Guzheng Plays Another Music
2010-12
Inspired by the cross-cultural possibilities of the zheng, Sze-Lorrain plays and adapts popular European and American melodies for her performance repertoire. Created in the summer of 2007, this is a new improvisation and composition collaboration that is part of the "Bridging Cultures" project.
"Guzheng Plays Another Music" explores a selection of popular non-Chinese music—traditional and contemporary—on the pentatonic guzheng. It is a unique harmony combination that offers a new musical landscape on an ancient Chinese instrument.
Selected Adaptations:
French Chansons
Le temps des cerises (Jean-Baptiste Clément/Antoine Renard)
La vie en rose (Edith Piaf/Louigy)
Sous le ciel de Paris (Edith Piaf/Louigy)
Les feuilles mortes (Jacques Prévert/Joseph Kosma)
Hymns & Celtic Melodies
Amazing Grace (John Newton)
Suo Gân (Traditional Welsh Lullaby)
American Folk Songs
Oh! Susanna (Stephen Foster)
Swanee River (Stephen Foster)
Classical Music
Arioso (J.S. Bach)
Largo from the “New World” Symphony (Antonin Dvoràk)
Silent Night (Franz Xaver Gruber)
Others
Für Alina (Arvo Pärt)
Hebrew Heaven (adapted from the film, Schindler's List)