«I Ching» in Chinese music: composition method of Chung Yiu Kwang

Tan Tiantian Postgraduate student; Department of Music History; Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory named after M.I. Glinka 603005, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Piskunov str., 40 1181776271@qq.com

Zhong Yaoguang's name (1956) is little known in Russia, meanwhile he belongs to one of the most significant and outstanding contemporary composers in Taiwan. The musician's artistic career steadily developed upward: he went from percussionist in the orchestra to the head of the planning group of the Zhong Cheng National Cultural Center (known as Liangtingyuan, now the National Center for Performing Arts) and the position of full-time professor of the Music Department of the National Taiwan University of the Arts, and subsequently director of the Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra. Currently, he is actively composing (mainly expanding the repertoire of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan), teaches at the National Taiwan University of the Arts, conducts and tours a lot around the world (a short biographical sketch about the composer is posted on his website: ^[1]).

He owns a number of well-known compositions in Asia for brass and percussion instruments. Among them are concerts for marimba with orchestra, for saxophone, for percussion, the plays "The World of Chinese Painting", "Four studies on the themes of Pablo Picasso" ("Joy of Life"; "Avignon Maidens"; "Musketeer and Cupid"; "Guernica"), "Totem Pole". The musician pays a lot of attention to Taiwanese folklore, using ethnic motifs in his works. For example, in the orchestral suite "Echo in the Valleys", each of the five movements is based on folk melodies from different counties of the country ("Sunny Shooting", "Nursery Rhyme", "Floods", "Ceremony", "Triumphal Song").  

The composer's special area of interest is related to the study of national timbre colors. A whole layer of Zhong Yaoguang's compositions is dedicated to the orchestra of Chinese traditional instruments: "Listening to the Wind Singing under the Moon" for Chinese orchestra, "Whirling Dance" for flute and Chinese orchestra, "Mongolian Fantasy" for trombone and Chinese orchestra. Interest in the Beijing Jingju opera led to the creation of the plays "The Curse of General Cao Cao" for trombone and Chinese orchestra, "Goodbye, My Concubine" for Jinghu violin, cello and Chinese orchestra, "Emperor Qin Crushes the battle formation" for two percussion instruments and a Chinese orchestra. In the piano concerto "Red Cliff", commissioned by pianist Hu Chengyun, Zhong Yaoguang turned to the famous classical pipa melody "Big Waves on the Sand", as well as to the aria from the Beijing opera "Farewell of Zhuang".

Zhong Yaoguang was born in 1956 in Hong Kong. Music lessons began in his school years: the boy became interested in playing percussion instruments. An important event in the fate of the future composer was his studies in the United States – at the Academy of Performing Arts of Philadelphia and the City University of New York. After returning to Hong Kong in 1981, Zhong Yaoguang was accepted into the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra as deputy concertmaster of the percussion group. His experience and organizational skills helped him to found the Hong Kong Percussion Orchestra, for whose repertoire the composer arranged and composed a lot himself (see about this: ^[2]).

In 1985, Zhong Yaoguang took part in the international percussion competition in Munich (Germany). He failed to become a laureate, but a trip to Europe significantly expanded his horizons: Zhong got acquainted with many classical and new works for percussion, acquired sheet music from German publishers, attended interesting meetings and master classes with outstanding performers.

A year later, the musician won a songwriting competition organized by the American Percussion Association with the piece "The Ballad of Chariots" for marimba solo and seven percussion. For Zhong Yaoguang, this was a big step forward: an autodidact who had never studied the art of composition professionally, he relied heavily on the German impressions that inspired him and the modern writing techniques mastered there. For the first time in his work, Zhong successfully combined Western and Eastern strategies of musical thinking. Later he found out that the jury was headed by the classic of American music George Cram. Self-confidence not only allowed Zhong Yaoguang to write a number of compositions ("Dance of the Golden Snake" for 13 percussion, "Festive Celebration" and others), but also confirmed the idea of the need to continue education.  

In 1987, Zhong left a prestigious position with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and went back to the United States to study at the graduate school of the City University of New York, where he eventually successfully received a doctorate in composition.  His teacher was professor of composition Robert Starer, and a year later – David Olan, a student of the famous musician and public figure Zhou Wenzhong. In America, Zhong Yaoguang continued to actively perform as a percussionist, which allowed him to meet many representatives of the Chinese New Wave: in those years, Columbia University students from Zhou Wenzhong's class - Zhou Lung, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong (see about this: ^[3]) - invited him to perform their new works. Communication with these musicians significantly enriched Zhong Yaoguang's creative thinking, outlined the vector of his further stylistic aspirations related to the synthesis of centuries-old Chinese traditions and Western avant-garde composing techniques.

The result of the American period of the composer's life was his doctoral dissertation "The I Ching Compositional System: symbolism, structures and an ordered sequence of sixty-four hexagrams as compositional determinants" ^[4] and the orchestral composition "Under The Red Eaves" ("Under Red Roofs", 1996) illustrating its basic principles. Later, the piece was included in the album of works by Hong Kong composers "Running to Excellence", published by Hugo Records. Thus, the American stage of the composer's work turned out to be associated with the unification of the principles of the ancient Chinese philosophy "I Ching" with serial methods of organizing musical matter.

"Yi Jing" ( "The Book of Changes" or ? "Zhou Yi") has played a key role in the history of Chinese culture. It reflected a comprehensive picture of the universe of the ancient Eastern civilization. If the concept of "jing" can be translated as "book", then "yi" has several meanings – simplicity (simplified, compared to the previous ones, the system of divination), change (the interaction of contrasting forces of yin and yang) and the immutability of the flow of Tao ^[5].

The "I Ching" is based on eight trigrams, created according to legend by the mythological first emperor of China Fu Xi (2852-2737 BC) to predict the weather. The founder of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen and his son Jidan combined eight trigrams and obtained 64 hexagrams, describing their characteristic properties in the text of the book. The process of interpreting symbols continued until the end of the Chunqiu period (the period of Spring and Autumn), until the canonical treatise "Shi yi" ( "Ten Wings" or Commentary "Yi Zhuan"), traditionally attributed to Confucius (551-479 BC), was created. Over the centuries, "A hundred schools of thought", including Taoism, ancient Chinese schools of Moism and Yin Yang (V-III centuries BC e) formed a multi-layered philosophical system. Thus, the "Book of Changes" reflects the collective wisdom of many generations of Chinese thinkers and intellectuals ^[6].  

In the treatise "Commentary of the Attached Words" ("Xi qi zhuan"), it is indicated that the myriad of things, or Tai chi, arise as a result of the interaction and complementarity of two world–building forces – yin and yang and are graphically represented by two symbols - yinyao (dotted line) "--" and yangyao (solid line) "?". On the basis of INAO and anyao grow loin ( pure Yin) ?, shaoyang (? ? conversion from Yang to Yin) ?, loan (, pure Yang) ? and saini ( conversion from Yang to Yin) ?.

Adding another layer, Fu XI received eight trigrams: Qian (? Sky) ?, DUI (? Lake) ?, if (? Fire) ?, Zhen (? Thunder) ?, Xun (? Wind) ?, Kan (? Rain) ?, gen (? Gora) ? and kun (? Earth) ?. The three lines of the eight trigrams, read from bottom to top, symbolized the Earth, people and Sky. As a result, sixty-four hexagrams were formed by superimposing eight pairs of trigrams.

The idea of refraction of the "I Ching" in music began to attract composers in the second half of the twentieth century - in the era of avant–garde experiments and the search for new composing practices. John Cage, who considered the ancient Chinese treatise primarily as a book of divination, 64 hexagrams helped formulate and implement the "method of random actions" ("chaps operations") and led to the creation of aleatorics. Chinese composers Zhou Wenzhong (1923-2019) and Zhao Xiaosheng (1946), on the contrary, built rigidly structured quasi–serial pitch systems, implementing the principle of interaction of solid (yang symbol) and dotted (yin symbol) lines in bagua trigrams and hexagrams (N. Rao points to the connection of Zhou Wenzhong and Zhao Xiaosheng composition systems with seriality: ^[7]).

Zhou Wenzhong created his own theory of variable modes based on them in the 1960s, Zhao Xiaosheng in the 1980s - an original method of composing Tai chi, and Zhong Yaoguang, familiar with the discoveries of his predecessors and contemporaries, developed his own compositional system in the mid-1990s.

The composer relies on the binary code that grows in the "Book of Changes" based on the interaction of the forces of yin and yang: Zhong Yaoguang's broken line is 0, and the solid line is 1. Following this principle, he writes the code of each hexagram from the bottom up. As a result, the musician clearly shows how they are interconnected by crustacean and inversion techniques. For example, the inversion ratio between hexagrams 27 and 28 is the formula (100001) (27) = (011110) (28), Crustacean hexagrams 9 and 10 – (111011) (9) = (110111) (10). Thus, hexagram 27 is inversely proportional to 28 , and hexagram 9 is crustacean with respect to 10, hexagrams 5 and 6 are symmetrical , etc.

Based on ancient Chinese symbolism, according to which the twelve hexagrams (11, 34, 43, 1, 44, 33, 12, 20, 23, 2, 24, 19) correspond to the months of the year, also called bi hexagramme (), Zhong Aoguan builds a series of twelve sounds: huanjun (, keynote), dalui (, grayscale), Taizhou (, major second), Cajun (, minor third), husian (, a major third), junsui (, clean quart) weibin (, Triton), lingjun (, a perfect fifth), , yijie (, small Sexta), Nangloi ( , big Sexta), Yui (, minor sevenths) and Injun (, big Septima) ^[8].

The reliance on the principle of duodenality is rooted in the ancient Chinese lyui scale, which was formed as "a chromatic sequence of sounds within an octave, acoustically arranged in pure fifths" ^{[9, p. 69]}. In the third millennium BC, the mythological hero Lin Lun put the theoretical idea into practice by constructing an instrument of twelve bamboo flutes of different diameters.

Compared to Lu, Zhong Yaoguang's scale is two mirror hexachords radiating up and down from the center and reflecting the growth and decline of yin and yang. In addition, the sequence of tones is set based on the assumption that qian (?, hexagram of the sky) is 0. Below are the correlations of hexagrams with twelve months and twelve ancient Chinese tones of lu, as well as tones and sequences represented by Zhong Yaoguang ^{[5, p. 16]}.

The composer connects the yin and yang tones with tritonic ratios: yin = yang + 6 semitones (tritone). But based on the "T6 relationship" between yin and yang, he builds four fundamental series (FS), which form the basis of his compositional system:

FS1: [01e2t3948576 ais h a c gis cis g d fis dis f e],

FS2: [07e8t9342516 ais f a fis gis g cis d c dis h e],

FS3: [0158t3942e76 ais h dis fis gis cis g d c a f e]

FS4: [0752t9348e16 ais f dis c gis g cis d fis a h e].

The basic principles of the structure of the fundamental series are as follows: the distance between the first and last tone is always equal to a tritone, the two hexachords that make up the series are symmetrical with respect to each other and transform in the same direction, the two hexagrams are combined according to the principle of inversion, crustacean or crustacean inversion.

Zhong Yaoguang designates the sixth and seventh tones as the center of yin-yang interaction, the second tone as the tone of activation, the eleventh as the tone of stabilization, the third as the tone of development, the tenth as the tone of permutation, the fourth and ninth as the tones of transposition (displacement), and the fifth and eighth as the tones of yin-yang displacement. Thus, a symbolic interpretation of the sounds within the series is formed. Zhong Yaoguang depicts a two-part Tai chi diagram by means of a fundamental series and its crustacean inversion: 01e2t3948576: 65748392t1e0 (ais h a c gis cis g d fis dis f e: e dis f d fis cis g c gis h a ais).

In accordance with the interaction of the forces of yin and yang, the composer builds the following graph ^{[5, p. 18]}:

         Yang-yin interaction yin-yang yin-yang

The upper level (3, 9 and 3, 9) are the yin-yang interaction tones. The average levels (11111 55555 and 77777 eeeee) are tones of vitality. The lower level is the Tai Chi series 01E2T3948576: 65748392t1e0. As can be seen from the example above, the music reflects the yang-yin-yang process and produces twelve tetrachords.

The yin-yang series of Zhong Yaoguang includes two hexachords: the first hexachord (G1), consisting of the sounds C, A, G, D, B and H, and the second hexachord (G2), including the sounds F, E, G#, C#, D# and F#, in which the intervals C-F#, A-D#, G-C#, D-G#, B-E and H-F are connected by tritonic yin-yang ratios and are symmetrical with respect to each other.

Zhong Yaoguang connects the hexagram symbols and the yin-yang series in such a way that the sounds from the first hexagram correspond to the solid yang lines of the hexagram symbol, and the sounds of the second hexagram correspond to the dotted yin lines. For example, the hexagram symbol (from bottom to top) corresponds to the sounds: F is the first line from below, dotted line (G2), A is the second line, solid line (G1), G is the third line, solid line (G1), D is the fourth line, solid line (G1), B is the fifth line, a solid line (G1) and F# the sixth line is a dotted line (G2). The combination of two "halves" – complementary hexachords yin and yang forms a 12-tone series.

Let us turn to the practical implementation of the composer's theoretical ideas in the play "Under Red Roofs" for a large symphony orchestra with an expanded group of percussion instruments (gongs, cymbals, crotals, temple blocks, triangle, bells, tams, timpani, various drums, tambourine, marimba). The taste for percussion is dictated by Zhong Yaoguang's professional interest, the desire to enrich the score with multicolored colors of various percussion timbres and bring Chinese national flavor to the sound palette of the composition. The abundance of percussion instruments with a certain and indefinite pitch allows the listener to focus on the metrorhythmic side of the composition: the author builds complex polyrhythmic overlays of lines with various options for splitting the fraction in the transitions between sections.

In the play "Under Red Roofs", the composer sequentially unfolds a series of 64 hexagrams, building a form close to the sonata ^{[4, p. 63]}.

The exposition 

Hexagrams 1-2 – holding element A and element B

hexagrams 3-11 – initial interaction of A and B

hexagrams 12-24 – repeated interaction of A and B

Development

hexagrams 25-38 – carrying out a new element With

Hexagrams 39-44 – carrying out a new element D

Hexagrams 45-52 – holding all four elements A, B, C, D

Reprise

Hexagrams 53-39 – repetition of elements A, B, C, D and their subsequent interaction

Hexagrams 60-62 – repetition of elements A, B, C, D and their subsequent interaction

The code

hexagram 63 – repetition of elements A and B

hexagram 64 – repetition of elements C and D

Let's focus on the characteristics of the first hexagrams. According to the interpretation of the critical school of commentators (Wang Bi, Ou-yi, Ito Togai), the hexagram "[No. 1] Qian. Creation.Here creativity is considered in its purest form. First of all, it is the accident of heaven as the personification of the creative force that lies at the beginning of everything that exists. As a universal force, it cannot in principle have any obstacles in its development, which is favored by the fact that this force is completely stable. A perfect person can fully manifest such creativity in his activities, which has a beneficial effect on his entire environment. That's why the text says: Creativity. In the initial development, persistence is favorable" ^{[10, p. 282]}.

The first hexagram represents the yang sphere associated in the piece with the sonorous metallic timbres of percussion and brass instruments, as well as stringed instruments. In bar 4, the first tone of the fundamental series appears in the double bass part – B. The cellos "complete" the three-tone segment yang C-H-D in bars 4-8, while the violin and viola perform another element of the hexagram yang A-G-B in bars 7-8. Next, the middle level of interaction of yin tones comes into effect and Jan. The yang hexagram is complemented by the yin hexagram – Es-Cis-E for violas and F-Fis-As for second violins. Together they form a complete 12-tone series, "sprayed" into a full-sounding musical fabric: C-H-D-A-G-B-Es-Cis-E-F-Fis-As.

The second hexagram "[No. 2] Kun. Execution.Even the most intense creativity cannot be realized if there is no environment in which it will be carried out. But this environment, in order to realize absolute creativity, must also be absolutely malleable and plastic. In addition, she should be deprived of any initiative of her own, should only echo and follow the impulses of creativity in complete selflessness. But at the same time, it should not be powerless, otherwise it would not be able to fulfill what is a creative idea" ^{[10, pp. 284-285]}.

The second hexagram represents the yin sphere and, by contrast, is voiced by woodwind and percussion instruments. In bar 21, the piccolo flute has the second tone of the main series - H, followed by the key yin segments Gis-Dis, Fis-Cis-E.

So, the high-pitched organization of the musical fabric is carried out on three levels. The lower level represents the fundamental series of Tai chi, the tones of which are consistently dispersed in texture throughout the play. The middle level reflects the interaction of the yin and yang segments, while the logic of their connection is often determined by repeated interval ratios between the tones of these segments (Zhong Yaoguang relies on the set theory of A. Forte). The upper level, the most obvious, is associated with the alternation of yin and yang tones in accordance with the change of dotted and solid lines in hexagrams, read from bottom to top.

The intellectual complexity of the multilevel system of pitch relations as a whole turned out to be not close to Zhong Yaoguang's creative nature, as evidenced by the exceptional position of the play "Under Red Roofs", which remained the only practical example of the author's theory.  The precompositional method of composition, which grew up on the basis of the "Book of Changes", is absolutely not obvious when listening to music and requires long-term painstaking analytical work from both the author and the researcher, is an interesting example of the composer's appeal to a unique variety of serial technique and a vivid example of Chinese new music of the last decades of the last century.  Zhong Yaoguang managed to substantiate the original system of composition based on religious and philosophical ideas and numerical symbolism of the I Ching, combining national traditions with Western serial principles of writing.