Zhang Zhao – Melodies of China
Order by Difficulties
- No.6 Mayeela
Mayeela is a typical Kazakh folk song, which is one of the most popular folk tunes in XinJiang Uygur region. The pastoral way of life that Kazakhs lead is reflected in their positive attitude in their folk music. Mayeela is the name of a Kazakh girl, and people said she has a good looking and beautiful voice. The lyrics of this folk song are like her introduction of herself, and reflect her optimistic and energetic personality.
The opening section marked as Vivace, the fire-like tempo indicated the excited mood throughout the whole piece. The introduction contains eight measures of alternate double-notes, which requires a toccata type of touch technique. The melody happened at mm.9, top voice. The melodic line hidden behind the thicker texture here, but the sound from high register can easily be noticed by the performer and audience. The balance between top voice and chordal accompaniment requires a well controlled finger close position approach and flexible wrist.
The melody of this piece comes from the art song Mayeela, laterly be transcribed as piano work. The composer keeps the original melody as the top voice,and the dynamic marks through the phrase represents an excited atmosphere especially at the opening section. Even though the melody is made up of double notes, the performer needs to use a flexible wrist and steady finger tips to emphasize the top note’s legato tone. This is an essential technique for intermediate-level students since it can help them get ready for certain large scale pieces such as Chopin, Schumann, or Brahms compositions where the melody is constantly hidden by the chordal phrase or multiple voices are intertwined throughout the piece.
2. No.7 Flowing Stream, Arrangement by Zhang Zhao
Flowing Stream is a typical Shan Ge from YunNan Province of southwest plateau style. This folk song is originally from Midu city in Yunnan. This song is about love, and the lyrics depict a girl’s unending love to her beloved who is far away. The rhythm is extended and free, and the melody has a distinct style. As one of the most well-known Chinese folk songs, it has arrangements as instrumental pieces, music ensemble pieces, or art songs with different styles. It is more acceptable to compare this love song to large works from the romantic period that have a related theme and poetic style. Such as Liszt Sonetto 123 del Petrarca or Schubert licht und liebe. I highly suggest that all the performers need to listen to the vocal version of this piece ahead. It will be helpful for them to represent the lyrical sound with sensitive emotional changes within the phrase.
This piece can be divided as two sections, the same melodic line repeating as high octave as section section, and the switching of accompaniment pattern brings out different layers and musical style. The most remarkable arrangement of this piece is harmony. The composer placed several dissonant harmonies, which increased mystery and exotic features.
For technique training, the composer wisely placed several pedal notes for harmony progression such as mm.15-17. This accompanying pattern incorporates the simple texture of the melody, which requires a good control of sound balance with independent fingers and flexible wrist.
Piano suite: Paintings of Sichuan by HuWei Huang （1958）
Paintings of Sichuan is one of the most popular piano suites of Chinese contemporary pieces. The composer draws inspiration from the breathtaking scenery in Sichuan, his hometown. Each section highlights important regional cultural characteristics. The Han and Tibetan populations are the most numerous in Sichuan Province. Huang Huwei’s inspiration for this suite came from the folk music of these two ethnic groups. The suite contains six movements, all of which are based on Sichuan folk tunes. The six folk songs in the suite were all renamed with new titles to more adequately describe the landscapes of Sichuan and the people’s lifestyles. Some of these pieces were collected into the repertoire list of the China musicians association Piano level examination and China central music conservatory music level examination.
No.1 Morning Song
Morning song is the first movement of this piano suite, the melody is adapted from the folk tune Mowing song. Huang added ornamentation notes at higher register to describe the grass was covered with beads of dew clung. This short piece can be simply divided as two sections. After the opening section depicts the beautiful melody from mm.1-4, the similar phrase recalling the opening section at higher octave range from mm.5-9.
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