Principios psicopedagógicos de la educación

4.1 Introduction

The works described under New Compositions (1) explore in different ways the setting of Chinese texts, as well as different approaches to the concept of music-theatre. These shorter works may be considered preparatory to the composition of my opera Fatal Desire. They all draw inspiration from traditional Chinese styles of vocalization and adopt

principles of musical “translation” and “integration”. Xià Sìchuān (ₚ⥪ぬ) Going Down to Sichuan Province is a “translation” composition of a shāngē (mountain song) from Gansu province. Other compositions Wǎngē (憢㷛) Elegy, Wang, Jiǔ Dé Sòng (握㉆欑) Hymn to the Virtue of Wine with Zuì (搘) Drunkenness – both composition elements integrating from xìqǚ, includingpercussion styles, vocal styles, and other cross-cultural components.

4.2Xià Sichuān (ллഋᐍ) Going Down to Sichuan Province (for vocal ensemble)

4.2.1 Introduction

This is an arrangement of a folksong, which based on the “translation” concept.It was composed for and dedicated to The Song Company, a professional group of vocal soloists based in Sydney, Australia, who visited New Zealand in July 2008 at the invitation of Chamber Music New Zealand. (I had previously worked with the Song Company in 2002, and composed Zuì (䞹) Drunkenness, a short solo for zhēng (21 string Chinese zither), and

Jiǔ Dé Sòng (䞂ᗧ亲) Hymn to the virtue of wine a poem of Liu Ling (c.225-280) for them as part of their Liù Yǐngshì (ޝ䳀༛) Six Hermits project). During their visit the artistic

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director of The Song Company, Roland Peelman, asked me to write an arrangement of a Chinese folksong for their tour to China in May, 2010. The piece needed to be based on a song widely known in China, and so I chose Going to Sichuan Province a shāngē from the central-northern region of Gansu province. It had always been one of my personal

favourite folk songs, and I was thrilled to be involved in a new recording on which to base my arrangement.

In 1998, Jack Body’s opera Alley, based on the life of New Zealander Rewi Alley146, was performed in Asia Pacific festival. He invited Du Yaxiong, a well-known

ethnomusicologist from the China Conservatory, Beijing, who accompanied two authentic folk singers from central-northern Gansu province Yongjing County. The two singers, Li Guizhou and Ji Zhengzhu, appeared as soloists in the production. During their stay in Wellington Jack Body arranged a recording session in the Adam Concert Room at the School of Music at Victoria University, when Li Guizhou and Ji Zhengzhu recorded 23 songs from their repertoire. This recording (recording engineer Roy Carr) was later published by the School of Asian Studies of VUW, accompanying a booklet with an essay by Du Yaxiong with Jack Body, and musical notations transcribed by Mathieu Fraser. English translations of the songs were made by Du Yaxiong. I contributed to this project at a later stage by writing in the Chinese text and the Romanisation (pīnyīn)147into the musical score.

In viewing the notation and listening to Li Guizhou’s unique version on the recording I was fascinated not only by the disjunct intervals of the beautiful melody, and its multi-pentatonic modality, but also by the singer’s unique interpretation, his individual style of vocal ornamentation, and the emotional power of his performance, so characteristic of the highland genre: forceful, wild, stirring yet tinged with melancholy. Moreover, it interested me that this recording had been made in New Zealand.

146

“Rewi Alley (December 2, 1897. Springfield. NZ – December 27, 1987 Beijing, China) is one of New Zealand”s distinguished sons, as well as one of the best-known friends of Chinese people”. See, Rewi Alley,

An Autobiography, third edition Beijing: New World Press, 1997, inside back cover page.

147

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The genre of this song is shàonián. As described by Du Yaxiong in his essay: 148

During summer festival held in villages across parts of Northwest China, the impressive high-pitched sounds of shàonián may be heard. These are court- ship dialogue songs with improvised lyrics. Men and women gather in the mountains, dressed their best clothes, to engage in the singing and to cele- brate the festival with food and with visits to local temples.

Shàonián are unusual in that they are not confined to one particular area or one ethnic group only. They are sung in four different provinces and autonomous regions (Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang) by as many as eight different nationalities (Han, Tibetan, Hui, Salar, Uighur, Dongxiang, Bao’an and Tu). They have become a particularly famous genre of shāngē.149

This recording of Going to Sichuan Province has three verses with a short coda. Here is the text, in Chinese and English:

ॱޛ傜ㄉⲴ˄ଏଏ૾˅лഋᐍ Eighteen posts from here (yo yo ai) to Sichuan

⋑аㄉਛ䱯କ⮉ᙻ None of them attracts me

˄௄ଏଏ˅⋑аㄉਛ䱯କ⮉ᙻ (wo yo yo)Three day”s distance

йㄉ䐟䐿ᡀ˄ଏ௄˅єㄉॺ I pass over in (wo yo) two days

ᗳ⢥⵰ᇦґⲴ㓒⢑ѩ I miss the peony in my homeland

˄௄ଏଏ˅ᗳ⢥⵰ᇦґⲴ㓒⢑ѩ (wo yo yo)I miss the peony in my homeland Ӻњᆀ⢥ᶕ⵰˄ଏଏହ˅᰾њᆀ⴬ੰ I miss you today(yo yo ai) and

tomorrow

ཙཙ⴬ˈཌཌⲴᲊཅ䟼Ỗ㿱˄௄ଏଏ˅ I dream of you every night (wo yo yo) ཌཌⲴᲊཅ䟼Ỗ㿱˄ੳ౯ଏˈੳ౯ଏˈ䱯૸ੰ˅I dream of you every night (ei hei yo,

ei hei yo, a ha ya)

148

Du Yaxiong㧫℩楓 with Jack Body, Shàonián: Courtship Songs from Northwest China– The Singers, the

Songs and the Music, Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington 2000. (Asia Studies Institute Working

Paper 15), p. 1.

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“Generally speaking, musicologists in China classify Chinese folksongs in three categories, according to their performance contexts. The first category is called hàozi (work song), which are sung when people do some form of physical labour, for example, pushing a ship into water, or building a house. The second cate- gory, called shange (mountain song), covers songs which are sung in the field or in the mountains. The third category Xiǎodiào(ditties) comprises all songs not included in the other two categories”. See Du Yaxiong with Jack Body, ibid. p. 1.

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