We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Rain Air II

by Yang Liu

/

about

Rain Air II (2017)

- by Yang Liu (1988-)

My Rain Air piano work series started from 2012 when my first Rain Air work was premiered
in a concert as part of the 21st Century Liszt project in Royal College of Music. Rain Air II was
finished in early 2017, and was inspired by the sounds of the rain. In accordance with this, I
employed four main elements, which represent four different kinds of rain sounds in this piece.
The first element is made from arpeggios, and uses Donatoni’s pitch transformation technique
within the development of its notes. As a result of this, the scales change slowly, keeping a
similar shape, providing enough variation for the unchanging material to still evolve. The
second element is constructed from a two-note phrase made from a semitone interval which
always appears after the arpeggios. It is one of the elements which are absorbed from the first
Rain Air work, because this two-note phrase reminds me of the sound of rain falling. In
comparison with the second element, the third element also uses a semitone as the main
feature. Instead of a phrase, it is a two-note chord with a semitone interval. In addition to the
semitone chords, I relocated some of the chords in different octaves, which provide not only
different sonorities but also variations within the original semitone construction. The last
element in this piece is a group of notes in a specific pattern. In contrast to the previous
elements, the fourth element has an increase in the number of notes available to use, which
does not follow the pitch transformation of previous sections. Following these elements, the
listeners can experiment different kinds of sound of the rain, alongside with the fresh air
around them.


Yang Liu is a Chinese composer who came to England to study composition at the Birmingham
Conservatoire in 2006, under the tuition of Joe Cutler, Richard Causton and Andrew Glover. From
2010, He studied his Master and DMus course of composition in Royal College of Music, under the
supervision of Jonathan Cole, Michael Oliva, and Haris Kittos. During his study in UK, he received many
commissions such as BCMG, National Gallery, Variable Geometry Ensemble, Lemberg Sinfonietta and
Guiyang Symphony Orchestra etc. He has also won many composition prizes, especially his string
orchestra work Invisible Valley won the 2nd price of ALFRED SCHNITTKE International Composers’
Competition 2017 (first price was not assigned), and the score was published by Aldebaran Editions.
Between 2016 to 2018, he was hired as a teaching assistant in RCM.

For more Yang Liu - soundcloud.com/musicliu1988

ER33

credits

released July 2, 2020
Piano: Yuanwei Ping

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Engram Recordings Berlin, Germany

Invitation Only

contact / help

Contact Engram Recordings

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Engram Recordings recommends:

If you like Rain Air II, you may also like: