Far, far away, the cowherd, and bright, sparkling, the weaving maid.
Lifting her dainty hands, weaving with the shuttles.
Yearning for her lover,
She could not concentrate to weave,
Shedding her tears like rain.
The silver river is shallow and clear, when can the two reunite again?
Separated by the limpid river,
Lovingly looking at each other, they couldn't talk and meet...
When US-based Chinese composer Chen Yi tried to recount ancient Chinese myths in the form of a cantata in 1996, she was thinking about more than the myths and the music.
"I look forward to a peaceful future for the world by bringing together people from different cultural backgrounds," she said.
Bringing her 35-minute cantata home to Beijing for the first time this week, Chen hopes that her own people will "enjoy my musical language which is rooted in Chinese culture, while merging techniques and idioms from other cultures," she said.
She has been busy over the past few days rehearsing the cantata with the China National Symphony Orchestra and its chorus for tonight's concert at Beijing Concert Hall.
The concert is devoted to Chen Yi's works, which also include "Kansas Capriccio," "The Golden Flute," and Symphony No 2.
The concert constitutes a major part of the "Dream of China" program designed by the orchestra's new artistic director Tang Muhai for the orchestra's current music season.
Tang's objective is to have both the orchestra members and the Chinese audience exposed to a wide range of the best classical and contemporary music.
Unsure of how her hometown audience will react to her work, Chen stressed that her music is encouraging, energetic, youthful yet sophisticated and imbued with deep emotion.
She said she tried to share her experiences and thoughts with audiences through music.
Liu Yunzhi, the orchestra's concert master, said he fully understands that Chen Yi's music contains a lot of ideas and experiences that she wants to convey to both musicians and the audience. "She is a master of the various techniques and her works are simply expressive," he said.
Ever since the world premier of her cantata entitled "Chinese Myths Cantata" in San Francisco in 1996, Chen Yi has won raving reviews from the critics in the United States and Europe.
A San Francisco critic wrote in a local newspaper: "The musical riches are all there, especially in the choral passages, and in the high relief solos for the pipa (a plucked string instrument with a fretted fingerboard), the erhu (two-stringed Chinese fiddle), and other Chinese instruments.
"The colorful genius of Chen Yi's writing shines through," the critic wrote.
In the United States and in Europe, Chen Yi has been recognized as a distinguished vanguard composer for combining "the typical tonalities of traditional Eastern music and the Western ones," and often with "a touch of humor," as another US-based critic pointed out.
Donna Orbovitz, flute soloist from Hong Kong Philharmonic who was invited to play in Chen's flute concerto, "The Golden Flute," said Chen's works are difficult because she has introduced a lot of different techniques.
"Chen takes all dimensions and put them together really well," said Orbovitz, who was specially invited by Chen to play in Beijing.
"I've cooperated with 30-some flute soloists and Orbovitz is the best (in playing "The Golden Flute")," Chen said.
Obovitz said she loves Chen's work because Chen makes the flute go a step further than many other contemporary composers. "She gives the flute more power so that I am able to express more of myself," Orbovitz said.
Chen is passionate in some works, but she is above all a thinker who ponders upon the interaction of ancient cultures with modern civilization.
"Her music is combinations of great complexity but she has given great logic to it," said Robert Olson, professor of music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the United States, who has traveled all the way from the United States to conduct tonight's concert.
He said although Chen's music is complex, "it's so well-crafted that it creates wonderful colors."
Her orchestration reminds people of Ravel and Mahler and the pace and the shape of her music offer exciting and climax of great power, Olson said.
"Basically I like it and it is just appealing," he said.
The Internet and information technology is making the world a much smaller place.
Pop culture seems to dominate the lives of the younger generations.
Many serious musicians, including Zhou Long, Chen Yi's husband, himself a renowned composer, have expressed fears about the future of classical music.
But Chen said she is not worried about it.
"History allows the arts to grow naturally," she said. "An honest, creative artist should always have a serious attitude in creation, to produce good quality artwork, which is inspiring to other people.
"Music created by serious composers will continue to play an irreplaceable role in reflecting modern society," she said.
"Serious music has had a long tradition and meaningful impact on history," she added. "If we look at it from a different perspective, pop culture is just the result of certain economic activities, which would interact with serious music in the society."
Pop culture is something "that we cannot ignore," she said.
As the world becomes smaller, musicians of different cultural backgrounds are seeking inspiration from other cultures, including a number of Chinese composers since the middle of the 1980s.
"Being influenced by various cultural traditions, we learn the essence from them and merge them together naturally," said Chen Yi, who started formal training in music composition in Beijing in the late 1970s and has continued her studies, research and composition in the United States since 1986.
As the winner of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2001-04), Chen is currently working as an independent composer continuing her exploration of the interaction of different cultures.
"We look for more individual and unique voices in our own musical language by exploring other cultures," she said.
(China Daily 03/02/2001)
