A Baby Sleeps (for Isabella) by Michael Cooke

A Baby Sleeps (for Isabella)
Theme & Variations on "搖嬰仔歌" by 呂泉生

Gangqin Zhao, 古箏 (gŭzhēng)
Michael Cooke, 笙 (shēng) This is the last 10 minutes of the composition which was premièred June 13th, 2009 by the SFCCO. You can see the full work on the SFCCO's website. The genesis of A Baby Sleeps came after my daughter was born and my grandfather told me I need to write her a piece. For a few months I struggled for inspiration, then one night I realized my wife was singing a beautiful lullaby to her every night. I decided to write a "Theme & Variations" on this Taiwanese lullaby, 搖嬰仔歌; (Rocking the baby lullaby). It was written by the famous Taiwanese composer, 呂泉生 (Lu Chuan-sheng). Professor Lu was known as the Father of Taiwan Childrens Choir because he was dedicated to promoting Childrens choir for 50 years as well as writing over 200 compositions. I have found many variations in the translation of this melody's title, "Cradle Song", "Voice for the Formosan Parents the Lullaby" or simply "the Lullaby". My wife calls it "Rocking the baby" and my daughter just calls it, "sleep song." This composition adds two traditional Chinese instruments to the orchestra, the 笙 (shēng) and 古箏 (gŭzhēng). The sheng is a 3000-year-old Chinese free-reed bamboo mouth organ. In the Ming and Qing dynasty (1368-1911) it was used extensively both in folk instrumental ensembles and in the accompaniment to local theaters and popular narratives. It reached Europe around 1777 with Pere Amiot, and its influence was so strong that it resulted in the invention of the reed organ, concertina, harmonica and accordion. The guzheng is ancient plucked string instrument that is part of the zither family. It is built with a special wooden sound body with strings arched across movable bridges along the length of the instrument for the purpose of tuning.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• concerto
• composition
• Chinese
• modern
• orchestra
• Taiwanese
• SFCCO
• symphony
• guzheng
• sheng

[MetaverseOne]

Beautiful piece by maestro Michael.

[SFCCO]

xie xie ni

[Chermerneko]

Fantastic! Great!. Marvellous! Unique! By the way of music I want to show you what musicians of Brazil and Argentina are doing in folklore music with a accordion, fiddle, guitar, etc. If you want, please search for these 4 videos, really interesting and special and awesome:

- Voninho e Marcelo

- Tio Mederico- Dvd Os Serranos 40 anos- Sempre Gaúchos

- Faz que vai mas não vai - Adelar Bertussi

- CHANGO SPASIUK EN FORMOSA KILOMETRO 11 -10/10/2009 (4)