calligraphy requires different shapes, calligraphers need to draw carefully with
various gestures and speeds. Sometimes the ink should be dark, sometimes faint, heavy, or
light. There is balance in the whole picture, but there are different spaces between the
strokes.79 From the author’s understanding, the basic idea of the music is the interaction
of movement and energy with density and texture. Examples are shown below.
79 Yi Chen. "Tradition and Creation." Current Musicology, no. 67 (Fall, 1999): 59-72
77
Figure 36 mm.23-34
Figure 36 is an example of a section with intense dynamic contrast and wide register switches. This results in intense momentum, analogous to the contrasts in brushstrokes when the ink is getting heavier or lighter.
Figure 37 mm.136-145
78
Figure 37 is another example showing how the music fades out at the end, offering a contrast to the thick density of the earlier section, as if the brushstroke is getting fainter.
Furthermore, Chou continually changed the meter until the coda, a device which disrupts the flow of the phrases.
Figure 38 mm.94-100
Figure 38 is another example of the build-up of momentum: a crescendo begins at m.94 and builds up to l ff, like a brushstroke which gradually intensifies and darkens.
These are the complete lyrics of original “Yang-guan-san-die” below
Verse a:
Qinghe festival is coming with spring
In Wei-Cheng by the river, morning rain has cleared the light dust
Green, green around the tavern
The willows are new
Let us empty another cup of wine
For, once west of Yang Kuan
There will be no more friends
Verse b
79
Walk hastily, walk hastily
A long journey passes through gates and rivers
Tormented with loneliness
Going through hardships
Going through hardships
One must take care
One must take care
Verse c
Unwilling to part
Tears wet handkerchief
No longer can we help each other as a friend
Fill with sadness
Fill with sadness
Think of you every day and night
Separated in a different part of the world
Who will listen to me now?
Who will listen to me now?
My thoughts will come to you daily
My thoughts will come to you daily
Verse d
Green, green grass
Fine wine, fine wine
Feeling drunk before drinking
80
Riding away on a gray horse
Riding away on a gray horse
When are you coming back?
How many more cups can we drink?
Thousands of drinks will finally come to an end
But sadness in my heart lingers
So far apart like the sky and water
Hope you will write often
Expressing thoughts in letters
Expressing thoughts in letters
As though we are still together
As though we are still together
Coda
Ah! Once parted
Let us keep each other in thoughts
Let us meet frequently in our dreams
The wild geese will carry forth our message80
80 Verses b,c,d, and coda in the above of “yang kuan san die”are translated by Seok-Kwee Chew
Chapter VIII
A Performance Guide and Practice Strategies for The Willows Are New
Pedal
Although no pedal markings exist in the score of The Willows Are New, the application of pedal in this music is presumed necessary. Chou indicates in the score’s preface that the performer should "preserve the proper dissonance" and merge the voices
“to create a single sonority,” which according to Chou is achieved by balancing the left and right hands equally. The careful and intentional use of the pedal can also help to achieve this blended sonority.
The opening of the work clearly demonstrates Chou’s intention to apply the damper pedal (see Figure 39). The remote and mysterious theme begins with three bass E note slurs in the left hand, which creates a somewhat dissonant sonority underneath the subsequent thematic tones throughout the first measure. It is advisable to change the pedal at each of these bass E notes in the first measure, evoking the dark sonority of a legend.
Pianists should make sure that the damper pedal catches the bass note E together with the
B a fifth above to add richness to the sonority. Subtle changes of pedal can aim to create the sense that there is one continuous bass sonority throughout the measure. In the second measure, the foggy ambiance subsides while the thematic material takes form and begins
81 82
to mutate. Reduction of pedal usage assists in providing a more intelligible, present feeling.
Figure 39 mm.1-6
It is noteworthy that only in the first and last measure of the work are grace notes indicated. Outside of the first and last measures of the work, ornamental notes are notated as sixteenth notes. It is possible that Chou imagined the grace notes as lightly executed and pedaled in order to create a resonance containing all the notes together, whereas in places where sixteenth notes are indicated followed by long tenutos, a clearer, more speaking-like articulation might be intended with only the tenuto notes held in the pedal.
The execution of a long pedal in the final measure can likewise be applied in order to produce a similar dissonant, lugubrious effect as in the beginning of the work.
83
Tempo
Although the composer conscientiously indicated on the score what he intended for the tempo, careful analysis shows the necessity for a large degree of tempo fluctuation.
The rubato indication in measure one as well as the absence of a time signature in this piece imply free movement and an unmeasured ethereal sonority. Subsequently, the indication of tempo giusto indicates a strict pulse. From mm. 2-19, the composer applied four different time signatures, including 3/4, 5/8,2/4, and 7/8. This manner of varying the time signature allows for a more natural and precise movement of the phrases. With the performance of a steady eighth-note pulse within shifting meters, Chou was able to notate the sense of motion and rest, apart from isolated moments when the composer specifically indicated changes to the musical movement.
Metronome practice is highly recommended during the learning process. This will facilitate a better understanding of the entire flow of the work once the pianist apprehends its precise movements. The sense of tempo and movement are one of the more significant challenges to mastering the work.
Interpretation
Since the entire piece is based on the thematical materials of the opening measure, many of the clues to an effective interpretation of the work are to be found in that measure.
The dynamic marking is ppp, with the accompaniment of several hairpins which not only indicate dynamic intensity, but also the sense of motion. Each of the three motives found
84 in the first measure requires individual treatment. The ambiance of the opening motive is mysterious and remote, conjuring up the image of the guqin player who begins his performance of a lyrical and legendary piece of music. The composer did not indicate any hairpins in the first motive, implying a steady, stable reading of the motive. Compared with motive A, motive B exudes more intense energy, and the sense of pulse is less stable as it naturally moves forward. Motive C rounds off the entire measure’s phrase, with the exception of its characteristic crescendo, as if anticipating the return of the cycle of motives. It would be advisable to perform the final F# of the motive at a higher volume than the E which follows at the onset of the next measure in order to show a contrast between these two measures and the beginning of a new phrase.
M.17 distinguishes itself from previous measures in that it functions as an extension of motive C as well as a bridge to the next transitional phrase at m. 19. Here the material is to be executed with less intensity, pp, very legato, with the object of producing a different tonal color, after which the thicker, richer sonority returns at m.23.
85
F
Figure 40. Mm.17-28
From mm. 23-47 (see figure 41) there ensues one of the most intense climaxes in the piece. The composer applied several dynamic markings: pp, p, poco f, f, piu f, ff. A stringendo is also indicated leading to a climactic ff in the brightest, highest end of the register. The use of the high end of the register placed directly opposite the keyboard’s lowest octave creates emotional intensity and could be likened to the powerful expression of distance and separation in the poem “Yang-guan-san-die”:
But sadness in my heart lingers
So far apart like the sky and water
86
Noticeably, tension and relaxation exist simultaneously in this section. A fermata and lunga prolongs the ff chord until the sound fades away and the phrase naturally resumes in p at m.31. From mm. 34-40, the musical material is repeated three times, progressively growing in movement and dynamics until the arrival of another climax. It should be noted that the placement of the individual tones of the motive varies in each restatement. This underscores the organic flexibility of the material, with its natural ebb and flow. The same technique is applied in mm. 41-47, but within an extended diminuendo. Such use of timing and dynamics may well serve as an example of Chou’s application of the concept of
Chinese calligraphy in this piece. The growing crescendo of the phrase simultaneously with a lengthening of time values of selected tones might be likened to a common technique of calligraphy in which intensity is accumulated by a slower, broader brushstroke.
87
Figure 41 mm.23- 47
From m.52 (see Figure 42), Chou explores various resonances by encompassing a range of five octaves in this section. The application of downward rolls in high registers is particularly colorful as the created resonance is reminiscent of the singular vibrations of the guqin. Such downward arpeggios are presented frequently throughout this section.
There lies some ambiguity in the instruction Più in m.54, as it is not directly linked to any other word. It is likely that Più in this context means Più Animando since the Più is preceded two measures earlier by the instruction Poco Animando in m.52. This interpretation is further confirmed by the slackening of the tension in m.55 which is marked Espirando (exhaling).
88
Figure 42 mm.48-58
The section from m. 52 until m. 66 is characterized by three parallel phrases, each of which displays a noticeable sense of ebb and flow. The composer’s instruction of espirando (exhaling implies a corresponding inhalation during the parts of the phrase where animando is indicated. It is also noticeable that in the final sequence of these three parallel phrases, Chou changed the instruction from espirando to rallentando, implying a greater slackening of the pulse and a sense of fading before the music reverts to the main tempo. (see Figure 43)
89
Figure 43. mm.59-70
From m. 52, the melody line consists of a portion of motive B. It is here where another allusion to Chinese calligraphy can be detected, as the motive is amplified in the employment of low and high registers, just as calligraphic brushstrokes rise and fall. Mm.
72-74 borrow a portion of motive C in its rhythmic aspect as well as the repeated notes to end this section with poco forte. (see Figure 44)
M. 75 is an exact repetition of previously notated material starting at m.23, which not only facilitates memorization for the performer, but musically speaking creates a sense of a structural return. (see Figure 44)
90
Figure 44 mm.71-82
Mm. 83-89 are thematically connected to the section from mm. 52-57, but everything has been transposed a half-step higher. According to Chou’s concept of mutation, the material in mm. 86-88 varies slightly from the parallel phrase found in mm. 56-57.
mm.55-58
Figure 45 mm.83- 88.
The material from mm. 83-99 is characterized by the exploration of varying registers of the instrument, a technique which creates more intensity in both color and dynamism.
At the beginning of this section, tension is built by moving forward in the poco animando
91 come sopra, followed by another surge of energy at the poco più mosso in m.90 and a continuous heightening of tension in the poco a poco accel. from m.94 until the arrival of the climax at m.99. The fluctuating dynamics which are presented in waves, together with the frequent change of register and surges in the temporal flow successfully establish the necessary tension in a naturally organic fashion. (See Figure 46)
Figure 46 mm.89-104
The final transitional section before the coda (mm.110-124) closely correlates to mm.
34-47 and represents the final wave of intensity in the work. The two phrases that comprise this section are designed sequentially; the primary culmination appears in the first sequence (mm.115-116), whereas the subsequent parallel passage (mm.123-124) is the opposite of a climax, marked morendo and pp. Such pairs of sequenced material allude to the yin yang principle that Chou embraced. (See Figure 47) They may also remind one of the structures of the poem “Yang-guan-san-die” in which many verses are repeated in small couplets. For example:
92
Who will listen to me now?
Who will listen to me now?
Figure 47 mm.105-124
The musical device such as found in mm.125-127 (see figure.48) reflects the artistic conception of the guqin. The sonority that is created on the piano by downward rolls refers to the sound of plucking the guqin's strings. Based on the original poem as a reference, this phrase likely reflects the reluctance of departure in the poem as the notes rise up to the highest register of the instrument in piano, taking the coda from the poem as an example:
Ah! Once parted
93
Let us keep each other in thoughts
Let us meet frequently in our dream
The wild geese will carry forth our message
Such musical content demands a deeply poignant display of emotion in order to reveal the complicated sentiment. It would be highly recommendable for performers to listen to the guqin's poignant plucking string sound in order to gain a more imaginative understanding of how to transfer this sound to the keyboard. The closing section
(mm.128-145) is a series of sequential phrases that borrow portions of motive B in order to direct the music toward its end. The character of this closing content corresponds closely to the closing words of the poem “Yang-guan-san-die”.
The sense of loss, both in dynamics and in motion as indicated by the perdendosi and final indications ppp and morendo, are suggestive of both the references to memory, dream and loss in the poem. (see Figure 48).
94
Figure 48 mm.125- 142
Conclusion
As an American composer born and raised in China, Wen-Chung Chou always dedicated himself to supporting Chinese culture through his compositions, education and cultural exchange organization. The Willows Are New offers an opportunity to popularize
Chinese culture by delivering a cross-cultural union of Western art music performed on a
Western instrument with Chinese traditional music as would be heard on a Chinese instrument. Sonic design offers a fresh perspective in which to analyze such music with all its exotic characteristics which are otherwise difficult to grasp using traditional Western analytical methods. For people who are not familiar with Chinese traditional art, sonic design is an excellent way to understand the piece's entire design and musical language.
Analyzing Chou's work presents opportunities for further understanding of the social and cultural surroundings that artistically influenced his music, which is one reason this author included introductory background information on Chinese culture. A fusion of Western analysis with Chinese modal analysis is suitable for the piece as this type of merging reflects the re-merger ideas which Chou persistently advocated.
This essay is not only an analytical study but an overview of Wen-Chung Chou's musical and cultural experience. By studying Chou's works, people can understand how
Western theoretical systems consistently support Wen-Chung Chou's music. After the
Second World War, many musical languages became increasingly incomprehensible.
Indeed, in recent times, when contemporary music is performed, audiences require even greater access to information which can offer practical guidance on how to listen to and appreciate that music. Before the First World War, tonally based music was generally
95 96 comprehensible and well-received. But from the onset of modernism, music generally became more challenging to understand, often intentionally; and instead of adhering to a handful of stylistic schools or trends, modern music explored new and more individualistic paths. Consequently, the philosophies and concepts underpinning music of the 20th and
21st centuries are often more impenetrable to the common listener.
Traditional musical languages, however, are more comprehensible, for they are deeply rooted in their cultural tradition. Such musical languages are engrained in cultural tradition. China possesses more than five-thousands years of history, during which
Chinese musical forms have naturally evolved into a unique idiom. It would be virtually impossible and relatively meaningless to compare Wagner's music dramas with traditional
Chinese Kun Opera. After the 1911 revolution, the Qing dynasty perished. Since then,
Chinese people have had the chance to connect with different cultures. Residents of
China’s larger metropolitan areas started to adopt a more modern Western lifestyle; concurrently, many Chinese composers familiarized themselves and assimilated Western musical systems. Different groups of contemporary Chinese composers debated over a period of several decades concerning how to integrate Chinese elements with Western musical systems.
Chou spent more than a decade exploring thoughtful ways to blend Western and
Chinese musical elements. Eventually, he found a unique approach to musical synthesis which is different from the first generation of modern Chinese composers.
97
Overview
As a pianist, the author believes that this topic is relevant to the cultural diversity of students of music in a pluralistic society and may help them recognize and develop their linguistic and cultural hybridity, including multi-musical and bicultural individuality.
From this research, the methods which Chou successfully applied to his works may be more clearly revealed. With a sound understanding of the methods utilized thus far for creating cross-cultural music, the next generation of musicians may effectively respond to these methods and create new models for cultural fusion in the future. The author hopes this study may further this cause by studying cross-cultural musical works of the most ingenuous Asian composers of our generation.
Glossary of Terms
Guqin: The guqin is a plucked seven-string traditional Chinese musical instrument; it is often referred to as the Chinese zither. In ancient times, the guqin was the standard equipment of the literati. In those days, it was a common belief that unless one could play the guqin or the se (another plucked stringed instrument of China that was slightly more expansive in size than the guqin)
I-Ching: a Chinese ancient book includes the Chinese divination text and among the oldest of the Chinese classics, providing the inspiration to the worlds of religion, philosophy, literature, and art.
Syncretism: the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.
Taoism: According to the “Great Treatise” from the Ten Appendices of the I-Ching, the creative rhythm of yin and yang constitutes what is called the Tao. Tao 道 (the Way), one of the chief concepts in Chinese thought, is defined in different ways by Confucianists,
Taoists and followers of other Chinese philosophical schools. To Confucius (541-479
B.C.), Tao was the “Way” of man, the “Way” of ancient kings, and the “Way” of virtue.
According to Confucius, the fundamental virtue was ren, which means humanity, love, or righteousness. Human relationships, hence, are a significant focus of Confucian teachings.
98
99
Wenren: refers to people with ultimate knowledge of art and culture, the literal meaning of ren and wen being people and arts, knowledge or order respectively.
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