Aaron Avshalomov spent nearly thirty years in China, lured there by the
sounds of its street music, its ancient opera, costumes and legends, all
encountered as a child in the Chinese quarter of Nikolaďevsk, his Siberian
birthplace. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 he escaped,
travelling through North China en route to the USA where he met and married
Esther Magidson in San Francisco. Finding life there hard, however, and with
the sounds of China still in his head, he decided to return to China in 1918.
Between then and 1947 he worked to evolve a synthesis of Chinese musical
elements with Western techniques of composing for symphony orchestra and
theatre.
Making his living in Bejing primarily as a bookseller, Avshalomov
composed and produced his first opera, Kuan Yin (Goddess of Mercy)
in 1924. During a sojourn in the USA from 1925 to 1929, he was able to get
a production of it at the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. Returning
to China, he continued composing in the Chinese vein while studying not
only ancient Chinese classical music, but also folk and temple music, as
well as street cries. The music he composed was based on the various
five-tone (pentatonic) scales as well as the whole-tone scale and Indian
modes. He was very much taken with the 'plaintive and curly' qualities of
Chinese melody and he adopted the full panoply of Chinese percussion
instruments and ornaments, such as grace-notes and slides.
Almost all his compositions, however, involved the Western orchestra.
Although he was self-taught as a composer, he developed a fine skill at
orchestration - brilliant and evocative. As to form, when writing
symphonies and concertos, he followed the classic/romantic models, but
later used unforeseeable shifts of key (modulation) to avoid the potential
monotony of the oriental scales. With this palette and a temperament both
romantic and poetic, he created between 1933 and 1949 a considerable
output which included The Dream of Wei Lien, The Soul of the Ch'in,
Buddha and the Five Planetary Deities, a Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto,
the First Symphony, and The Hutungs of Peking, all of which were
successfully presented in Shanghai.
All the while he encouraged Chinese composers to cherish their own
musical heritage, and to avoid jumping on the various Western band-wagons,
but to evolve a new kind of Chineseness. Many of those Chinese musicians
are leading figures today. During his last three years in China Avshalomov
conducted the Shanghai Symphony. All in all, he was a major figure in the
cultural life of China up to the time of the Revolution of 1949.
The high point of that career were the elaborate productions of his
music-drama The Great Wall which received the patronage of both Mme
Sun Yat Sen and Mme Chiang Kai Shek - the two Soong sisters who ended up
on opposite sides of the Chinese Revolution. Gala performances (more than
thirty) of Avshalomov's masterpiece were given for the galaxy of foreign
residents and visitors then shining in China, not to forget the Chinese
musical community.
During World War II Avshalomov and his second wife, Tatiana, were kept
under house arrest by the Japanese, along with many of his associates, In
1947 he emigrated to the USA where I had established myself and my family.
Despite his acclaim in China, when he came to America that eminence did
not translate into a career there. He lived in Los Angeles and New York
largely unknown - notwithstanding performances of his works by Stokowski,
Monteux and a commission from Koussevitzky. His attempts to bring to the
United States the ballet company in Shanghai were continually frustrated;
nor was he able to create its like in the USA.Piano Concerto in G, on Chinese themes and rhythms
This first of Avshalomov's three concertos was inspired by the gifted
young pianist and composer, Gregory Singer. It was composed in 1935 during
a six week stay at Hangchow - the famous resort about which the Chinese
say, "above there is heaven, below there are Suchow and Hangchow". Near
the shores of the beautiful West Lake, in a peasant's cottage, Avshalomov
used a portable harmonium to compose this expansive and brilliant vehicle
for piano.
The introduction starts with a grinding orchestral gnash, followed by a
declamation by the piano. The first movement then settles into a
bi-thematic exposition. The first theme is perky, the solo piano playing
antiphonally against the orchestra. The second is broad and lyrical.
Following the development, the piano embarks on a stupendous cadenza -
wide-ranging in its swings of moods and its technical demands.
The second movement is based on an ancient Chinese melody given out by
the solo flute and then taken up by the piano. With an enchanting
orchestral setting, together they produce a serene meditation.
The Rondo Finale is a romp, a fusillade of repeated notes, at
first single and then in fifths. This movement also has a cadenza -
alarmingly accompanied by percussion - after which the repeated notes
return to drive to a climactic chord almost as grinding as the very
opening one.
Symphony No. 2 in E minor
"Although the Symphony No. 2 had been brewing in my mind for a
long time," wrote Avshalomov, "I actually began to put it into shape after
a stimulating visit from the conductor Thor Johnson" (June 1949). Before
long, the Koussevitzky Foundation was encouraged by Leonard Bernstein to
commission the Symphony, and Johnson led the premičre in Cincinnati on New
Year's Eve of that same year.
The score calls for a large Western orchestra, with a percussion
section augmented by a battery of ethnic Chinese cymbals, gongs, drums and
wood-blocks. The motif which unifies the entire Symphony is from an
ancient Chinese melody - a turn on three notes, then a drop of a fourth.
In the fIrst movement the low instruments intone the unifying motif
which leads to a serious melody in the solo bassoon. Muted strings make a
gentle transition to the quicker first subject, stated by the English horn
and oboe over an ethereal background. The second subject follows in the
cellos. After development and return, the movement comes to a dramatic end
with a grand overlay of both subjects in the brass, against a mosaic of
the first-subject fragments in winds and strings.
The opening of the second movement evokes a peaceful ornamental garden,
with tinkling temple bells, and a tender lullaby in the solo flute. After
going through variations, with gentle responses in the strings, it is
taken up joyfully by the orchestra, over a slow tread of trombones with
drums, gongs and piano tone-clusters, like a Chinese New Year's
procession. A passage of high emotion then winds down to the opening flute
melody and its tinkling bells.
Brusque, snapped open-fifth chords start the third movement, a
Scherzo, with a tarantella-like dance; the opening subject is in the
clarinet. Sprays of instrumental colour and quick episodes lead to a
brooding middle section. Here the bassoon announces a new melody in a
subdued mood. A reprise of the dance rounds out the ABA form, leading
directly to the Finale.
In the fourth movement that new bassoon melody becomes a cheery march
of liberation, ringing out in trumpets and trombones. Cellos introduce a
soaring second subject. The development builds to a proclamation of the
unifying motif. The introduction's second melody makes a poignant return
in the solo cello. The mood then whirls back to the cheery march, and a
series of spiky brass chords leads to the joyous final harmony.
Jacob Avshalomov
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Aaron (1895-1964)
& David (1946-) Avshalomov