Group for Contemporary Music at Columbia University: Jeanne Benjamin, violin; Erich Louis Graf, flute; Sophie Sollberger, alto flute; Josef Marx, English horn; Donald MacCourt, bassoon; Jack Kreiselman, clarinet, bass clarinet; Barry Benjamin, French horn; Ronald Anderson, trumpet; Gerard Schwarz, trumpet; James A. Biddlecome, trombone; Robert E. Biddlecome, bass trombone; Charles Wuorinen, piano; Claire Heldrich, Raymond Des Roches, Richard Fitz, Howard Van Hyning, percussion; Harvey Sollberger, flute , conductor; Yi-an Chang, piano; Peninsula Festival Orchestra; Thor Johnson, conductor
“It is difficult to over-estimate Chou Wen-chung's importance. [His work] is of considerable significance in the slow rapprochement of Western and Eastern music in the second half of the twentieth century. . .”
—Brian Morton, Contemporary Composers, 1992
“But a really profound ‘meeting of East and West’—on the philosophical, aesthetic, and technical levels—has rarely been achieved. Perhaps it required a composer from the East, but one with thorough mastery of Western traditions and techniques, to accomplish this creative synthesis. Such a composer is Chou Wen-chung. . .”
—Gilbert Chase, America's Music, 1966
“As in the case of Schoenberg, an approach to music that seemed violently extreme and intensely personal turns out to have unexpectedly seminal possibilities.”
—Alfred Frankenstein, High Fidelity, April, 1956
For half a century, Chou Wen-chung has been advocating what he termed “a re-merger of Eastern and Western musical concepts and practices”—believing the two traditions once shared the same sources but witnessed a thousand years of divergence. To Chou, merging the East and West requires a process of cross-pollination that transcends cultural colonialism or chauvinism and places equal value on both traditions. It is the unwavering commitment to this vision that critics have deemed his work seminal, significant, and profound.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available for order from New World Records as an on-demand CD (CD-R). It can also be downloaded in MP3/320, FLAC and/or WAV format(s).
