Northwest Wind

Xibeifeng ('northwest wind') is a style of music which originated in the early 1980s, and by the middle of the same decade had evolved into the first distinctively Chinese form of rock music. It drew heavily on the folk-song traditions of the northwestern part of China, especially from the Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. This music represented the musical branch of the large-scale cultural movement called xungen ('root-seeking'). Northwest Wind, scored for flute, clarinet, harp, viola and double bass, is based loosely on one of the very first xibeifeng-style songs, Xintianyou, which is heard in a transformed version in the opening viola solo. Fragments of this melody are then constantly subjected to modulation according to a set of hidden rules inspired by common modulation practice in Chinese music.