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Music

Vegetable Picking Song

1997 – for choir
Ensemble
Choir acapella: SSAATTBB
Duration
2:00
Commissioned by/Premier
Premiered by Baroque Chamber Chorus of Beijing, conducted by Nicholas Michael Smith, Beijing Concert Hall, 1997

Recorded by Beijing International Festival Chorus, conducted by Nicholas Michael
Published by JC Link

Note

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.  I never forgot it, and some years later, after I moved to Beijing, I made an arrangement for a choir I was working with at the time. The words end with a tongue twister rapid-fire list of common Chinese vegetables; just the thing to learn if you want to be confident in a Chinese restaurant. I guess precisely because this folksong is so colourful, it is claimed by three different Chinese provinces: Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou.