264 Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Capriccio Qian Deng, Loo Fung Chiat University of Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Submitted: 2023-08-28. Revised: 2023-10-03. Accepted: 2023-11-06 Abstract For the different embodiments of exotic styles in musical compositions, composers have provid- ed a number of examples of patterns and new directions, broadly summarizing it as the musical characteristics of a different region, whether apparent or not, that are reflected in a musical work. Bright Sheng is one of the leading Chinese-American whose significant works exhibits a strong exotic style using Western compositional technique. This article analyses Sheng’s Dance Capriccio composed in 2011, featuring Sherpa folk music. The analysis focuses on how Sherpa folk song and dance are reflected in Dance Capriccio, emphasizing how the tonal and rhythmic construction reflects the traditional folk song. It is also gathered that the gestural movement of Sherpa dances are reflected in this work. This paper will provide an insight into the infinite possibilities of mod- ernist works through the integration and narration with exotic characteristics. Keywords: Exotic-Style; Rhythm; Tonality; Bright Sheng; Dance Capriccio; Sherpa Dance How to Cite: Deng, Q., & Chiat, L. F. (2023). Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Capriccio. Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education, 23(2), 264-278 Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023), 264-278 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/harmonia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v23i2.47152 na to the United States, Sheng began to re-evaluate Chinese culture, and reflected on his own work, which led to a constant transformation in his writing style and the state of mind he wanted to express in his works. He was invited by the famous cel- list Yo-Yo Ma (b. 1955) in 2000 and 2008 to take part in two Silk Road projects. After years of exploration and many field trips back to China, Sheng (2011, p.1) came to a startling conclusion that Chinese musical culture has always been a hybrid or fusion. China has been in the process of ex- porting and absorbing musical culture as early as the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.). For example, while the Persian pipa was introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty, the chime (1046-771 B.C.) from native China were praised and preached INTRODUCTION Sheng (b. 1955), a leading Chinese- American pianist and composer, was born and raised in China. Despite having a background and training in Western music since 1982, his composition mostly embra- ced the genre of traditional Chinese folk music. His hallmark of using the traditio- nal folk genre in the style of Western art music may be the reason for his frequent return to China to collect traditional folk material that followed his settlement in the United States, in which Sheng feels that a true integration between cultures must come from the deepest roots of both cultu- res (Sheng, 2011, p. 1). In the early 1980s, about a decade after his moving from Chi- Corresponding author: E-mail: lfc@upm.edu.my p-ISSN 2541-1683|e-ISSN 2541-2426 Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 265 by foreign emissaries. The rich “Other” culture is evidenced in the 56 ethnic groups in China, such as those from Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Dai, and so on; each has a unique musical culture. Certainly, due to globalization, local music is no longer li- mited by geographical and environmental concerns, and new styles of music from all over the country and the world have been incorporated not only into musical works but also other arts genres such as musical theatre, dance, and opera. Many composers in China have adopted an approach that combines tra- ditional and Western elements into com- positions. However, Bright Sheng is one of the few musicians who not only combi- nes most of a variety of traditional cultu- ral elements with Western compositional techniques, but also frequently explores the development and variations of his own compositional techniques fostered by his life experiences in different parts of the world. As Sheng grew up in China with a background of thousands of years of histo- ry, this background enabled Sheng’s works to be multicultural in nature. After he went to the United States to continue his musical studies, the opportunity to meet musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and have the Silk Road experience provided Sheng with exposu- re to the Sherpa musical culture that was different from both Chinese and American cultures. The subject of this study, Dance Capriccio, is Sheng’s attempt at an exotic stylistic paradigm. The Sherpas are histo- rically part of the eastern branch of Tibet and could be summarized as a new eth- nic group that is an extension of Tibetan China. Due to their unique geographical and social environment, the Sherpas have unique styles and ethnic identities that are different from those of Tibetans and Nepa- lese, and these unique human landscapes and historical cultures are reflected in the living customs, daily work, culture and arts, especially in the traditional Sherpa folk dances (Liu, 1991).When Sheng re- turned to the plateau during the Silk Road project, his memories of the Sherpa dance form and the new musical elements he en- countered inspired a sense of deep insight. “Dance Capriccio” was composed in 2011 as a piano quintet for Peter Serkin and the Shanghai String Quartet and is com- missioned by the Maxine and Stuart Fran- kel Foundation in honor of Lois Beznos, the President of Chamber Music Society of Detroit. Approximately 12 minutes, the work was premiered at the Seligman Cen- ter for the Performing Arts in Detroit on February 11, 2012. Sheng gained inspirati- on for his work through his travels along the Silk Road, and thus this work attempts to capture the various characteristics of the Sherpa dance, from slow to fast, from gent- le to raucous and even wild. Exotic Expressions in Art and the Influ- ences on Music The word exotic is derived from the Greek word “exo” (outside), which is de- fined as “something foreign being introdu- ced”. Beginning with the rise of European colonialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the stimulus of Oriental trade led to a gro- wing European interest in non-Western (especially Oriental and Middle Eastern or Asian) art. The rise of colonialism seems to have provided new inspiration for Western artists, as the West gradually appropriated the defeated countries of the East, and the transfer of land was accompanied by a transfer of population and culture. From the beginning of the 17th century, “exotic” was interpreted as “the charm of the unfa- miliar” (Sund, 2019, p. 8), and its influence can be seen in many artistic genres of this period. On the one hand, the “exotic” sty- le of art under the influence of colonialism began to appear in European literature. ‘Exoticism’ refers to the way in which dif- ferent geographical or ecological features are interposed or incorporated, which thus demonstrates not only the writer’s love for countries that seem strange, exciting, new, or intriguing but also their fascination with the various depictions of such places (Tal- ly, 2009, p. 20). In the seventeenth century, Europe- an fiction appropriated and attempted to undermine functional interpretations of Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278266 human nature and tended toward subtle portrayals of gender and cultural differen- ces (Douthwaite, 1992, p. 8). As Seshagiri (2001, p. 13) points out, European travel writing tends to figurate non-European peoples as documentary reenactments of exotic customs through descriptions that assume the omniscient authority and om- nipresent vision of the Western observer. On the other hand, in music, exoticism is a genre in which tunes, notes, and instru- ments are designed to make the audien- ce feel like they are in an exotic place or old time. The change from land division to cultural transfer to artistic creation has led to a change in the form of tonal musi- cal dominance, with tonal tones slowly ex- panding from the dominant to other tones, such as the fifth (dominant) (Taylor, 2007, p. 17). Jones (2013, p. 7) defines exoticism in art and literature as the reproduction of one culture for the consumption of anot- her. For example, In the early 18th century, exotic themes in opera were commonpla- ce, such as Barthold Feind’s (1678-1721) ballet section in his opera Gedanken von der Opera (1708), which simulated funeral dirges, Jewish Oriental and pagan rituals. Feind brought all these nations together in order to show a holistic classification of ot- her nations, a hallmark of the modern Eu- ropean worldview of other nations (Tay- lor, 2007, p. 43). In “Essay on Exoticism”, Segalen (2002, p. 17) reveals the aesthetic and ontological value of exoticism, which was born in the age of imperialism, as well as an important cultural “otherness” that took the form of primitivist ethnocentrism or humanism. In particular, around the 1850s, the European Revolution led to a massive immigration from many Western countries, resulting in a dramatic increase in musical creativity. Europeans brought musical tastes that embodied more sophis- ticated notions of nationalism and exoti- cism. For example, when American com- posers wrote music for Indian war dances after the influx of musicians, the themes of American operas, ballets and other theatri- cal productions led to the portrayal of In- dian savages in a typically patriotic style that was clearly tinged with Turkishness (Bellman, 1998, p. 158). However, these concepts brought about some negative political or social implications and was sometimes evalua- ted as a negative reflection of the creator’s creation of an “imaginary other” or “ob- session with the other” (Horn, 2013, p. 79). As a result, such exaggerated or one- sided portrayals of exotic ethnic groups in literature or artworks were not positively evaluated and promoted, and the directi- on and purpose of the creators were gra- dually influenced by the duality and aut- henticity of things as well as the long-term development of artworks. In order to gain more support for their works and more objectivity in describing the real lives of different peoples and receiving different cultures, creators began to learn about fo- reign cultures through field trips or as in- depth as possible. For example, the French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) left his home country for work and came to Brazil, and it was this passive act of “tra- veling” that led to the birth of Saudades do Brazil, (1920), in which the composer used the Brazilian pentatonic scale, the natural major scale with descending seventh no- tes (mixed with the Lydian scale). In these two years, the composer felt the charm of dance music such as tango and samba, and interspersed the rhythm of dance music in the piano piece Saudades do Brazil, the melody of which is in the Brazilian style tuning that descends the seventh tone (mi- xed Lydian mode) with the American jazz style blues scale (that descends the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees of the natural major). At the end of the 19th century, the Paris World’s Fair and the Trans-Missis- sippi Exposition deepened artists’ aware- ness of “other” cultures, and the impact and charm of foreign cultures led some artists to gradually break the chains of “occupation”. Debussy saw the musical cultures of Eastern countries other than the Western countries of France and the United States, such as Chinese opera, Japa- nese art, and Malaysian instrumental mu- sic (Bellman, 1998, p. 225). The pentatonic Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 267 scale appears prominently in Debussy’s works in a specific Eastern context, and an apparent early fusion of Eastern and Wes- tern tonal procedures reflects the gradual normalization of the evaluation of exotic styles. In addition to instrumental works, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Italian opera brought artworks with exotic styles to their peak, such as Puccini’s Turandot (1924-1926) and Ma- dam Butterfly (1904), which used oriental elements as an entry point for exoticism that was blended with Western musical composition. For example, the melody of the traditional Chinese folk song Jasmine is perfectly incorporated in Turandot. The melody of the song is repeatedly used du- ring the main character’s appearance and at plot reversals, or in the form of trans- positions and adaptations. The melodies of the American national anthem and the Japanese folk song Sakura are used in the opera Madam Butterfly, which thus further justifies the background and synopsis of this work. Given the popularity of these works, the use of exotic representation in these genres seems to have been perceived and accepted successfully. Based on some one-sided or negati- ve conceptions of exotic style works before the 19th century, the newer and more ac- cessible exotic style after the 20th century may serve as a creative direction for the construction of exotic images, self-reflec- tion and self-discovery (Chai, 2008, p. 8). Music played a key role in the process of acculturation, as it continually used the concept of exoticism to add a sense of at- tractiveness and timelessness to the cultu- res and narratives of different peoples. As a result, works associated with exotic sty- les from the mid to late 20th century and to the present day are more about the percep- tion and expression of difference or diver- sity, with exotic cultures having qualities that differ from their own native cultures (Altglas, 2014, p. 98). In addition, the “Other” culture is also used by contemporary Chinese com- posers as a source of inspiration for their works. For example, in Tan Dun’s Sympho- ny 1997, the composer incorporates cultu- ral inspiration and exotic musical mate- rials; Chou Wen-chung’s Willow are New imitates East Asian sounds and incorpo- rates a distinctive articulation and scale system; Chou Wen-chung’s other works Metaphors and Pien, combine traditional musical systems, forms and timbres with a unique synthesis of Western and Asian musical idioms. Within musical composi- tions, the “exotic style” paradigm is parti- cularly appropriate for instrumental works that candidly express exotic intentions (Locke, 2007, p. 479). For example, the re- curring violin solo in Rimsky-Korsakov’s twentieth-century symphonic suite Sche- herazade - said to represent Scheherazade himself - begins with a haunting staircase minor melody in which each dominant alternates with adjacent tones above in a triplet (5-4-5, 4-3-4, 3-2-3, 2-1) and forms an ornamental curving line that often referred to as “Arabic” (Bhogal, 1977, p. 98; Potter, 2003, p. 143). These musical embodiments of exotic styles, commonly used in the 20th century, have been broken through in more innovative ways in 21st century works. Locke (2007, p. 480) suggests that exoticism in musical works is a matter of composition’s aesthetic art, allowing notes to be arranged and combined in uncon- ventional ways. Sheppard (2019, p. 21) also argues that contemporary musical works can be expressed through musical details of stylistic characteristics of one or more exotic sources (e.g., parallel tetrachords or pentatonic scales, rhythms or melodies from exotic cultures, etc.) with direct con- text and foreground. Sheng’s seems to con- tinue the approach with new experimen- tation and combinations of exotic works, opening up ideas for the composition of musical works and giving new meaning to the integration of music with other cultu- res through the imitation of Sherpa dance rhythms, even the dance movements of the hands and feet, and the cross-sensory mo- des of collaboration. This has also become one of the labels of Sheng’s personal com- positional style. No matter how closely Western composers imitate exotic music, it Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278268 will never represent the ‘actual’ genre due to the change in instrumentation. Therefo- re, exotic elements serve only as an imagi- nation of fusing different cultures and arts, as the 20th century scholar discussed. For Locke’s opinions on ‘the exotic style only” paradigm and ‘all the music in full context’ paradigm, Sheng’s use of the exotic style more tend to a “Fusion”. As Sheng once said, he “is 100% Chinese and 100% Ameri- can”, and the truth that he raised in China, then immigrated to the U.S. and returned to China, precisely explicates Sheng’s abi- lity to express multiple cultures, and his integration of traditional Chinese, Tibetan, Sherpa, and Western music culture is not just limited to “exotic styles”, rather it is more like a presentation of the larger cul- tural context. Exotic Style of the Sherpa Culture and Folk Dance For this study, the definition of the exotic style involved prefers the perspec- tives of Locke and Sheppard. The com- poser constructs instrumental works by arrangement and combination in a non- traditional way, incorporating musical de- tails of stylistic features from several exotic sources into the work. The Sherpa people are primarily found in Nepal and in the townships of Chentang, Dingjie County, Nyalam County, Zhangmu Township, Jomtien Township, Tingri County, and the Tibet Autonomous Region (Qie and Sang, 2006, p. 64). Due to their unique geographi- cal and social environment, the Sherpa has a distinctive style and ethnic identity that is different from that of the Tibetans and Nepalese. Traditional Sherpa literature and art is a reflection of their social and cultural life and also reflects the ideology of Sherpa spirituality and emotion. Their historical and ethnic origin has created a unique human landscape and historical culture, which is reflected in the Sherpa’s living customs, work, culture and art (Liu, 1991, p. 141). All these factors are reflected particularly in Sherpa folk dance. As a re- sult, Sherpa dance has absorbed the styles of surrounding Tibet as well as the exotic characteristics of Nepal, and the three (Ne- pal, Sherpa, Tibet) have gradually merged over time and with the development of society to form the existing dance styles that have become a peculiar treasure in the world of dance (Liu, 2003, p. 40). Due to the special geographical environment of the plateau, its history cannot be tra- ced back to as early as that of the Central Plains, but due to the development and expansion of the Silk Road, Tibetan music culture has also formed a unique style as a result. Traditional Tibetan music is dis- tinctive and diverse, including folk music, classical music (court music), and religious music (including chanting music, religio- us ritual music and dance Qiangmu, and temple instrumental music) in three cate- gories. Tibetan music has been a source of inspiration for Sheng that cannot be igno- red, works including Tibetan Dance (2000) and Tibetan Air (2005). Sheng’s most works related to Tibetan are based on “Duixie” dance and “Nangma” dance, which are often accompanied by instruments such as Zanian扎念琴, Xianzi弦子 (Biwang碧 旺), Yangqin扬琴, Teqin特琴, erhu二胡, Jinghu京胡, flute and mandolin (a musical instrument imported from Italy to China), in which the ornamentation, the imitation of the timbre of the instruments, the rapid change of tonality, etc. are the direction of Sheng’s compositions. From the existing studies, papers on the association of Sherpa music with exo- ticism are found to remain limited, while Tibetan music in the context of Western art music and exoticism is used by many Western composers and mostly associated with Tibetan Buddhist music. For examp- le, John William included a dyadic Budd- hist chant sequence in the opening score for the film Seven Years in Tibet (1997) with augmentation by the sounds of non-paral- lel dung-chen (a Tibetan Buddhist ritual trombone), gongs, and various soft and hard-hitting cymbals (Brownrigg, 2007, p. 313). These “other” exotic instruments, scales, and rhythms form a truly Tibetan musical style with Buddhist musical forms. In addition, Yo-Yo Ma used exotic instru- Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 269 ments and tunings to express the Tibetan musical characteristics in his score for this film. The combination of the pentatonic scale D#-F#-G#-A#-C# in the strings and the addition of portamento to imitate sing- le-string fiddles provides the melodic line an “exotic style “ due to the characteris- tic Oriental grace notes (Brownrigg, 2007, p.315). Philip Glass starts the film Kunlun (1997) with a dramatic series of glissando chords, complemented by soaring tremo- lo strings and loud chords in the high re- gister of the piano. The music intriguingly sways on a pedal, chanting a modal motive (A-B-D-C-B) that lends an exotic flavor to the rest of the primarily B-centered triadic harmonies (Brownrigg, 2007, p. 317-318). In the 19th century, Russian music, especi- ally opera, ballet and other classical music, contained a great deal of “Orientalism”. For example, Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for Tsar (1831), with its Georgian tunes and its frequent tightly ornamented and clearly augmented seconds, was not mainstream in Russian music at the time, so it was found to be a derivative of exoticism (Bell- man, 1998, p. 198). From these examples of combining elements of Tibetan music with Western art music and exotic backgrounds, it can be seen that composers tend to hy- bridize Tibetan instruments with Western orchestras or mimic melodies, scales, or rhythms to feature exoticism. This provi- des some direction for the analysis of this study but also emphasizes the distinctive characteristics of Sheng’s exotic composi- tional approach, which specifically relates the physical movements of exotic music and dance to the construction of pitch re- lationships. Sherpa folk dance has accumulated history and gradually formed an artistic and literary identity with Sherpa charac- teristics. Like another traditional genre, Sherpa folk music consists of folk songs, instrumental music, and dance music. Ge- Qu and Yangjin-Zhuoma (2006, p. 32) list some important genre categorizations (Fi- gure 1). Figure 1. The categorizations of Sherpa Folk Music Sherpa folk dance is generally a form of group dance, and the songs are mostly choruses and labor songs, both of which were developed in the context of collective work in a traditional culture that was not yet divided. The music is gentle and beau- tiful, the lyrics are delicate and emotional, and the dance movements are graceful, subtle, and rich. The lyrics are generally closely linked to the people’s daily life, and the songs are mostly about love, labor, glo- rification of and praise for the motherland, etc. They are rich in content, concise in their language, and lively in rhythm. In general, Sherpa folk dances appear in two formats in the portrayal of folk tales (Wang, 2016, p. 3). Firstly, the dancers usually dance in a circle, and folk stories provide the creative context for the dances, which are combin- ed with such stories and music and then transmitted. The storytelling is fully ref- lected in the dance movements. Secondly, the dance is interspersed with storytelling, such as the chanting of folk epics such as that of Gesar. This form involves dancing and singing at the same time and achieves a perfect fusion of dance and the chanting of folk literature. The separation of litera- ture and art has not yet been fully realized in traditional folk culture; dance itself is syncretic and intertextual with poetry and drama, and the artistic characteristics of both are very similar. Ronström (1991, p. 71) also agrees that dance performances for the stage are one of the most widely used ways of the transmission of folklore and often the one that attracts the largest audiences. The literary nature of Sherpa folk dance is reflected both in the stories of local Sherpa literature and the traditional folk humanistic sentiments of the local Ti- betan people (Qin & Guan, 1982, p. 35). In other words, the musicality of Sherpa folk dance is reflected in the complementarity Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278270 of dance and music. As Wang (2016, p. 3) once pointed out, “in the modern classifi- cation of art, folk dance and folk music are separate but co-existing. “ Like other traditional genres, dance, and music are rarely separated in Sherpa folk dance, and it is only in the music that the dance unfolds (Wang, 2016, p. 4). Sher- pa music fuses the rhythm of the music with the movement of the dance and brings out the positive ideas and abstract symbols of the Sherpa through movement (Wu and Nie, 2017, p. 29). The rhythm of the steps is almost identical to that of the music, and the moods of the two are very similar. For example, the scuffing and stepping can be expressed as accents or skips with a strong beat in the rhythm; the lifting and flinging of a hand gesture can be expressed as a succession of notes, a prolongation of a tone or a wave, and so on; the “two steps and a stomp” can be expressed as a free switch between long and short notes; the “staggering step” is a continuous staccato or skipping. METHOD This study utilized score analysis methods commonly used in musicological research to reveal how a Chinese-Ameri- can composer interprets Sherpa dances by breaking through the sensory system as well as the manifestations of exoticism in the composer’s compositional style. The method of data collection was through email interviews with the com- poser, asking semi-structured questions to provide contextual information for the Dance Capriccio. Texts, videos, and journal articles on the presentation of exoticism in Western musical compositions and Sher- pa musical culture were also referenced to analyze the score to reveal the various characteristics depicting Sherpa dance, es- pecially tempo and timbre. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Exotic Perspectives of Sherpa Folk Music in Dance Capriccio This analysis aims to examine how the Sherpa folk music and dance, along with the characteristics of the dance in Dan- ce Capriccio, are encapsulated in a Western string quartet. Although the theme of this work is ambiguous in terms of providing a clear structure, all the musical materi- als and their progressions are constructed mainly through vertical harmonic effects for a variety of sound possibilities rather than a simple linear direction in pursuit of harmony and melody, which is why, alt- hough partially recognized, all the transi- tions are smoothly connected. Before any specific Sherpa tonality is highlighted, the sense of Orientalism is emphasized at the beginning of the work through the inter- vals of fourths and fifths (Figure 2). This indirectly provides a five-note scale that alternates between the semitone in certain notes, such as C#-D-E-F# (F)-G in the pia- no introduction and E-F(F#)-G-A-B in the string instruments. The pitch development of the melody and harmony of the piece is based on interval relationships in fourths or fifths. Figure 3 provides the thematic constructions in the piano and string sec- tions, where the combination of intervals in fourths and fifths is obviously identi- fiable, such as G#-C# and F#-C# in the pia- no section, and D-G, C#-G, C#-F#, etc. in the string section. The use of pitch is based on the seven-note scale and is typically orientalist in character, and the traditional Chinese Zhi Qingyue 徴清乐 (a heptatonic scale as V-VI-VII-I-II-III-IV-V) is repeated- ly involved in the tonality of the work. The construction of the pitch relationship of the Qingyue scale is similar to that of the Western major scale, which consists of two tones - one semitone - three tones, while the Qingyue scale is similar to the mixed Lydian scale, which consists of two tones - one semitone - two tones - one semitone. In this piece, the Zhi Qingyue scale is repea- ted. For example, bars 41 to 52 (Figure 4) are a mini-climax of the second section, as its intensity crosses from mf-fff, to the den- se notes, etc., that facilitates a rapid shift in tonality. The piano part demonstrates that each phrase continues with either moving Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 271 a semitone or a tone gap from the previous one; from E Zhi Qingyue in bar 42, to F# Zhi Qingyue in bar 46, to F Zhi Qingyue in bar 50, to G Zhi Qingyue in bar 51, and finally to A Zhi Qingyue in bar 52. In accordance with the range of mu- sical exoticism or the characteristics of exo- tic musical works described earlier, these heptatonic scales, which combine traditio- nal Chinese pitch relationships with Wes- tern tonal characteristics, represent if not an “exotic” style, at least a strong flavour in orientalism. There is a simplicity in the composer’s use of tonality, although the sound does not sound tonally harmonious or melodious, due to the way in which the composition is arranged in a multidimen- sional combination of vertical and linear coexistence, and the Li diao (离调, which is out of tune shortly) compositional techni- que in Sherpa music is used to articulate the vertical harmonies. The description of Sherpa folk music in Qin and Guan (1982, p. 35)—in which the seventh tonic modu- lation is accompanied by the appearance of the fourth or fifth temporary tonic chan- ge to produce a short off-key (Li diao) —is similarly found in Dance Capriccio. Coin- cidently or not, it is not known if this to- nality design was consciously used by the composer. In the combinations of the tonal series offered earlier, there are alternations of the same tone, such as F in C#-D-E-F# (F)-G for the piano part of the introduction and E-F(F#)-G-A-B for the strings, or A in the melody G#-A# (A)- B#-C#-D# in the theme in bar 11, which can be interpreted as a brief Li Diao (离调). In contrast to other traditional folk music, Zhi and Yu tunings as well as the specific pitches like F#, C#, D#, B♭ are predominantly used in Sherpa music. Interestingly, the distance from the first note of each of the heptatonic series to the dominant is exactly four degrees, such as E-A, #F-B, F-B♭, G-C, A-D. Moreover, each of the dominant notes of these scales can be arranged in the same order as the introduction (Figure 2)—E-F(F#) -G-A-B, which reflects the composer’s subtlety. Figure 2. The use of fourths and fifths in the introductory section, bar 1-5 Figure 3. The theme in the piano and the strings, bar 11-14 and bar 18-20 Besides the exotic style of the tonali- ty and its oriental colors, the composer ob- serves the organization of pitch structures as an important development to the extent that it becomes a distinctive orientalist or exoticism sign. Although the use of fourths and fifths in Western works is commonly a general trait in the reflection of orien- talism, these intervals were indeed also an important feature in Sherpa music. As mentioned above, there are short Li Diao ( 离调) that commonly occur in Sherpa mu- sic, usually on the fourth or fifth intervals, which cause the original pitch relationships to be altered. As illustrated in the example of the “Sherpa Drinking Songs” provided in Figure 5, the organization of the fourths and fifths is consistently used in melodic progressions such as C-F, B♭-E♭, E-A, etc. The Sherpas use the drinking song to ex- press their welcome to visiting guests or relatives, and apart from the most obvious melodic progressions in fourths and fifths, a large number of repetitions of a particu- lar note or jumps from a single note to an octave are also featured in this work. This Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278272 kind of characteristic with a blatant octave color is found in all aspects of the composi- tion. A similar emphasis on the scale is also present, where the chromatically overlap- ping placement of chords is reflected in the interval relationships between fourths and fifths, such as the first chord of the piano part in bar 161, with D-G, F-C#, G-D, etc. (Figure 6). Figure 4. The tonalities of “Dance Capriccio”, bar 40-52 Figure 5. Sherpa Drinking Songs Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 273 Figure 6. Dance Capriccio, bar 161-168, the in- terval relationships between fourths and fifths In addition to the first section, which has been analyzed in detail, a large num- ber of pitch structures in fourths and fifths also occur in other parts of the work, some examples of which are provided in Figu- re 7 and Figure 8. Some examples include F-B♭, B♭-E♭, etc., and the same distance bet- ween the vertical chords in the piano part (Figure 8), G#-C#, C#-F#, B-F#, etc. Figure 7. Dance Capriccio, bar 138-140, pitch structures in fourths and fifths Figure 8. Dance Capriccio, bar 183-186, pitch structures in fourths and fifths Rhythm and Articulation that Mirrors Sherpa Dance Steps Where exotic dance is concerned, it is interesting to observe how this Western string quartet projects it. The traditional Sherpa dance could be identified on the basis of three features: the movement of hands, feet, and body waist. The hand mo- vements include lifting, shaking, and thro- wing; foot movements include rubbing and stepping; and body/trunk movements include twisting, swinging, and raising. The most common and distinctive combi- nations are known as “staggering steps” and “two steps and a stomp”. Zhaxi and Gan (1989, p. 24) provide a detailed refe- rence on the combination of Sherpa move- ments with musical rhythms. For example, the steps usually precede the movement of other body parts in each repetition, and in each cycle of two to three beats, there is a scuffing or stepping movement of the right foot, followed by a lifting or swaying of the hand movement. This trait could be mirrored from bar 59 onwards in section III (Figure 9), where the first repetition of each bar in the viola and cello can be ob- served as a footstep, while the repeated ra- pid repetition of two notes tremolo in the violin can be interpreted as a hand lift and sway, and the arpeggio in the piano part as a waist twist (bars 67-69, also bars 116- 118). Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278274 Figure 9. Dance Capriccio, bar 59-62, “Stagger- ing Steps” of Sherpa Dance Zhaxi and Gan (1989, p. 25) also men- tion another dance step, the “two steps and a stomp”, in which the right foot takes a step forward while the left foot strides forward, followed by a hand movement where the right hand is swung in a circle to the right while the left hand is raised up- wards. These dance steps can be reflected by the multiple structures. The “two steps and a stomp,” which involve a free switch between short and long notes, thus occurs in many sections in this piece’s second and third passages. For example, in bar 132 of section IV (marked in Figure 10), the sud- den short-long rhythm from the piano mo- ves rapidly from an octave (or a series of phrases that unfold in octaves) to the next sustained long note with fff dynamics. Me- anwhile the swings from the hand move- ment could be portrayed by the triplets string melody making ascent and descent in fifths with ff dynamics, thus recreating the hand movements in which the arms are swung up and down in a circle. Figure 10. Dance Capriccio, bar 133-134, “two steps” and the movement of arms in Sherpa Dance The Sherpa Drinking Songs that was mentioned in the previous section also characteristically feature this short-long rhythm pattern, as can be observed from the field scores collected by Moja and from Chinese documentaries on Sherpa dance, which usually has a free rhythm and tran- sitions between short and long notes in a repetitive pattern or rhythm and forms an accent to emphasize the rhythm. This rhythm is known in the Sherpa as the scuf- fing, stepping and stomping of footsteps. In the seventh part of this piece (Figure 11), the piano continues to reflect the footwork, as each vertical chord represents a change of step in the dance, along with the strings that represent the hand or waist move- ment, such as a legato line that indicates an arm swing. Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 275 Figure 11. Dance Capriccio, “the scuffing, step- ping and stomping of the Sherpa dance steps”, mm. 183-198 Another Sherpa dance rhythm may have borrowed from “Qiamu Liya “, as demonstrated in Figure 12. There are three rhythmic groups that can be in- cluded in this rhythm pattern: Pattern I (two quavers), Pattern II (one quaver and two semiquavers), Pattern III (four semi- quavers), and Pattern IV (two semiquavers and one quaver). In Dance Capriccio, the piano begins with a large number of semi- quavers (Pattern IV) in bars 185-224 (bar 225), from where the composer introduces this unique dance step. From bar 232 on- wards (Figure 13), not only does the piano part reproduce this rhythm, but the string instruments also join in. This rhythmic pat- tern of the Qiamu Liya is employed in the work and adds new rhythmic patterns to the original one, which consists of Pattern I (two quavers), Pattern II (one quaver and two semiquavers), Pattern III (four semi- quavers) and Pattern IV (two semiquavers and one quaver). Figure 12. Sherpa Dance Music “Qiamu Liya” Figure 13. Dance Capriccio, the progress of rhythm pattern of Sherpa Dance Music from Qiamu Liya in Dance Capriccio, mm. 230-237 Bright Sheng’s Exotic Compositional Style Traditional approaches to musical analysis have mostly explored the harmo- nic, tonal, structural and rhythmic aspects in-depth, yet have not really understood the feelings and intentions of the creators. As Locke (2012, p. 321) suggests: “…the creator (or creative team, for example, for a stage production) of an exo- tic musical work realizes a vision, or ref- lects a distant and different realm… He or she confides these visions to the page. The skilled, sensitive performer then commu- Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 23 (2) (2023): 264-278276 nicates the marks on the page—and the meanings behind them—to generations of listeners.” Although the representation of exo- tic styles in musical works is controversial or dichotomous, these possible and nega- tive discussion do not hinder the output or development of the artwork, and the musical analysis of such works generally should consider around the composer’s original intent and the context of the work; because in the non-figurative world of music, it is only through aspects such as notes, rhythms, tonality, and textures that the composer’s feelings are conveyed. In a commentary of Sheng’s music, Chang (2007) stated that Sheng expresses the fu- sion of East and West through the subor- dination of the musical material to a rigoro- us and imaginative development of motifs; as evidenced through the use of different combinations, texture, tonality/modality, and structure; so that the listener feels that the richness of the music emerges natu- rally from the melody rather than it being imposed. Through the analysis of this pie- ce, it can be understood that despite being encapsulated in Western string orchestra- tion, exotic style is indeed emanated much in Dance Capriccio than in Sheng’s previous works. Although the composer returned to the United States later in life, he was still drawn to the sites of traditional cultural in China, as demonstrated in Dance Capriccio where the Sherpa folk song is highlighted. By personally traveling to Qinghai, Xi’an, Gansu and Xinjiang for inspiration through his participation in two Silk Road projects, Sheng demonstrates the approach of in- fusing exotic culture in the cotemporary instrumental works in 21st century, which significantly through rhythm construction and patterns. By examining the culture of the “other” in the field and enabling the reproduction of this non-popular culture, the composer corresponds to Jones’s (2013, p.7) definition of exoticism in art and lite- rature as the reproduction of one culture’s consumption of another, emphasizing the description of the positive influence of exotic styles in musical works. As a successor of 20th century mo- dern music and one of the representati- ve composers of the 21st century, Bright Sheng’s Dance Capriccio has led the way and provided innovative ideas that in- corporate and promote visualized dance movements into a purely aural experience that can pioneer thought and new direc- tions for other composers and later gene- rations. Sheng not only takes into account the characteristic of exotic works from the 19th century, such as in terms of tonality, scales, melodies and dance rhythm, as well as the objective evaluation of the value of the “other” culture, but also the modernist style of composition from the 20th century onwards, which is based on fusion and in- novation. This approach not only opens up ideas for the creation of musical works, but also gives a new meaning to the integration of music with other cultures. This has also become one of the labels of Sheng’s perso- nal compositional style. By using the exo- tic style as a decorative tool, Sheng enables the work to have both a traditional, harmo- nious music that differs from the Chinese style as well as a separate, individual mu- sic that differs from the Western moder- nist works. In addition to the Chinese and American musical cultures that influenced the composer’s work, Sherpa music was incorporated as an input of “other” cultu- res, which in part reflects Schaffer’s view of exotic styles incorporated into a work of art can serve as a decorative backdrop, add an unusual dimension to the work, or serve as one of the ways for the creator to satisfy the space for imaginative expansion (Schaffer, 2000, p. 3). This has also become one of the labels of Sheng’s personal com- positional style, as the motive of imitation or non-musical inspiration about ethnic dance movements is found in Dance Cap- riccio and his other works, such as Tibetan Dance (2000). CONCLUSIONS In this study, it can be concluded that while the exotic style of the music can ne- Qian Deng et al., Revealing The Exotic Rhythm and Tonality in Bright Sheng’s Dance Ca- 277 ver be perfectly transferred or transcribed, some of its features had been reflected in Sheng’s compositions from a few aspects. At first, the rhythms of Tibetan tap dan- ce are broken down into different modal groups, and the segmental manipulation is reflected in the use of interpolation, ex- tension and deletion of syllable and tone durations in Dance Capriccio. Secondly, the irregular arrangement of legato and cross-bar lines enabled the piece to present the characteristics of Tibetan dance while emphasizing the composer’s innovative techniques of altering the accents of the notes in order to reflect some of the signi- ficant Sherpa dance movements. In additi- on, the exotic style of Dance Capriccio was depicted not only from the music but also from the gesture that includes movements from the Sherpa dance. The rhythmic pat- tern in Sherpa dance emanates from the irregular and complicated writing in the quartet, which also portrays that the im- portant dance steps and movements are not ignored. Through the flexible use of le- gato and cross-bar legato lines to echo the accents of the Sherpa dance, and the mani- pulation of segments to arrange the rhyth- mic structure, this compositional techni- que allows the exotic flavors of Sherpa music culture to interact with the Western compositional structure, resulting another form of exotic composition. In short, the gestures, footwork, and body movements of the Sherpa are echoed in Western instru- mental writing expressed through the ar- rangement of the notes, the construction of the pitch material, and the organization of the rhythms. 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