Colliding resonances: The music of Xiaoyong Chen

Abstract

Following Ligeti's guidance, Xiaoyong Chen (b.1955) has consistently steered away from both the Chinese and the avant-garde establishments. His music explores the infinite richness of individual tones. The Duet for Violin and Zheng (1989) employs microtonal tuning, and focuses on the inter-resonance of colliding sonorities and tuning systems. Evapora (for small chamber ensemble, 1996) demonstrates his interest in juxtaposing harmonic and/or non-harmonic fusion. With a minimum of means, his highly personal musical vocabulary reveals a pluralistic world of clashing tuning systems, modes and individual voices; it also captures both the integration and tension between contrasting cultural elements.

Keywords:

• Xiaoyong Chen (b.1955)
• Duet
• Evapora
• Spectra
• Chinese Contemporary Music

Notes

[1] The Kaske Award was presented to honor György Ligeti and one of his students. Ligeti nominated Chen to share the award with him.

[2] Chen was nominated by the senate of the city of Hamburg to share the Bach Award with Karlheinz Stockhausen.

[3] Based on a phone interview with the composer, 6 October 2006.

[4] Chen's recording of the guqin (Orchidee: Traditional Chinese Zheng and Qin Music) was released by Wergo in 1992.

[5] While raising or lowering a pitch by 50 cents results in quarter tones, Chen's choice of altering the notes by 23 cents is somewhat unusual. It was determined by experimenting with the microtones available on a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. The syntonic comma of just intonation theory may account for the tuning of the pitches E and ‘E-23 cents’ in this piece. In just tunings, the syntonic comma (81:80, or about 21.5 cents) is the difference between a wide Pythagorean major third (81:64, or 408 cents) and the narrower, more mellow-sounding just major third (5:4, or 386 cents). If the regularly tuned E is taken as a Pythagorean major third above C, then the lowered pitch ‘E-23 cents’ closely approximates the just major third. In just tunings, it is not uncommon to have two different versions of a pitch—a practice that dates back to the Renaissance. The author consulted with Robert Hasegawa on microtonal tunings, and wishes to thank him for his input.

[6] I am using the measure numbers of the zheng part.

[7] For a technical explanation of spectral fusion, see Fineberg (2000, p. 91).

[8] Shepard tone is the auditory illusion of a tone that endlessly ascends yet ultimately seems to get no higher or lower. It was first published by Roger Shepard in 1964. For more information on Shepard tone, see Shepard (1999, pp. 125 – 127).