Chinoiserie, Jenny Lin perf.

I wish to just add some information to the CD liner notes. The author of the notes, Jacqueline Waeber-Diaz did a fine job giving the background of the pieces. In fact, the CD lists the publishers for the music, enabling one to contact the publishers directly.

Pieces that are based on folk songs:
Percy Grainger, Beautiful Fresh Flower & Anton Arensky, Etude sur un theme chinois
These two pieces are based on "Jasmine Flower" or "Morlihua", a folksong from the Jiangsu province. My paper presented at CMS was based on these two pieces and Puccini's setting of the folk song. You may read the abstract here in the April archives. The Grainger piano score is a little difficult to find. I wrote to the Bardic Edition publishers and received my complimentary score.
The Arensky score is published in "Nineteenth Century European Composers: Unfamiliar Masterworks" by Dover.
Buy 19th-C European Piano Music: Unfamiliar Masterworks

Jacqueline Waeber-Diaz, Improvisation on a Chinese Folk Song
The composer writes that she has based this piece on Ravel's Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit and Jeux d'eau. The piece is distinctly reminiscent of Ravel obviously. The composer neglects to mention the name of the folk song she used as the basis for her work: Kang Ding Love Song. It is a beautiful song with lyrics mentioning horses on a hill or pasture. The score has recently been published and it is available at Theodore Front.

Alexander Tcherepnin, Five Concert Etudes, op. 52
This is a most interesting set of pieces which were composed in the 1930s. Tcherepnin toured China and stayed there for two years and taught composition there. By this time, he was estranged from his wife. In Shanghai, he met a lovely pianist, Li Xian Min, whom he later married. The third piece in this collection is dedicated to her. The last piece, Chant, is dedicated to Louise Tcherepnin, his ex-wife. Some of the pieces are very evocative of two Chinese instruments. guzheng and pipa. He successfully captures the essence of Chinese music and presents very sophisticated settings of pentatonic melodies. A good publication of the score is available here. This edition gives the background information for the pieces.

Abram Chasins, Rush Hour in Hong Kong 
I believe the score is now available through Alfred's Masterwork Edition series. It is published in the collection "Three Chinese Pieces".   

Chinese Piano Music

Dragon Songs, Lang Lang
Already mentioned in another post. Pretty good selection of Chinese pieces.

Chinoiserie, Jenny Lin performer. BIS #1110
This CD is a compilation of Western piano compositions influenced by the Orient. I found the two pieces that I performed on my graduate recital on this CD. Some of the pieces bear more similarities to Chinese music than others. Composers like Arensky, Grainger, Busoni, Cyril Scott, John Adams, Tcherepnin and Rossini are featured. I will discuss what I know about the pieces on other posts. I love this collection of pieces. Buy Chinoiserie CD at Amazon.





Three Chinese Piano Concertos, Eileen Huang. ASV 1031

This CD contains the Yellow River Concerto and the Chinese Youth Piano Concerto. The Chinese Youth Piano Concerto is hilarious.. I can't stop laughing when I listen to it. It is a quite the cliche piece of traditional Chinese orchestra and the piano. The third concerto "The Moon's Reflection of the Second Springs" Abing/Chu Wanghua is not really a concerto but an ensemble of Chinese instruments with the piano. I performed the piano solo version of this piece on my graduate recital. Also found on this CD is the "Autumn Moon Mirrored in the Lake" which was programmed on my senior recital at Southwestern College. Buy Chinese Piano Concertos at Amazon.


 

Ancient & Modern Chinese Music, Eileen Huang. Appassionato #69306
A collection of piano works by 20th century Chinese composers. These pieces are a good sample of the compositional styles and are considered to be famous works. Most of the pieces are suitable for college or advanced pianists. There is a second volume but I have not been able to obtain it. Available here.

Chinese English Worship Songs

Just posted some new resources on Ministry Musings. Enjoy the songs!

Preparing for Summer Camps

Camp Allegro Wichita 2013 and Summer Camp: Group Piano for Kids Oklahoma City, OK are the two events I will be teaching at. Camp Allegro is where I first taught piano ensemble to younger students. I was asked to teach Kinderpiano at the camp in 2011.

The idea of hosting a piano camp for young children ages (5-6 yrs) was birthed after I taught there. It was a new challenge for me. I have taught class piano to college students for many years and individual piano lessons to young children.  I have also worked as a tester for Success for All and had to work with some kindergarteners on English reading. Even with all this experience, I had never attempted teaching piano to young children in a group. I was a little nervous of accepting the assignment but the camp director was confident I could handle it.

My mother runs a private kindergarten next to my home in Malaysia. She has 250 students ages 4-6 daily. I have observed her and her teaching staff for most of my life. She started the business when I was a toddler. There have been a few times when I have taught some singing there. Armed with these experiences and observations, I tackled the challenge of Kinderpiano. I knew I would have 2 classes of about 8 students each  so I insisted on an assistant. :)

At the end of the camp, the students would also present in a concert. We started off the week with some singing and playing with music alphabet blocks. We learned a few songs by rote and we played together with a CD accompaniment. Children love making sounds on the piano, more aptly described as "banging very loudly" on the keys, so we had one particular piece that allowed them to do just that.

We did have a student who cried every morning but that is to be expected. As the class went on with the activities, he later joined in. By Friday, he was good and looked forward to class.

Since then, I have collected a lot more materials and game ideas for my studio. Looks like the animals on my piano are also ready to go on an adventure. I look forward to bringing this syllabus to the Oklahoma City area with my friend and colleague, Miss Vivi Vivi.

Camp Allegro Wichita 2013

Camp Allegro Wichita 2013
I will be returning to Camp Allegro for my 5th year as piano ensemble and music theory teacher. I look forward to an amazing time with my Kansas colleagues and teaching at this camp! This year's camp will be held at the Independent School at 8317 E. Douglas.

Camp Allegro fills up very quickly so mail your applications as soon as possible. Financial assistance is also available. Check out their website for more information.

Excerpt from Camp Allegro's website:

"Our summer session brings some new and exciting changes for Camp Allegro Wichita.  This summer, we will have TWO guest artists-in-residence: Hal Grossman, violin professor at University of Oklahoma, will return this summer to work with our advanced string players; and Wesley DeSpain, director of orchestra at Derby High School, director of the Delano Chamber Orchestra, and Friends University professor, will coach woodwind and brass ensembles, lead masterclasses and teach private lessons to our advanced wind players."