Art is inescapably rooted in the experience of the artist\u2014nationality, ethnicity, life events, gender, and much more\u2014all contribute to the unique and personal perspectives that we value in the artistic vision. Today, our times\u2014especially since the encounter of Western Europe with \u201corientalism\u201d during the nineteenth century\u2014have engendered closer and more vital connections with musical traditions from the entire globe.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, no more striking of this phenomenon is the musical cross-fertilization wrought by the West\u2019s engagement with China, its culture, and its musicians who have come to us.\u00a0 After the end of the \u201cCultural Revolution\u201d and the subsequent loosening of its onerous restrictions, there has been a small migration of talented, imaginative, and highly successful composers to the US. \u00a0Zhou Tian is exemplary of these folks; he was born in Hangzhou to a musical family\u2014his father was a commercial composer.\u00a0 Trained as a classical pianist, he pursued a variety of musical interests, including arranging and jazz.\u00a0 After moving to the U.S.\u00a0 he studied at Curtis, Juilliard, and the University of Southern California\u2014receiving his DMA at the latter institution.\u00a0 The list of major awards and honors this young composer has already received, as well as the number of major commissions from important musical organizations is impressive.\u00a0 2018-19 marks the premi\u00e8re of not only Transcend<\/em>, but also works commissioned by the Texas Music Educators Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Smithsonian, and the Shanghai Symphony.\u00a0 He is indeed a busy young artist.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Transcend <\/em>is a musical commemoration of the 150th<\/sup> anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.\u00a0 In May 1869, after seven years of monumental effort by thousands of laborers, at Promontory Point in northern Utah the nation was finally linked by rail from east to west across the continent.\u00a0 It was one of the greatest construction projects in our nation\u2019s history.\u00a0 In a personal note, while in the US Army this writer was privileged to participate in the band at the centennial celebration at Promontory Point in 1969\u2014dressed in his Civil War uniform\u2014and still wears his \u201cGolden Spike\u201d lapel pin, awarded for participation.<\/p>\n Commissioned by the Reno Philharmonic, and twelve other American symphony orchestras, Transcend<\/em> is inspired by the national commitment, engineering prowess, and, perhaps, most of all, the human sacrifice and labor that made it all possible.\u00a0 The workforce included thousands of Irish immigrants (who worked for the Union Pacific, working westward from Omaha), and yet more thousands of Chinese immigrants working for the Central Pacific, starting in Sacramento.\u00a0\u00a0 The task of the Chinese was formidable, for unlike the Union Pacific, moving across the flat expanse of the Great Plains, the Central Pacific faced the herculean task of boring through the high Sierra Mountains at a snail\u2019s pace, with much loss of life.\u00a0 Only recently has their sacrifice become more widely appreciated, including a newly published book, Ghosts of Gold Mountain<\/em> by Gordon Chang.\u00a0 Zhou Tian\u2019s composition is in part a tribute to the sacrifice of his countrymen.\u00a0 Zhou writes that he was moved \u201c.\u00a0 .\u00a0 . to tell a musical story, to celebrate human perseverance, to pay tribute to my own cultural heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n Transcend<\/em> was given its world premi\u00e8re by the Reno Philharmonic in April of 2019.\u00a0 It consists of three movements, \u201cPulse,\u201d \u201cPromise,\u201d and \u201cD-O-N-E.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cPulse\u201d opens quietly in the string section, with a tranquil invocation of the deserts of Nevada and Utah\u2014a somewhat welcome relief, after the travail of the Sierra Nevada.\u00a0 But, the music gradually grows in intensity, and a frenetic pace ensues that features crashing, thumping percussion outbursts, which the composer compares to dynamite blasts:\u00a0 man versus nature.\u00a0 While the second movement is an eloquent, serene affair, it opens with a dramatic trumpet solo, accompanied by the percussion.\u00a0 But, it goes on to feature meditative woodwind solos, and incorporates traditional Chinese musical elements.\u00a0 In the finale, Zhou, has cunningly based its driving rhythmic motive on the exact rhythm of the letters of the Morse code message (DONE) that was sent out to a breathless nation upon the driving of the Golden Spike.\u00a0 The rhythm of the Morse code message is first heard in the solo trumpet, and soon is passed all around the orchestra as the climax of the ending arrives.<\/p>\n The work is a well-crafted, evocative, and thoroughly entertaining tribute to an era when the U.S.\u00a0 built monumental things\u2014even in times of great national stress. And, in a larger sense it is a long overdue tribute to the Chinese who were so essential to its success.\u00a0 In the words of the Stanford University historian, Gordon Chang, \u201cThe labor of the Railroad Chinese is the purchase of, and the irrefutable claim to, American place and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n –Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n \u00a92019 William E. 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