Celebrate Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
To help celebrate Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I am posting a wonderful lesson plan from the MusicFirst Classroom General Music Library. It is based on a presentation by Pingyi Song, D.M.A. presented at ACDA 2023. The content is used with her permission.
Objective: Students will be able to name several Asian female composers and characterize their compositions. Students will respond to representative works by several Asian female composers after listening.
Grade Level: Middle School / Intermediate, High School / Secondary
Includes: 1 Task
Required Software: None
Standards:
Respond - Understand and evaluate how the art...
Connect - Relate artistic ideas and work with...
Topics:
critique
chorus
listening skills
In this lesson you will introduced to female composers of choral music from three different countries: China, South Korea, and Japan. You should listen to each piece. At the end of the lesson, you will be asked to write a response comparing & contrasting at least two of the pieces provided here. Your teacher may add to or change the assignment.
Note:
Sometimes you will see name reversals. For this lesson, individual names will come first, with family names after--this is a Western practice. Many websites give family names first.
Xixian Qü
Xixian Qü 瞿希贤 (1919 - 2008)
Xixian Qü was born in Shanghai and graduated from the Shanghai conservatory.
As a prominent musician in the People's Republic of China, some of her music uses Chinese folk songs, and some reflects national values.
Waiting Until Morning (Wait for You Till Dawn) is based on a folk song from Khazkhstan.
Translation excerpt by Dr. Peiying Song
The water of River Tarim is running rapidly
The lonely wild goose are hovering in the sky
In the dust, (I) don’t see your shadow
Yet, your singing voice is floating in the air
The sheep are sleeping on the pasture
The stars are shining in the edge of the sky
My heart is like the lonely light by the shore
Gazing towards the vast . . .
Guanyü Cao
Guanyü Cao 天空 by 曹冠玉 (look for English translation button on linked website)
Cao Guanyü is director of the Department of Composition and Conducting at the School of Music of Central China Normal University. She is currently a visiting scholar of Dr. Yi Chen at the University of Missouri-Kansas.
Sky (lyrics by Yüesheng Tang)
Translation excerpt by Dr. Peiying Song
Sky is our visible dream
Dream is the stainless sky
You and I, and our love
Within the sky, floating with the wind...
Jenny Chou
Dr. Chou is a prominent Taiwanese composer whose works are widely performed across Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. She holds a doctorate in historical music performance from Boston University and has taught chamber music at Harvard University.
The Joy of the Snowflake
Based on a poem by Xu Zhimo
translation excerpt by Crystal Tai
If I were a snow flake,
Halfway on the carefree journey I would take,
I would know for certain where to go,
Flying, flying, flying,
In the direction I would be eying.
Hyo-won Woo
Hyo-won Woo (1974 - ) 우효원
Woo was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her father was an artist, her mother a pianist. She graduated from Sungshin Women's University. In 1995, she became composer in residence with the Seoul Ladies' Singers. Woo taught music at the Seoul Theological University, Hansei University the Chorus Center Academy in Seoul, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan. Her works have been performed internationally. A number of her works use sacred texts including Missa Brevis, Gloria, Alleluia, O Magnum Mysterium, Te Deum, and Creo (an oratorio "Creation").
Dance of the Moon
Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin (1961 - ) 진은숙
Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, South Korea. She studied with Sukhi Kang at Seoul National University and University for Music and Theatre in Hamburg with György Ligeti. Chin has lived in Berlin since 1988. She has been commissioned by leading performing organizations and her music has been performed in major festivals and concert series in Europe, Asia, and North America.
fun fact: Her opera Alice in Wonderland was given its world première at the Bavarian State Opera as the opening of the Munich Opera Festival.
Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles (Song of Children of the Stars)
Sungji Hong
Sungji Hong studied composition with Kyungsun Suh at the Hanyang University in Seoul at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her music has been performed in over 46 countries, and she has won numerous composition awards and prizes. Hong is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of North Texas.
Lux Aeterna
Makiko Kinoshita
Makiko Kinoshita 木下牧子 (1956- )
Born in Tokyo, Japan. Kinoshita Makiko graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, Composition Department and completed its graduate school also. In 2003, the Mitsubishi Art and Cultural Foundation commissioned her to write the opera" Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" commissioned in commemoration of 20th anniversary of the Mozart Theatre. Her choral works are listed here.
Composition with Angels 天使のいる構図
Nozomi Matsumoto
Nozomi Matsumoto 松本望
Nozomi Matsumoto was born in Hokkaido, Japan. She graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts with a B.A. in Composition and a M.A. in Composition, and has won numerous piano performance and composition competitions. Currently, Mastumoto is a lecturer at Kunitachi College of Music, Department of Piano, and Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Department of Composition.
Prelude
Lyricist, Shuntaro Tanikawa 谷川俊太郎
What is a gift from heaven (the angels) ?
Can you discern it?
Neither flower nor want
Neither funny nor cheerful
This is us ...
Yuka Yamashita
Yuka Yamashita 山下祐加
Yuka Yamashita studied composition at Tokyo University of the Arts. She is known for her compositions for piano, choir, and wind ensemble.
T-Outua Click Here for sample/perusal score (SATB version)
Composer's note about the piece:
The title of this piece is mysterious, like a magic spell, but the poem is also a little curious.
I found it interesting that it is not just a rearrangement of words but the finished text has a well thought out sound and rhythm, though it is a kind of word play.
I had a scene in my mind when composing. When “she” sings, the wind blows, the trees sway, the clouds flow… The world is moving at a dizzying pace. It is an image of the nature surrounding her responding through her body, and everyone feeling the joy of singing. (by the way, “she” is the female voice ensemble “Shachiko”. I composed a female version of this piece in early 2019, commissioned by them. Six months later, I composed a mixed-voice version for Ensemble Vine.)
ASSIGNMENT
Response: Choral Music by Asian Women
In the space below, respond to these questions. Please number your answers to match the questions.
1. What is your overall impression after listening to these pieces? Did anything surprise you?
2. Tell about any connections you noticed between these works, as well as any connections to music you knew previously.
3. Which two works (or more) will you be discussing?
4. Compare contrast the works. You may use titles or composers' names to describe them (use FAMILY names, not first names). Be sure tell about expressive elements like tempo, dynamics, mood, tone quality/timbre.
5. Which piece was you favorite? Why? Feel free to choose a piece different from the pieces you compared in question 4!