CD Release- Chinese Fantasies
A newly released CD recroding ” Chinese Fantasies” on Blue Griffin Recording, now is available on iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play, Deezer and Spotify. This album features music from Chinese and American composers including two world premier recordings. This project is generously supported by the Central Michigan University Faculty Research and Creative Endevors Grant.
Artists:
Fangye Sun, violin
Casey Robards, piano
XiaoXue Sun, piano
Daniel Tressel, cello
YouTube streaming channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zP0hDVmpM&list=OLAK5uy_niy8Exjmb_2gFXowszz09hICWiTL_h3nM
“Chinese Fantasies”:
Past, Present, and Future of Chinese Violin Music
Works by Bright Sheng, Gang Chen, Huwei Huang,
Qingxiang Zhang, and Daniel Tressel
About the Project and the Music
This recording is inspired by the Chinese folk tunes from my childhood memories. The variety and beauty of these folk tunes sketch the history, regions, landmarks, as well as the unique culture of the minority ethnic groups of China. Communicated through the musical languages of renowned Chinese composers, this recording provides a kaleidoscopic view of the heritage of traditional Chinese folk tunes and its evolution through the 20th- and 21st-century musical literature.
Gang Chen’s Morning of Miao Mountain and Huwei Huang’s E’mei Mountain Moon Song represent gems of the violin works in the second half of the 20th century through a realistic and poetic musical language. It embraces the characteristic features of past Chinese violin music. This world premiere recording of Jade Gate Fantasy for violin, cello, and piano, a pioneer work written in 1984 by Qingxiang Zhang, illuminates the emerging face of integrating Chinese folk elements into a standard Western chamber ensemble.
I first encountered Bright Sheng’s violin music in 2006. The prevailing beauty of the unique timbres in his writing inspired me to explore his violin repertoire. Sheng’s music is powerful, dynamic, and liquescent. His use of pentatonic modes in a polytonal context, extremely high passages on the violin, powerful pizzicato, legato col legno, and the muted violin timbre to imitate the Peking Opera fiddle and horsehead fiddle, portray a marriage of the complex feelings of the ancient Chinese folk tunes with a modern image. Sheng’s music carries the essence of a thousand years of Chinese folk elements and introduces it into a new era.
A newly commissioned work, Air for Solo Violin, was inspired by folk tunes recorded by the composer, Daniel Tressel, from the remote villages of the Dong and Miao people in China. This composition embraces Chinese folk elements and allows them to blossom, exhibiting a stimulating multi-cultural musical creation for the 21st century. It is my privilege to exemplify the beauty of the past, present, and future of the Chinese folk music that has prospered in the violin works of these Chinese and American composers.
I am grateful for the tremendous support of the Central Michigan University Faculty Research and Creative Endeavors Grant and thankful to all the remarkable collaborating artists that made this project possible.
-Fangye Sun