The Song and Dance of Tears (2003)

A Tone Poem for Pipa, Sheng, Violoncello, Piano and Orchestra

1. The Song


2. The Dance


3. Tears



Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. First performance: March 5th, 2003, Wu Tong, sheng; Wu Man, pipa; Yo Yo Ma, violoncello; Emanuel Ax, piano with David Zinman conducing the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Instrumentation

Flute 1, 2 (alto fl, picc. 2), 3 (picc 1) Oboe 1, 2 (hecklephone), 3 (e. hn.) Clarinet 1 (in Bb & A), 2 (in Bb, Eb cl.), 3 (b.cl.) Bassoon 1, 2, 3 (c. bn.) Horn 1, 2 3, 4 Trumpet 1 (in C), 2 (in C), 3 (in C & Bb) Trombone 1, 2 Bass Trombone Tuba Timpani Percussions (4 players) crotales glockenspiel 2 bangos (h. & l.) ratchet low tam-tam slapstick marimba xylophone vibraphone small suspended cymbal large suspended cymbal 2 congas (h. & l.) 2 tambourines (h. & l.) low bass drum piatti wind-gong 2 cowbells (h. & l.) Harp Solo sheng pipa violoncello piano Strings 2

Performance Notes

1) The solo pipa should be amplified, using a single speaker placed on stage next to the soloist. The house speaker should not be used.
2) The four soloists should be able to see the conductor and each other at all times.

Program Note

In the summer of 2000, I received a grant from University of Michigan to collect classical and folk music along the ancient Silk Road within the contemporary Chinese border. I spent two months traveling through the most remote corners of the world in the mountains and deserts.

The result was both fascinating and eye-opening. Not only was I profoundly touched by the beautiful music from the region, I also realized how significantly the music of different ethnic groups has been inspiring and infiltrating each other for thousands of years. And just as there is no pure blood in any race, there is no true nationalistic music either. Bartok, speaking of Slavic folk music, believed that the most interesting music was the music from the regions bordering more than one ethnicity. And that can certainly be said of all the musical styles I encountered during my trip. However, a border line has never truly existed on the Silk Road. This is true fusion in its finest sense.

In The Song and Dance of Tears I did not attempt to recreate the scenes and music I heard during the trip. Rather, the work serves as an evocation of the impression and emotions that stayed with me deeply. The tune I constructed for the last section of the work, Tears, was based on materials of several folk songs I heard during the trip. One of them was titled Tears, in which an old man laments his lost youth.

Notes on Sheng and Pipa

The Sheng, a Chinese mouth organ, is arguably the ancestor of all reed instruments, including the Western organ and accordion. We now have evidence of the Chinese culture having played this instrument for at least twenty-five hundred years. The sound of this wind instrument is produced by either exhaling or inhaling through the mouth-piece while the fingers blocking the small openings of each bamboo pipes to generate air flow.

The history of the pipa, a plucked instrument of the lute family (whose invention has been attributed to the Babylonian civilization that flourished during the third millennium B.C.), is a typical example of how different cultures flirted and integrated with each other. When the pipa was first brought into China through the Silk Road over two thousand years ago, it resembled and sounded very much like the present-day lute, with a curved neck held horizontally and played with a plectrum. Throughout years, the Chinese have truly assimilated the instrument into one of its own—it is now performed vertically with finger nails and the instrument has changed extensively in its range of expression. Like almost all Chinese instruments, it can bend the pitches easily by pulling and pushing the rather loose strings to produce a glissando effect, a feature which comes from the tonal aspect of the Chinese language.

—Bright Sheng