"It is said that in ancient China, there was an ethnic group called the Ge Tian Shi," writes composer Chen Yi. "According to legend, the tribe would perform a ritual in which three people danced in slow steps with ox tails in their hands, singing eight songs to praise the earth, the black bird totem, plants, grains, nature, heaven, weather, and the flourishing of breeding livestock." Imagining the sounds and movements of this ritual inspired this expressive and fascinating work for trombone and piano, which uses idiomatic slides to mimic the human voice, and calls on the full range of the trombone, from mysterious depths to haunting highs. For advanced performers.