China I - Shanghai, Songs of Departure for voice and piano

Abstract

China I - Shanghai is the first work of a cycle called the China Quartet. The work is a setting of four poems by the great Chinese poet Li Po. It suggests the various human emotions involved when departures take place under several different circumstances. The composer’s endeavor was to highlight these emotions by the use of leit motifs, word painting, contrasting thematic material, and sudden harmonic changes.