As part of my continuing project to get my music onto platforms where you can hear it, here are my Li Bai Songs, settings in Mandarin of Tang dynasty poetry.
-
If this reveals a specifically un-Chinese way of hearing and reacting to this poetry, that doesn’t necessarily bother me—I’m not Chinese, after all, so it’s not surprising if my perspective is different. This is a foreigner’s respectful appreciation. Perhaps respectful in a weird way, but in a sincere and personal way at least.
5/
@mcmullin @composers
It can be fraught. I remember being at a new music session where a composer from one country gave the singers expressions that they thought was what the people from another country would say. I could hear mutterings beside me from a person from that place "cultural appropriation " and more. -
@mcmullin @composers I've just listened to Song 1. A moving, mesmerising experience. It makes a very 'human' connection, for want of a better way to articulate it. Wonderful music, wonderful performance, thanks for sharing this. And for sharing the story behind it - it is very moving and 'human' too.
@CiaraNi
Thank you so much, and thanks for telling me too. -
@mcmullin @composers
It can be fraught. I remember being at a new music session where a composer from one country gave the singers expressions that they thought was what the people from another country would say. I could hear mutterings beside me from a person from that place "cultural appropriation " and more.@PatrickOBeirne
Yes, I’ve heard plenty of examples of cultural appropriation in new music, some detestable. And I can understand how someone might accuse me of that regarding a couple of my compositions, but I do my best to approach other cultures, when I do, with humility and respect. In this case, there were special circumstances too; I wasn’t really even going outside my family.
@composers
#composing -
@PatrickOBeirne
Yes, I’ve heard plenty of examples of cultural appropriation in new music, some detestable. And I can understand how someone might accuse me of that regarding a couple of my compositions, but I do my best to approach other cultures, when I do, with humility and respect. In this case, there were special circumstances too; I wasn’t really even going outside my family.
@composers
#composing@PatrickOBeirne
I touched on that topic a bit in this old thread too. -
@PatrickOBeirne
I touched on that topic a bit in this old thread too.And more succinctly, here:
-
P Pauliina Lievonen shared this topic on
-
@mcmullin @composers
It can be fraught. I remember being at a new music session where a composer from one country gave the singers expressions that they thought was what the people from another country would say. I could hear mutterings beside me from a person from that place "cultural appropriation " and more.@PatrickOBeirne
I should perhaps clarify also that none of the Chinese listeners I mentioned above suggested that it was wrong or offensive for me to do this, just that some choices I made about how to do it struck them as odd.I’m curious to know what native speakers of Mandarin out there on the fediverse think.
-
As part of my continuing project to get my music onto platforms where you can hear it, here are my Li Bai Songs, settings in Mandarin of Tang dynasty poetry.
Patrick Mason, baritone; Curtis Macomber, violin; William Anderson, guitar.
Premiere performance, Washington Square Chamber Music Society, November 9, 1999, Merkin Hall, NYChttps://mirlo.space/david-mcmullin/release/li-bai-songs
Score, lyrics etc. here:
david-mcmullin.com/music/li-bai-songs#MyMusic #baritone #violin #guitar #ContemporaryMusic #李白 #中文 #ChinesePoetry
The Li Bai Songs are now on bandcamp too, in case that's your preference.
https://davidmcmullin.bandcamp.com/album/li-bai-songs
More info, PDF score, texts etc. here:
-
Patrick Mason (in the recorded performance) did quite well with the pronunciation. (Native Mandarin speakers may quibble, but keep in mind, he had never tried to make these sounds before.) He even included a couple of sounds that aren’t part of standard Mandarin, but were from the cold my father-in-law had when he made the example recording.
Anyway, now you know a bit more about where this all comes from. Enjoy!
9/9
Another thing I remembered about this while looking at the texts. The first poem is an excerpt, only the first third or half of a longer poem. My father-in-law taught me this much from memory, and I didn’t realize there was more until I had written the song and went looking for a translation. I don’t know if he knew the rest of the poem, then or now. But I chose to keep it his way, just the first part, ending on a hopeful and resolute declaration.
10/9
-
Another thing I remembered about this while looking at the texts. The first poem is an excerpt, only the first third or half of a longer poem. My father-in-law taught me this much from memory, and I didn’t realize there was more until I had written the song and went looking for a translation. I don’t know if he knew the rest of the poem, then or now. But I chose to keep it his way, just the first part, ending on a hopeful and resolute declaration.
10/9
The rest of the poem puts a much darker spin on things. Instead of ending with “My talents come from heaven and must have a purpose; a thousand in gold scattered will all return,” it continues to say something like “so sell your horse and cloak and buy more wine” and it turns out the heaven-given talent may be for drinking oneself into oblivion. The hopeful version, right or wrong, is like my father-in-law, and the rest is not, so it felt right to stop there.
11/9
@composers -
The rest of the poem puts a much darker spin on things. Instead of ending with “My talents come from heaven and must have a purpose; a thousand in gold scattered will all return,” it continues to say something like “so sell your horse and cloak and buy more wine” and it turns out the heaven-given talent may be for drinking oneself into oblivion. The hopeful version, right or wrong, is like my father-in-law, and the rest is not, so it felt right to stop there.
11/9
@composersIt amazes me to realize as I think about this piece that it is now almost as old as I was when I wrote it. But it still feels “present” to me, and I don’t feel like I’m much different, either as a person or as a composer, than I was then. Strange.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login