Lü for String Quartet; Extrication for Clarinet, Percussion, Violin and Cello; and Qigang Chen’s Approach to Pentatonicism in Reflet D’un Temps Disparu and Luan Tan

Abstract

This dissertation is comprised of two parts: two compositions titled Lü and Extrication, and an article discussing Qigang Chen’s Reflet d’un temps disparu and Luan Tan.Lü is a twenty-five minute string quartet that consists of four movements. The title “lü” means “journey” in Chinese, which suggests that the music traces a large scale expressive arc over the four movements. The music shifts from the use of chromaticism at the beginning to the incorporation of pentatonicism in the last movement. The melody that is varied and developed in all movements plays an important role in establishing musical coherence. The first two movements are based on dissonant intervals — seconds, sevenths and tritone. In the third movement, the music starts to include more consonant intervals — thirds, perfect fourths and perfect fifths – which prepare the listener for the employment of pentatonicism in the last movement. The last movement shows a coexistence between pentatonicism and dissonance, where the music mainly focuses on the pentatonic collections horizontally, while the harmonies are extracted from pentatonic collections with dissonant intervals. The second composition Extrication is written for clarinet, percussion, violin and cello. The main melody is inspired by the music from one of the oldest forms of Chinese musical theater — Kunqu opera. The main melody recurs in varied forms from one section to another. This piece intentionally incorporates pentatonicism and influences from traditional Chinese music, such as rhythmic gestures played by woodblocks and Chinese cymbals that can be found everywhere in traditional Chinese operas.In the article, I discuss Qignag Chen’s approach to pentatonicism in both Reflet d’un temps disparu and Luan Tan. Even though the two pieces differ in musical styles, they both use pentatonicism extensively. In Reflet d’un temps disparu, Chen explores the maximally-intersecting and non-intersecting relationships between pentatonic scales, following his former teacher Luo Zhongrong’s footsteps. According to analytical methods developed by Luo Zhongrong, and Nancy Rao, a pair of pentatonic scales that are related by a perfect fourth shares four common tones. In contrast, a pair of pentatonic scales that are separated by a semitone or a tritone share no common tones. Unlike in Reflet d’un temps disparu in which Chen creates pentatonic-derived harmonies and lush orchestral textures, the music in Luan Tan focuses on pentatonic motives that develop horizontally. In Luan Tan, Chen employs different relationships between a pair of pentatonic scales other than the maximally-intersecting and non-overlapping relationships. My analysis makes use of vectors described in John Rahn’s Basic Atonal Theory to examine the relationships between pentatonic collections in Luan Tan.