one of a kind

an american exploring china's living musical traditions
by charles parker

i am on a mini-bus on the way to a village in hebei province some three hours from beijing to listen to peasants performing wind and percussion instrumental music. the heat is oppressive. there are also a group of music students from hong kong university and a number of china's leading musicologists as well eli marshall, a twenty-five year old american composer.

i listened to music i had never heard before or could have imagined. i heard sounds of rural northern china, of reeds, pipes and cymbals. but there was nothing that would have been foreign to 20th century composers debussy or ravel. eli was equally awestruck. "it was a wall of sound hitting me in the chest, so many timbres in a cymbal, something we were not taught in orchestration class in the united states."

eli's comments echoed observations made by the american violinist, conductor and composer henry eichheim, dazzled by a similar ensemble of instrumentalists, eighty-two years earlier in wuxi. "i can't imagine that with only eight people, music of such depth and richness can be created. i am an admirer of this music, but with no understanding."

that was the summer of 2002. almost two years later, eli and i meet in beijing again to talk of doing a fieldwork trip to southwest china.

humble beginnings

eli is one of the most successful american composers of his generation having already written two symphonies and numerous other pieces for orchestra and chamber groups. his first orchestral piece was premiered by the american symphony orchestra when he was 21. he comes from the state of maine. his father grows organic vegetables, breeds goats and is a folklorist by profession. he has been credited with single handedly bringing russian folk music to maine. eli's mother is an art therapist.

 "my mother tells me i begged for a piano from the age of four and would bang on a miniature organ incessantly. my father would take me to balalaika orchestra rehearsals and i would fall asleep at the feet of the accordion section. they eventually borrowed a piano from the californian neighbors up the road and we kept it for 21 years," recalls eli.

eli attended the second-poorest high school in the state of new england but was fortunate to have one of the best choral teachers. he began composing at the age of eight. his first composition was for the piano called those lonely blues, for his piano teacher who moved to another school. eli only completed two years of high school before he won a full scholarship for college. "i'm a high school dropout and believe there should be many more of us. at fifteen, i knew music was my calling."

in the summer of 1995, while attending the prestigious tanglewood summer music festival for gifted artists, eli heard a symphonic orchestra for the first time. the orchestra was none other than the boston symphony orchestra under the japanese conductor seiji ozawa. eli had been composing for almost a decade, but it was during his college years that he knew he could make a career as a composer.

he left for bard college and worked with two composers, joan tower and daron hagen. during this time eli stumbled across a book on cantonese opera by the american chinese musicologist bell yung which eventually dragged him to chinatown in new york city in search of an opera aria called the the magic pearl, which eli used as the basis for a piece he wrote for the da capo chamber players. he attended the yale school of music and curtis institute, where he was a contemporary of the chinese mainland pianist lang lang and many graduates of the central conservatory of music in beijing. these colleagues eventually invited him to china.