Flute Moon (1999)
for flute and orchestra in two movements
1. Chi-Lin's Dance
2. Flute Moon
Orchestration: Flute(piccolo); 2timp.3perc/hp.pf/str
Duration: 17'
World Premiere: 22 May 1999
Aralee Dorough, flute and piccolo
Houston Symphony Orchestra; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Houston, TX
Commissioned by the Houston Symphony Orchestra
Critical Acclaim:
[Bright Sheng's] two-movement Flute Moon was the best premiere the Houston Symphony has offered in many years.
Sheng's synthesis of his deep affinity for Chinese culture and his exceptional skill in writing Western art music was very impressive. The sonic allusions to traditional Chinese music - "bent," or sagging, flute tones and Western percussion made to sound fairly like Chinese instruments - were completely natural. ...the music was very attractive, even charming. The driving energy of the first movement, "Chi-Lin's Dance" (the name of the Chinese unicorn), led to a slower, emotionally more complex yet always captivating movement, "Flute Dance". It was based on the melody by a turn-of-the-13th-century Chinese composer, Jiang Kui. In this movement, Dorough was particularly engaging as a soloist.
-- CHARLES WARD, Houston Chronicle
Additional information at schirmer.com:
Copyright © 2000 by G. Schirmer, Inc.
G. Schirmer Promotion Department
257 Park Ave South, 20th floor
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212 254-2100
Fax: 212 254-2013
E-mail: schirmer@schirmer.com
G. Schirmer Rental and Performance Department
445 Bellvale Road
P.O. Box 572
Chester, NY 10918
Phone: 845 469-2271
Fax: 845 469-7544