His recent music - only one piece [on Mode Records, "Brush-Stroke"] is from the 90s, part of the piano suite My Windows - has developed the idea of 'one-note polyphony', an extension of his interest in the spectral harmonies of guqin music. The title piece, performed by Stephen Drury's Callithumpian Consort, combines a very narrow pitch set, signature motifs on the dominant woodwinds, interspersed with wild percussion passages and moments of almost total stasis.
This approach is even more clearly evident in the instrumental pieces. The My Windows sequence ends on three full bars of rest, to allow the accumulated resonances to die away. Built around just six pitches, it's virtuoso writing of the subtlest sort. Other pieces are more extreme, in the sense that they flirt with extremity. Serashi Fragments, for The Arditti Quartet, is fiercely technical but expressive. Memories of Xiaoxiang for alto saxophone and tape might almost be an alternative soundtrack for Woman of the Dunes, its wailing, ghostly cry played on a detached mouthpiece, its storyline delivered in a Chinese opera version of recitative. Lei Liang requires the harpsichordist on Some Empty Thoughts of a Person from Edo to pluck and palm strings in an approximation of lute or koto music. Some of the playing (the composer's wife Takae Ohnishi) borders on violence, but there is also a delicate lullaby, interrupted by wild shouts.
Lei Liang is an important musical philosopher, coming into mature expression. The carefully won emptiness of his thought allows sound to flow and cohere in new directions and forms. East and West lose any slack associations."
-
Brian Morton,
The Wire
(UK)
“[Verge] is extremely beautiful
music versus extremely fast music. The piece is also
unusual in the way that it's set up - it's for 18 string
players grouped in four quartets, and then, on the left and
right, double basses.”
-
Magnus Lindberg,
Time Out New York
“The opening [of Verge], an
atmospheric haze of sounds laced with soft bow scrapes and
cosmic high harmonics, seems not very pitch-oriented. Soon,
however, melodic fragments and thick, piercing chords
emerge, along with a plaintive theme meant to evoke
Mongolian chant. At one point the music breaks into a
grimly urgent episode, as the instruments dispatch
perpetual-motion riffs. 'Verge'
ends in spiritual
calm, though the sustained chords are still pierced with
ethereal scratching sounds.”
-
Anthony Tommasini,
The New York Times
“A highlight [of New York
Philharmonic's Contact!] was Lei Liang's
Verge
for 18 strings.
With musicians divided into four sections arranged
spatially across the stage, Liang builds on the concept of
lines converging and diverging across several sections. A
sparse, primitive opening gives way to dramatic explosions
of sound, and tough pizzicatos lead into some traditional
Mongolian melodies. The Philharmonic's strings gave a taut,
sensitive realisation of the piece.”
-
Brian Wise,
The Strad
"This disc [Mode Records,
"Brush-Stroke"] features a flute solo piece entitled 'In
Praise of Shadows.' The title is taken from Jun’ichirō
Tanizaki’s essay, and it demonstrates the composer’s
empathy with Japanese aesthetics. Born in China and now
based in the US, Lei Liang (b.1972) departs from the
Chinese 'New Wave' composers that include Tan Dun, Zhou
Long and Chen Yi. It is not clear whether their discrepancy
results from generational or personal differences, but in
any case, his music transcends nationalism. A lament for
alto sax and electronic was written for one of the 'New
Wave' composers, Mo Wu-ping (1959-93) who died prematurely.
The collage of sound material associated with an opera by
Mo Wu-ping, along with the color of ethnic music convey a
sense of melancholy. The opening piece 'Serashi Fragments'
is played by the Arditti Quartet. Although the piece
contains elements of Mongolian instrumental music, its
musical intention and sonic features are extremely
abstract. It must be said that this disc embraces a broad
vision of attributes that are quintessential to Asia,
encompassing those of Japan, China, and Mongolia."
-
Kazushi Ishida,
The Record Geijutsu
(Japan)
“As a composer, scholar, and
active conservationist of cultural traditions, Lei Liang is
a humanist who offers a broad artistic vision for the
twenty-first century…Liang aims at a deeper philosophical
engagement with musical sound as a tool for reflection and
contemplation, while resisting exoticized and formulaic
treatment of Asian musical elements….Liang’s music is
deeply philosophical, yet sensual, evocative, yet abstract,
and disciplined, yet spontaneous. Suffice to say, his music
is autobiographical: it is as if with each brushstroke,
Liang reclaims his cultural identity through refracting
memories of people, concepts, and objects onto a vast
musical canvas. And in this way, he pays homage to
tradition while embracing a global perspective and invites
the listener to participate in a journey that transcends
cultural boundaries.”
-
Yayoi Uno Everett, Liner Notes (Mode Records)
“Not only is Lei Liang one of
the important Chinese composers of the new generation, he
is also a fine example of something Chou Wen-chung calls
for: the rebirth of the venerable wenren
tradition – the
tradition of the artist/scholar.”
-
Edward Green,
Contemporary Music Review
“Lei Liang’s composition ‘Other
Encounter’ (1999), places him at the cutting edge of Twenty
First Century music. His innovative combinations of
timbres, rhythms, states of being create a gripping
panorama that results in musical theater that commands the
attention of the listener throughout the piece as its
emotional intensity expands and contracts until the
composer, the very gifted Lei Liang, allows the listener to
disengage…perhaps as a slightly different being than the
one who existed at the beginning of the piece. We should
keep an ear open to Lei Liang and his startling music.”
-
George Russell, Author of
The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization
“Lei Liang's
Yuan
is a 15-minute tour
de force in which the saxophones sometimes scurry with such
precision of articulation and intonation that you can
scarcely believe that their sounds are not
computer-generated. Lei Liang explains that his piece was
inspired by three diverse meaning of the Chinese
syllable yuan:
injustice,
lamentation, and prayer. All three overlap in a Hunan folk
tale involving retribution for a lapse in the legal system,
and the intonations and vocal contours of that story's text
are refelcted in the saxophones' melodies: a dense example
of profound cross-culturalism.”
-
James M. Keller,
Chamber Music
“Lei Liang's spare, mostly
soft-spoken Trio for Piano, Cello and Percussion (2002)
drew its power mainly from Mr. Liang's peculiar
instrumentation. The piano and cello lines often seemed
mainly foils for the percussion writing, in which layers of
delicate tracery in the outer sections were offset by a
brief but vigorous drum solo at the center.”
-
Allan Kozinn,
The New York Times
“Serashi Fragments” featured
the Arditti Quartet and it is only 7
minutes, yet extremely intense
for its duration. From sparse moments to fractured shards,
this music is demanding to the musicians as well as the
listeners. I love the way the strings sound as if they are
about to leap out of the speakers as they move from silence
to explosiveness. “Some Empty Thoughts...” is for solo
harpsichord and even this ancient instrument is transformed
into a more Eastern or koto-like sound. Stark at times with
sections of intense eruptions. “Memories of Xiaoxiang” is
for alto sax & tape and is a scary piece about a woman
whose husband is murdered by a local official. The sax
mouthpiece wails and tapes of the woman's voice & other
violent sounds are used. This piece is often extreme yet
most effective. “Trio” is for cello, piano & percussion
and it was inspired by a snowstorm. The three instruments
are constantly shifting positions and are played in
different combinations. I am reminded of the way a
kaleidoscope slowly transforms visual ideas into other
things. “My Windows” is for solo piano in four movements.
It sounds like the piano is being used to paint a picture
of the world as it evolves through time from a calm
beginning to more restless volcanic activity with dark
waves occurring at times. The final piece is the title
piece and it is performed by the Callithumpian Consort, a
chamber orchestra. This piece is eerie with high notes
sliding into one another for the reeds, horns and strings.
Each note is carefully placed so that each part of the
piece evokes different feelings with some disturbing vocals
near the end. This piece is a perfect conclusion to a
fascinating disc that covers a great deal of stylistic
ground.
-
Bruce Lee Gallanter,
Downtown Music Gallery
“Gobi Gloria
is a work to be
reckoned with on many levels—perhaps the most intricate and
persuasive work [on Telarc Records album “Dim Sum”].”
-
Steve Ritter,
Audiophile Audition
"The music of Chinese composer
Lei Liang (b.1972), now based in the US, is immediately
distinctive due to its lack of cliché. The current brand of
musical 'chinoiserie' written for public consumption is
reductive, taking certain narrow traditions and relishing
their dearth in the name of popular success. Liang, in
contrast, is expansive. He begins with the music of his
roots, far from cosmopolitan, and explores the netherworlds
of these sounds. Liang is sure to be a fine discovery for
the open-eared...Overall, much is to be praised here [Lei
Liang "Brush-Stroke", Mode 210]: the sumptuous without the
ostentatious."
-
Dan Albertson,
La Folia
"Gobi
Gloria,
written by Lei Liang in 2006, was especially arresting for
its simplicity, soulfulness and sheer beauty.”
-
Harvey Steiman,
Aspen Times
“[The Meridian Arts Ensemble]
began with Lei Liang's Ascension,
a frenetic work that explores the sonic virility of each
instrument. Some of the melodic lines here were mere
utterances, and sometimes each musician was asked to utter,
too. The work was girded by powerful and rhythmic
percussion, which showcased Ferrari's great talents. At
times during this bracing piece, the instruments would come
together in unison for great tonal effect - as if musical
time had moved backward to when atonality had not been
born.”
-
Edward Ortiz,
The Sacramento Bee
What is most rapidly noticed
after listening to the album [Brush-Stroke] is the intent,
for the most part successful, to flee from the weight of a
musical tradition that burdened Chinese avant-garde
creation for decades.
Lei Liang (a student of H. Birtwistle, Chaya Czernowin,
among others) appears to have taken on the grammar of
European avant-garde completely. Fortunately, the work of
this composer goes beyond the mere absorption of the usual
habits of the old continent’s modernism, an error in which
not few composers/imitators incur when rejecting their
traditional cultures and turn themselves into mere
emulators without personality. Liang, on the contrary,
sporadically hints, masterfully, at bits of Chinese
folklore; but instead of falling into the anecdote or
exoticism, he opens a small window into a type of sonority
that, in the midst of the abstract calligraphic framework
of his pieces, entices an effect of longing, rare
remoteness, or, in the case of Memories of
Xiaoxiang, an uneasy presence.
The Arditti Quartet takes part in the opening piece of the
disc, Serashi
Fragments, a homage to the Mongolian
musician Serashi, d. 1968, one of the most important
personalities of Mongolia’s popular culture. Lei Liang’s
work, using violent contrasts and comfortable
pianissimo,
showcases different
techniques such as pizz sul pont,
staccatissimo, harmonic glissandos
and other
speculative practices that remind us, in a more radical
way, Serashi’s style of playing, in this case, using the
violin to cite melodies of Mongolian roots.
A different world, that of Zen Buddhism, appears in
Some Empty
Thoughts of a Person from Edo, a piece for harpsichord (that
comes to us performed by its dedicatee, Takae Ohnishi).
This piece, fortunately, escapes the empty virtuosity in
which many works written for this instrument inexplicably
incur. In certain passages, Lei Liang treats the
harpsichord like a lute, manipulating the strings, creating
uncomfortable silence and producing bitter dissonances in a
context of a play of shadows and responses that include
reminiscences of Japanese koto music.
It is in Memories of
Xiaoxiang, the gem of the CD, where Lei
Liang lets his origins be seen. Written for saxophone and
electronic music, this piece recalls a tragic incident that
took place in the Hunan region during the Cultural
Revolution. There, the wife of a man who was tortured to
death for being considered a traitor to the regime decided
to turn herself into a ghostly shadow in order to induce
the official in charge of the execution into madness and
suicide. Half fact half myth, Liang captures the woman’s
laments through whispers in the saxophone and introduces,
in the tape part, fragments of recitations recorded at the
Peking Opera. The resultant collage, violent and, from a
certain perspective, sinister, results in a novel
composition that is heard with a wince of amazement.
The album concludes with the notable Brush-Stroke
for chamber
orchestra (performed by the Callithumpian Consort conducted
by Stephen Drury). Inspired by Chinese calligraphy, Lei
Liang develops a compelling work in the timbral aspect
through an original technique that he himself has named
‘one-note polyphony,’ in which during the execution of one
note and over its resonance, another notes emerges played
by another instrument giving the resulting sound a
ritualistic quality. In this work, Liang also explores
sounds that emulate those of the guqin,
a Chinese string instrument similar to the zither. A score
based on transitions in which the whole weight of the piece
rests, Brush-Stroke
also houses hints
of Japanese Gagaku and of the Aak (the ancient music of the
Korean courts). A final rhythmic sequence ends this dense
score, which never loses its powerful breath of
spontaneity.
I do not know any other Chinese composer capable of
embracing his past from a global and transcendental
perspective, overcoming outdated watertight compartments,
understanding today’s music as a free space where, with the
aid of talent, everything can be made
fit.
-
Ismael G. Cabral,
Chorro de luz
[Spain]
“Liang's compositions take
compellingly contrasting paths. The wonderfully
fractured Serashi
Fragments, played by the sterling Arditti
String Quartet, darts around the recesses of your noggin
like Norman Bates wrestling with his mom-fixation and Janet
Leigh. The stark yet tender, yearning In Praise of
Shadows for unaccompanied flute
encapsulates Eastern mysteries without being cornball or
hokey. The solo piano suite My Windows
evokes the
beautiful simplicity of Chopin and the elegant eruptions of
McCoy Tyner. While Brush-Stroke
isn't entirely
'easy' listening, Liang doesn't go out of his way to
rebuff/alienate the Listener with a lot of dense or arcane
hoo-hah. Rooted in Chinese and Western music, his stuff is
prickly but has heart. We need that, y'know?"
-
Mark Keresman,
ICON
“I was captivated by the
Trio
of Lei Liang...
Liang’s opening, with utmost delicacy, reminded me of
Takemitsu. But the piece opens out forcefully, and in the
end recedes, in a big arc. Along the way, percussionist
Christopher Froh let loose a mighty cadenza that rocked
Herbst Theatre.”
-
Paul Hertelendy,
Arts San Francisco
"Gobi
Gloria,
influenced by Mongolian folk music, is especially
interesting in that the instruments frequently do not
accompany the primary melodic line, but create rhythmic
underpinning or additional melodic layers, often with
varying speeds and textures."
-
Art Lange,
Fanfare
“In a Chinese folk tale dating
back to the Cultural Revolution, a woman ululates like a
restless specter in the woods near the home of the official
responsible for her husband's death. Both descend into
madness. In his 'Yuan for saxophone quartet,' Chinese-born
American composer Lei Liang chillingly embodies the ghost
with unearthly-sounding saxophones, seemingly blowing just
behind a dark canopy of trees. The piece is a highlight
of Antiphony
[Innova Records].
Liang opts to highlight PRISM's fleecy, pure harmonies.”
-
Doyle Armbrust,
Time Out Chicago
“Liang's 'Brush-Stroke,'
inspired by Chinese calligraphy, felt abstract and
weightless. Much of the music coalesces around long-held
notes which undergo subtle change in color and dynamics.
The fragility makes all the more powerful the arrival of a
wild episode driven by outbursts from the percussion.”
-
David Weininger,
The Boston Globe
“The [Callithumpian] Consort
gave an impeccable performance of Liang’s concentrated and
very beautiful works.”
-
Michael Miller,
The Berkshire Review of the Arts
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria…reveal a conscious blending of
sounds, techniques and ideas from traditional Chinese music
with the string quartet of the Western classical tradition.
This delightful and innovative music brings a fresh
perspective, suggesting intriguing possibilities for the
future of the string quartet.”
-
New Classics, Chamber Music (UK)
“Lei Liang’s Trio
was a compelling
piece…The ethereal, abstract sonorities it created on
piano, cello, and percussion at the beginning and end had
little to do with the modal middle section that not only
evoked dance rhythms, but itself
danced. The
aesthetic distance traversed over the short span was
refreshing, owing in large part to the concision and
clarity of each individual phrase or figure.”
-
Jonathan Wilkes,
San Francisco Classical Voice
“Lei Liang’s
Gobi
Gloria is remarkable for its
expressive range, creating a feeling of vastness of space
and timelessness that are appropriate to its subject, the
great desert of Mongolia.”
-
New Classik Reviews
(Atlanta Audio Society)
“Lei Liang’s Gobi Gloria
(2007) fascinated
through tonal coloring. The viola opened with a broadly
played motif, leading to a variety of discrete sections
held together with a droning cello sound. Rhythmic
galloping effects conjured fleet horses. Liang displayed
great potential for success, and the Ying Quartet did him
justice.”
-
C.J. Gianakaris,
Kalamazoo Gazette
“Lei Liang’s intense “Gobi Gloria” features evocative
Mongolian folk tunes and aptly evokes traditions such as
throat singing and shaman rituals.”
-
Vivien Schweitzer,
Concord Music Group
“Liang’s haunting Gobi Gloria
featured
spectacular, declamatory passages, which the Ying performed
with passion and grace.”
-
Tamara Bernstein,
The Globe and Mail
(Toronto)
“Chinese-born American Composer
Lei Liang's Memories of
Xiaoxiang, for alto saxophone and
electronics, pays plaintive tribute both to a tragic event
occurring in the Xiaoxiang region of Hunan Province, and to
composer Mo Wu-ping, who attempted to complete an opera
based upon this even before his untimely death. In doing
so, Liang pairs the ghostly wailing of the saxophone with
field recordings of folk music and voices specific to the
region, as well as vocal samples of Mo Wu-ping, forming a
coherent constellation of memories and references.”
-
Alexander Sigman,
Search - Journal for New Music and
Culture
“The UC San Diego professor Lei
Liang paid homage to the legendary Mongolian fiddler
Serashi with his “Gobi Gloria.” The quirky, almost
improvisatory solo with its leaps and jumps, adroitly
rendered by violinist Timothy Ying, conveys everything from
galloping horses to what seemed like a lullaby.”
-
Paul Hertelendy,
Arts San Francisco
“Lei Liang’s music is different from that of Western
composers, and distinct among those of his Chinese
compatriots. Underneath his exquisite and unadorned
melodies, there is a wealth of timbral nuances…During a
time when most contemporary music seems to alienate the
audience, such elegant and tranquil music surprises and
refreshes the listeners. ”
-
Ban Lixia,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]:
Review
“Liang is a Chinese-born composer who much admires
Mongolian music. He fashioned this evocative 10-minute
piece, which at times sounds akin to something one might
hear emanating from a yurt, and at other times stands
firmly in the concert music camp.”
-
Chuck Klaus,
The Post-Standard
“Lei Liang spoke briefly before the performance of his
piece, Serashi
Fragments. He discussed his background;
most noteworthy was that he has championed and preserved
the music of Serashi, a Mongolian folk musician who died in
1968. In a way, Liang’s piece began with this spoken
preface....Liang’s enthusiasm for Serashi as a musical and
cultural figure made it apparent that the music was much
more for him than simply source material from a folk
tradition.
“As a
result, the section of the piece most reminiscent of
Serashi’s music carried with it an additional layer of
meaning. The outer sections that contrasted this soulful
moment featured bursts of activity, as if Liang were
deconstructing the fiddling style itself — breaking it up
into its constituent parts of sharp attacks, noisy
overbowing, carefully controlled harmonics, short
glissandos, and silence. I was most taken when the
fragments finally coalesced into more continuous music, but
the overall form was always clear and convincing.”
-
Jonathan Wilkes,
San Francisco Classical Voice Chamber Music
Review
On Lei Liang’s (b. 1972) “Gobi
Gloria,” Mongolian folk music plays a crucial role in his
musical voice. Growing up in China, he often heard cheerful
Mongolian folk melodies arranged for the erhu, but it was
discovering the recordings of the legendary Mongolian
fiddle player Serashi (1887-1968) that truly transformed
Lei Liang’s language. Here, he found a magical range of
expression – in his own words, “a solitude, a timelessness,
a vastness of space.” “Gobi Gloria” captures this
extraordinary spirit through highly ornamented and often
independently moving, layered lines weaving throughout the
quartet. Melodies are played against their own inversions,
retrogrades, and retrograde-inversions. Various sections of
the piece reflect different styles of Mongolian music, such
as throat singing and long-chant, as well as dance and
shaman rituals. The movement concludes with a breathtaking
setting of a folk song from the Nei Monggol region of
Mongolia.
-
Telarc International
“[Lei Liang’s Memories of
Xiaoxiang] is emotional, dramatic,
easily understood and felt by the audience. The response
was overwhelming.”
-
David Raymond,
The
Saxophone Journal
“Lei Liang’s work
[Extend]
allowed the guanzi player to expand upon the work’s melodic
contour via improvised pitch fragment enhancement,
delivering vanguard music from one of the world’s most
ancient instruments.”
-
Don Kechman,
Los Angeles Times
“Through his concert, Lei Liang communicates to his
audience not only a deep sense of nostalgia, bold thinking,
innovative sounds, but also an immense question mark
targeted at all conventionally accepted musical
conceptions. In his works, the audience savors the charm of
the music of the literati. Lei Liang’s music derives from
the inter-weavings of arts and language; it also contests
the linguistic and artistic limits of music. His music is
both audacious and delicate; it is modern, yet a
traditional spirit seeps through tenaciously. It poses a
true challenge to our ingrained musical thinking.”
-
Xie Jia-xing,
Yinyue Zhoubao
[Music Weekly]
“Lei Liang rejects the habitual imitation of Chinese
musical features. Instead, there are ghostly weepings and
prolonged silences. The many technical clichés of modern
music are purged completely. In Against Piano
[for two pianists]
and Garden Eight
[for any solo
instrument], he uses the strangely beautiful sounds to
create a transcendental world of changing colors. The
concert intensifies in an atmosphere of invocation. The
audience in the city of Xi’an received Lei Liang with great
enthusiasm. They regarded his arrival as the cause of a
musical whirlwind.”
-
Xia Yan-zhou,
Yinyue Shenghuo
[Musical Life]
“The
shock brought by Lei Liang to the Chinese musical scene was
expressed in elegance and modesty. In Peking Opera
Soliloquy [for alto saxophone], Lei Liang
does not portray the underlying story realistically.
Rather, he creates an artistic atmosphere by applying the
impressionistic technique found in traditional Chinese
arts. The audience experiences the trance-like aftershock
of a calamity; they are awakened by the tearing apart of
body and soul in a personal tragedy. Through the musical
unfolding of Dialectal
Percussions [for multiple percussion], the
audience’s spiritual world is cleansed; an imaginary
artistic world attains infinity in an instant moment of
purity and brightness. The process and outcome are the
ultimate realm of faith; they are also the ultimate realm
of art.”
-
Ming Yan,
Renmin Yinyue
[People’s Music]
“Having the greatest impact aurally and visually was the
premiere of Lei Liang’s Peking Opera
Soliloquy. This work incorporated
special lighting, body movement, and contemporary
techniques to dramatize the story behind the work, the life
of a Chinese woman during the Cultural Revolution. Her
husband is killed by authorities and in retaliation she
goes to the home of the responsible official and wails all
night; she does this until eventually both become mad.
Shyen Lee’s performance reflected elements of Chinese
music. ”
- Jackie Lamar, The Saxophone Symposium