Music

This work was written as part of a set of pieces requested by the Ningxia Culture Bureau to explore the idea of using hua’er, the traditional folksongs of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as material for symphonic works. 

This work was written as part of a set of pieces requested by the Ningxia Culture Bureau to explore the idea of using hua’er, the traditional folksongs of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as material for symphonic works.

I was privileged to conduct the Beijing Municipal Youth Palace Wind Band for over a decade, when the Youth Palace still occupied the imperial courtyards on the north side of Jingshan Park.

This work was suggested by Zhang Mingyu, who at that time was the head of Changchun’s local television and radio stations.

This work is adapted from the children’s story of the same name by author Hong Ying. I have always felt that the Peter of Peter and the Wolf fame is rather lonely and needs a companion, so when Hong Ying approached me to write music for her story, I jumped at the chance.

This is a very simple setting of the short version of the mass texts.  It is designed for three-part choir accompanied only by organ pedal notes.

The text of this work is taken from Psalm 31.  I wanted to extend some of the ideas for writing for a chapel space that I had tried out with the organ piece Maluccio, and this piece was the result.

In 1994 I was working at Wuhan Conservatory of Music, where I got to know some of the composition students. This particular folk song was sung to me by one of the students after several beers at one of our regular gatherings.

This arrangement was written on a train.  I’d been itching to arrange another folksong, and after browsing through many, this one somehow stuck in my head.

The words for this song were written by Wendy Wu, an old student of mine who has settled in the UK. She was visiting China after a long time away, and this poem was her reaction to her experiences of the new high speed trains.

These are settings of two Robert Frost poems: Come In and The Freedom Of The Moon.  I am attracted to Frost’s poetry because it gives so much space for the reader or listener to breath.

I am a big fan of Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes, and after having curated many performances of these versatile pieces in Beijing, I thought it would be fun to create something along the same lines in Chinese

I wrote this piece to exploit the possibilities afforded by certain combinations of stops on the chapel organ as it was in 1990.  Everyone was always complaining that the organ was falling to pieces.

These are exactly what it says on the package.  Four extremely short duets, which are actually just one luscious phrase, presented in the first movement.

I got to know Morris Sebastianutto while I was working with Dunshan Symphonic Wind Orchestra.  His wife’s China visa had been delayed for many months due to some administrative snafu, and he was missing her intensely.

I wrote these pieces when Beijing’s Covid lockdowns started in earnest.  At the beginning, my wife’s piano students were delighted that their weekly piano lessons were cancelled, but their glee at a perceived holiday from everything quickly turned to the misery of isolation at home.

Ever since I first heard the Yellow River Cantata performed live, I’ve been interested in Xian Xinghai. I managed to find his complete works, and discovered a whole universe of neglected music in those folios.