His recent music - only one piece [on Mode Records, "Brush-Stroke"] is from the 90s, part of the piano suite My Windows - has developed the idea of 'one-note polyphony', an extension of his interest in the spectral harmonies of guqin music. The title piece, performed by Stephen Drury's Callithumpian Consort, combines a very narrow pitch set, signature motifs on the dominant woodwinds, interspersed with wild percussion passages and moments of almost total stasis.
This approach is even more clearly evident in the instrumental pieces. The My Windows sequence ends on three full bars of rest, to allow the accumulated resonances to die away. Built around just six pitches, it's virtuoso writing of the subtlest sort. Other pieces are more extreme, in the sense that they flirt with extremity. Serashi Fragments, for The Arditti Quartet, is fiercely technical but expressive. Memories of Xiaoxiang for alto saxophone and tape might almost be an alternative soundtrack for Woman of the Dunes, its wailing, ghostly cry played on a detached mouthpiece, its storyline delivered in a Chinese opera version of recitative. Lei Liang requires the harpsichordist on Some Empty Thoughts of a Person from Edo to pluck and palm strings in an approximation of lute or koto music. Some of the playing (the composer's wife Takae Ohnishi) borders on violence, but there is also a delicate lullaby, interrupted by wild shouts.
Lei Liang is an important musical philosopher, coming into mature expression. The carefully won emptiness of his thought allows sound to flow and cohere in new directions and forms. East and West lose any slack associations."
-
Brian Morton,
The Wire
(UK)
“What raised the evening
[Shanghai Quartet and pipa master Wu Man at Freer Gallery]
out of the ordinary - far, far out of the ordinary - was
composer Lei Liang, who brought pipa and quartet together
in a work so brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous
that the two may never be the same...Liang’s ‘Five
Seasons,’ a sonic tour de force from a composer not yet 40.
Full of rapturous invention, it unfolded with all the
naturalness of a turning planet as it worked its way
through the cycle of birth, death and renewal. The pipa and
the quartet achieved a kind of exuberant synergy together,
as if each were leapfrogging over the other in a mad rush
to expressive extremes, and when it ended, it ended too
soon.”
-
Stephen Brookes,
The Washington
Post
“A highlight [of New York
Philharmonic's Contact!] was Lei Liang's
Verge
for 18 strings.
With musicians divided into four sections arranged
spatially across the stage, Liang builds on the concept of
lines converging and diverging across several sections. A
sparse, primitive opening gives way to dramatic explosions
of sound, and tough pizzicatos lead into some traditional
Mongolian melodies. The Philharmonic's strings gave a taut,
sensitive realisation of the piece.”
-
Brian Wise,
The Strad
"This disc [Mode Records, "Brush-Stroke"] features a flute
solo piece entitled 'In Praise of Shadows.' The title is
taken from Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s essay, and it demonstrates
the composer’s empathy with Japanese aesthetics. Born in
China and now based in the US, Lei Liang (b.1972) departs
from the Chinese 'New Wave' composers that include Tan Dun,
Zhou Long and Chen Yi. It is not clear whether their
discrepancy results from generational or personal
differences, but in any case, his music transcends
nationalism. A lament for alto sax and electronic was
written for one of the 'New Wave' composers, Mo Wu-ping
(1959-93) who died prematurely. The collage of sound
material associated with an opera by Mo Wu-ping, along with
the color of ethnic music convey a sense of melancholy. The
opening piece 'Serashi Fragments' is played by the Arditti
Quartet. Although the piece contains elements of Mongolian
instrumental music, its musical intention and sonic
features are extremely abstract. It must be said that this
disc embraces a broad vision of attributes that are
quintessential to Asia, encompassing those of Japan, China,
and Mongolia."
-
Kazushi Ishida,
The Record Geijutsu
(Japan)
“As a composer, scholar, and
active conservationist of cultural traditions, Lei Liang is
a humanist who offers a broad artistic vision for the
twenty-first century…Liang aims at a deeper philosophical
engagement with musical sound as a tool for reflection and
contemplation, while resisting exoticized and formulaic
treatment of Asian musical elements….Liang’s music is
deeply philosophical, yet sensual, evocative, yet abstract,
and disciplined, yet spontaneous. Suffice to say, his music
is autobiographical: it is as if with each brushstroke,
Liang reclaims his cultural identity through refracting
memories of people, concepts, and objects onto a vast
musical canvas. And in this way, he pays homage to
tradition while embracing a global perspective and invites
the listener to participate in a journey that transcends
cultural boundaries.”
-
Yayoi Uno Everett, Liner Notes (Mode Records)
“Not only is Lei Liang one of
the important Chinese composers of the new generation, he
is also a fine example of something Chou Wen-chung calls
for: the rebirth of the venerable wenren
tradition – the
tradition of the artist/scholar.”
-
Edward Green,
Contemporary Music Review
“Lei Liang’s composition ‘Other
Encounter’ (1999), places him at the cutting edge of Twenty
First Century music. His innovative combinations of
timbres, rhythms, states of being create a gripping
panorama that results in musical theater that commands the
attention of the listener throughout the piece as its
emotional intensity expands and contracts until the
composer, the very gifted Lei Liang, allows the listener to
disengage…perhaps as a slightly different being than the
one who existed at the beginning of the piece. We should
keep an ear open to Lei Liang and his startling music.”
-
George Russell, Author of
The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization
“Lei Liang's
Yuan
is a 15-minute tour
de force in which the saxophones sometimes scurry with such
precision of articulation and intonation that you can
scarcely believe that their sounds are not
computer-generated. Lei Liang explains that his piece was
inspired by three diverse meaning of the Chinese
syllable yuan:
injustice,
lamentation, and prayer. All three overlap in a Hunan folk
tale involving retribution for a lapse in the legal system,
and the intonations and vocal contours of that story's text
are reflected in the saxophones' melodies: a dense example
of profound cross-culturalism.”
-
James M. Keller,
Chamber Music
“Lei Liang is the most
interesting member of the Chinese new wave, of whom Tan Dun
is the best known. He incorporates Western indeterminacy
and spectral analysis, while exploring Beijing opera,
Chinese zither and Inner Mongolian music, and the result is
no easy fusion. His omnivorous tastes could well be a
reaction to a culturally starved youth, or perception of
one: ‘I was born in a cultural and spiritual ground
zero...after the worst political, social and cultural
self-destruction in China’s long history,’ he has said.
These chamber-ish and instrumental pieces from 1996-2008
[on New World Records “Milou”]
are theatrical, engaging yet intensely thoughtful.
A Journey into
Desire for solo guitar is almost
bluesy - but distorts and displaces folk elements.
Harp
Concerto subtly and gradually insinuates
on East Asian ethos, but stops short of real
identification. A deeply personal art of memory.”
-
Andy Hamilton,
The Wire
(UK)
“[Verge] is extremely beautiful
music versus extremely fast music. The piece is also
unusual in the way that it's set up - it's for 18 string
players grouped in four quartets, and then, on the left and
right, double basses.”
-
Magnus Lindberg,
Time Out New York
“The opening [of Verge], an
atmospheric haze of sounds laced with soft bow scrapes and
cosmic high harmonics, seems not very pitch-oriented. Soon,
however, melodic fragments and thick, piercing chords
emerge, along with a plaintive theme meant to evoke
Mongolian chant. At one point the music breaks into a
grimly urgent episode, as the instruments dispatch
perpetual-motion riffs. 'Verge'
ends in spiritual
calm, though the sustained chords are still pierced with
ethereal scratching sounds.”
-
Anthony Tommasini,
The New York Times
“Lei Liang's spare, mostly
soft-spoken Trio for Piano, Cello and Percussion (2002)
drew its power mainly from Mr. Liang's peculiar
instrumentation. The piano and cello lines often seemed
mainly foils for the percussion writing, in which layers of
delicate tracery in the outer sections were offset by a
brief but vigorous drum solo at the center.”
-
Allan Kozinn,
The New York Times
“Serashi Fragments” featured
the Arditti Quartet and it is only 7
minutes, yet extremely intense
for its duration. From sparse moments to fractured shards,
this music is demanding to the musicians as well as the
listeners. I love the way the strings sound as if they are
about to leap out of the speakers as they move from silence
to explosiveness. “Some Empty Thoughts...” is for solo
harpsichord and even this ancient instrument is transformed
into a more Eastern or koto-like sound. Stark at times with
sections of intense eruptions. “Memories of Xiaoxiang” is
for alto sax & tape and is a scary piece about a woman
whose husband is murdered by a local official. The sax
mouthpiece wails and tapes of the woman's voice & other
violent sounds are used. This piece is often extreme yet
most effective. “Trio” is for cello, piano & percussion
and it was inspired by a snowstorm. The three instruments
are constantly shifting positions and are played in
different combinations. I am reminded of the way a
kaleidoscope slowly transforms visual ideas into other
things. “My Windows” is for solo piano in four movements.
It sounds like the piano is being used to paint a picture
of the world as it evolves through time from a calm
beginning to more restless volcanic activity with dark
waves occurring at times. The final piece is the title
piece and it is performed by the Callithumpian Consort, a
chamber orchestra. This piece is eerie with high notes
sliding into one another for the reeds, horns and strings.
Each note is carefully placed so that each part of the
piece evokes different feelings with some disturbing vocals
near the end. This piece is a perfect conclusion to a
fascinating disc that covers a great deal of stylistic
ground.
-
Bruce Lee Gallanter,
Downtown Music Gallery
“Gobi Gloria
is a work to be
reckoned with on many levels—perhaps the most intricate and
persuasive work [on Telarc Records album “Dim Sum”].”
-
Steve Ritter,
Audiophile Audition
“Lei Liang’s magnetism lies in
the ways in which traditional elements become more abstract
as they blend into western music without giving any hint of
exoticism but as one’s own personal language, which
produces a sublimated world of oriental sound.
All of the pieces on this recording [Milou] are original
and interesting, and I would only mention the saxophone
quartet Yuan
here. The piece
uses the intonation of the text of the famous Yuan dynasty
tragic drama ‘Dou-E Yuan,’ and unfolds the theme of
injustice leading to today’s Chinese human rights issue.
There are interchange between repeated ascending and
descending scales that enclose time intervals superbly,
harmonies produced by the quiet and profound long tones of
the middle section, and heartbreaking sonorities in the
coda produced by cries of the mouthpieces. Moreover, a
phrase from Yao minority’s folksong is colored by overtones
which demarcates the middle and ending sections, deepening
the meditation which is full of sorrow.”
-
Yuki Kakiichi,
The Record Geijutsu
(Japan)
"The music of Chinese composer
Lei Liang (b.1972), now based in the US, is immediately
distinctive due to its lack of cliché. The current brand of
musical 'chinoiserie' written for public consumption is
reductive, taking certain narrow traditions and relishing
their dearth in the name of popular success. Liang, in
contrast, is expansive. He begins with the music of his
roots, far from cosmopolitan, and explores the netherworlds
of these sounds. The resultant technique is called
one-note-polyphony, but even that label seems inadequate.
Liang is sure to be a fine discovery for the open-eared.
The opening work, a mere seven minutes, seems typical of
his current style. It is a stark reimagination of what the
traditional Mongolian musician Serashi plays. Having heard
Serashi himself on recording brought forth by Liang on CRC,
the discrepancy could not be more gaping. Based on
improvisations, Some Empty
Thoughts is much less taut and seems
diploid, with meditative sections framed by a central manic
cadenza. Memories
are literal, with
the composer’s inspiration coming from the Yao people of
Hunan. The saxophone seems onomatopoeic at times, crying or
screaming, but never excessively; a dramatic pause in the
middle is a fine device. In
Praise,
its title lifted from the more “polite” world of
oft-salacious Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, makes rich use of the
lower flute registers. For 15 players, Brush-Stroke
has a lucid
orchestration that is marred occasionally by intentional
vocal interjections.
Overall, much is to be praised here: the sumptuous without
the ostentatious."
-
Dan Albertson,
La Folia
"Gobi
Gloria,
written by Lei Liang in 2006, was especially arresting for
its simplicity, soulfulness and sheer beauty.”
-
Harvey Steiman,
Aspen Times
“Mr. Liang’s ‘Messages of
White’ evokes sensations he associated with snow -
solitude, silence and playfulness - through a descending
chromatic scale revealed, concealed and altered in various
ways. From an opening of crystalline stillness expressed in
brittle scrapes, skitters and pops, pealing crotales
(antique cymbals) and copious silence, Mr. Liang offered
painterly evocations of motion and mood. An eerie
tranquility dominated by Hu Jianbing on sheng (a month
organ) ceded to buoyant rhythms that airily flitted across
vibraphone and pipa (a lute), saxophones and yangqin (a
hammered dulcimer), before the work concludes in chilly
repose.”
-
Steve Smith,
The New York Times
“[The Meridian Arts Ensemble]
began with Lei Liang's Ascension,
a frenetic work that explores the sonic virility of each
instrument. Some of the melodic lines here were mere
utterances, and sometimes each musician was asked to utter,
too. The work was girded by powerful and rhythmic
percussion, which showcased Ferrari's great talents. At
times during this bracing piece, the instruments would come
together in unison for great tonal effect - as if musical
time had moved backward to when atonality had not been
born.”
-
Edward Ortiz,
The Sacramento Bee
“Hearing this album
[Milou
on New World
Records], it’s understandable why Liang won the Rome Prize
earlier this year. He brings an astonishing range of
influences and techniques to bear on a highly individual
but always arresting compositional style. His pieces may be
inspired by a dream of the Emperor Yang (“Milou”),
calligraphy (“Winged Creatures”) or painting (Harp
Concerto), but they all gently invite you into an
intriguing, endlessly fascinating place where you won’t
just encounter Liang - you’ll find out something about
yourself as well.”
-
James Chute,
San Diego Union-Tribune
“Alan Gilbert conducts the NY
Phil through some heart-stopping works by the exciting
young cast of Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie, Matthias
Pintscher...Featured in the episode is Chinese-born Lei
Liang’s Verge
for string
orchestra. You can hear a textural know-how in his writing
that evokes electronic music without the use of
electronics, all while echoing a ritual of the distant
past.”
-
Q2, WQXR The Classical Music Station of NYC
What is immediately noticed
after listening to the album [Brush-Stroke] is the intent,
for the most part successful, to flee from the weight of a
musical tradition that burdened Chinese avant-garde
creation for decades.
Lei Liang (a student of H. Birtwistle, Chaya Czernowin,
among others) appears to have taken on the grammar of
European avant-garde completely. Fortunately, the work of
this composer goes beyond the mere absorption of the usual
habits of the old continent’s modernism, an error in which
not few composers/imitators incur when rejecting their
traditional cultures and turn themselves into mere
emulators without personality. Liang, on the contrary,
sporadically hints, masterfully, at bits of Chinese
folklore; but instead of falling into the anecdote or
exoticism, he opens a small window into a type of sonority
that, in the midst of the abstract calligraphic framework
of his pieces, entices an effect of longing, rare
remoteness, or, in the case of Memories of
Xiaoxiang, an uneasy presence.
The Arditti Quartet takes part in the opening piece of the
disc, Serashi
Fragments, a homage to the Mongolian
musician Serashi, d. 1968, one of the most important
personalities of Mongolia’s popular culture. Lei Liang’s
work, using violent contrasts and comfortable
pianissimo,
showcases different
techniques such as pizz sul pont,
staccatissimo, harmonic glissandos
and other
speculative practices that remind us, in a more radical
way, Serashi’s style of playing, in this case, using the
violin to cite melodies of Mongolian roots.
A different world, that of Zen Buddhism, appears in
Some Empty
Thoughts of a Person from Edo, a piece for harpsichord (that
comes to us performed by its dedicatee, Takae Ohnishi).
This piece, fortunately, escapes the empty virtuosity in
which many works written for this instrument inexplicably
incur. In certain passages, Lei Liang treats the
harpsichord like a lute, manipulating the strings, creating
uncomfortable silence and producing bitter dissonances in a
context of a play of shadows and responses that include
reminiscences of Japanese koto music.
It is in Memories of
Xiaoxiang, the gem of the CD, where Lei
Liang lets his origins be seen. Written for saxophone and
electronic music, this piece recalls a tragic incident that
took place in the Hunan region during the Cultural
Revolution. There, the wife of a man who was tortured to
death for being considered a traitor to the regime decided
to turn herself into a ghostly shadow in order to induce
the official in charge of the execution into madness and
suicide. Half fact half myth, Liang captures the woman’s
laments through whispers in the saxophone and introduces,
in the tape part, fragments of recitations recorded at the
Peking Opera. The resultant collage, violent and, from a
certain perspective, sinister, results in a novel
composition that is heard with a wince of amazement.
The album concludes with the notable Brush-Stroke
for chamber
orchestra (performed by the Callithumpian Consort conducted
by Stephen Drury). Inspired by Chinese calligraphy, Lei
Liang develops a compelling work in the timbral aspect
through an original technique that he himself has named
‘one-note polyphony,’ in which during the execution of one
note and over its resonance, another notes emerges played
by another instrument giving the resulting sound a
ritualistic quality. In this work, Liang also explores
sounds that emulate those of the guqin,
a Chinese string instrument similar to the zither. A score
based on transitions in which the whole weight of the piece
rests, Brush-Stroke
also houses hints
of Japanese Gagaku and of the Aak (the ancient music of the
Korean courts). A final rhythmic sequence ends this dense
score, which never loses its powerful breath of
spontaneity.
I do not know any other Chinese composer capable of
embracing his past from a global and transcendental
perspective, overcoming outdated watertight compartments,
understanding today’s music as a free space where, with the
aid of talent, everything can be made
fit.
-
Ismael G. Cabral,
Chorro de luz
[Spain]
This CD [“Brush-Stroke,” Mode
Records] is a very nice introduction to the recent music of
Lei Liang. The selected compositions on this CD are very
diverse in character as well as in instrumentation. Yet
there is unmistakable a strong identity in all of the
compositions. Liang’s music is sophisticated, complex at
times, but never fails to be immediate in expressive
meaning. This accessibility, together with the detailed
craftsmanship makes his music special.
The first composition Serashi
Fragments, is played by the Arditti
String Quartet. A very bright performance, which puts in
great profile a Chinese folk tune appearing in the middle.
This is not just a quotation but rather a very meaningful
moment: the expressionistic music in which it appears makes
this timid melody very fragile and tender. And it also
questions the previous music. These kind of questions often
appear in Liang’s music and the great quality is that he
leaves the mystery of the question open. There are possible
attempts to an answer, but never a final one. This charming
subtlety is a very strong characteristic of Liang’s music.
In Some
Empty thoughts of a Person from Edo
Liang achieves the
formulation of a similar question through a very strong
contrast. Heavy violence tries, but never succeeds in
suppressing the subtle and tender music. Also, it must be
said that the writing for harpsichord is excellent. Liang
finds and uses with great effect the different timbral
possibilities of the instrument.
Mastery of instrumental writing is equally found in
Memories of
Xiaoxiang for saxophone and tape. As an
example: by using the mouth piece alone, an expressivity
very close to the human voice is created. This brings
another quality of Liang’s music to the fore: his music is
always immediately understandable. The expressivity of his
music always grasps the listener. This music is not only
for intellectuals, or New Music aficionados, but for anyone
who devotes themselves to careful listening.
In praise of
Shadows is a little, marvelous work,
like a piece of jewelry. It is extremely well written for
the flute, and wonderfully performed by Paula Robison. The
music just speaks for itself, everything is beautiful in a
meaningful way.
My
Windows, for piano solo, is different
from the other compositions: this is a set of four short
pieces, each of which opens a window to another aspect of
Liang’s imagination. The four pieces explore a broad range,
demanding quite some virtuosity of the performer. Aleck
Karis seems to be the perfect person to play this music,
not only is he a virtuoso, but he lets the imagination
speak through his playing.
The final work on this CD is Brush-Stroke.
A large ensemble piece, in which Liang’s technique of
one-note-polyphony is clearly present. This technique is
very personal to Liang, and he achieves a very delicate
sound world with great imagination. The performance of this
work by the Callithumpian Consort is excellent, and it is
clear that they have a good understanding of Liang’s music.
The Chinese cultural background of Liang is always present,
not superficially, but integrated in the expressive
trajectory of each piece. Sometimes the presence is
obvious, as in his string quartet. At other times it
remains at a distance, a background against which the music
unfolds, as for example in the composition for flute solo.
The music of Lei Liang is strong and personal, and the
performers absolutely do bring out the qualities of his
music. Lei Liang is definitely a composer who found his own
voice.
-
Bert Van Herck,
Zeitschichten
“Although every piece on this
album [Milou,
New World Records] is filled with historical allusions, the
music is rarely Asian-sounding in any traditional sense.
This is the kind of music that has a physical, even
visceral quality, such that it can take on concrete shapes
that beg to be held, and even tasted. Liang’s masterly
sense for texture and shape, as well as a quirky rhythmic
pattern, give these pieces substance and quiet sinew.
Resolutely modern and original, there is little that is
routine or meek about the music of Lei Liang. It is a
strong cup of coffee, indeed. For those inclined to
excitement and stimulation in their music-making, his is an
important young voice.”
-
Peter Burwasser,
Fanfare Magazine
“Liang's compositions take compellingly contrasting paths.
The wonderfully fractured Serashi
Fragments, played by the sterling Arditti
String Quartet, darts around the recesses of your noggin
like Norman Bates wrestling with his mom-fixation and Janet
Leigh. The stark yet tender, yearning In Praise of
Shadows for unaccompanied flute
encapsulates Eastern mysteries without being cornball or
hokey. The solo piano suite My Windows
evokes the
beautiful simplicity of Chopin and the elegant eruptions of
McCoy Tyner. While Brush-Stroke
isn't entirely
'easy' listening, Liang doesn't go out of his way to
rebuff/alienate the Listener with a lot of dense or arcane
hoo-hah. Rooted in Chinese and Western music, his stuff is
prickly but has heart. We need that, y'know?"
-
Mark Keresman,
ICON
“I was captivated by the
Trio
of Lei Liang...
Liang’s opening, with utmost delicacy, reminded me of
Takemitsu. But the piece opens out forcefully, and in the
end recedes, in a big arc. Along the way, percussionist
Christopher Froh let loose a mighty cadenza that rocked
Herbst Theatre.”
-
Paul Hertelendy,
Arts San Francisco
"Gobi
Gloria,
influenced by Mongolian folk music, is especially
interesting in that the instruments frequently do not
accompany the primary melodic line, but create rhythmic
underpinning or additional melodic layers, often with
varying speeds and textures."
-
Art Lange,
Fanfare
“In a Chinese folk tale dating
back to the Cultural Revolution, a woman ululates like a
restless specter in the woods near the home of the official
responsible for her husband's death. Both descend into
madness. In his 'Yuan for saxophone quartet,' Chinese-born
American composer Lei Liang chillingly embodies the ghost
with unearthly-sounding saxophones, seemingly blowing just
behind a dark canopy of trees. The piece is a highlight
of Antiphony
[Innova Records].
Liang opts to highlight PRISM's fleecy, pure harmonies.”
-
Doyle Armbrust,
Time Out Chicago
Composing, at least in popular
imagination, is a private activity, the product of one
individual’s imagination. Even though the reality isn’t
quite so solitary, joint works by composers are rare. So
one interesting facet of Thursday’s concert by the
Callithumpian Consort was the presence of “Triplex
Mobilis,” a piece co-written by composers Lei Liang, Adam
Roberts, and Nicholas Vines. Brought together by the
Consort’s music director, Stephen Drury, the three worked
cooperatively: Some passages contained music from each
contributor, layered on top of one another.
The piece that resulted is constructed like a mobile -
musical ideas revolve around one another, each in its own
separate orbit. The concept worked spatially as well:
Musicians were set up in different locations around the
Gardner Museum’s Tapestry Room, and in the last movement
some wandered through the aisles. All of this made the
piece sound airy, open, and engaging.
Liang’s 'Brush-Stroke,' inspired by Chinese calligraphy,
felt abstract and weightless. Much of the music coalesces
around long-held notes which undergo subtle change in color
and dynamics. The fragility makes all the more powerful the
arrival of a wild episode driven by outbursts from the
percussion.
-
David Weininger,
The Boston Globe
“The [Callithumpian] Consort
gave an impeccable performance of Liang’s concentrated and
very beautiful works.”
-
Michael Miller,
The Berkshire Review of the Arts
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria…reveal a conscious blending of
sounds, techniques and ideas from traditional Chinese music
with the string quartet of the Western classical tradition.
This delightful and innovative music brings a fresh
perspective, suggesting intriguing possibilities for the
future of the string quartet.”
-
New Classics, Chamber Music (UK)
[Mode Records MODE 210]
Here is an alluring
Portrait CD of Lei Liang, a notable Chinese-born American
composer (b. 1972) of great accomplishment and distinction.
He studied with Birtwistle, Czernowin and many others.
Liang researches traditional Asian music and in his
composing "reclaims his cultural
identity in a global perspective which transcends cultural
boundaries" (Y U Everett).
This is a splendid compilation which should delight, in
part or whole, everyone who comes across it. The pieces are
well contrasted and cover many moods and styles, yet with
an overall integrated musical personality. He is familiar
with most modern developments and is particularly
interested in resonances (notably in his piano pieces)
derived from a personal technique of One-Note-Polyphony
(which smacks of Scelsi's seminal Quattro pezzi chiascuno su
una nota sola, and none the worse for that).
The flute solo In Praise of
Shadows explores shakuhachi techniques
and Memories of
Xiaoxiang has a tape with fragments of
field recordings, including excerpts on the
guqin,
a lovely
traditional instrument.
Fine
production and, with an exceptionally beautiful cover
image, this disc is recommended not to miss!
-
Peter Grahame Woolf,
Musical Pointers
As a composer [Lei Liang] is omnivorous, incorporating with
astonishing naturalism elements of avant-garde procedures,
indeterminacy and spectral analysis to express ‘music as a
form of ritual’. [Milou] is a disc to play and play again.
-
Peter Grahame Woolf,
Musical Pointers
“Liang doesn’t use Chinese
music as overtly as the Chinese-American composers of the
preceding generation. His musical language is
unapologetically modernist, and while it does incorporate
sonorities of various Chinese musical traditions, the
Chinese connection might not be immediately evident to
listeners not aware of the provenance of these pieces.
Liang takes inspiration from visual imagery, such as
calligraphy ,as well as literature, and he sometimes
incorporates that imagery explicitly into his work.
Yuan,
for saxophone
quartet, and the Harp Concerto are especially convincing
works, both for the fascinating soundworlds they conjure up
and their intensely dramatic development. A broad
assortment of performers brings earnest commitment and
inventive musicality of Liang’s complex scores.”
-
Stephen Eddins,
All Music
“Lei Liang is a composer with a
remarkable poetic sensibility. Born and raised in China and
educated at American universities, Liang’s music is a
journey into sonic landscapes that evoke emotions ranging
from inner quiet and meditations on nature to political
clashes and strife. On Milou,
various artists and ensembles perform a range of pieces
written since 1996. Their renderings are eloquent,
expressive and provocative.”
-
ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers)
Audio Portraits
“Lei Liang’s
Parts for a
Floating Space (2002) is atmospheric and tense
with plenty of interesting sound effects on overblown sax.
The piece grows in intensity and volume, including a
foghorn/siren sound. It’s spatial and geometrical.”
-
David Wolman,
Fanfare Magazine
“Lei Liang’s
Trio
was a compelling
piece…The ethereal, abstract sonorities it created on
piano, cello, and percussion at the beginning and end had
little to do with the modal middle section that not only
evoked dance rhythms, but itself
danced. The
aesthetic distance traversed over the short span was
refreshing, owing in large part to the concision and
clarity of each individual phrase or figure.”
-
Jonathan Wilkes,
San Francisco Classical Voice
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria is remarkable for its
expressive range, creating a feeling of vastness of space
and timelessness that are appropriate to its subject, the
great desert of Mongolia.”
-
New Classik Reviews
(Atlanta Audio Society)
“Lei Liang’s Gobi Gloria
(2007) fascinated
through tonal coloring. The viola opened with a broadly
played motif, leading to a variety of discrete sections
held together with a droning cello sound. Rhythmic
galloping effects conjured fleet horses. Liang displayed
great potential for success, and the Ying Quartet did him
justice.”
-
C.J. Gianakaris,
Kalamazoo Gazette
“Lei Liang’s intense “Gobi Gloria” features evocative
Mongolian folk tunes and aptly evokes traditions such as
throat singing and shaman rituals.”
-
Vivien Schweitzer,
Concord Music Group
“Liang’s haunting Gobi Gloria
featured
spectacular, declamatory passages, which the Ying performed
with passion and grace.”
-
Tamara Bernstein,
The Globe and Mail
(Toronto)
“Chinese-born American Composer
Lei Liang's Memories of
Xiaoxiang, for alto saxophone and
electronics, pays plaintive tribute both to a tragic event
occurring in the Xiaoxiang region of Hunan Province, and to
composer Mo Wu-ping, who attempted to complete an opera
based upon this even before his untimely death. In doing
so, Liang pairs the ghostly wailing of the saxophone with
field recordings of folk music and voices specific to the
region, as well as vocal samples of Mo Wu-ping, forming a
coherent constellation of memories and references.”
-
Alexander Sigman,
Search - Journal for New Music and
Culture
“The UC San Diego professor Lei
Liang paid homage to the legendary Mongolian fiddler
Serashi with his “Gobi Gloria.” The quirky, almost
improvisatory solo with its leaps and jumps, adroitly
rendered by violinist Timothy Ying, conveys everything from
galloping horses to what seemed like a lullaby.”
-
Paul Hertelendy,
Arts San Francisco
“Lei Liang’s music is different from that of Western
composers, and distinct among those of his Chinese
compatriots. Underneath his exquisite and unadorned
melodies, there is a wealth of timbral nuances…During a
time when most contemporary music seems to alienate the
audience, such elegant and tranquil music surprises and
refreshes the listeners. ”
-
Ban Lixia,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]:
Review
“Liang is a Chinese-born composer who much admires
Mongolian music. He fashioned this evocative 10-minute
piece, which at times sounds akin to something one might
hear emanating from a yurt, and at other times stands
firmly in the concert music camp.”
-
Chuck Klaus,
The Post-Standard
“Lei Liang spoke briefly before the performance of his
piece, Serashi
Fragments. He discussed his background;
most noteworthy was that he has championed and preserved
the music of Serashi, a Mongolian folk musician who died in
1968. In a way, Liang’s piece began with this spoken
preface....Liang’s enthusiasm for Serashi as a musical and
cultural figure made it apparent that the music was much
more for him than simply source material from a folk
tradition.
“As a
result, the section of the piece most reminiscent of
Serashi’s music carried with it an additional layer of
meaning. The outer sections that contrasted this soulful
moment featured bursts of activity, as if Liang were
deconstructing the fiddling style itself — breaking it up
into its constituent parts of sharp attacks, noisy
overbowing, carefully controlled harmonics, short
glissandos, and silence. I was most taken when the
fragments finally coalesced into more continuous music, but
the overall form was always clear and convincing.”
-
Jonathan Wilkes,
San Francisco Classical Voice Chamber Music
Review
On Lei Liang’s (b. 1972) “Gobi
Gloria,” Mongolian folk music plays a crucial role in his
musical voice. Growing up in China, he often heard cheerful
Mongolian folk melodies arranged for the erhu, but it was
discovering the recordings of the legendary Mongolian
fiddle player Serashi (1887-1968) that truly transformed
Lei Liang’s language. Here, he found a magical range of
expression – in his own words, “a solitude, a timelessness,
a vastness of space.” “Gobi Gloria” captures this
extraordinary spirit through highly ornamented and often
independently moving, layered lines weaving throughout the
quartet. Melodies are played against their own inversions,
retrogrades, and retrograde-inversions. Various sections of
the piece reflect different styles of Mongolian music, such
as throat singing and long-chant, as well as dance and
shaman rituals. The movement concludes with a breathtaking
setting of a folk song from the Nei Monggol region of
Mongolia.
-
Telarc International
“[Lei Liang’s Memories of
Xiaoxiang] is emotional, dramatic,
easily understood and felt by the audience. The response
was overwhelming.”
-
David Raymond,
The
Saxophone Journal
“Lei Liang’s work
[Extend]
allowed the guanzi player to expand upon the work’s melodic
contour via improvised pitch fragment enhancement,
delivering vanguard music from one of the world’s most
ancient instruments.”
-
Don Kechman,
Los Angeles Times
“Through his concert, Lei Liang communicates to his
audience not only a deep sense of nostalgia, bold thinking,
innovative sounds, but also an immense question mark
targeted at all conventionally accepted musical
conceptions. In his works, the audience savors the charm of
the music of the literati. Lei Liang’s music derives from
the inter-weavings of arts and language; it also contests
the linguistic and artistic limits of music. His music is
both audacious and delicate; it is modern, yet a
traditional spirit seeps through tenaciously. It poses a
true challenge to our ingrained musical thinking.”
-
Xie Jia-xing,
Yinyue Zhoubao
[Music Weekly]
“Lei Liang rejects the habitual imitation of Chinese
musical features. Instead, there are ghostly weepings and
prolonged silences. The many technical clichés of modern
music are purged completely. In Against Piano
[for two pianists]
and Garden Eight
[for any solo
instrument], he uses the strangely beautiful sounds to
create a transcendental world of changing colors. The
concert intensifies in an atmosphere of invocation. The
audience in the city of Xi’an received Lei Liang with great
enthusiasm. They regarded his arrival as the cause of a
musical whirlwind.”
-
Xia Yan-zhou,
Yinyue Shenghuo
[Musical Life]
“The
shock brought by Lei Liang to the Chinese musical scene was
expressed in elegance and modesty. In Peking Opera
Soliloquy [for alto saxophone], Lei Liang
does not portray the underlying story realistically.
Rather, he creates an artistic atmosphere by applying the
impressionistic technique found in traditional Chinese
arts. The audience experiences the trance-like aftershock
of a calamity; they are awakened by the tearing apart of
body and soul in a personal tragedy. Through the musical
unfolding of Dialectal
Percussions [for multiple percussion], the
audience’s spiritual world is cleansed; an imaginary
artistic world attains infinity in an instant moment of
purity and brightness. The process and outcome are the
ultimate realm of faith; they are also the ultimate realm
of art.”
-
Ming Yan,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]
“Having the greatest impact aurally and visually was the
premiere of Lei Liang’s Peking Opera
Soliloquy. This work incorporated
special lighting, body movement, and contemporary
techniques to dramatize the story behind the work, the life
of a Chinese woman during the Cultural Revolution. Her
husband is killed by authorities and in retaliation she
goes to the home of the responsible official and wails all
night; she does this until eventually both become mad.
Shyen Lee’s performance reflected elements of Chinese
music. ”
- Jackie Lamar, The Saxophone Symposium