About this work:
Chen Yi
Children’s Suite for orchestra (2024)
Co-Commissioned by the Kayden Music Commissioning Program at Juilliard Pre-College and Interlochen Center for the Arts in 2024, my Children’s Suite for full orchestra has three movements:
1. Antiphony; 2. Northern Tune; and 3. Southern Dance. The duration is about 9 minutes.
The music in the first movement Antiphony is inspired by a Chinese children’s folk song Guessing oriented in Yunnan province, in which a dialogue with question and answer is in a humorous mood.
The simple and sunny opening is given by a solo trumpet and the brass section, which brings out the following variations presented by all different sections in the orchestra, woodwinds, strings, and percussion respectively, and culminated by a celebrative tutti at the end.
In Chinese traditional theatre, there are standard forms and structures in music, which have principles with proportional rhythmic variation patterns. Inspired by the variation method, my movement is from slow to fast (Andante-Moderation-Presto), with meter changes (from 4/4/beat, ¾ beat to 2/4 beat). The music starts lyrically with sweet melodic lines woven in layers, continues lively with staccato notes, and ends energetically with marcato notes articulated. The pitch material of the second movement Northern Tune is drawn from folk music in northern China, which is introduced in the beginning and concluded with a strong bold line in union. The 2nd movement features the string section in the orchestra.
The third movement Southern Dance is inspired by the village Bamboo Dance in southern China. The aged old folk dance is for ritual ceremony and harvest celebration in the history, in which there are pairs of people holding the ends of the long bamboo rods and clapping them loudly in stable pulse, for groups of dancers to dance between the bamboo shapes on the floor, in musical rhythms and ensemble patterns. The pitch material of the piece (a descending seventh) is drawn from a folksong of Li People in Hainan Island where the Bamboo Dance is popular. The music reflects the vivid image of the scene in which people dancing with hand over hand crossings. The articulations and dynamic switches on the notes are important in this movement. The high spirit holds up an exciting finale of the whole suite.
Instrumentation:
2 Flutes, Piccolo, 2 Oboes, English Horn in F, 2 Clarinets in B-flat, Bass Clarinet in B-flat, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon; 4 French Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba; 4 Timpani, 3 Percussionists (I. Snare Drum and 3 Woodblocks; II. Suspended Cymbal, Small Cowbell and High Triangle; III. Bass Drum); Harp; Strings.