Voice of the Pipa

1. Sai shang qu (On the Great Wall), suite
Composed by Chinese Traditional
with Ting Jiang

2. Su (Pleading), for pipa (after Bai Juyi's poem Ballad of Pipa)
Composed by Houyuan Wu
with Ting Jiang

3. The Spirit of Calligraphy (Dien), for pipa
Composed by Yi Chen
with Ting Jiang

4. Caprice, for pipa (Xiang)
Composed by Ting Jiang
with Ting Jiang

5. Ba Wang Xie Jia (The Last Hero's Ballad)
Composed by Chinese Traditional
with Ting Jiang

6. Green Waist Dance Music (Lü Yao)
Composed by Jieming Yang
with Ting Jiang

Voice of the Pipa,Yi Chen,Ting Jiang,Chinese Traditional,Houyuan Wu,Jieming Yang,M.a. Recordings,China / Japan / Korea,Int'l & World Music,Miscellaneous,Miscellaneous Music,Pop,World Beat,World Music

Zhou Long: The Book of Songs
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Zhou Long: The Book of Songs

Manufacturer: Cala
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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Sheng: Orchestral Works
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Great Introduction to a Chinese Classical Composer

Sheng: Orchestral Works
Sheng , Gondek , Qiang , Wong , and Hong Kong Po
Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Sheng, Bright | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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The Music Of Chen Yi

H'un (lacerations)/Stream Flow

Bright Sheng: China Dreams; Flute Moon; Postcards

Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3; Paganini Variations; Paroles Tissées; Les Espaces du Sommeil

George Crumb: Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death

ASIN: B00008IHVY
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Tracks:

Prelude
Fanfare
The Stream Flows
The Three Gorges Of The Long River
Chai Tou Feng
Sheng Sheng Man
Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody For Orchestra And Pipa

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction to a Chinese Classical Composer.......2003-04-26

A few years ago, if someone had put a gun to my head and demanded that I name two Chinese composers quickly, well, let's just say I wouldn't be reviewing right now. Then along came Tan Dun and Bright Sheng and the atmosphere for Chinese composers became much brighter. Dun is perhaps the more traditionally Chinese...often his music seems more like a Taoist ceremony than a classical composition, brilliant though some of it is. Bright Sheng however, is more immediately attractive and understandable to westernized ears. But no less enjoyable!

Sheng is sort of a Chinese version of a neo-romantic. The three works on this disc are all for large orchestra. All of the hallmarks of the younger generation of neo-romantics are there, infectious rhythm, dazzling orchestration, expansive statements, a dissonant harmonic language that borrows equally from Bartok and Stravinsky with occasional hints of even wilder influences such as Varese. Grafted onto this is a melodic idiom taken from Chinese sources and you have a vibrant, muscular but pleasing music indeed.

The first work on the album is China Dreams. The genesis of this work was in a number of different commissions that the composer recieved over the years 1992-95. The work is brilliantly scored and is a lot of fun to listen to. Though in passages it is quite dissonant, it is always tonal and extremely lyrical or rhythmic. The work does have the feeling of an occasional work though...in some ways it sounds like four separate overtures collected together in one piece. Given the style of commissioning in major American orchestras currently, this isn't surprising. A composer of Sheng's stature in the 90s would have been more likely to build a career through small "program openers" than through a major work...he's now graduated to the major work stage!

The Two Poems are much more modernist in flavor. The vocal line is definately influenced by Chinese vocal traditions, and you can hear some elements of traditional techniques in the orchestration, but for the most part this sounds like music one would expect from a young Columbia student in the 80s...dissonant, atonal and in many ways quite violent. In this work you can definately hear the influence of Sheng's teachers Chou Wen Chung, and Mario Davidovsky.

The third work is the prize of the CD. Nanking, Nanking is an extremely moving work. It is a personal response to the 1937 Nanking massacre. The work is not light, as it shouldn't be. The idiom is heavy with dissonance and tragedy. The work features a pipa soloist. The pipa is a traditional Chinese lute, very difficult to play. Normally, I find such mixtures of western and eastern instruments gimmicky or at least problematic, but in this work the pipa is beautifully integrated into the texture, neither clashing with, nor subordinating itself to the primarily western idiom of the orchestra.

So this is a great CD to use as an introduction to the composer. As far as I can tell the performances are terrific and the sound is full. Keep in mind, the work of this composer is not New Age (as Tan Dun can sometimes be.) He is modern, studied with arch modernists and still has much of that aesthetic in his work. Nanking particularly is not an easy listen. It is harrowing. But the work will stretch your ears and I believe it is well worth hearing.

Voice of the Pipa
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Authentic

Voice of the Pipa

Manufacturer: M.a. Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Chinese Traditional Pipa Music

ASIN: B00009IB29
Release Date: 2003-06-10

Tracks:

A Bride Beyond The Great Wall
Pleading {From Ballad Of Pipa}
The Spirit Of Calligraphy
Caprice
The Last Hero's Ballad
Green Music

Customer Reviews:

Authentic.......2004-10-24

The Chinese Pipa has a 2,000-year-old history. The modern pipa has four steel strings, tuned A D E A, and 26 frets. It's not unlike a banjo. A key difference, as liner notes explain, "The frets are very deeply cut, allowing for the player to bend notes by depressing the strings, as opposed to bending them sideways as in western guitar performance."

I bought this album because I trust MA Recordings. I had never heard of Jiang Ting, and I've never seen a pipa. But every CD I've bought from Todd Garfinkle has proved extraordinary. He's a man with a passion for sound. He records every performance personally, usually in a church or concert hall. (This CD was recorded in a small church in the mountains outside Lucca, Italy.)

Every MA project is recorded using custom-designed equipment. That's a measure of Garfinkle's devotion to sound. Existing equipment wasn't good enough, so he built his own. Think about that: He built his own microphones. This is a guy who's serious about his craft.

This isn't a New Age recording. You can imagine some Los Angeles producer saying, "Let's take an exotic instrument and some ethnic scales, and we'll produce some pretty Asian music for PBS." That isn't the case here. Jiang Ting was born in Mongolia, and began learning pipa at age seven, from her mother. She graduated from Central State Conservatory in Beijing, and won first prize in a national pipa contest. Today she lives in Japan, where she performs with various orchestras throughout the country.

Most of the pieces are Chinese works, including two ancient traditionals and a few modern Chinese compositions. There's also an improvisation, where "Jiang Ting holds her pipa and just plays what crosses her mind naturally." Sometimes soft and lulling, sometimes fierce and provocative -- the best word to describe this music is "authentic."

This is real, genuine Chinese music. It isn't watered-down, and it hasn't been Americanized. It's a glimpse into another culture. And thanks to Jiang Ting's skill and Todd Garfinkle's expertise, this glimpse is clear and unobstructed. Listening to this CD, it's easy to close your eyes and imagine you're sitting in Beijing Concert Hall. It's worth a standing ovation.