The Phoenix Spreads Its Wings is a solo piece played by the sheng.
The Phoenix Spreads Its Wings is a solo piece for sheng played by Dong Hongde and Hu Tianquan in 1956. The phoenix is known as the bird of paradise and is said to be the king of birds, symbolizing beauty and happiness. The piece adopts the tones of the Shanxi Opera and utilizes the various playing techniques of the sheng, vividly depicting the various beautiful postures of the phoenix and expressing the yearning for a better life.
This piece was awarded the Gold Medal in the Folk Music Competition of the Sixth World Youth Festival in 1957, accompanied by pipa. This piece is also the first sheng solo piece composed in mainland China since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and Hu Tianquan is known as the "Father of the Modern Sheng".
The structure of "Phoenix Spreads Its Wings" is described in detail as follows:
The introduction begins with a free, quiet melody played by the accompaniment (a folk band or just the pipa). Then the sheng begins with a powerful triplet pattern, followed by a long, fluttering note played with the huyue technique, as if the phoenix were whooshing its beautiful feathers and lifting its wings to fly.
The first section moves from the key of D to the key of G, and the melody is as beautiful as a song. The short, descending patterns are played with a floral tongue technique, as if the phoenix were singing at the top of its lungs. The second section is slow and fast, light and cheerful, just like the phoenix dancing,
The third section is transferred to the key of A, using folk instrumental music to unfold the common compositional techniques used in the Spike passage, around the center of the tone (re) rotating tunes, and through the tightening of the sentence, so that the music continues to grow forward momentum, and finally blowing out a wide and high long tone to call the tongue, outlining the image of the phoenix spreading its wings and soaring into the sky. The music is a great example of how the phoenix spreads its wings and soars into the sky.
Hu Tianquan's hu tongue technique has been used many times in his performances, greatly enriching the musical image of the phoenix spreading its wings.