b. 1953 || Youtube || ACF Profile
Chen Yi is an Chinese-American composer who currently teaches at University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has won several awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Charles Ives Living Award. Her music has been performed and commissioned all over the world. She has served on many committies and foundation boards to promote new music and is a passionate advocate for Asian minorities and women studying and working in the composition field.
Chen Yi's music is a blend of Chinese and American cultures, philosophies and languages. She speaks towards this amalgamation of the two cultures through her music and advocacy of new music and of Asian women and composers. American Composer's Forum has a quote from her composer page that states this blend of cultures, styles, and philosophy that she strives towards:
"Regarding my compositional style, I believe that language can be translated into music. Since I speak out naturally in my mother tongue, in my music there is Chinese blood, Chinese philosophy and customs. However, music is a universal language, I hope to get the essence of both Eastern and Western cultures and write more works that embody my temperament and spirit in the new society, to improve the understandings between peoples from different cultural backgrounds, for the peace of our new world."
Duo Ye No. 2 is a piece written for orchestra and Traditional Chinese Instruments. In this piece she imploys close knit harmonies, rhythmic interest, and almost Copeland-like melodic lines. In terms of texture, thform for this piece is ABA. The beginning uses the orchestra to it's full sound, until around 2:30. Here she pairs back the number of instruments playing at one time, and uses long melodic lines instead of the short rhythmic bursts of energy that can be heard in the beginning and the end of piece. Around 4:25 she slowly adds more rhythmic bursts along with more instruments, alluding to the former and signifying what is to come. She barrels towards the end of the piece with motives and phrases like the beginning but leaves the audience stunned while "switching textures" between her full orchestral sound and chamber-like sound quite abruptly.
Duo Ye No. 2
Weaving Maid and Cowherd (not to be confused with Song of Weaving Maid and Cowherd) is a piece written for orchestra and Traditional Chinese Instruments. The piece starts with the plucking of a tradition Chinese Instrument accompanied by some chimes. The piece continues to play with one or several melodies weaving in and out of the foreground as other instruments make up the background of the piece. Her "blending" of Chinese and American styles is very clear and it is beautiful to see her worldview and outlook on what it means to be a Chinese American written out in this piece. Her use of the choir and individual voices along with the orchestra and traditional instruments is refreshing and a step forward in expanding the "traditional" instrumentation of the western orchestra.
Weaving Maid and Cowherd
Thinking of My Home is a piece written for SSA choir, Triangle, and Piano. The piece is written with a pentatonic scale "feel" and heavy Chinese influences. Chen Yi masterfully uses these harmonies without locking herself into one specific scale. Her use of staggered entrances to create different textures is of special interest as most of the piece is homophonic in the voices. Overall, the music in this piece definitely reflects the title and a warm sense of nolstalgia can be heard throughout.
Thinking of My Home
Chen Yi is a highly influential composer of our time and I have greatly enjoyed listening to her music and researching her background and story for this post. I highly encourage you to to support her and listen to her other music via Youtube. Although she does not have a website, you can find information about her on her page on the American Composer's Forum website or simply search Chen Yi composer on any search engine.
For those who might need it :
I do not own any of the videos/music that I have posted in this blog post or any of the other blog posts that I have written.
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