Program for 2004 U.S.A. Tour
Chapin Rainbow Stage, Heckscher Park, Huntington Village, Long Island
39th Huntington Summer Arts Festival
Friday, August 13, 2004 at 8:30pm
Yiu-kwong Chung Drumming No.5 for Six Percussionists (15’)
Chien-Hui Hung Moving Moonlight (4’30”)
Gong-Drum Music from Tu Jia tribe The Romping Golden Pheasants (4’)
arr. by Tian Longxin/ Li Zhenqui
Toshimitu Tanaka Persona (11’)
Aurél Holló José-beFORe JOHN5 (5’)
Hong-Chi Ho Dancing Rhythm (5’)
Masahiko Saeki Shiny Days (8’)
Program Notes
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Drumming No.5 for Six Percussionists
by Yiu-kwong Chung
This 15-minute piece for six percussionists was commissioned by the Ju Percussion Foundation in 2000. Employing a unique I-Ching Compositional System (ICCS), the composer brings out the Yang element (the animal drum-head sound and instruments with indefinite pitch) and Yin element (the plastic drum-head sound and instruments with definite pitch) at the outset of the piece.
The composition consists of 64 sections, illustrating the complete interaction stages of Yin and Yang elements as represented by the structures of the 64 hexagrams. Two new elements, the human voice and the wooden sound, as the by-products during the course of Yin-Yang interaction, are introduced in the middle part of the piece.
The six players also represent the six hexagram lines. The changes of their rhythmic structures and instruments are governed by the changes of the hexagram structures during the Yin-Yang interaction. The rhythmic ideas are primarily taken from Ghana drumming and Chinese village festive drumming patterns.
Yiu-kwong Chung’s music, which has won large and enthusiastic audiences all over the world, is distinguished by its profound Chinese philosophical background and expressive range. Chung, currently a professor of the National Taiwan University of the Arts in Taipei, teaches composition and percussion.
Moving Moonlight
Atayal Tribe folk song
Arr. by Chien-Hui Hung
This piece originated from the Atayal Tribe folk song ‘watching the moon’ in Taiwanese aborigines’ songbooks. Because the beauty of rhythm, the composer specially arranged this piece and tended to have it performed with four Marimbas representing soft and wonderful sound, aiming to enrich this piece with exquisiteness and touchiness.
The Romping Golden Pheasants (Gong-Drum Music from Tu Jia Tribe)
Arr. by Tian LongXin / Li Zhengui
This piece is divided into five sections: "The Spring in the Mountain," "Joyful Way Home," "Playing along the Stream," "Encounter with Adversary," and "The Triumph." The Composer vividly depicts Golden Pheasants playing around on their way home from the mountain. The arrangers use the touba cymbal, erba cymbal, and other Chinese percussion instruments to present the complicated rhythm and diverse timbres.
Persona
Toshimitu Tanaka
Written in1984 by one of Japan's great composers, this piece for marimba solo and Japanese Ohtaiko, Persona, was composed in the style of the Gosin Gyotaiko a musical tradition from Nigata County in the Noto Peninsula, in which a number of performer play the taiko simultaneously.
This work creates a dramatic effect through the competition of one group of roto tom-toms (marimba plays a leading role) tuned to 12 different pitches with another group of masked taiko drummers playing and shouting spontaneously.
Composing Persona marked the culmination of six years of field research on Japanese folklore by Mr. Toshimitu Tanaka.
José-beFORe JOHN 5
Aurél Holló
The basic idea of José came from the composer’s listening to the recording Oriental Bass by the contrabass-player Renaud Garcia-Fons. The composer was inspired to present Garcia-Fons’ Spanish style with Arabic and Gipsy effects in an original percussion composition instead of an adaptation.
Besides Garcia-Fons’s recording, the composer also used a theme by Paco de Lucia. Marimba has the lead through in this short but stylish piece: two players standing face to face play virtuosic complementary motives. Most of these figures are based on the traditional xylophone music of Africa, yet the scale is typically flamenco. These motives are enriched by the other two players who make many interesting and exciting sounds with the Spanish cajon or the favourite instrument of Gipsy folk music, the simple sheet-iron can to name a few.
This piece is dedicated to the composer’s friend, Josep Vicente, artistic leader of the Amsterdam Percussion Group.
Dancing Rhythm
Hong-Chi Ho
Any object can be a form of percussion instrument as long as sounds are created through beating and hitting. For example, “Human body” is actually an excellent percussion instrument. We can use mouths, hands, feet and other parts of bodies to create various sounds easily. Music shows emotions of the sounds, while dancing speaks for the body expressions. In this piece, the performers use striking, clapping, stepping, and padding to create wonderful rhythms and tempos, showing how music flows from human bodies.
Shiny Day Mashiko Saeki
“In a fine and comfortable afternoon , everyone brings along all kinds of musical instruments and prepares for a lively celebration . At this time, only Mr. Sun is looking in the sky, smiling. It is a peaceful afternoon like that .”
The percussion musician Mashiko Saeki , who studied percussion in Japan National Music University , has written down an explanation about this song . The composer tries to express warm atmosphere . Using the deep voice of African drum as the foundation , the composer adds with folk music instruments and modern percussion instruments , such as talking drums , steel drums , balafon ( African Marimba ) . Flourishing with brisk atmosphere , the music also applied with the most instant methods of percussion such as hands , feet , and flutes.
