Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom for string orchestra
Shih-Hui Chen 陳士惠 Score
Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom for String Orchestra
梅花操的迴響
I. Fantasia
暗香疏影
II. Ten Thousand Blooms
萬花競放
III. Plum Blossoms
釀雪爭春
The musical material of this piece is loosely derived from a popular Nankuan melody, Plum Blossoms. Nankuan, a traditional style of southern Chinese/Taiwanese music, dates back to Han and Tang Dynasty. This melody serves as a basis for all three movements. In the fantasia like first movement, the Nankuan melody is first subtly introduced in a fragmented and motivic way. By the end of movement, a longer continuous melody appears. The second scherzolike movement takes the faster and active passages from the first movement as a basis for playful and energetic music. The rich and elegant Nankuan melody is most apparent in the lyrical, contrapuntal final movement.
The original version of this piece was written for string quartet. It was adapted for orchestra at the request of Wu, Ting- Yuh, principal violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, and was premiered by the group in June, 2012.
< 梅花操的迴響> 取材於南管曲──「梅花操」，並運用於所有三個樂章。
第一樂章──「幻想曲」，只有動機點綴、輕輕暗示；第二樂章──則由相同的動 機俏皮、充滿活力的形容「萬花競放」；而情韻深遠的「梅花操」旋律要等到最後 第三樂章才會猶如「釀雪爭春」般優雅呈現。
Duration: ca 15 minutes
Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom for string orchestra
I. Fantasia
All grace notes should be clearly articulated and played on the beat. all muti-stops are non-div. unless otherwise indicated