Qhanri (Snow Mountain): Tibetan Variations for Cello and Piano
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1988
- Duration
- 33'50''
- Publisher
- Carl Fischer
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About this piece
Qhanri (Snow Mountain) is a large set of variations for cello and piano, about 34 minutes long, written in 1988 after Richter's 1986 journey to Tibet. In her note for the recording she explains that a chant sung by young novices at Drepung Monastery near Lhasa supplies the main motif, chromatically altered to express a sadness she sensed beneath the Tibetan people's cheerful manner, and that it is only harmonised with a major triad near the end, in Variation 20; the opening theme itself pictures pre-dawn fog lifting from the Lhasa Valley to reveal the snow peaks. It is dedicated to cellist David Wells, who premiered it with the composer at the Yellow Barn festival in Putney, Vermont, in 1991 and recorded it with her for Leonarda (LE 337).
Technical overview
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