'Phoenix' Concerto - Structural Influences

As we know, the use of ternary form (compound ternary in this case) is one of the most frequently used structures in music compositions, especially as a means to create contrast (i.e. in terms of tempo, character, or motivic ideas…).

However in this piece, it seemed to have achieved a combination of artistic effect from both the Western and Chinese tradition. Cos I read in some Chinese music text, they have this very conventional structural feature which they termed as “鱼咬尾”, which is found in this piece as well, as far as I can see. For illustrations, see bar 43, which signals the closing of section ‘a’ but the beginning of section ‘b’; bar 67 which is indicates the end of b section but also the beginning of a1. This continues at many junctions where one section leads in to another，thus in a sense contributing to the fluidity and link throughout the piece.


Interestingly we see from here how the composer draws upon features from chinese musical tradition and infuse it within the western formal structure.

short-range voice connections

Hmm.. I see some short-ranged voice leading connections... not sure if there are longer
connections

'Phoenix' Concerto - Motivic “Paradidle”

It’s amazing how the main theme of section B is only based on the ordering of 4 note motif - ‘B’, 2 ‘E’s of different registers and ‘A’. Hence in a sense, it's like ‘paradidle’ in percussion since it essentially uses the various permutation of the 4 notes to actually spun a melody. (Note: I termed it 'paradidle' is because of the piece’s percussive nature and how such motivic ordering may be associated to the paradidle, but of course it is not to be taken literally). Sometimes the introduction of B flat and E flat might possibility be to create surprise or to create some voice leading tendency, to propel the music forward…
See how B flat leads to A in the diagram below:

This melody is always set over a submediant pedal, quite uncommon eh since we often encounter tonic or dominant pedal.. but submediant!

'Phoenix' Concerto - Harmony

This piece contained many dissonances brought about by note clusters, especially in accompaniments or between solo and accompanimental parts. Throughout the piece, the tonal centre is also blurred by the false-relations that exist between different voice parts. So I’m not sure if it makes sense to analyze the chordal progressions in this piece, because it felt like the composer is more concerned with the soundscape produced, rather than using any specific chord progression or the tonality. I think the presence of false relations were due to the linear as opposed to vertical thinking in the harmonic parameter. Throughout section A, the characteristic interval of a major 2nd and minor 7th are the two very predominant intervals used – contributing to the distinctive clashes. For instance in bar 1 – R.H. F# is set against F natural in the L.H. But it seems like there are a couple of underlying reasons for having that F#:

• 
  
  Contribute to the more pentatonic nature of the work – creating a perfect 4th (a very characteristic interval found in Chinese classical music) instead of a tritone with ‘B’


• Due to the anhemitonic scale used, to avoid creating a semitone with note ‘E’ (linear thinking). Because it seems that throughout section A, the composer consciously avoids consecutive semitonal movement within the same voice.


• F# increases the note tendency to go to a G, which finally came at bar 5.

As mentioned above, the composer seemed to avoid successive semitonal movement within the same voice in section A. When chromatic movement is used, there are also notes in between to separate it. (see below for the chromatic voice leading)

I notice that there is abundance of open 5ths and octaves (e.g. bs. 9, 43) apart from 4ths, which would have caused the piece to sound very bare, like The Sunken Cathedral by Debussy. Although both pieces are pentatonic in nature and filled with such open intervals, the atmosphere created is quite different – This concerto (esp. section A) do not sound as hollow as that felt in The Sunken Cathedral and it is interesting that we as listeners do not feel the awkwardness such bareness in this piece. Perhaps it is how the composer managed to ‘mask’ the bare sounding chords through the choice of registers..? Notice how the spacing between L.H. and R.H. were very close together (e.g. b. 117, 338 – R.H. octave is like an ‘echo’ of the L.H.).

Sometimes even though the instruments are playing octaves in unison, for instance at bar 274 – 284, with range that spanned 3 octaves, the texture created is dense, not thin and empty. The spacing of chords, fortissimo and the quick tempo might be some contributing factors.