Chinese Music Pictures(Piano,Xiao,Dizi)

[xiaodizimusic]

Chinese Music Pictures

I.Memories of Xiangjiang river

This piece of music is composed after my travel in China. This is a home recording piano version. I am currently practicing xiao to make a version for three chinese instruments :xiao,erhu and Guzheng.I am looking forward to your comments xie xie.

Piano version(updated):
snd.sc/xTFdr6

Here is the xiao version,just homemade recording. the guzheng and erhu are just samples.sorry that i didnt have time to make better guzheng's sound characteristics.

Xiao-Guzheng-Erhu version(updated):
snd.sc/A0Qvr0

II.Smooth breathing(dizi in C)---initial Demo version
snd.sc/HElpp9

[edcat7]

Hi xioodizimusic

That's beautifully played. The title reminds me of some other piece of dizi music; so i was expecting something else. Had I heard this when I was younger I might have had taken up the piano(as did my brother and sister), instead of being musically barren until well into my '40's

I'm not familar with Chinese tunes on the piano.

I find the piano,like the yangqin a good accompanyment to the dizi. Also piano, liuqin and erhu works wonderfully too. We will all look forward to more!

[xindi]

Mar 13, 2012 11:43:32 GMT xiaodizimusic said:

This piece of music is composed after my travel in China. This is a home recording piano version. I am currently practicing xiao to make a version for three chinese instruments :xiao,erhu and Guzheng.I am looking forward to your comments xie xie.

www.last.fm/music/xiaodizimusic/Chinese+pictures/Memories+of+Xiangjiang+river

snd.sc/xTFdr6

I was wondering if you were referring to the Xiangjiang River in Hunan.....just that I remember it being way more polluted and toxic than the serene music would suggest!

Nice pentatonic scale melody (key of C?). I imagine the guzheng version with its glissandi and left hand bending would sound more orientalesque and flowing.

Let us see your dizi version if you're going to make the sheet music public domain! That would be quite interesting.

[xiaodizimusic]

Hi edcat7,
I didnt know about the title,i will consider it ,thanx for your comment. the new version will have the old(6 holes) vertical bamboo flute(xiao).

Hi xindi,
Yes you are right,that is the river.Yes,the music is serene but also sad,because that time i saw the river to be dried up(polluted rivers isnot something new in that world,i can point many in europe,australia everywhere).Anyhow the difference between title and music is like if someone is walking in the beautiful orange island a sunny day facing a dried up river.

Best regards to all

[xiaodizimusic]

Any critics,advises,comments about my two versions are welcome!

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to the forum, Xiaodizimusic.

Both performances are very well done. I particularly like the xiao version. The accompanying instrumental sounds are convincing for the most part. The erhu sound doesn't sound completely erhu-like, but it fits well enough. I have heard some commercial CDs with synth sounds that I could not stand. Your recording is tasteful. There are some pitch or tuning issues between the instruments on the xiao recording, but I like the overall style.

Good work! Keep it up.

Best wishes,

David

[xiaodizimusic]

Hi David, thanx for your comments
Yes the erhu doesnt sound like erhu and guzheng encounters the same problem as well.If i had the real instruments i would prefer their melodic moves to be more "improvisatorial". Since i made these parts with midi,and then i used the samples, of course the sound cant be like real instruments,but i would say that it is just a "Demo". The pitch issues exist in some points,coz i play xiao some months already and i cant control it completely.also the traditional xiao in F with 6 holes is more difficult than the xiao with 9 holes.In addition using polyphony with traditional instruments(the pure traditional chinese music is mainly monophonic,correct me pls if i am wrong), anyway is to encounter many Intonation issues,strange about what our ears have gotten used.
Anyhow i hope i can improve my xiao skills in the future and correct it.

Best wishes!

[xindi]

Hi,

I'm really thick on computers....

where is the xiao version? I could only find the piano version...!

[xiaodizimusic]

Hi!
you can find the link at the last line of my text.
or here:
snd.sc/A0Qvr0

[xindi]

Thanks ... I didn't see the link there originally!

Hmmm.....I find the piano version less complicated (by the other instruments), but that reflects my own bias for solo instruments, rather than ensemble.

Hearing the xiao solo version would really help: I find that solo playing often brings out the intimacy of a piece much more, but I am in the minority who prefer solo instruments, rather than complicated orchestral pieces. In the xiao/erhu/guzheng version which you have, the three instruments sound like a river parting three ways ....I'm not sure this is intended? Perhaps it is as simple as the pitch issue, however the guzheng is almost too melodically chirpy; with the xiao's slower melancholic tones being lost in the mix, and the erhu trying to stream along a different channel.

You play the instruments great!@ Amazing that you can put them all together to form an ensemble sound. The piano version had a clean simplicity which I liked about it. It must be really tricky trying to weave the textures of three different instruments within the same melody, but if anything, I find the guzheng playing stands out more - maybe it carries the main melody better, a bit like the piano piece.

That's just what I think, as a listener btw!

[xiaodizimusic]

Thanx for your comment xidi,generally speaking i didnt try to make something too much complicated. I like what u said " ...river parting three ways..".
I can only say that the main musical idea was composed spontaneously. After that point,it needed some effort to develop,weave and synchronize the three parts. In the end some basic audio editing-mixing and thats it.Both versions are just Demo versions.
It could be a version for solo Guzheng too..why not.

The solo Guzheng could mark out more clearly the horizontal(and mainly monophonic) substance,which is one of the basic characteristics of chinese traditional music. Ok i mnot an expert about chinese traditional music,so someone maybe has some objections to all that...

best wishes

[xiaodizimusic]

Maybe a general title "Chinese music pictures" is better.

Also i have an update for the piano version,some changes, a better performance and recording,since i got a microphone base,which allows me to modify the microphone position.

Best regards

[xiaodizimusic]

Hi guys!
I have today an initial demo version from the second movement. I tried to play dizi in C so that i can present the second movement to you.It is only the first phase of the piece,which eventually will be changed and corrected in the future.I look forward to hearing any critic from u.
Best regards

[xindi]

That's a really lovely slow flute melody. At times it sounds almost like Irish music to me lol.

It didn't sound strikingly dizi to me - more xiao at times too.

Thanks for sharing

[xiaodizimusic]

HI Xindi!thank u for the comments.

Does this remind you of another melody(Irish music perhaps)?let me know if yes.

Its true, it sounds undoubtedly like xiao at times.I dont know why but some times the di mo doesn't do what it should do.Mainly the low tones sometimes are like xiao's.After playing a while turn to be like dizi.
Maybe i didnt make it properly on my instrument.Perhaps it has something to do with the dimo's superimposition.

i m looking forward to hearing ur advices.
Best Wishes

[Flolei]

Hello,

Sorry, I didn't see this before. (Only today I noticed that Xindi posted a comment). Now I also understand what you wrote to me (thanks, I'm really flatted).

The both melodies are really lovely. The first one is so nice, so calm and optimistic. Even if I agree with xindi that the dizi doesn't sound so "dizi like" (maybe a matter of dimo?), the second song sounds to me very Asian, I like it very much.

I hope you'll continue with writing music because you are very talented. Thanks a lot for sharing! I think it is nice if we exchange concrete samples. Philosophy is a good think, but praxis is not bad!

Best wishes to you,

Flolei

[xiaodizimusic]

Thank you Flolei,i am glad that u like it,because i enjoyed a lot your three recordings,which u have posted in youtube.I like "Mei hua... " so much as well!!!
Yes there is a problem with the dimo,i didnt make it well,it was very flat.it shouldn't be so, right?

I like the praxis,which is combined with philoshophy
I beg your pardon,i didnt understand what do u mean "exchange concrete samples"?
Best Wishes to you!

[Flolei]

Hi,
I meant only that we post concrete example of playing and discuss about them. For example, when I posted the introduction of the Little cowherd and tried with all of us to find the best method to make the whole recording... or now, when you posted your music.
That's all what I meant. I know that sometimes my English isn't clear. Sorry for that!
Have a nice day,
Flolei

[xiaodizimusic]

Hi Flolei,
My mistake that i didnt understand, hehe
just my way of playing isnot so good like yours and my samples are just a "home production" ,so that is why i call them Demo versions

[Flolei]

As I explained in an other topic, mine are also "home productions", but with the help I got from this forum I could think about some things I didn't know before and ameliorate the quality - as far it is possible without any professional device or material (my hobby would become too expensive if I would buy new recording material).
Because of that I'm so happy to share practical samples of playing and to get some good advices... and motivation too!

[xiaodizimusic]

Hello Flolei,
i agree with u.yes the practical samples are very important and a "home production" with just a usb microphone can be quite satisfactory. Actually u play great and much better than me. From my side i can only try to represent an idea,about how some of my music approximately sounds.

best regards

[xindi]

Apr 2, 2012 15:22:26 GMT xiaodizimusic said:

HI Xindi!thank u for the comments.

Does this remind you of another melody(Irish music perhaps)?let me know if yes.

Its true, it sounds undoubtedly like xiao at times.I dont know why but some times the di mo doesn't do what it should do.Mainly the low tones sometimes are like xiao's.After playing a while turn to be like dizi.
Maybe i didnt make it properly on my instrument.Perhaps it has something to do with the dimo's superimposition.

i m looking forward to hearing ur advices.
Best Wishes

Hi there,

I'm really bad with specific melodies lol. I think it's the decorations...? Maybe it's the modal shift in the pentatonic scale ..it sounds intrinsically folk...maybe western to my ears. If it's just me picking it up and no one else, then that's got more to do with it eliciting some aural memory in me perhaps.

I wish I was a dimo applicator expert. Despite years of playing, I'm next to inconsistent (or hopeless?) at applying with any scientific method which guarantees replicability of playing. I get good days; bad days. I try to count the number of lines I make; take photographs... apply it back to front...vertical or horizontal... extra thick er jiao ... arrgh. Then the weather changes and it all fluffs up for me.

Lately I just play chinese music on my romantic keyed flute. The di mo is driving me potty!

Well it's not that bad. I know come summer, that is my best months for the dizi. Personally I think it's temperature related, since I play outdoors, and the temp. is usually 12-24 degrees (any warmer, I tend to stay indoors ) so breath temperature at 37.4 degrees might create more vibrationless dimo movements.

Yes - I've found that I can make one octave buzz, at the expense of the other. Trying to get both to buzz by applying it correctly.......

[xiaodizimusic]

hi there!
cool!do u know? i was thinking the same thing,so it will be modified one day,keeping it as skeleton and making something new.

I notice sunndenly that i had the dimo some months already!i totally forgot it.now i changed a new one and it sounds better.

Best reagrds

[xindi]

That's such a great idea - keeping track of the work you do, so that you can return to it and maybe rework it in the future.

I know how to improvise on a pentatonic scale (lol..who doesn't....apart from those who are still struggling to work out tritonic scales lol) and find that I discover a pattern of notes (no...it's not an arpeggio haha) which is fascinating and wish I recorded it so that I could return to it and memorise it better.

Do you live in the western hemisphere? It's very temperamental over here for dimo weather. The constant humidity of the countries around where the dizi originated seem ideal for constancy....

[edcat7]

Hi. Sorry for the delay. I've just listened to the dizi in C. I like it, though somehow to me it sounds more Irish than Chinese. To me dizi music has fast bits as well as slow. Overall though I'm impressed. Well Done!