PRELUDE AND FUGUE
Chen Yi
About this work:
Commissioned by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with generous funding from Music Alive Extended Residencies Award program granted by the Meet The Composer/League of American Orchestras, my work Prelude and Fugue for chamber orchestra is scored for 2 flutes (doubling piccolos), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B-flat), 2 bassoons, 2 French horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in B-flat), 1 percussionist (triangle, 4 Beijing Opera gongs, 2 bongos, high suspended cymbal, a pair of small Chinese cymbals, a set of crotales, high woodblock, snare drum, tom-tom, bass drum, tam-tam), piano, and strings (6, 6, 4, 4, 2). The pitch materials came from Chinese folk Cantonese Music. I was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China where the Cantonese Music is originated. It's natural for me to speak in my native tongue in my music. The motives are drawn from Summer Thunder, Prancing Horses, and Racing the Dragon Boat, all of which are popular folk tunes. The Prelude serves as the introduction of all pitch materials, the music is happy, energetic and celebrating, with a quiet middle section featuring harmonics and lyrical counterpoint in the strings as a contrast; the Fugue is in delicate and sensitive expression, with the same pitch materials woven in orchestral textures, in the mood of nostalgia. The work is premiered by the SPCO, conducted by Pablo Heras Casado, on 4/30/09 at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, in Apple Valley, MN.
Version: Chamber orchestra
Year composed: 2009
Duration: 00:21:00
Ensemble type: Orchestra:Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: 2(Picc)222 2200, Pn, P, Str