User:Tinawen/Chen Yi

Chen Yi (Photo: Kuandi Photos)

Life and Career

Chen Yi was born on April 4, 1953, in Guangzhou, China. She started learning piano and violin when she was three years old. This definitely gave her an early start in her music journey. She received both her BA and MA degrees from Beijing Central Conservatory. She received her DMA from Columbia University in New York. Her academic background from both the Chinese and Western worlds provided her a firm base to write music that bridge between the two worlds.

Chen Yi was the first woman who received her master’s degree in composition in China, in June, 1986. She was also the first woman to present a multimedia orchestral concert in the US in May, 1996. The piece that was performed was Chinese Myths Santana.

Instruments in Qi

Chen Yi’s Qi was written in 1997. It is a mixed quartet for flute, cello, percussion, and piano. This outstanding piece incorporated traditional Chinese music instruments and culture into the Western background. Because of this, the piece Qi is very popular among both Westerners and Chinese.

Meaning of Qi

Qi, more often known as Chi, has two parts, Yin and Yang. The two parts have to be balanced well for one to live. Qi is also the spirit in human’s mind. It is untouchable, mysterious, but strong and powerful. It lasts forever, and has eternal power. Chen Yi described it as “it’s like the space in Chinese paintings, it’s filled into the dancing lines in Chinese calligraphy”.

Beginning of Qi

The piece begins very calmly. It starts with the cello playing the theme music in measure 1, which is shown in the figure below.

Then the flute comes in, and also plays the theme music in measure 13. The score is shown below:

There is also this mysterious figure in measure 9 played by the piano. It sounds untouchable, unstable, and uncontrollable. This figure is repeated several times throughout the piece, creating a magical effect. The score is shown below:

Flourish

SF Chronicle commented the piece as “feathery flourish[ed] by the flute”. The “flourish” is done in measure 6 by the maracas and flute. The flute plays a bunch of notes that have a trend of raising pitches, and then the maracas comes it, creating a call and response pattern. The score is shown below:

The same style is repeated from measure 62 to 70.

Structure

The piece started out very calm. Later the tension builds up by means of many instruments. The tension starts to build up from the bang in measure 23. The bang kind of tells the listener that something is about to happen. In measure 23 and a half, the cello starts to play by doubling every 16th note, creating a scrubbing sound. A new figure appears in the flute, and a new rhythm starts in piano. The piano keeps playing the same rhythm, but goes really loudly every now and then. It sounds as if the piano has turned to be an evil figure that jumps out and shows its evil face once in a while. The Chinese cymbals also come in with muffed sound first in measure 26. They start with a pretty steady rhythm, and every now and then, they change their rhythm slightly. Later in measure 36, the Chinese cymbals start to play with open cymbal sound. It sounds as if the spirit eventually comes out freely, and it is about to do something. At the same time as the cymbals are playing in the background, the theme of the piece is repeated. This time, instead of being played by cello or flute alone, cello and flute are playing in unison. This is the development of the opening motif. This time, it sounds stronger. All the tension builds up and we know something is about to happen. Tension continues to build up, and around measure 47, the music turns chaotic and messy. The sound keeps going, until in measure 62 it completely disappears, replaced by silence, after all the tension that was built up. After a long rest, the theme comes back, and tension starts to build again. Having the sound coming and going multiple times reflects the fact that Qi is unstable and eternal. Another thing is that there is no finality in this piece. The last note can perfectly be followed by a rest, and the piece can go on and on. In fact, the piece is meant to go on and on, signifying the eternal Qi.

Bridge between Western and Chinese music

Chen Yi’s Qi is unique in the sense that she built a bridge between Chinese music and Western music. She incorporated Chinese music smoothly by having Chinese music instruments in the piece as well as Chinese music ideas in the piece. For example, in measure 2, the cellos are playing slides. The score is shown below:

Cellos are not traditionally played this way. By having cellos playing slides, it makes the sound that sounds incredibly like the traditional Chinese music instrument, Er-hu, which is a Chinese violin with two strings. Er-hu is played using a lot of slides, so one can imagine that Chen Yi came up with the cello playing slides idea from Er-hu.

In measure 13 the flute is played with wide vibrato. Flute plays vibrato every now and then, but not so often with wide vibrato. This way it creates the unique sound that sounds like a Chinese flute, which is a flute made of bamboo. The Chinese flute is often played with frequent wide vibrato.

In measure 100, four Beijing opera gongs are used to perform a percussion solo for four measures. The incorporation of this traditional Chinese music instruments adds a special flavor to the music.

The first three notes in measure 17 have an incredible Chinese sounding. The score is shown below. This is because Chen Yi used the Pentatonic scale, which is widely used in Chinese folk music. A pentatonic scale has 5 pitches, instead of 7. The five pitches are scale degree 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. The scale omits scale degree 4 and 7, and thus well identifiable. The first three notes in measure 17 are F#, B and G#. If we put them in E major, then they are in scale degree 2, 5, and 8. On top of using the pentatonic scale, she also had the cello playing with slides. This is why these three notes stand out so much as Chinese sounding.

Summary

Chen Yi’s Qi is agreed to be successfully written by the public. I admire her that she can write a piece of music on such an abstract topic, yet having the clear image of Qi standing so vividly in front of me. Also, the incorporation of Chinese music into Western music is done perfectly. The Chinese component adds a special and foreign flavor to the Western context, reminding the listener that the topic Qi is Chinese and foreign, but the Chinese component mingles so smoothly with the Western background that makes it a perfect master piece.