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Xiaoyong Chen - Qian & Yan
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WWE 1CD 20449
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Xiaoyong Chen
Qian & Yan

01
Wasserzeichen (2009/15) 16:41 Share
02
Yang Shen (2002) 14:23 Share
03
DUI and HUA (2018) 17:00 Share
04
Speechlessness, Clearness and Ease (2004) 09:25 Share
05
Qian & Yan (2008/10) 11:29 Share
Total Time 01:08:58
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Editor’s Note

In his music, Xiaoyong Chen likes to strike a constant balancing act between his origins in Beijing and Hamburg, which he has made his home, where he studied with György Ligeti, and where he has been teaching composition and intercultural mediation since 2013. His compositions are, in a manner of speaking, “west- eastern travelling parties”: To the classical inventory of European instruments, he introduces the sounds of Chinese instruments that have several thousands of years of history to them. Among those are the sheng, a mouth organ, the guzheng, a plucked zither, the pipá, the four-stringed “Chinese lute”, and the yangqin (similar to a Western dulcimer). Chen brings the occasionally resulting sharp cultural dif- ferences, the seemingly incongruent musical material, and his understanding of music all together in a melting pot. From all of this, he creates fascinating and ever-new, original, serious concoctions. As part of this process, Chen asks: “Will the art of the future be based on tradition?”, only to add, matter-of-factly: “If so, why?”
Line-Up

Christoph Maria Wagner, conductor
Julia Henning, soprano (track 2)

E-MEX Ensemble

Evelin Degen, flute
Joachim Striepens, clarinet
Rike Huy, trumpet
Christopher Weddle, french horn
Bruce Collings, trombone
Kalina Kolarova, violin
Konrad von Coelln, viola
Burkart Zeller, violoncello
John Eckhardt, double bass
Petteri Waris, accordion
Michael Pattmann, percussion
Martin von der Heydt, piano

CHAI FOUND MUSIC WORKSHOP
WU Chung-Hsien, di
HUANG Lung-Yi, sheng
LIN Hui-Kuan, pipa
YEH Jiuan-Reng, zheng
TU Ming-Hui, ruan
HUANG Chen-Ming, erhu
LI Tsai-Ling, yangqin
CHEN Wen-Ting, chinese percussion

The composition DUI and HUA has been commissioned by the E-MEX Ensemble, with finan- cial support from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
First Listener’s Note

By Georg Beck “What is Chinese music? What does the future of Chinese music look like? Will the artwork of the future be based on tradition? If so, why?” Questions that might stem from a philosophical treatise, an essay, or a paper about the state of the arts. Then again, it lacks the polite detachment that is usually inherent to such types of texts. This question seems to be more about the potential of art and what art can be; what art or artists dare to be – and less about the ac- tual state of the arts. You can tell the difference in the insistent tone in which a topic – “What is Chinese music?” – triggers a cascade of questions, hurled at the reader in a staccato call of inquiries, culminating in a single question mark after “If so, why?”

You get the feeling that this isn’t a philosopher writing. At least not someone who is primarily a philosopher. (never say never!) The person tackling these questions about Chinese music and about the art of the future is, in this case, a composer. A Chinese composer – who resides in Hamburg, Germany. Xiaoyong Chen is a professor for composition and intercultural mediation at the Ham- burg University of Music and Theatre. We glean from this that migration and globalization are more than just the backdrop to an immigration story. Further: Unlike those migrants who are willing to melt into the culture of their host country – or who, at any rate, do not have a decided problem with this change of cultural clothing – Xiaoyong Chen holds on close to the cultural and arts cosmos that is China. One might even say that through his migration, this cosmos had morphed from eternal background to living foreground.

After studying composition in Beijing from 1980 until 1985, Xiaoyong Chen spent four more years in a postgraduate course with György Ligeti in Hamburg. This leg of his journey, from East to West, corresponds to a journey back, from West to East – as of yet untaken. A choreographed balancing act between cultures that defines the milieu of the biography of Xiaoyong Chen, the residues of which we find throughout all his music, most prominently in the instrumentally diverse makeup of his compositions for ensemble. [...]
About
© Martin Gendig

Xiaoyong Chen, (b. 1955) is a Hamburg-based composer whose eclectic oeuvre has been praised by the NDR as being a “bridge between the Chinese art world and the European avant-garde” and by the Züricher Oberländer as being a “delicate and sensitive ... filigree of tones and colors.” Chen’s works have been commissioned and performed by the majority of the world’s most renowned music festivals, including the Holland Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Festival Présences, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festi- val, Warsaw Autumn, Munich Biennale, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival etc. His international career has led to close collaborations with the SWF Sinfonie- orchester Baden-Baden, KBS Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Arditti Quartet, Auryn-Quarett etc. Recent highlights of Chen’s career include a portrait CD by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, a portrait concert by the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg. As an educator, Chen is a professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and has accepted various professorships at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing. After studying composition at the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing, Chen stud- ied at the Hamburg HfMT with György Ligeti (1985–1989) maintaining a close friendship with him until his death in 2006. Chen’s works are exclusively pub- lished by the Internationale Sikorski Musikverlage, and in 2005, Chen became a member of the Hamburg Free Academy of Arts.
Further Information

Qian & Yan at Deutschlandfunk
www.e-mex.de
www.cfmw.com.tw/en-us
www.christophmariawagner.de

1CD

PRIME colors Edition

Contemporary

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