Event Title
Chinese-inspired Piano Music by Western Composers in 1900-1950
Performer / Ensemble
Tak Yan Yeung (Piano)
Date of Publication
3-26-2021
Document Type
Event
Abstract / Program Notes
In this lecture recital, I will examine the different ways in which European and American composers incorporated their impressions or actual knowledge of Chinese musical style into their piano compositions during the first half of the twentieth century. I will explore the phenomenon of chinoiserie in music, where Western composers evoked their impression of China by using musical devices commonly, and sometimes erroneously, associated with Chinese musical style. Using Abram Chasins’ A Shanghai Tragedy as an example, I will illustrate that such devices included the intervals of fourth and fifth, figurations imitating the timbre of gongs and chimes, modes, and whole-tone scales. These elements, in and of themselves, are not at the heart of the Chinese musical lexicon but, rather, devices composers and audiences came to expect in a faux evocation of the country and its music – rather like bright red lampshades and the smoke of an opium den. I will then explore how Western composers assimilated the style and idioms of genuine Chinese music through the use of pentatonicism as the structurally fundamental language of composition. This is illustrated, along with the unique timbres and idioms of traditional Chinese instruments, in Alexander Tcherepnin’s Homage to China for piano. Lastly, using Bohuslav Martinů’s The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon as an example, I will discuss how a composer might juxtapose genuine Chinese musical style with other styles within a composition to create a work of distinct originality.
Biography
Tak Yan Yeung completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at Texas Christian University and a Master of Music in Piano at Indiana University Bloomington. He was a prizewinner in the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the Redland Bowl Young Artists Competition, and the Music Teachers’ Association of California Solo Competition. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music of the MTNA, Yeung is currently an adjunct faculty at Tarrant County College, serves as organist at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Bedford, Texas, and actively pursues a career in solo and collaborative performance in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Keywords
European and American composers, compositions
Chinese-inspired Piano Music by Western Composers in 1900-1950
In this lecture recital, I will examine the different ways in which European and American composers incorporated their impressions or actual knowledge of Chinese musical style into their piano compositions during the first half of the twentieth century. I will explore the phenomenon of chinoiserie in music, where Western composers evoked their impression of China by using musical devices commonly, and sometimes erroneously, associated with Chinese musical style. Using Abram Chasins’ A Shanghai Tragedy as an example, I will illustrate that such devices included the intervals of fourth and fifth, figurations imitating the timbre of gongs and chimes, modes, and whole-tone scales. These elements, in and of themselves, are not at the heart of the Chinese musical lexicon but, rather, devices composers and audiences came to expect in a faux evocation of the country and its music – rather like bright red lampshades and the smoke of an opium den. I will then explore how Western composers assimilated the style and idioms of genuine Chinese music through the use of pentatonicism as the structurally fundamental language of composition. This is illustrated, along with the unique timbres and idioms of traditional Chinese instruments, in Alexander Tcherepnin’s Homage to China for piano. Lastly, using Bohuslav Martinů’s The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon as an example, I will discuss how a composer might juxtapose genuine Chinese musical style with other styles within a composition to create a work of distinct originality.