«To Die for Love» is the english Title of Minoru Miki's opera: «Ai-en爱怨».
After its premiere in the New National Theater, Opera house in Tokyo 2006, it has made the european premiere in Heidelberg Germany (2010).
The Title Song «To Die for Love» is a pipa solo/concerto piece, which is played on the stage.
Minoru Miki:
Pipa Sounds on the River (1999)
Time colorations (2001)
Ai-en (2005)
Chen Yi:
Dian
Elements - New Music for Pipa by American Composers
In a seemingly unlikely marriage of ideas, this recording presents new works by four American composers for a fabled instrument of China, the pipa. Building on the instrument's long history, these composers present a new vision of how an ancient instrument from another culture can provide inspiration and speak — just as relevantly today as it has for thousands for years — to an even broader audience. [...]
Traditional uses of pipa are as varied as its palette of sounds. Its percussive effects were played on horseback during combat and its gentle resonances accompanied lyrical singing in the teahouses of Southeast China. This versatility has captivated some contemporary western composers who find inspiration in its coloristic range and ease of producing chromatic and microtonal pitches, as well as its potential for virtuosic playing.
The composers on this recording blend idiomatic performing techniques with inventive textures and widely divergent harmonic contexts. They build on the instrument's traditional repertoire by extending the range of cultural influences and reinventing the music that can be played on pipa.[...]
— Lu Wang 王璐
Donald Reid Womack
Elements 五行 (2010)
1 Fire 火 [3:45]
2 Water 水 [3:44]
3 Wood 木 [2:26]
4 Earth 土 [3:00]
5 Metal 金 [4:46]
Jeff Myers
Turtle and Rat 龜與鼠 (2012)
6 The Turtle 龜 (Rondeau) [3:06]
7 The Rat 鼠 (Palindrome) [2:17]
Thomas Osborne
Rumi Songs 盧米之歌 (2011)
Texts by Jalaluddin Rumi,
trans. by Coleman Barks
8 You've no idea how hard I've looked [3:59]
9 I want to hold you close like a lute [:51]
10 We are the night ocean [3:09]
11 I used to be shy [1:14]
12 When it's cold and raining [2:44]
Takeo Kudo
13 White Crane 白鹤 (2011) [6:26]