Grasshopper Playing Tricks on a Rooster
General Info
Year of Published: 2019
Publisher: Edition Svitzer
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:04:00
Cost: €20.00
Instrumentation
Player 1: Marimba (Shared)
Player 2: Marimba (Shared)
Description
Taiwanese folk songs usually depicts a scene of old time, simple village life in rural Taiwan. “Grasshopper” is a metaphor of a little girl, and "rooster" is a old man. The old man accumulated power and wealth, want to flirt with the girl. A grasshopper is a favorite prey of roosters. It is clear what would happen if a grasshopper tries to tease a rooster. So the original lyric is about how the young girl use her wisdom (tricks) to fight back to the elder man. Taiwanese folk songs usually present in sorrowful but also a wise self-comfort to look for excuse for difficult life in the old time.
This piece is transcribed by Twincussion from the piano arrangement of pianist Yi-Chih Lu. The idea of the piece is presenting the Taiwanese melody flows in diverse variations and approaches, both in a virtuosic and entertaining way. “Grasshopper playing tricks on a rooster” premiered in University of Texas in San Antonio in 2016. Since then it was widely been played by Twincussion in Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Japan and Taiwan.