Rhythmic Storytelling (piano, violin and cello)

This performance by the Genevan Trio was recorded at University of Nebraska – Lincoln during Chamber Music Institute 2013.

“Rhythmic Storytelling,” on which this trio is based, is a form of art in China where a story is told to clapper accompaniment. The storytellers have an assistant with two wooden pieces, which he hits together rhythmically. The violin and cello are the storytellers and the piano acts as clapper. Further emulating the sound and tones of the storytelling, the the strings have heavily-slided glissando passages that are the imitation of the four tones – level (flat), rising (up), going (down and up), and entering (down) – of Mandarin Chinese.