Programme Notes

The Monuments of the Emperor of Chin

for flute and clarinet

Shi Huang Di (246-210 BC), first Emperor of the Chin Dynasty, put an end to the independent, disunited feudal states which had existed for over eight hundred years, and founded the first centralized, autocratic feudal empire in Chinese history in 221 BC.

"The sovereign Emperor came to the throne, made decrees and laws which all his subjects heeded; in his twenty sixth year the land was unified, all obeyed his rule;..."

Thus begins the inscription on one of the monuments which the Emperor of Chin had erected towards the end of the 3rd Century BC to celebrate the establishment of peace under his reign and the happiness of his people under his rule. This was achieved only after many years of conflicts and battles, and the gradual subjection of people to his decrees.

The two performers in this piece represent the Emperor (clarinet) and his subjects (flute). The clarinet begins with the 'Emperor theme' against which the flute plays conflicting material. gradually throughout the four sections of the piece, the two become reconciled; the flute, in the last section, plating the 'Emperor theme' heterophonically with the clarinet.

© Robert Sherlaw Johnson
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

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