‘Recomposing’ unpublished Chinese folk songs into new Australian compositions for pipa and piano

In 2010, pianist Shan Deng, her father Wei Deng,1 a pipa 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in the composition of Five Songs from the East—a new work for pipa and piano—using material sourced from some unpublished Chinese folk songs, the central aims of the project were to ‘recompose’ selected songs, write a composition that fused the composer’s current style with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.