Joan Huang's Festive River: A Musical Transpacific Voyage by Li Wei If 20th-century classical music is defined by experimentalism and radicalism in musical language, then the music of this era can be regarded as a giant field of cross-fertilization of musical ideas and idioms. Presented here is a small sample of this great endeavor, one that brings together the soundscapes of the East and the West. The title piece, Along the River During the Qingming Festival, was inspired by the early 12th century epic scroll painting that depicts the spiritual ethos and worldly commotion during the traditional holiday in honor of ancestors, known as Qingming Festival. Predominated by Chinese idiophones and chordophones, the western instruments are primarily deployed to complement the native instruments. Here all the instruments are essentially treated as individual sonic entities, as part of a floating mass of people, business trade, and vehicles in the ancient city of Bianjing. At times, the clusters of bustling sounds of the festivity remind me of Stravinsky's famous Rite of Spring. The composer cleverly uses the local source – Henan theatrical bangzi music – to evoke the age-old tradition associated with this ancient city. The single movement Orphan San Mao is a bittersweet musical portrait of one of the most beloved iconic cartoon figures in modern Chinese history. To musically delineate such a complex cultural symbol, the composer has drawn on several native resources, including some folk tunes and the two-stringed erhu fiddle. The western percussion instruments, including some unconventional percussive objects, provide a backdrop to help the audience contextualize the kind of social conditions in which San Mao lives: harsh, hostile, and yet hopeful. The two forces represented here by the solo erhu and percussion instruments create an interesting dichotomy: While the discordant noises are seemingly dominant in the conversation, the marginalized subaltern voice keeps coming up on the top with resolute perseverance and even witty defiance. The bird as a mysterious creature has always been a subject that captures our imagination and transpires us to link otherworldly dimensions. Living in beautiful Altadena, CA and surrounded by natural tranquility, it is not surprising for the composer to develop a natural affinity to her surroundings. Coupled with a few Chinese wind instruments, including the double-reed suona, the ocarina-like vessel flute xun, and various bamboo flutes, the percussion ensemble creates a complex and yet distinctively transpacific soundscape. Evidently, the "ethnic" instrument suona was chosen as an intermediary between the worlds of East and West. While the masterful suona rendition of birds chirping is conspicuously reminiscent of the Chinese classical piece, A Hundred Birds Serenade the Phoenix, the repeated calling on American folksongs reinforces the mutually shared value of cultural heritage. In today's world where liberal values and multiculturalism are constantly threatened, Joan's new CD deserves enthusiastic applause for its artistic creativity and musical hybridity! (Li Wei (M.A., M.Phil., ABD, Columbia University) is an ethnomusicologist. He teaches Chinese language, culture, and world music at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida) Composer Joan Huang grew up and received her early music education with her parents in Shanghai, China. During her teenager years, unfortunately, she could not escape the miserable experiences of the disastrous Cultural Revolution. Under the political pressure, she was sent to a farm to accept "re-education" which meant doing heavy manual labor for three years. During her time on the farm, she had the opportunity to learn the authentic Chinese traditional music from local farmers. After Cultural Revolution, Ms. Huang was one of the few applicants (17 out of 17,000) to be accepted at the time of the reopening of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music following the tumultuous Cultural Revolution that shackled 10 precious years of talented musicians. She obtained both BA and MA degrees from the Conservatory. In 1986 Ms. Huang came to the United States to continue her education at the University of California at Los Angeles and studied with Elaine Barkin, William Kraft and Roger Bourland. She became very interested in creating a style of fusion of Chinese traditional musical language with Western contemporary compositional techniques. She has received several awards, including 2 from Phi Beta Kappa for international students, 1 Tanglewood Music Festival fellowship and 2 Aspen Music Festival Scholarships. In 1991, she received her Ph.D. from UCLA. As a composer, Ms. Huang has had commissions and performances from outstanding organizations and performers, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Boston Music Viva, Boston Artists Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Southwest Chamber Music, Marimolin, Aspen Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ying Quartet, Piano Spheres, San Francisco Bridge Chamber Virtuosi and others. Her The Legend of Chang-e won the first prize of "1994 Marimolin's International Composition Contest". Her multi-media work Shanghai Trilogy was premiered in Shanghai, China during the “2010 Shanghai International Expo”.