From Old Peking Folklore
Item
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Score title
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From Old Peking Folklore
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Composer
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Chen Yi
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Program note
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"Commissioned by the 'Friends of Today's Music' program of the Music Teacher's Association of California, my violin and piano duet FROM OLD PEKING FOLKLORE was completed in 2009, and premiered by students on July 5th, 2009 at the MTAC convention in Santa Clara, California.
I spent 8 years studying composition in Beijing about 30 years ago. When I went back to visit the city, and toured the newly opened Capital Museum in recent years, I couldn't help smiling when I saw everything in the exhibition that is so familiar to me. It reminded me of the folk music of the area, Jing Yun Da Gu, which is a kind of musical story telling, accompanied by drum (played by the singer), which leads a small Chinese instrumental ensemble (the music is played in the style of the 'speaking' singing).
I used this musical language in the creation of my duet, in which the violin part imitates the fingering, bowing, style, and the spirit of Chinese traditional music and instruments. Combined with the piano accompaniment, my duet sounds like a short story told and sung in the form of the old Jing Yun Da Gu."
--Chen Yi
Chen Yi