Au bord de la rivière

This piece, composed in 2003, was commissioned by Dexia Bank and served as the
required piece for the 2003 Axion Classics National Piano Competition. The title
of this piece is taken from a Chinese poem by Ma Zhiyuan (13th century), “Autumn
Memories,” describing a rural landscape combining a stream,
a bridge, and the daily life of a family. At the same time, there is a lovely pond
with a central fountain very close to my home, around which I often take walks.
This also sparked my association of ideas with this poem.
In this work, I considered two main aspects. The first aspect is
rhythm: the entire piece is divided into two forms of notation. Tempo I (the quarter note is
one beat): I used a large number of flexible and free rhythmic notations, which
I called “visual notations.” Tempo II (the eighth note is one beat): this is
conventional notation. Between the two notations, a flexible tempo and
a steady tempo are used to create contrast and fluidity between them.
The second aspect concerns the musical material: in terms of vertical harmony,
I incorporated a combination of two hexatonic scales derived from the ancient Chinese “Lvlu.”
In terms of horizontal melody, I combined two different fifth intervals to reflect this. 
As for the musical composition, I tried to leave the performers as much space as
possible to manage and develop their imagination, and to create an acoustic image 
that transforms the “meaning” of the poem into a “feeling” in my heart.

Zhang Haofu 2003