“Leaves of Grass” by Juan Zhou
November 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under ScoreXchange Workshops
Click here for Biography
Name: Juan Zhou
From: Kansas City, MO
Age: 28
ScoreXchange Workshop piece:
“Leaves of Grass” for Flute, Violin, Clarinet, Cello, and Percussion
Leaves of Grass
Program Notes for “Leaves of Grass”:
The summer night, breeze brought a piece of cool air to
this humid Southern Chinese village. All the fine and delicate
movements of the plants and little creatures in the breeze were so
quietly happening…
Comments from ADORNO about “Leaves of Grass”:
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Juan Zhou – Leaves Of Grass
Cynthia Mei did send me the scores for all of these pieces, but I decided to make my comments based only on listening and watching these video performances. Since I’m not really here to give composition lessons per se, I didn’t want to get distracted by notation issues, Finale and Sibelius problems, page layouts and the like. I am trying to just work with what I hear and can tell from the video.
I’m not sure it’s the best approach, but I have also been watching the Adorno players’ comments before making my own. In this case it’s kind of funny in that just about everything I would have to say has already been addressed quite eloquently. But let me have my turn anyway.
The first thing I noticed was that there was no flute on stage – only piccolo. I LOVE that! I pull that trick all the time, and it’s often commented on. What? Only piccolo? What, only bass flute? Are you sure?
Yes, I’m sure, and I thought you made a very strong decision to stay with the one instrument, not as a double for flute. It gives the voice of the piece a certain distinction, clarity. Good move.
In general I liked the wind writing especially, and I thought the small pitch bends were evocative without sounding like “here’s another person trying to blend Asian music with Western music”. We hear enough of that. This was gracefully handled, not made a big point of. But apropos Rhonda’s comments about the piccolo, I agree that it is of utmost importance that composers know the difference between the piccolo and the flute in terms of how they work and what they can actually do. A skilled flutist can manipulate both embouchure and the open holes to produce wonderful glissando shapes over an impressive range. A piccolo can’t – period. So that’s just something to be aware of, if you weren’t already.
I’m very pleased to hear Loren say what he did about the 5 octave marimba. What a supremely overrated instrument. As a marimbist myself, I never had a use for one. Unfortunately there is a younger generation of players who seem to lust for just that thing, and composers are becoming convinced that it is somehow the standard. It simply is not. My advice is to only write for five octaves if you are commissioned to write for a specific player who owns one and wants you to use it. Otherwise, 4 1/3 (low A) is what I would stay with. In my opinion, the lowest octave on the five just doesn’t sound very good anyway – but hey, what do I know?
In terms of the music, the piece itself, what I came away with after one listening was an impression of how easily the music flows. I didn’t have much sense of a structure or big strategy, no process, just being in the piece and moving along with the various ideas, moods, textures. I enjoyed that very much. The pacing felt natural, intuitive, like breathing. I didn’t feel like I needed to think, and didn’t feel like thinking, just being in the piece and listening. I can only assume that was your intention. In any case, I think you have a nice feel for this style of work, and encourage further development of what sounds to me like a natural, easy way of speaking your musical thoughts.
Hi everyone!
Sorry I didn’t get back to the scorexchange soon, not only because I have been trapped by the school final exams, but also because I had so much to say after seeing the video of my piece played by Adorno, and I felt writing a few sentences back is not enough, (and I tried to use a camera to do something nice, but I didn’t manage it…) so here is my long words.
First of all, I want to say this loudly: I HAVE BEEN EXCITED!! By this wonderful method of online workshop and Adorno’s excellent play!
Mr. Jarvinen, thank you very much for your comments! And when you decided to count on the video not the score, you are absolutely right, because Adorno did a great job on my piece. This is an old piece, I love the fresh air and some ideas of it, but for some reason I couldn’t know how it actually sounds until I came here to study. I wrote this piece when I didn’t have any confidence, and my notation was horribly not clear! Adorno understood my purpose beyond the score so well and added the confidence for me through their performance. All these were done without my attendance of rehearsal! I don’t know how much time it cost Adorno to rehearse this piece, but I know normally my music is hard to rehearse and get together. I want to throw a lot of “Thanks” across the country to Adorno!
Now I know how to make the rehearsal easier according to Jeff and Loren’s suggestion. It is about the cue! (I didn’t think about this ever before!) I only knew that my music is hard because of my writing, but without cue, I made it even harder, especially for the slow and multi-layer texture music.
I also understand many of my notations are confusing. For example, Rhonda commented me about the bending tone. For the minor third bending tone from B to D on piccolo, I intended to have just a little bend, so I should write a grace note C after the B, so the B bends to C, but the C fingering is not necessary, and then fingers the D. Then it would be clear, right? And it’s true that piccolo and flute are different instruments at all. I know some of the phrases are really long for piccolo, thank you Rhonda for ideally playing them for me!
Mike, Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments! What you mentioned are exactly what I want and you played them perfectly! The slide on harmonics, low pizz sound, and the slide on one note but keep the other one still are all great! I will make these marks clearer in the future!
And I shouldn’t write for 5-octove marimba and never do that unless I am told to do it. I agree that it really doesn’t affect the timbre without the low pitches on marimba. In this piece, I wish to show the lovely wooden color of marimba than any of its aggressive features else and thank you Loren for understanding that and playing both the faraway tremolo and the childlike pure single attack so distinctively beautifully!
I wrote some high notes and flutter tones on the A clarinet for Jeff. And I spelt flutter wrongly as flatter…Sorry about that. Sometimes we composers learn from orchestration books that these and those notes are possible, but we didn’t think about the actual sounds are very different in different ranges until hearing them. Only this way, we really learn. Like Chinese saying: “if you don’t know the snake is cold, touch it, and you will know.” Adorno and Mr. Jarvinen, your comments are my treasure.
Cynthia, when you mentioned the rehearsal letter from E to H, I think I should be more patient with the musical flowing and buildup, but without thinking “I am going to finish this piece”. So the climax, and the clarinet glissando could be stretched to a wider amplitude to let everyone feel comfortable. Like Mr. Jarvinen said, the breathing. To write a deep breathe there before finishing the piece would be better.
Thank Adorno and Mr. Jarvinen!
Please forgive my awkward response due to the first time to experience the online workshop – I really love this way of communication more and more! The feedback I received from you is a good lesson for me! I also listened to the other three composers’ works; good compositions! Good musical personalities! And all show different languages and styles. I felt this project is very helpful for us young composers to learn and improve ourselves. Again, and not the last one (there are still many in my mind): Thank you!