Difference between Western Casualties and Western Theme Rhapsody

Difference: Western Theme Fantasy was composed by Huang Chenyu and Zhou Wang, while Western Random Thoughts was composed by Wang Jianmin.

While both pieces utilize elements of Xinjiang music, Rhapsody on a Western Theme was composed by both the composer and the performer, while Random Thoughts from the Western Regions was composed by the composer, and therefore they differ in terms of the difficulty of their compositional and performance techniques.

The Western Theme Fantasy is a guzheng piece with the flavor of Xinjiang. In the composition, the author wanted to give the piece more tension on the basis of traditional music in terms of changes in rhythm, speed and strength. The style of the piece is rich, brutal and danceable, and some elements of the piano technique are borrowed in the performance technique. Composed in 2005.

Thoughts from the Western Regions was composed in 1996, using musical materials from ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. The rhythm utilizes the more characteristic compound beats such as 5/4 beat and the technique of alternating multiple rhythms.

The work makes an exploratory effort in trying to utilize the pentatonic language of traditional zheng music and the combination of chords and new music. In addition, the whole piece is always imitating the use of Xinjiang percussion and other percussive drumming methods, which figuratively depicts the local conditions and the passionate scenes of singing and dancing in the Western Region.