Eight sounds, two continents: A conductor's analysis of Ba Yin by Chen Yi

Brinberg, Isaac Henry

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117431 Copy

Description

Title

Eight sounds, two continents: A conductor's analysis of Ba Yin by Chen Yi

Author(s)

Brinberg, Isaac Henry

Issue Date

2023

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Geraldi, Kevin

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Geraldi, Kevin

Committee Member(s)

• Taylor, Stephen
• Solis, Gabriel
• Peterson, Stephen

Department of Study

School of Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

A.Mus.D. (doctoral)

Keyword(s)

• Chen Yi
• Chamber Winds
• Saxophone Quartet
• Traditional Chinese Folk Music
• Ba Yin
• Traditional Chinese Folk Instruments
• Liminal
• Comparative Orchestration

Language

en

Abstract

Chen Yi is part of a compositional school that fuses traditional Chinese music practices with Western compositional techniques. From a young age, Chen developed prodigious musical abilities. After the Cultural Revolution, Chen resumed her formal musical studies at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing and later at Columbia University with Chou-Wen Chung and Mario Davidovsky. Dr. Chen currently serves as the Lorena Searcy Cravens Millsap Missouri Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory (UMKC), where she has taught since 1998. She has won numerous awards and acclaim for her works that feature Western and traditional Chinese instruments and span symphonic, wind ensemble, chamber, choral, and solo repertoire. There is a significant body of research that examines different facets of Chen’s craft in Western and Chinese music practices, yet there is little research on her compositions for wind ensemble and chamber winds. This document investigates the compositional methods Chen implements in Ba Yin (2001/2015), a work originally for saxophone quartet and string orchestra she rescored for chamber winds/percussion, that illustrate the liminal synthesis of her cosmopolitan musical studies with traditional Chinese folk music. In this thesis, frameworks of post-tonal analysis, musicological study of source material, and discussion of interculturalism are combined with supporting material to illustrate her unique compositional style. In addition, the orchestrations of the work’s two versions are compared, and performance practice considerations are outlined. This analysis explores a work for chamber winds not previously analyzed in depth and serves as a guide for performers of this work and others by Chen Yi.

Graduation Semester

2023-04-05T10:43:16-05:00

Type of Resource

• text
• still image

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Isaac Brinberg

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