Two Asian Folk Songs: SATB, a cappella Choral Octavo

Gray's treatment of these two songs strikes a rare balance between authenticity and accessibility. Rather than smoothing away the distinctive character of each piece, she lets the pentatonic melodies and rhythmic patterns speak clearly while building accompaniment entirely through the singers themselves, using evolving ostinatos that feel organic rather than imposed. Your singers will gain real cultural insight while tackling a legitimate musical challenge.

These pieces draw you into a different musical landscape. "Flower Drum Song" bounces with energy and playfulness as voices become instruments, mimicking percussion hits and building texture from rhythm. "High Green Mountain" settles into something more contemplative, its pentatonic melody floating above sustained lines that suggest the landscape itself.

This octavo works for any SATB ensemble with a concert or festival setting in mind, from high school choirs to community groups. You'll want singers who can hear independent lines and who are curious about non-Western music; reading literacy matters less than listening skills and rhythmic independence.

• Have altos and tenors establish their ostinato patterns first in "Flower Drum Song." Once those lines feel secure and rhythmically locked, layer in the soprano and bass parts to build the percussion imitation effect.
• Work through the pronunciation guide in sections rather than all at once. Assign small groups to master one phrase at a time, then rotate who leads the pronunciation work so everyone hears multiple models.
• Consider performing one song in the original language and the other in English translation to vary the concert experience, or switch languages between verses to show both versions equally.
• Let the pentatonic tuning settle naturally during warm-ups on these songs specifically. The intervallic structure of "High Green Mountain" needs time for your section to hear and adjust to pitches that sit outside the typical major/minor framework.

Program both pieces together as a short world music set to anchor a themed concert, or use one as a standalone opener to introduce the audience to a new cultural context. The 24-page octavo and contest/festival designation make this a strong choice for spring competitions where programming outside the Western canon is encouraged.

• Sustaining independent melodic lines while hearing and blending with contrasting ostinatos
• Singing in pentatonic tuning systems and adjusting intonation to non-Western pitch collections
• Accurate pronunciation and tonal quality in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese
• Creating percussion effects and rhythmic articulation through voice
• Rhythmic precision and ensemble cohesion in a cappella settings without harmonic anchors