Terra Kytaorum

Terra Kytaorum (Land of the Cathayans) is a work for brass ensemble and percussion by the contemporary classical composer Jeffrey Ching. Its subtitle is Souvenir des Yuan, which incorporates it into that composer's series of musical souvenirs based on melodic material from various Chinese dynasties: Souvenir des Tang (1997), Souvenir des Song (1994), and Souvenir des Ming (2002). The present work was completed in London on 31 December 2000.

World premiere and instrumentation

Terra Kytaorum (Souvenir des Yuan) was commissioned by Weltblech (World Brass), who premiered an abridged version in Berlin on 9 January 2001. It is scored for 4 trumpets, horn, 3 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, and 2 percussionists. Played uncut, the complete work, unique in scale in the brass ensemble repertoire, would last over an hour.

Pseudo-historical background

The work is premised on fictitious events from mediaeval history which existed only in the composer's fancy. Ching writes:

The last Mongol emperor to reign in Beijing, heir to the Yuan dynasty of Khubilai Khan, was intrigued by the idea of bringing together the religious music of his many subject peoples in one of the great biannual sacrifices to Confucius. (The Muslims, contemptuous of idolatrous practices, were not ordered to take part.) For the climactic ritual before the spirit tablets of Confucius and his four leading disciples, the emperor, who was an enthusiastic clockmaker (like another famous last ruler, Louis XVI of France), hit upon the idea of the five musical styles overlapping, like the co-ordinated mechanism of clock parts moving at different speeds (section 10 below). The experiment, although opposed by conservative mandarins, had a certain success, and was only spoilt at some points by the screams of the political prisoners being tortured or executed in a nearby suburb—victims of court purges for whom the gentle teachings of Confucius must have seemed an irrelevant hypocrisy.

This pseudo-history is developed into the following fifteen-part musical structure.

The sections of the work

Most of the hymns are preceded by announcements by the third trombone chanting into his instrument from backstage, impersonating a herald speaking in 14th-century Mandarin.

Then the offstage trombone chants: "Open the [temple] doors!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "May it please you to proceed to the place of ablution!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Mount the steps [to the temple]!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Proceed to the front of the Spirit Tablet of the The Greatly Accomplished and Most Holy Prince of Promulgated Civilisation [i.e. Confucius]!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Let the Official for the Ceremonial Victuals advance with the Ritual Tray!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Proceed to the front of the Spirit Tablet of the The Greatly Accomplished and Most Holy Prince of Promulgated Civilisation [i.e. Confucius]!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Let the Second Presentation Official perform the rites!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Let those in charge of the ceremonial victuals clear away the food vessels!"

Afterwards, the offstage trombone chants: "Let the various assistants withdraw to their original places!"

Overall form

The whole work is described as "rondo-variations". The "rondo" element comes from the recurring variations in different historical Chinese styles. The "variations" are not on any one theme (although the original hymns are so similar as to seem to be mere variants of each other), but are, rather, stylistic parodies in the tradition of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Historical source material

Nearly all the musical material of Terra Kytaorum—hymn melodies, keys, instrumentation, the varied national styles, non-standard tuning, and percussion patterns—may be verified in encyclopaedia articles, specialist journals and monographs, doctoral dissertations, Chinese treatises and records from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Western travellers’ reports, and transcriptions by others or Ching himself from ethnographic recordings. The two samples of Ming imperial signature were scanned at Ching's request by Mr Peter Lam, Director of the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

References

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