Mailbag

Beyond the Mechanics: Response from an Albanian-born British composer in Beijing

Dear Yang Yang,

I have just read your article published on Nov 29, and thought of writing to you:

Having visited China's Great Wall today, Saturday Nov 29, and so overwhelmed by its beauty and its grandeur, I decided to have an early night and entered my room at the Jingshi Hotel, where I am staying in Beijing, at around 8 pm.

Then, as soon as I was in my room, the bell rang, and the lady who delivers the papers handed me the China Daily newspaper.

The front-page picture of the "Weekend Life" section caught my eye; and then, turning the page, I read your article (the intriguing title "Beyond the Mechanics" certainly invited me to read it) about Chinese children trying their hands on the piano.

The further I read, the more interested I became in this article. I was certainly impressed (to put it mildly) to learn that some "40 million to 50 million" Chinese children are learning the piano these days!

Real musical values

But, being a composer myself, and having composed a number of pieces for piano, I too believe that overemphasizing the technical skills (indispensable as they always are) at the expense of musical expression is not the most encouraging way to discover the real musical values of a piece of music, be that by an eastern or western composer.

Interestingly, I was discussing precisely some of the points that you raised in your article the other day with my colleague, the pianist Joseph Houston who gave a series of master-classes at BNU.

Your article also reminded me how my own two daughters, Alba and Iona , approached their piano playing.

With both parents being professional musicians (my wife being a piano teacher), our children began playing the piano at a very early age, and achieved some impressive results as teenagers, but then... both decided they wanted to do something else (English & French/English Language, respectively). The decision was theirs!

I am an Albanian-born British composer based at the University of York in the UK. The British pianist Joseph Houston and I have been invited by the Beijing Normal University to deliver a series of lectures and master-classes. Joe also gave a concert on Nov 26 at the Music Department of School of Arts and Communication.

For more information about my first China/Hong Kong visit, please follow the links:

www.uymp.co.uk/news/simaku-in-beijing-and-london-336

www.york.ac.uk/music/news-and-events/news/2014/simultaneouspremieresacrosstheglobeforthomassimaku/

If you would be interested in "continuing" the above "conversation" beyond the mechanics (!), in my own compositions, as well as more details about my visit in Beijing (as far as I am aware, this is the first ever visit by an Albanian composer in Beijing, and God knows when another one might occur!), I would be happy to talk to you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Thomas Simaku, Reader in Composition, University of York Music Department