Cello Pieces for Alisa

Description

Cello — Mountain Tune's pitch material was drawn from a popular love song among the Han People (the majority people in China) who live in the western part of Inner Mongolia. There are up or down leaps of a perfect fourth sung lyrically in the melody. The cello plays the tune covering a wide range of registers. This movement is generally adapted from the second movement of Chinese Folk Dance Suite (my first violin concerto), and Yangko for violin and two percussionists.Ancient Song's pitch material was drawn from a Shaanxi folk song (in the middle part of China), which is where the Silk Road originated. The cello tone is low and deep, with upward perfect fourths and neighboring microtones moving around the major pitches in the melody, symbolizing the narration style of storytelling in ancient Chinese culture. This movement is loosely adapted from the first movement of Ballad, Dance, and Fantasy (my second cello concerto), and the first movement of Chinese Ancient Dances for clarinet and piano.Spin Dance's inspiration came from the Hu Xuan Dance described in detail by the famous poet Bai Ju-Yi in Tang Dynasty in the poem Hu Xuan Lady. This energetic folk dance has continuous fast spinning gestures, introduced to China from Central Asia. I reproduced the image in my music written vividly for the cello. This is based on the second movement of Chinese Ancient Dances for clarinet and piano. Chen Yi’s third work for unaccompanied cello, CELLO PIECES FOR ALISA uses the cello’s full range and color palette to explore a landscape of folk music across the expanses of Chinese tradition. The suite’s three movements draw freely both from folk music, and from several of Chen Yi’s other works, reimagined for cello virtuoso Alisa Weilerstein.

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