Programme Notes

    This ballad is inspired by Pipa Songs by the famous poet, Bai Juyi (772-846). In this poem the poet profoundly felt the bleak destiny and the virtuosity of an instrumentalist.
    The music is essentially based on the superposition of fourth, seconde major, and fifth intervals like in the tuning of a pipa in A, D, E, A. The Chinese string quartet imitates that of a pipa in it’s play and thus creates an ambiance which intermingles two types of instruments. A mixture that finds itself between Chinese and occidental traditions.