Jie Ching

Chiayu Hsu

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The title translates from the Chinese as "Journeys."

General Info

Year: 2014
Duration: c. 9:30
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Eunote Music
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown

Instrumentation

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The traditional Chinese holidays are an essential part of harvests or prayer offerings. Many of them have been celebrated for centuries and several myths or legends about different holidays have been widely circulated.

Jie Ching is based on three selected Chinese Festivals - Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qixi Festival (The night of sevens). Chinese New Year marks the end of winter and start of spring. As the Chinese idiom expresses, "The spring comes round to the earth again and everything looks fresh and gay." During the celebration, people dress in red, gather with family members to have reunion dinner and light firecrackers. Having dragon boat race and eating sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves are two typical events to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival. The festival commemorates the death of the poet minister Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty. Qixi Festival is a Chinese festival that celebrates the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in Chinese mythology. According to the legend, the goddess Zhi Nu (the star Vega) fell in love with the farmer boy Niu Lang (the star Altair), but was disapproved by her mother goddess. As punishment, they were separated by the Milky Way and could only meet once a year on this night.

The piece starts with a short introduction that derived from the main motive in the last section, then followed by the section depicting the dangerous waves in the Dragon Boat Festival, and continues with the celestial melodic ideas to depict Zhi Nu an Niu Lang, and finally ends the piece with the celebrative Chinese New Year. As in nature, lives grow and cycle; continuous reproduction generates in an endless succession. (note by the composer)

Jie Ching was premiered on April 27, 2014, by the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Wind Symphony, Dr. John R. Stewart, conductor.

- Program Note by composer

Media

Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
Audio CD: Chiampi Quartet - 2015

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Florida State University (Tallahassee) Wind Orchestra (Richard Clary, conductor) - 17 November 2021
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Wind Symphony (John R. Stewart, conductor) – 27 April 2014 *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

Resources

Chiayu Hsu website Accessed 9 January 2017
The Horizon Leans Forward…, compiled and edited by Erik Kar Jun Leung, GIA Publications, 2021, p. 361-362.