wu dai tong tang - Julian Grant

Composer: Julian Grant

Instrumentation: Solo piano

Duration: Approx. 11 minutes

Date Written: 2009

Commissioned: N/A

Additional Information: During the time I lived in Beijing, from 2007, I was bought, for my birthday, a Yangqin – a butterfly harp, by my partner and daughters, because I admired it in a shop window. The sight of such a handsome instrument residing at home unplayed was a reproach, and even though my battles with the Chinese language gave me a run for my money, I was able to learn to play the Yangqin after a fashion, and even duet with my teacher, and later, a guzheng player. For my partner’s significant birthday, I managed to compose and play a piece on the Yangqin, which I later transcribed for piano – a very ornamented version of which is the fourth piece in this collection. I then surrounded it with simple satellite pieces that use the same restricted pitches and textures. The pieces were composed haphazardly and in no particular order. Because I ended up with five, I allude in the title to the strange inedible fruit, that resembles a lemon with five‐fingers ‐ or an inflated rubber glove ‐ that appears at Chinese New Year to celebrate continuity: five generations one house – here, five aspects of the same thing.