Rao Yuyan is a Chinese composer and pedagogue who devoted himself to using Chinese ethnic music in his compositions and incorporating Western compositional techniques with ancient Chinese music elements. His efforts of digging into China’s own music language allows for a greater appreciation of adapting and performing more ethnical Chinese music by younger generations.
Rao Yuyan spent most of his life in Xi’An which is a city located in Northwest China. In Xi’An, Rao experienced literature that comes from one of the oldest civilizations in the whole world. This rich literature also exposed him to ancient Chinese music. For example, the Chang An ancient music is a type of music that has its own notation, musical characteristics, and lyrics. Rao Yuyan adapts many musical ideas which come from one of the most famous pieces in the Chang An ancient music collection and blends it with Western music compositional techniques and brings the whole composition into an interesting and special stage.
In order to help my reader understand more about Rao Yuyan, I will examine some important information that needed before performing his solo piano works such as background information, compositional techniques and suggested performance guide. I will briefly discuss Chinese ancient music modes which play an important role in his piano composition. Finally, I will provide a of pedagogical guide on the difficulty of his pieces in order to help prospective teachers and students get better start and progression to his solo piano works.