Trying to find unaccompanied cello music by Asian composers? Look no further.

This month, I’m sending you the ninth installment in my new series of postcards on unaccompanied works for cello by Asian composers. You can find my previous postcards in the series here.

I created my online “just-the-facts-ma’am”-style digital postcards to introduce listeners to new-to-you cello music and to help cellists, orchestra directors, cello teachers, and students seeking new repertoire, contest pieces, and supplemental literature.

These monthly postcards give you the information you need to help you choose a piece that’s right for you. I also include links to make it easy for you to locate and purchase the sheet music you want. I hope you enjoy exploring these pieces as much as I did selecting them.

You can also read a quick round-up of my postcards featuring works by Black composers, my series featuring women composers, the series I just completed on Hispanic and Latino/Latina composers, or revisit all of my postcards.

Postcard #1: A Set of Chinese Folk Songs arranged by Zhou Long

Zhou Long, born on July 8, 1953, in Beijing, is a distinguished Chinese American composer celebrated for seamlessly blending Eastern and Western musical traditions. His early experiences during China’s Cultural Revolution, including time spent on a rural state farm, profoundly influenced his artistic vision. After resuming his musical education, he graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1983 and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in 1993. Zhou’s innovative compositions have garnered numerous accolades, including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his opera “Madame White Snake.” He is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance.

In his “A Set of Chinese Folk Songs,” Zhou Long arranges eight traditional melodies from various Chinese regions for solo cello. This collection, suitable for early-intermediate students, features stylistic bowing and fingering that reflect the original folk character. Each piece is accompanied by program notes, offering insights into the cultural and musical context of the songs.

• Title: A Set of Chinese Folk Songs
• Composer: traditional, arranged by Zhou Long
• Year Arranged: 2021
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Movements: 8
• Duration: 1:30, 1:30, 1:39, 1:35, 1:15, 1:20, 1:28, 2:00; total: 12:15
• Number of Pages: 8
• Number of Measures: 40, 40, 14, 43, 28, 39, 17, 22
• Tempo: quarter=60, 83, 63, 69, 92, 56, 104, 60
• Difficulty Level: songs # 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 beginner / #1, 4, 8 intermediate
• Highest Position Reached: #1 – 3rd, #2 – 5th (just A harmonic). #3 – 2nd, #4 – 5th, #5 – 2nd, #6 – 1st (except for 2nd position harmonic). #7 – 1st, #8 – 6th
• Technique: #2, 3, 5, 6, 7 – bass clef; #1, 4, 8 – bass and tenor clefs; 2/4 and 4/4 time signatures; grace notes, harmonics, glissandos, trills, shouting (#5) accelerando
• Publisher: Sheet Music Plus
• Where to Purchase: www.sheetmusicplus.com
• Cost of Score*: $15.99 digital download

Recording

Program Notes from the Sheet Music

• Lan Hua Hua (Shaanbei): The story of a country girl who flees with her lover to escape from a forced marriage to a rich family.
• Driving the Mule Team (Shaanxi): As a team of mule drivers passes by, a young man looks to see if his girlfriend is among them. The melody, of Shaanxi style, has many fourth and minor seventh intervals.
• The Flowering Stream (Yunnan): Seeing the moon above and the flowing water below, a young girl turns to thoughts of her lover. The rising moon is bright, my sweetheart is in the deep mountain, he is like the moon walking in the sky. My sweetheart! The flowing stream around the mountain is clear. The moon is shining over the hillside. Looking at the moon and thinking of my sweetheart, the breezes are sweeping past the hillside. My sweetheart! Don’t you hear my cry?
• Jasmine Flower (Jiangsu): Jasmine flower, such a beautiful flower, her sweet scent covers all others in the garden. I want to pluck her for myself, but I’m afraid of the garden’s keeper. Jasmine flower, such a beautiful flower, she is as white as snow when she blooms. I want to pluck her for myself, but I am afraid of the gossips. Jasmine flower, such a beautiful flower, her beauty defeats all others in the garden. I want to pluck her for myself, but I’m afraid that she won’t bud in the year to come.
• A Horseherd’s Mountain Song (Yunnan): Folk songs are often about the mundane occurrences of everyday life. A horseherd sings about horses needing to feed on grass and the grass needing the morning dew to grow.
• When will the Acacia Bloom? (Sichuan): A young girl awaits her lover under the Acacia tree. When asked by her mother what she is doing, she becomes embarrassed and replies that she is waiting for the Acacia flowers to bloom.
• A Single Bamboo Can Easily Bend (Hunan): The tune is composed in typical Hunan folk style. The words imply that unity is strength.
• Leaving Home (Shanxi): A wife bids farewell to her husband who is going westward to seek livelihood.

Cellist’s Guide

These lovely songs are quite accessible to beginning and intermediate cellists. As they are quite short, consider pairing several on a student concert or contest.

Teachers may want to purchase the score and assign specific movements to students based on position.

1. This tune is written in bass & tenor clefs and reaches 7th position. Most of the song can be played in open 3rd position.
2. This tune is written in bass clef and can be played in first and open 3rd positions. There is an A harmonic, which can be played at the halfway point on the A string or in 3rd position on the D string.
3. This song is written in bass clef and can be played entirely in 1st or 1st and 2nd positions.
4. This song is written in bass & tenor clefs and reaches 5th position.
5. This tune is written in bass clef and can be played in 1st & 2nd positions. There are three shouts, so assign this to an outgoing person!
6. This tune is written in bass clef and can be played in 1st position with the exception of the E harmonic.
7. This song is written in bass clef and can be played entirely in 1st position.
8. This song is written in bass & tenor clefs and reaches 6th position.

Postcard #2: Seven Etudes for Violoncello Solo by Isang Yun

• Title: Seven Etudes for Violoncello Solo
• Composer: Isang Yun (1917-1995)
• Year Composed: 1993
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Movements: 7
• Duration: 4:00, 2:30, 5:00, 3:30, 7:00, 4:00, 3:00
• Number of Pages: 20
• Number of Measures: 50, 41, 47, 104, 66, 65, 32
• Tempo: quarter = 60, 68, 76, 86, 56, 68, 56
• Difficulty Level: 2 intermediate; 5 advanced
• Highest Position Reached: 7th, thumb, 5th, 5th, 7th, 6th, thumb
• Technique:
  • 1. Legato – bass clef, 5/4 time signature, glissandos, accidentals, harmonics, slurs
  • 2. Leggiero – bass clef, 4/4 time signature, glissandos, pizzicato, trills, triplets & sextuplets, sixteenth & thirty-second notes, one double stop
  • 3. Parlando – bass clef, 6/4 time signature, accidentals, double stops, trills, triplets & sextuplets, harmonics, glissandos, grace notes, left-hand pizzicato
  • 4. Burlesque – bass clef, 3/4 time signature, double stops, glissandos, trills, harmonics, pizzicato
  • 5. Dolce -bass & tenor clefs, 6/4 time signature, glissandos, trills grace notes, compound triplets, con sordino
  • 6. Triller – bass clef, 4/4 time signature, grace notes, trills, glissandos, double stops, left-hand pizzicato, harmonics, triple stops, sextuplets
  • 7. Doppelgriffe – bass & treble clefs, 5/4 time signature, double stops, grace notes, glissandos, trills, harmonics, Sextuplets &. septuplets

1. Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
2. Where to Purchase Complete Score: www.sheetmusicplus.com
3. Cost of Complete Score*: $18.95
4. Where to Purchase Individual Movements for Download (2,99 € ea*): Please note that you will need to buy two etudes to meet the minimum purchase price.
   1. Legato
   2. Leggiero
   3. Parlando
   4. Burlesque
   5. Dolce
   6. Triller
   7. Doppelgriffe

Recordings

Program Notes

In order to demarcate the individual pieces in the cycle, Yun even varies the metrical types: I. Legato (5/4 time), II. Leggiero (4/4), III. Parlando (6/4), IV. Burlesque (3/4), V. Dolce (6/4), VI. Triller [Trills] (4/4), VII. Doppelgriffe [Double Stops] (5/4). In contrast to the predominately twelve-tone idiom of the Glissées, the four etudes for solo cello from 1970, in the Seven Etudes Yun expounds with a few central tones (such as c sharp and a) and the chromatic tones in their immediate vicinity (such as c or d and g sharp or b flat) seemingly simplified relations. In these, he forms a playful-popular performance style based on more concrete shapes and characters. – Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer (translated by Susan Marie Praeder), 2005

Cellist’s Guide

This collection includes two intermediate and five advanced-level etudes. The slow movements, Legato and Dolce, are manageable for the intermediate cellist, while the remaining etudes definitely fall in the advanced category.

Though most movements are written predominantly in the lower positions, the fast-moving 16th and 32nd notes (present throughout the etudes) prove challenging even for a professional player. Additionally, the frequent accidentals throughout the work create patterns with which the left hand is unfamiliar.

Despite being titled “etudes,” these seven studies are rhythmically interesting and tuneful. These works rightfully belong on the concert stage, so consider adding several of these movements to your next recital.

Postcard #3: Seven Tunes Heard in China by Bright Sheng

Bright Sheng (b. December 6, 1955, in Shanghai, China) is a renowned composer, conductor, and pianist celebrated for blending Eastern and Western musical traditions. His musical journey began at the age of four under his mother’s guidance. During China’s Cultural Revolution, Sheng was sent to Qinghai Province, where he spent seven transformative years immersed in the region’s folk music while working as a pianist, conductor, and percussionist with a folk music and dance troupe.

In 1978, Sheng enrolled at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1982. He later moved to the United States, earning a Master of Arts from Queens College and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Columbia University. A recipient of numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001, Sheng is recognized for his innovative contributions to contemporary music.

Among his notable works for cello is Seven Tunes Heard in China (1995), composed for unaccompanied cello. Each movement reflects Sheng’s mastery in adapting traditional Chinese folk melodies to the cello, using inventive techniques to capture the unique character of each tune. Recorded by celebrated cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Alisa Weilerstein, Seven Tunes Heard in China has been praised for its intricate fusion of Eastern melodies and Western instrumental practices.

• Title: Seven Tunes Heard in China
• Composer: Bright Sheng
• Year Composed: 1995
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Movements: 7
• Duration: 20:00
• Number of Pages: 13
• Number of Measures: 27, 32, 18, 100, 112, 50, 199
• Tempo: quarter = 72, 86, 58-60, 40, 108-112, 54, 132-138
• Difficulty Level: advanced/professional
• Highest Position Reached: high thumb
• Technique: bass, tenor, and treble clefs; 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4 time signatures; grace notes, glissandos, trills, harmonics, false harmonics, double stops, triple stops, wide vibrato, left hand tapping the cello body, plucking with a guitar pick, plucking with the nail, left-hand pizzicato, sul tasto, ponticello, and con sordino
• Publisher: Schirmer
• Where to Purchase: www.sheetmusicplus.com
• Cost of Score*: $17.99

Recording

Program Notes

Based on folk melodies and other songs collected by the composer from various regions of China, Seven Tunes Heard in China was written for cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The Pacific Symphony commissioned it for Dr. George Cheng in honor of his wife, Arlene Cheng, to whom the work is dedicated. The movements and their sources are as follows:

• I. Seasons (Quinghai) Spring is coming, Narcissi are blooming,/ The maiden is out from her boudoir seeking,/ My love boy, lend me a hand, please.
• II. Guessing Song (Yunnan) Baby I am testing you:/ What is the long, long thing in the sky?/ What is the long, long thing under the sea?/ What is the long, long thing sold on the street?/ What is the long, long thing in front of you, young girl?
• III. The Little Cabbage (Hebei) The little cabbage is turning yellow on the ground,/ She lost her parents when she was two or three. / Mom, my mom!
• IV. The Drunken Fisherman (Classical) – Classical, based on a tune originally written for the qin, an ancient seven-string Chinese zither.
• V. Diu Diu Dong (Taiwan) The train is coming,/ It is going through the tunnel!
• VI. Pastoral Ballade (Mongolia) White clouds are floating in the blue, blue sky,/ Under the clouds, the grass is covered by the snow-white sheep./ The sheep are like pieces of white silver,/ Spreading over the green, green grass./ How lovely!
• VII. Tibetan Dance (Tibet) – Based on a well-known Tibetan folk dance.

Cellist’s Guide

Seven Tunes Heard in China is a series of short pieces that may be played individually or as a group.

All of the songs except Tibetan Dance heavily favor glissandos, and several include grace notes, which fall on the beat.

Several of the tunes focus on specific techniques. Guessing Song is based on double stops, and The Drunken Fisherman employs a guitar pick and fingernail strumming. Diu Diu Dong includes false harmonics, and Tibetan Dance utilizes cello tapping.

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