Hua’er Waltzes

Note

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.  These pieces were created as part of a much wider project to try to adapt Ningxia’ hua’er to other media and rekindle interest in an art form that was once an essential part of life but is now under threat from modern technology.

As with the other works in this series, the melodies will all be recognizable to someone from the Hua’er tradition, to the point of being able to sing along. The only real link between the various original songs is that they suit being recast in a 3/4 meter. There are tunes for complaining, tunes for saying how much prettier the girls are in the local metropolis than in the villages, and tunes for being happy to be alive.