Early Spring
Item
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Score title
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Early Spring
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Composer
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Chen Yi
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Program note
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"Early Spring" for mixed choir and chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano) is commissioned by the Department of Music, University of Richmond, for Schola Cantorum and eighth blackbird with support from from the Tucker-Boatright Fund, premiered on April 8, 2011 at the University of Richmond, VA. The text is taken from two poems by the poet Su Dong-po in Song Dynasty, written on the two paintings, Duck Playing, and Wild Geese, drawn by the monk Hui Chong. The lively description of the spring scenes welcomes a new season of the year.
Early Spring
Text taken from two poems by Su Dong-po (1036-1101)
(1) Behind the bamboo, a few sprays of peach-tree grow,
When spring warms the stream, ducks are the first to know.
The shore is covered by weeds, the bamboo sprouts are short,
It' is time for the globefish to show.
(2) Returning wild geese from the flock would break away,
North-going journeyers are reluctant to go away.
Knowing from distance the desert is still under storm,
They would happily stay in the South for half a month more.
Chen Yi