Synopsis
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays and its observance traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese lunar calendar.
Spring Festival is also the title Chinese composer Chen Yi gave to a work for wind band that she wrote in 1999 on commission from American Composers Forum and published as part of their BandQuest music series for young performers.
Spring Festival draws on a southern Chinese folk tune, Lion Playing Ball, but its formal structure is mathematical in nature and based on the ancient Greek idea of the Golden Ratio, traditionally thought to represent an aesthetically pleasing proportion.
Yi received her Master’s degree in music composition from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in New York City, and now teaches at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
It was in Kansas City that she developed Spring Festival during workshops with the young musicians of the Smith-Hale Junior High School Band, and the finished score received its premiere performance on today’s date in 2000 by that band under the direction of Jan Davis.
Music Played in Today's Program
Chen Yi (b. 1953): Spring Festival; University of Minnesota Symphonic Wind Ensemble; Craig Kirchhoff, conductor; HL-04001978
On This Day
Births
1525 - earliest possible birth date for the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was probably born between Feb. 3, 1525 and Feb. 2, 1526, most likely at Palestrina (near Rome)
1809 - German composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, in Hamburg
1842 - American poet, flutist and composer Sidney Lanier, in Macon, Georgia
1904 - Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola, in Pisino, Istria
1910 - Mexican composer Blas Galindo Dimas, in San Gabriel, Jalisco
1911 - French composer and organist Jehan Alain, in Paris
Deaths
1814 - Bohemian composer Johann Antonin Kozeluch, 75, in Prague
Premieres
1823 - Rossini: opera Semiramide, in Venice at the Teatro la Fenice
1844 - Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture, in Paris at the Salle Herz, with the composer conducting
1867 - Brahms: String Sextet No. 2, in Vienna, by the Hellmesberger Sextet. This work had received some informal performances in Zürich the preceding year
1868 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Feb. 15)
1884 - Tchaikovsky: opera Mazeppa in Moscow (Gregorian date: Feb. 15)
1894 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 4, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Jan. 22)
1945 - Stravinsky: Scènes de Ballet, in New York City by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by the composer. This work was commissioned by Broadway impresario Billy Rose for a 1944 revue, The Seven Lively Arts.
1956 - Elie Siegmeister: Clarinet Concerto, in Oklahoma City
1989 - Michael Torke: Ash, in St. Paul, Minn., by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, John Adams conducting
2002 - Philip Glass: Symphony No. 6, at Carnegie Hall, by the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
