‘Recomposing’ unpublished Chinese folk songs into new Australian compositions for pipa and piano

In 2010, pianist Shan Deng, her father Wei Deng,1 a <i>pipa</i> specialist, and composer Maria Grenfell embarked upon a musical project to amalgamate their practice-led research. Collaborating as composer and performers in the composition of <i>Five Songs from the East</i>—a new work for <i>pipa</i> and piano—using material sourced from some unpublished Chinese folk songs, the central aims of the project were to ‘recompose’ selected songs, write a composition that fused the composer’s current style with musical elements present in these folk songs, and combine a Western musical instrument with a Chinese instrument in a new work. The compositions were not conceived as appropriation of Chinese material; rather, the composer wished to create new Australian music directly informed by collaboration with Chinese musicians trained in both Western and Chinese performing traditions.