Yellow River Piano Concerto
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The Yellow River Piano Concerto (Traditional Chinese: 黃河協奏曲, Simplified Chinese: 黄河协奏曲, Pinyin: Huáng hé xié zòu qū) is a piano concerto arranged by Yin Chengzong based on the Yellow River Cantata composed by Xian Xinghai. Since its premiere, the concerto has been constantly performed in Chinese communities around the world, and such popularity reveals, to a certain extent, the obsession of Chinese audiences for virtuosic display in the 19th Century romantic concerto genre.
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[edit] Introduction
The German musicologist Carl Dahlhaus once wrote, "The heyday of virtuosity began with Paganini's tours of the European capitals in the early 1830s and ended in September 1847 when Liszt abandoned his career as a pianist." Thus it is not surprising for Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu to remark after listening to the concerto during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). "How could a nation as great as China come up with a composition as such!" The concerto, being a collective composition characteristic of Chinese Socialism, is also ridiculed on the record cover of the recording for the Philadelphia Orchestra (which also published for this album), and said that it was written by various composers including Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Rachmaninov, etc. Yet, the Yellow River Piano Concerto stands aloof with its historical, political and economical significance in 20th century Chinese music history.
[edit] Background
Xian Xinghai wrote his Yellow River Cantata at Yan'an in 1939 and left for Moscow to further his studied in 1941, then under Soviet rule. During his time in Russia, Xian edited and re-orchestrated his work, which was later modified by various musicians as Li Huanzhi, Qu Wei, and Yan Liangkun. These editions aimed at furthering the energy and momentum of the music, and in this light, the rearrangement of the Yellow River Piano Concerto thirty years later is merely a continuation of that same practice.
Though he made an outright comment, Takemitsu may have had other thoughts should he have better understood the historical and political circumstances when this concerto was composed. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Xian Xinghai, together with Nie Er (who wrote the National Anthem called the March of the Volunteers) were regarded by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai as "the people's musicians", and also the most prestigious composers of the PRC. Yet even the Yellow River Cantata was banned from performance during the Cultural Revolution (from 1966-1976); the Central Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra was forbidden to perform any western orchestral pieces, and its professional musicians were left with nothing to do. Under such circumstances, the pianist Yin Chengzong loaded his piano onto a truck and drove it to the Tiananmen Square to accompany Revolutionary songs that were sung at the time. He caught the eye of Jiang Qing, which resulted in the work The Legend of the Red Lantern to be accompanied by the piano and under orders of Jiang, a team of six musicians including Yin Chengzong, Liu Zhuang, Chu Wanghua, Sheng Lihong, Shi Shucheng, and Xu Feixing rearranged the cantata into four-movements, in the form of a piano concerto, namely:
- Prelude: The Song of the Yellow River Boatmen
- Ode To the Yellow River
- The Yellow River In Anger
- Defend the Yellow River
[edit] Summary
[edit] Prelude: The Song of the Yellow River Boatman
"The Song of the Yellow River Boatmen" describes the momentum of the terrifying waves of the Yellow River and uses the rapid chromatic crescendo and long rolls of the timpani and cymbals typical of Eight model plays model operas.
[edit] Ode to the Yellow River
The Original heroic tenor solo melody of the "Ode to the Yellow River" is sung in praise of the history and presence of the Yellow River, signifying the imagined cultural pride of the Chinese. This broad Chinese recitative is supported by the deep and rich timbre of the cello, and is considered as an example of the nationalistic style that has moved many Descendants of Yen & Yellow Emperors.
[edit] The Yellow River in Anger
"The Yellow River in Anger", which originally sung by soprano solo, begins with a dizi solo accompanied by the harp. This is obviously inspired by the Jiangnan melody of the Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto, but rewritten in the style of northwest Shanbei folk idioms. In the third movement, the piano brings out the melody taken from the "Ballad of the Yellow Rivers", originally a mellow number sung by female chorus. We then hear the "Lament at the Yellow River" taking over for this movement.
[edit] Defend the Yellow River
As the finale of this piano concerto, theme is arranged into a polyphonic canon. It is also apparent that the tune from The East is Red is persistent throughout the entire movement; among the various versions of the Yellow River Concerto that are currently in circulation, including Yin Chingzong's film recording, we can hear a recapitulation of the theme of "Defending the Yellow River" played canonically against the strings after the climatic tutti of "The East is Red". Then the first phrase of "The East is Red" is played by the trumpet, and tightly followed by the final phrase of the Internationale, as a brilliant example of thematic writing huan wei (literally "Changing the end") that is often found in tranditional Chinese music.
[edit] Orchestration
The concerto is scored for a solo piano and orchestra of piccolo, dizi (Chinese flute), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B-flat), 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, triangle, cymbals (suspended), harp, and strings (violins, violas, cellos, and double basses).
[edit] Importance
This piano concerto and the Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto, which tells the story of the Butterfly Lovers, are two internationally known Chinese works that use Western music methodology but Chinese source materials.
(N.B. The information above is provided by the Programme Schedule of "Bravo! China 2007" by Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; please help us improve this article if there is any discrepancy.)
