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University of Missouri—Kansas CitySteven D. Davis, Conductor

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Chen Yi: Ba Yin (The Eight Sounds)

PRISM QuartetTimothy McAllister soprano saxophoneZachary Shemon alto saxophoneMatthew Levy tenor saxophone Taimur Sullivan baritone saxophone

Members of the Conservatory Wind SymphonyUniversity of Missouri—Kansas City Conservatory of Music and DanceSteven D. Davis conductorAllison Duncan fluteGreg Stead oboeLaura Zitelli clarinetJoshua Draves-Kellerman bassoonBen Bacni French hornJen Oliverio trumpetChris White tromboneWilliam Shaltis percussionChristopher Larson percussion

This recording was made possible with generous support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

Commissioned by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the original version of Ba Yin (The Eight Sounds) was written for and premiered by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on October 27, 2001 in Stuttgart, Germany. I adapted the work for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble for the PRISM Quartet and UMKC Wind Symphony under Steven Davis. This new version was premiered on October 4, 2015 at Helzberg Hall of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri.In ancient China, music was called “The Eight Sounds” (Ba Yin), as it was played with eight kinds of instruments made with metal, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather, and wood. In my concerto, Ba Yin, I use a saxophone quartet and a chamber wind ensemble to recall my impressions of music played by villagers on old traditional instruments in various ensembles in China. The first movement, “Praying for Rain,” is inspired by music played in a ritual ceremony, featuring a wind instrument called the suona (similar to the European shawm, made with wood) and sheng (a free-reed mouth-organ, made with gourd). The music moves from slow to fast. The wind ensemble provides sheng-like sustained chords in the background while the quartet plays in a heterophonic style imitating tunes played by a group of suona players. The second movement, “Song of the Chu” (the name of a state in the Zhou Dynasty, located in the middle of China) is influenced by a traditional Chinese solo piece with the same title, featuring the sound of xun (a wind instrument made from clay). The quartet and the wind ensemble imitate a group of xun with crying sounds to the harmony of metal bells and stone chimes.The title of the third movement, “Shifan Gong-and-drum,” is taken from the name of the ensembles of “silk-and-bamboo with gong-and-drum” in Southeast China. Shifan literally means “ten times” and indicates multiple variations. “Silk-and-bamboo” refers to stringed and wind instruments. While the saxophone quartet plays melodic material, the entire wind ensemble imitates a group of percussion instruments. The music reaches a climax at the end of the concerto.

NOTES by Chen Yi

Photo by Matt Zugale

Chen YiAs a Distinguished Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, a prolific composer, and a recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dr. Chen Yi blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending boundaries to improve understanding between people of different cultural backgrounds. She holds a BA and MA in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and a DMA from Columbia University in New York City. Her major teachers included Wu Zuqiang, Chou Wen-chung, and Mario Davidovsky. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.Dr. Chen’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by the world’s leading musicians and ensembles, including Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC, Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore symphonies, the Brooklyn, NY, and LA philharmonics, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her music has also been recorded for Bis, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Telarc, Albany, New World, Naxos, Quartz, Delos, Angel, Bridge, Nimbus, KIC, XAS, and China Record Company.Dr. Chen has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Other honors include first prize from the Chinese National Composition Contest, the Lili Boulanger Award, the NYU Sorel Medal Award, the CalArts/Alpert Award, the UT Eddie Medora King Composition Prize, the ASCAP Concert Music Award, the Elise Stoeger Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Friendship Ambassador Award from Edgar Snow Fund, and the UMKC Kauffman Award in Artistry/Scholarship and in Faculty Service.

Steven D. DavisSteven D. Davis has conducted across four continents, leading performances of wind ensembles, orchestras, opera, ballet, and new music ensembles. Davis serves as the Rose Ann Carr Millsap Missouri Distinguished Professor of Music and Professor of Conducting at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance. At UMKC, he has initiated countless cross-genre and interdisciplinary collaborations and led many world premiere performances of works by today’s leading composers.

PRISM QuartetIntriguing programs of great beauty and breadth have distinguished the PRISM Quartet as one of America’s foremost chamber ensembles. “A bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets” (The New York Times), PRISM has performed in Carnegie Hall on the Making Music Series, in Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and throughout Latin America, China, and Russia under the auspices of the United States Information Agency and USArtists International. PRISM has also been presented to critical acclaim as soloists with the Detroit Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, and conducted residencies at the nation’s leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory. Two-time recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, PRISM has commissioned nearly 300 works, many by internationally celebrated composers, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Julia Wolfe, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Zhou Long, and Bernard Rands, and MacArthur “Genius” Award recipients Bright Sheng, Tyshawn Sorey, and Miguel Zenón. PRISM’s discography includes releases on Albany, BMOP/Sound, ECM, innova, Koch, Naxos, New Dynamic, New Focus, and its own label, XAS Records. The Fifth Century, PRISM’s ECM recording with The Crossing under Donald Nally, was awarded a 2018 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. In 2016, PRISM was named by its alma mater, the University of Michigan, as the first recipient of the Christopher Kendall Award in recognition of its work in

“collaboration, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.” The PRISM Quartet performs exclusively on Selmer saxophones.

Ba Yin (The Eight Sounds) for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble (2001/2015)Chen Yi (b. 1953)

Praying for Rain 8:16Song of the Chu 4:16Shifan Gong-and-drum 5:46

Recorded October 4, 2015White Recital HallJames C. Olson Performing Arts CenterUniversity of Missouri—Kansas City

Executive Producer: Matthew LevyProducers: Chen Yi, Steven D. Davis, PRISM QuartetAssistant Producers: Jamie Nix, Adam Fontana, Chris Kaatz, Derek Shapiro, Alastair WrightLead Session Engineer: Jason ScheuflerAssistant Session Engineers: Robert Beck, A.J. Harbison, Sean Himmelberg, Trevor SmithEditing/Mixing: Matthew LevyMastering: Matthew Levy, Katsu Naito

XAS Records is the label of the PRISM Quartet©Ⓟ PRISM Quartet, Inc. 2019All Rights Reservedwww.prismquartet.com

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