Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Let me tell you some background:)

"South Pacific" is a 1949 Broadway Musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II based on the book "Tales of the South Pacific", which is sung by a French planter Emile de Becque and Nellie Forbush, an American Navy nurse, singing the piece together confessing their love for each other, also hoping their love won't fade away as time passes. "Princess Changpeng" is a Chinese legend about the love story between Princess Changpeng and a scholar Zhou Xian during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). "The Fragrant Death" which is sung by the both male and female lead roles - Zhou Xian and Princess Changpeng, expressing their love for each other also informing the audience about their suicide at the end of the scene, which is the finale of the opera.
“Some Enchanted Evening” is a show tune in C major. The instrumentation include a piccolo/flute, oboe/English horn, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp, 8 violin plays (2 for first violin, 2 for second violin, 2 for third violin and 2 for fourth violin), 3 violas, 2 cellos and double bass. (See appendix 1)The story is set on 2 islands in the South Pacific during WWII. “Princess Changpeng” is opera in G major, the C note in the score is raised slightly from the standard sub dominant (4th degree) more in accordance with natural harmonics, which means whenever there is a C note in the score; it is more akin to the C #of a piano key. There are only Chinese strings, woodwind and percussion instruments in the band but no brass. String instruments include erhu (like a viola), gaohu (high pitched, like a violin), yehu (made of coconut shell, low pitched like cello, but in a petite size), yangqin (a hammered dulcimer, like the Hungarian cymbalon) and pipa (4-stringed, played by plucking, also known as the Chinese lute). Woodwinds include dizi (Chinese flute) and houguan (Chinese oboe). Also, both pieces have the same meter of common time.

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