Bright Sheng composed Postcards in 1997 on commission for Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Minnesota Chamber Orchestra. The commission was funded by Ruth and John Huss, who related to Sheng reminiscences of their three-week trip throughout China in the 1980s. The four movements of Sheng's work are musical equivalents of imaginary postcards the Husses might have sent back from this trip. Each movement uses melodies and other ideas relating to the style of four different geographical regions of China. Sheng explains, "Postcards is a piece about nature, love, and nostalgia—they are 'love' postcards from China."

"From the Mountains" is a striking example of heterophony—the simultaneous sounding of identical themes or nearly identical themes with some time displacement. The movement begins with a folk-like melody on piccolo, oboe, English horn, and piano, played in unison. But the players' individual lines begin diverging—a note changed here, a duration changed there, as if the players don't actually count measures, or sometimes play a different note by mistake or fancy. Sheng takes these diverging lines through several instruments, and colors them with cloudy string chords, then ends the movement with the tune descending to low instruments.

The middle two movements are both fast and rhythmic. "From the River Valley" is bright, with prominent trumpet and piccolo. It is dance-like and very active, with a lyrical central section featuring woodwind solos. "From the Savage Land" is a pounding and aggressive piece built on a two-note ostinato and ends with everything condensed into a single percussive chord that hammers the rest of the music into submission.

The slow final movement, "Wish You Were Here," is a lyrical song first given to muted trumpet then given to woodwinds, especially the piccolo. The music fades to a misty mood of reminiscence.

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi