Ping-Pong

(Chinese orchestra version)

In 2004 I completed the three movement Concerto for Pipa titled Ping-Pong at the request of pipa virtuoso, Min Xiao-Fen. It was premiered by the Taipei Chinese Traditional Orchestra under the direction of Min Lekang, with Min Xiao-fen as soloist, on December 11, 2004. The performance was held at Zhong Cheng Auditorium, Zhong Shan Hall, Taipei, Taiwan, in an event honoring Min’s family. (Min Xiao-fen comes from an elite musical family. Her father, Min Jiqian, was a student of the erhu master Liu Tianhua; her brother, Min Lekang, is a nationally renowned conductor who directed the premiere performance of Ping-Pong; her elder sister, Min Huifen, a celebrated erhu master virtuoso; and her nephew, Liu Ju, also a well-known conductor.)

Suddenly, I was thrust into the world of Chinese traditional instruments beyond my wildest expectations. Not only did I need to compose a new work, I needed to learn about a whole new set of instruments that I have never worked with before. For this task I sought the assistance of Chi-Sun Chan, currently the music director of the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association, who introduced me to the instruments of the Chinese traditional orchestra. Ping-Pong calls for bangdi, qudi, xindi, xiao, soprano and zhong sheng, suona, tenor suona, yangqin, liuqin, pipa, zhongruan, daruan, dingyingu, dagu, glockenspiel, guzheng, gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, gehu, bagehu. (Future performances have substituted gehu and bagehu with Western cellos and basses.)

It seemed that everyone was confused by my chosen title, Ping-Pong, stating that the music I composed didn’t seem to resemble anything like a ping-pong match. My intent was to reference the bringing together of East and West and “Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” (乒乓外交) the historical opening between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the early 1970s. It was the goodwill exchange of each nation’s table tennis (ping-pong) players during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, that marked a thaw in Sino-American relations, and paved the way for a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon in April 1972.

The titles of the three movements reference events that led up to that occasion:

1. Huangshan Mountains
2. Invitation (6 April 1971)
3. Diplomacy

In the premiere performance of Ping-Pong, I introduced some electronic music elements; in particular, interactive real-time processing of Min Xiao-Fen’s pipa playing within her cadenza. I owe special thanks to my friend and former student, Howie Kenty, who helped to create the digital effects software in Max/MSP. The combination of Chinese traditional instruments and the real-time digital signal processing of their sounds is a creative direction that continues in my work today.

On February 15, 2012, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra not only held a brilliant performance of Ping-Pong (conducted by Chen Chih-Sheng, featuring pipa soloist Zhang Peiling, at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan), but also created a high-quality video of the performance (see YouTube videos below). Five years later, the orchestra reprised this performance, once again featuring Zhang Peiling as pipa soloist (November 14, 2017).

Composing Ping-Pong not only propelled me to new directions in my original music composition, but also instilled in me a great appreciation for cultural immersion and a deeper interest in cultural diplomacy. I began to seek opportunities precisely at this intersection. In 2006, two such opportunities presented themselves, I began working closely with a new NGO (non-governmental organization) working closely with UNESCO called the Melody for Dialogues Among Civilizations Association (MDACA), and I was awarded nearly $1 million from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to establish a three-year summer-based cultural exchange program called the Fusion Arts Exchange in Music.

Ping-Pong was later arranged in a version for Pipa and Western orchestra. The “Western version” was first performed by the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Markand Thakar, at the Kraushaar Auditorium, Baltimore, Maryland, on October 4, 2006. Then again, by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, at Yale’s Woolsey Hall under the direction of Jung-Ho Pak, on March 24, 2007. Each performance featured Min Xiao-Fen as soloist. An official recording of the Western version of Ping-Pong will be released in 2023 by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the direction of Gil Rose, also featuring Min Xiao-Fen.

Ping-Pong was later arranged in a version for Pipa and Western orchestra. The “Western version” was first performed by the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Markand Thakar, at the Kraushaar Auditorium, Baltimore, Maryland, on October 4, 2006. Then again, by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, at Yale’s Woolsey Hall under the direction of Jung-Ho Pak, on March 24, 2007. Each performance featured Min Xiao-Fen as soloist. An official recording of the Western version of Ping-Pong will be released in 2023 by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the direction of Gil Rose, also featuring Min Xiao-Fen.

• Little Giant Chamber Orchestra; Taipei, Taiwan (February 15, 2012) 
• Taipei Chinese Traditional Orchestra; Taipei, Taiwan (December 11, 2004) 

Wang Chenwei, Chow Junyi, & Wong, Samuel (2020). The TENG Guide to the Chinese Orchestra. Singapore; Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing Co.

Ping-Pong, Concerto for Pipa and Chinese Orchestra is published in Selected Works for Pipa Composed by Anthony Paul De Ritis, Central Conservatory of Music Press, Beijing, (October 2016).