Section A: Bars 1 – 213 (0’00 – 5’06)
Section B: Bars 214 – 343 (5’07 – 12’56)
Section A’: Bars 344 – 417 (12’57 – )
Under each of the 3 sections, it can further be classified into smaller segments according to the various melodic ideas as shown below:
(Timings are shown below the melodic fragments)
It is deeply contrasting between section A and section B especially in terms of its mood, tempo and also the thematic material. They sort of represent two extreme atmospheres, the percussive and bold section A with the mysterious sounding or sort of ‘nocturnal’ section B. Section B encompasses 2 emotions: from lyrical/ gentle to fiery and passionate.
Here, the theme is introduced by the piano for the first 8 bars, followed by a repetition of the exact same theme by the yangqin. It is actually quite difficult for yangqin to produce such expressive sounds since it’s often considered a percussive instrument, but it is remarkable how the composer uses the rare 9 single stroke roll technique to give listeners an illusion of ‘a line connected by dots’.
Within each section, the various little melodic fragments unique to that section are constantly brought back, sometimes with modifications and sometimes without. I suppose it is because the melodic fragments in this concerto are neither singable nor could easily be remembered, given its characteristic clashes and dissonant leaps all over especially in the first section. So there is a need to constantly reiterate these ‘points’. Or perhaps it is also something to do with Chinese opera influences? – where each melodic fragment represents a character in the plot..
But generally, I notice that the extent of exploration or development of the melodic fragments is quite little. Most of the time, it is repeated in its original form, which in a sense makes it easy to recognize… Perhaps that’s why the piece is full of rhythmic excitement, and many different melodic ideas to make up for the lack of thematic development.
Here, the theme is introduced by the piano for the first 8 bars, followed by a repetition of the exact same theme by the yangqin. It is actually quite difficult for yangqin to produce such expressive sounds since it’s often considered a percussive instrument, but it is remarkable how the composer uses the rare 9 single stroke roll technique to give listeners an illusion of ‘a line connected by dots’.
Within each section, the various little melodic fragments unique to that section are constantly brought back, sometimes with modifications and sometimes without. I suppose it is because the melodic fragments in this concerto are neither singable nor could easily be remembered, given its characteristic clashes and dissonant leaps all over especially in the first section. So there is a need to constantly reiterate these ‘points’. Or perhaps it is also something to do with Chinese opera influences? – where each melodic fragment represents a character in the plot..
But generally, I notice that the extent of exploration or development of the melodic fragments is quite little. Most of the time, it is repeated in its original form, which in a sense makes it easy to recognize… Perhaps that’s why the piece is full of rhythmic excitement, and many different melodic ideas to make up for the lack of thematic development.
6 comments:
Can you shed some light on how you identified the whole list of themes/motifs from a to g?
a - g are classified them according to various motivic ideas used throughout the piece.. For example my 'a' (bs. 1-36)represents the motivic ideas that were based especially on the interval of a 4th. On its subsequent occurance (indicated by a1-4), these ideas were either altered, developed or compressed.
My 'b' generally refers to the ideas of bs. 48-55 (semitonal voice leading and octave leaps) and their recurrance at bs. 96-116 where it is now played by both the yq and piano parts esp bs.109ff
My 'c' from bs. 117-141 generally refers to the ideas used in linking passages.
'd' denotes the 4 note motif supported by the consistent tonic pedal of the B section that spanned from bs.214-259. This is followed by 'e' (bs.260-273), denoting the motivic ideas of bs. 260-261 (piano part) and the accompanimental idea that were based predominantly on A and E (see yq part).
'f' refers to the unison idea found at bs. 274-284 that serves to propel the music to a climax before the entrance of
'g' denoting the ideas of bs. 285-343 which precedes the reprising of section A. This 'g' quaver idea was first introduced in the yq part at b. 286, which is passed to the piano and then subsequently widened to bigger leaps at b. 303 (yq part).
JR: Just as a matter of curiosity, did you get any help analyzing this piece for this posting and for your other blog entries?
of course not! how I wish help would be made available to me, pointing me to the right direction when I'm stuck at times and wondering if my interpretations were correct and logical.
This piece is so unusual and complex in some sense, not the usual kind of music I'm used to analyzing. Also from our ethnomusicology lesson, I realized that it is not sufficient to just analyze chinese music solely based on our western kind of analysis and disregard other forms of influences.. hence I spent so much time looking at other form of possible influences such as the chinese opera and literature (see my reply regarding the 鱼咬尾 posting). So most of the time, one posting can take me several hourss to sort out... perhaps it may be because i'm still quite weak in analysis i think
so unless you count my seeking confirmation with my yq tutor regarding if my interpretations of the operatic influences are logical and right as help.. I dont really have any other helpful resources to guide me in analyzing this piece
I AM very impressed by your analytical comments on the whole, and particularly with you being able to come up with this form diagram very early in your posting.
What kind of help did your yq tutor give you? Did he/she point you to any books or articles, esp. concerning this piece?
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