Sheng! L'orgue à bouche - 16th seminar
Color, Birdsongs, and Symmetry - Concertos for Sheng and Orchestra
with Fang Man 方滿 (University of South Carolina)
The solo instrument Sheng is the world’s oldest free-reed mouth organ, with a history of more than 3,000 years. It is a representation of 凤凰 (fenghuang) Phoenix, 和 (he) Harmony, and 笙 (sheng) - 生 life. The idea of this work came from maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen’s initial proposal to pair a piece of mine with Scriabin’s Prometheus. Song of the Flaming Phoenix was composed using inspiration of the symmetric octatonic sets and the color schemes of Prometheus. The Fenghuang, known as the Phoenix, was considered the king of all birds in Chinese mythology. In the latter half of Song of the Flaming Phoenix, with computer-assisted orchestration program Orchidea designed by Dr. Carmine Emanuele Cella (UC-Berkeley), I translated the birdsongs heard in my backyard in South Carolina into seven other mythical birds: Yu (Carolina Chickadee), Changfu (Carolina Wren), Manman (Yellow-Rumped Warbler), Luan (Tufted Titmouse), Lingyao (Northern Cardinal & Summer Tanager), Qiyu (Red-breasted Nuthatch & Northern Mockingbird), and Min (Blue-gray Gnatcatcher). I imagine that the Fenghuang lead her feathered friends from heaven to save humanity from the ongoing disasters. Thanks to the devotion and artistry of Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei, we explored expansive ranges of harmony, timbre as well as rhythmic diversities on this ancient instrument.
Analyse génétique de quelques versions du « Chaoyuan ge »
with François Picard (Sorbonne Université - IReMus)
"Chaoyuan ge" (Court song) from Kunqu song to solo sheng, from Gao Lian (1573) to Yu Zhenfei (1953) via Wang Jinlie (1924), then from Chen Zhong (1960) to Xu Chaoming (1998) via François Picard (1995), and from Xu to Weng Zhenfa (2015).
