The sound of plucked strings, with generous use of ornamentation such as portamento and vibrato, is perhaps the most obvious western stereotype of music from the Far East.
The American rock group Steely Dan, in the title track to their 1978 LP Aja made this light hearted referance : “Chinese music always sets me free/Angular banjos sound good to me".
Right now this lyric fits my own experience, music for plucked strings from East Asia has a growing appeal to me. Yet until just 3 years ago my knowledge of music from East Asia had been close to zero. In October 2006, during a conversation with a Chinese friend on Skype, I overheard a recording of the Chinese guqin zither in the background. The variety and quality of tones produced by the guqin, especially the shifts between deep bass, harmonics and hollow, brittle percussiveness immediately caught my attention. As a composer of electronic music, I have a particular interest in musical timbre (sound colour and texture), so the guqin provided a suitable starting point for my exploration of music from East Asia.
From reading David Liang Mingyue’s book Music of the Billion I discovered that attention to timbre and space between notes had since ancient times been an important aspect of Chinese music aesthetics. I have since collected around 15 cds of guqin music, each of which illustrates an individual interpretation of the sound, phrasing and style. What also emerges, as noted by Kouwenhoven, is that despite a general belief that the qin expresses and captures an archaic, symbolic form going back 3,000 years, new idioms have evolved in the 20th century that have departed from tradition.
An even more recent trend is for younger players of guzheng and pipa and guqin to adapt their playing to modern styles, sometimes by modifying their instruments using amplification or even electrification. Recently I found that YouTube included clips in which Wu Fei does a 2.15 minute guided tour to the anatomy of her guzheng. Of particular interest was the hinged panel that provides access to the tuning bolts. Another clip shows a complete tuning process including the insertion of the movable bridges. My impression is that the guzheng (2,500) years old) has much of the sophisticated design of the piano. In Wu Fei’s demo we see how the left hand can play accompaniment to the more intricate right hand picking and strumming, or how one hand can concentrate on string dampening in a more guitar-like manner.
Many musicians born in East Asia have settled in the West after studying in the USA or Europe, and have diversified their activities into collaborations with jazz, improvised and electronic musicians. Wu Fei has released cds on the Forrest Hill label and on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Wu Man has extended the range of her work by using electric pipa. Wu Na is still based in Beijing and is also very active in the international experimental and improvised music scene. She is experimenting with the possibilities of the amplification and electrification of the guqin. Another innovation by Wu Fei is to play prepared versions of her zither which is modified by attaching objects to the strings, just as John Cage prepared the piano, to produce a wider range of colours and textures, including un-pitched sounds, percussion and noise.
Basile Zimmermann suggests that associations between music heard and its country of origin are mainly determined by the sound of the instruments used. If Chinese use Western instruments of rock, classical or jazz music, he suggests that the results end up sounding western, just as a European who takes up the guqin sounds Chinese. However this line of reasoning is confused somewhat if musicians combine the tactile interface of the zither with the sound processing potential of Western music technology such as the insertion of electric pickups, or by running the source sound through effects processors, distortion etc. The resulting playing style and timbre thus become a real hybrid technologically and musically.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Monday, 4 May 2009
Cold Fairyland: Seeds on the Ground
This a review is of the cd released in 2007.
Lin Di is the main writer and has released 3 solo records as well as three with Cold Fairyland since 2001. I only discovered the band in 2009 after reading the book "China's Creative Imperative" by Kunal Sinha.
See the website at:
Coldfairyland homepage
I have been seeking out new music from China moves beyond local traditional forms and also avoids copying Western genres. This is the best I have heard, mixing influences from West and East using an unusual range of instruments: pipa, drums, bass, guitar and cello.
Agile and dynamic, Cold Fairyland has the dextrous fluidity of a jazz ensemble. Lin Di's pipa deftly picks its way across the langorously extended legato lines of cellist Zhou Shengan. This layering of pizzicato and arco sounds gives the music a clear and transparent arrangement, with a variety of textures and the means to articulate subtle changes in tempo and metre. The presence of both bass guitar and cello sharing an overlapping pitch range also enhances the interweaving and interleaving nature of the ensemble. This highlights the novel use of cello in a non-classical ensemble and possibly also helps to inspire interesting arrangements and novel bass lines.
In the manner of some traditional Chinese music the overall effect is of a subtle ebb and flow through complementary group interaction, rather than the tension and release structure of most western classical and rock music. The shifting dynamics of the drums / percussion are notable in this respect. Part of this pattern is for tracks to end fairly abruptly in a way that to a Western ear sounds "unfinished".
Melodically I sense an influence from folk music, but whether this is mainly from the Chinese or European variety is not clear. In combination with the use of varied and unconventional metres this lends an approximation to some folk inflected progressive rock from the UK in the early 1970s.
Lin Di is the main writer and has released 3 solo records as well as three with Cold Fairyland since 2001. I only discovered the band in 2009 after reading the book "China's Creative Imperative" by Kunal Sinha.
See the website at:
Coldfairyland homepage
I have been seeking out new music from China moves beyond local traditional forms and also avoids copying Western genres. This is the best I have heard, mixing influences from West and East using an unusual range of instruments: pipa, drums, bass, guitar and cello.
Agile and dynamic, Cold Fairyland has the dextrous fluidity of a jazz ensemble. Lin Di's pipa deftly picks its way across the langorously extended legato lines of cellist Zhou Shengan. This layering of pizzicato and arco sounds gives the music a clear and transparent arrangement, with a variety of textures and the means to articulate subtle changes in tempo and metre. The presence of both bass guitar and cello sharing an overlapping pitch range also enhances the interweaving and interleaving nature of the ensemble. This highlights the novel use of cello in a non-classical ensemble and possibly also helps to inspire interesting arrangements and novel bass lines.
In the manner of some traditional Chinese music the overall effect is of a subtle ebb and flow through complementary group interaction, rather than the tension and release structure of most western classical and rock music. The shifting dynamics of the drums / percussion are notable in this respect. Part of this pattern is for tracks to end fairly abruptly in a way that to a Western ear sounds "unfinished".
Melodically I sense an influence from folk music, but whether this is mainly from the Chinese or European variety is not clear. In combination with the use of varied and unconventional metres this lends an approximation to some folk inflected progressive rock from the UK in the early 1970s.
Jin Xing – The Closest – The Furthest
Review of the performance at the Place Dance Theatre, London, October 2007.
90 second extract on the web at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkaHcnGXf4
The performance begins in complete darkness. The steady pulse of a heartbeat-like sound fades in. The first thing that we see on the dimly lit stage is the GuQin player Zhang Xuan. In an atmosphere of hushed reverence she proceeds to light incense burners, the start of a purification ritual. Next she washes her hands and then produces a cloth from inside her voluminous sleeves. This is used to wipe the full length of the strings of the zither instrument, generating an audible rasping sound.
Jin Xing now enters from downstage right, concealed ghost-like under a shawl draped from head to foot. This dramatic effect is enhanced by illumination from lights at the side of the stage. Very slowly she crosses the stage diagonally, arriving finally at the side of Zhang Xuan. In a soft voice Jin delivers a short explanation of the GuQin to the audience. This covers the imperial and divine origin of the instrument as well as the symbolism and numerology of its design.
Distant, then louder, the sound of drums grow ominously. JinXing turns her head in surprise, and then curls up lying on the stage looking tired and melancholy. The drape of red cloth is seen to lie diagonally across the centre and left of the stage. In the darkness this is pulled downstage left towards a chink of bright light. JX, seemingly overcome by some unknown magnetism is also drawn inexorably to crawl with the moving cloth, as if against her will towards this distant, intense almost blinding light source. Is this the burning, all consuming intensity of modernization, a crack in the world or an occluded sun?
All is now darkness. We begin to hear urban city sounds of traffic moving. JX appears walking and running back and forth across the back of the stage. She is hurried and anxious, dodging unseen commuters and apologizing for near collisions. The lighting now marks out a 3 x 3 division of the stage forming 9 rectangles. Using a particular square zone for each, JX now executes in sequence a variety of autobiographical dance styles including ballet, modern, abstract, global fusion, disco (accompanied by a 4 by 4 club dance beat) and acrobatics including cartwheels. Zhang Xuan’s qin accompanies some of these including an improvisation along with the disco beat.
The ninth section symbolizes a return to roots and tradition as JX returns to sit alongside Zhang Xuan to continue his account of the lore of the guqin. Upon reaching his explanation of the playing style of harmonics that represents the sky, she enters a lively, very feminine dance utilizing the twirling of the red cloth around her head before finally draping it across the stage in conclusion.
Overall the piece was structured by subtle shifts in register. The initial mood of hushed contemplation and reverence for tradition, to poking fun at Chineseness, to melancholy nostalgia.
The use of witty touches of repartee, often in Mandarin are deftly deployed the lighten the mood. In with particular in jokes about the Chinese “they try to link everything together with numbers and numerology and a mimed joke about the manner of traffic police. She also comments on polite English reviews describing her work as “interesting”. While dancing in the spotlight she addresses the lighting technician: “I have to be up here”, as if still in rehersal
Such theatrical devices of dialogue work well to provide continuity and shift between modes of information, performance and entertainment in a seamless multifaceted continuity.
The autobiographical tour through a catalogue of dance styles provides a vehicle to show the postmodern, globalized and multicultural nature of the world today, as well as offering showcase to demonstrate the JX’s range of experiences in these worlds and her versatile repertoire of dance techniques.
90 second extract on the web at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkaHcnGXf4
The performance begins in complete darkness. The steady pulse of a heartbeat-like sound fades in. The first thing that we see on the dimly lit stage is the GuQin player Zhang Xuan. In an atmosphere of hushed reverence she proceeds to light incense burners, the start of a purification ritual. Next she washes her hands and then produces a cloth from inside her voluminous sleeves. This is used to wipe the full length of the strings of the zither instrument, generating an audible rasping sound.
Jin Xing now enters from downstage right, concealed ghost-like under a shawl draped from head to foot. This dramatic effect is enhanced by illumination from lights at the side of the stage. Very slowly she crosses the stage diagonally, arriving finally at the side of Zhang Xuan. In a soft voice Jin delivers a short explanation of the GuQin to the audience. This covers the imperial and divine origin of the instrument as well as the symbolism and numerology of its design.
Distant, then louder, the sound of drums grow ominously. JinXing turns her head in surprise, and then curls up lying on the stage looking tired and melancholy. The drape of red cloth is seen to lie diagonally across the centre and left of the stage. In the darkness this is pulled downstage left towards a chink of bright light. JX, seemingly overcome by some unknown magnetism is also drawn inexorably to crawl with the moving cloth, as if against her will towards this distant, intense almost blinding light source. Is this the burning, all consuming intensity of modernization, a crack in the world or an occluded sun?
All is now darkness. We begin to hear urban city sounds of traffic moving. JX appears walking and running back and forth across the back of the stage. She is hurried and anxious, dodging unseen commuters and apologizing for near collisions. The lighting now marks out a 3 x 3 division of the stage forming 9 rectangles. Using a particular square zone for each, JX now executes in sequence a variety of autobiographical dance styles including ballet, modern, abstract, global fusion, disco (accompanied by a 4 by 4 club dance beat) and acrobatics including cartwheels. Zhang Xuan’s qin accompanies some of these including an improvisation along with the disco beat.
The ninth section symbolizes a return to roots and tradition as JX returns to sit alongside Zhang Xuan to continue his account of the lore of the guqin. Upon reaching his explanation of the playing style of harmonics that represents the sky, she enters a lively, very feminine dance utilizing the twirling of the red cloth around her head before finally draping it across the stage in conclusion.
Overall the piece was structured by subtle shifts in register. The initial mood of hushed contemplation and reverence for tradition, to poking fun at Chineseness, to melancholy nostalgia.
The use of witty touches of repartee, often in Mandarin are deftly deployed the lighten the mood. In with particular in jokes about the Chinese “they try to link everything together with numbers and numerology and a mimed joke about the manner of traffic police. She also comments on polite English reviews describing her work as “interesting”. While dancing in the spotlight she addresses the lighting technician: “I have to be up here”, as if still in rehersal
Such theatrical devices of dialogue work well to provide continuity and shift between modes of information, performance and entertainment in a seamless multifaceted continuity.
The autobiographical tour through a catalogue of dance styles provides a vehicle to show the postmodern, globalized and multicultural nature of the world today, as well as offering showcase to demonstrate the JX’s range of experiences in these worlds and her versatile repertoire of dance techniques.
Divine Performing Arts: New Tang Fantasia
In February 2008 I attended the Shen Yun Chinese spectacular at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
For images from the 2009 world tour see:
http://www.divineshows.com/about/divine-performing-arts-chinese-new-year-spectacular?s=151
This event was promoted as family entertainment, an extravaganza with decorative sets and an army of performers. The format of the evening was something like a “variety show”, made up of 5 – 10 minute slots including dance, dance-drama, Chinese opera, musicians and solo singers. Each slot was introduced in English and Mandarin by two compares attired in showbiz outfits.
Perhaps the most interesting question I asked myself was how to evaluate the show, especially the choreography. There does not seem to be an exact equivalent in the West. In some respects this performance was closer to classical ballet, but in other ways the show was more like a musical in terms of the extravagant staging and glitz.
Movement styles, choreographic patterns and aesthetics
The formation dancing was in places comparable to corps de ballet and in others to Busby Berkeley style patterns, though Asiatic dancing bodies represent a different lineage of cultural memory and an ideal of beauty different in detail from that of European ballet. As explained by Yi Cao in a short documentary film about Chinese classical dance, there is a different repertoire of movements in Chinese traditional dance.
Unlike ballet, dancers are not on pointe. Vertical jumps with embellishments such as jetee are less frequent or absent. The Chinese form includes far more contact with the ground, sitting, horizontal articulations and spins from a lying position, forwards and backwards acrobatic flips and arm spins with circular steps all feature. Often wearing long dresses, dancers glide across the stage as if rolling along on ball bearings, using fast little steps articulated below the knee. There are less solos and duets, and less narrative structure. Much attention goes into re-arranging the decorative pattern of dancers.
Costumes and hand held props such as large plastic lotus flowers and musical instruments form an integral part of the choreographic design. The extensive use costume extensions such as elongated sleeves and other fabrics that glide through the air behind the dancers is often as important as the shapes made by the bodies of the dancers. The lighting design plays an integral role in enhancing the effects of these patterns of colour and fabric. Judy Van Zile refers to this extension of space around the dancer, also featured extensively in Korean dance as the kinosphere.
In terms of content, the Chinese classical dance of Divine Performing Arts has a different set of themes from those found in ballet. Those in common with ballet include tales of heroes and warriors such as Mulan. Generally the focus tends not to be about individuals or romantic duets. Most frequent are recreations of pageants such as the communion of the Emperor with heaven, imperial court ceremonies and Buddhist ceremonies. Many dances depict the relationship between humanity and nature. For examples the long flowing and billowing sleeves represent the clouds, from which rain will come to help crops to grow. In some pieces women mime the sowing of seed crops. One minute into the piece Flower Fairies, a second row of sitting dancers appear to grow out of the ground, by means of a platform that elevates them up from below the stage. Here the dancers represent nature, their hands are cupped together and raised above their heads, like flowers sprouting up out of the soil.
Music and Stage Design
The accompanying music is somewhat variable in its authenticity. Where the orchestra is used, this often gives an inauthentic tint of western style drama. Some pieces use pre-recordings of instruments such as the guzheng zither or xiao flute. Many of the original compositions are somewhat hybrid in nature, combining digital keyboard sounds with authentic acoustic Chinese instruments. The arrangements are in places very well tailored to the spirit and dynamics of the choreography. In the dance Fairies’ Flutes there are subtle shifts in tempo to cue sections of the choreography, a compositional device found in traditional Chinese percussion music and other dance music. The music for Flower Fairies is composed by Carlos Campos. Although his name is Latin American, and the motifs and sound palette of his score could be described as “new age”, many details such as slow glissandi fit the mood of the dance eminently.
The performance also features a variety of musical interludes. These vary from a very good solo performance on the erhu, a bowed string instrument, to some awful light operatic songs.
Another novel dimension to the show is provided by the use of high tech projected computer images that depict a different backdrop for each section of the show. These include animations such as airborne flower fairies who alight at the wings of the stage before emerging as real dancers, and lotus flowers sprouting from a pond, opening and rotating in celestial harmony. The result is a seamless combination of Disney fantasy and real dance performance.
As an opportunity to see aspects of classical Chinese dance I am glad to have attended the performance, despite the cheesy showbiz veneer.
However, from reading the program I discovered that the show is supported by the New Tang Dynasty Television from the USA. The performers are mainly Chinese Americans and many are members of the Falun Gong religion that is outlawed in the PRC. This explains the inclusion of several propaganda dances that portray the persecution of this sect in China.
More recently I have seen extracts of work by Yang Liping on Youtube. She also popularizes classical and regional folk dances from China and has become a cultural icon in the PRC. The leaders of the PRC have not been happy about the global tours of Divine Performing Arts. I am surprised that they have not sought to promote similar tours by Yang Liping who could be an ideal cultural ambassador and whose excellent work should be seen by international audiences.
For images from the 2009 world tour see:
http://www.divineshows.com/about/divine-performing-arts-chinese-new-year-spectacular?s=151
This event was promoted as family entertainment, an extravaganza with decorative sets and an army of performers. The format of the evening was something like a “variety show”, made up of 5 – 10 minute slots including dance, dance-drama, Chinese opera, musicians and solo singers. Each slot was introduced in English and Mandarin by two compares attired in showbiz outfits.
Perhaps the most interesting question I asked myself was how to evaluate the show, especially the choreography. There does not seem to be an exact equivalent in the West. In some respects this performance was closer to classical ballet, but in other ways the show was more like a musical in terms of the extravagant staging and glitz.
Movement styles, choreographic patterns and aesthetics
The formation dancing was in places comparable to corps de ballet and in others to Busby Berkeley style patterns, though Asiatic dancing bodies represent a different lineage of cultural memory and an ideal of beauty different in detail from that of European ballet. As explained by Yi Cao in a short documentary film about Chinese classical dance, there is a different repertoire of movements in Chinese traditional dance.
Unlike ballet, dancers are not on pointe. Vertical jumps with embellishments such as jetee are less frequent or absent. The Chinese form includes far more contact with the ground, sitting, horizontal articulations and spins from a lying position, forwards and backwards acrobatic flips and arm spins with circular steps all feature. Often wearing long dresses, dancers glide across the stage as if rolling along on ball bearings, using fast little steps articulated below the knee. There are less solos and duets, and less narrative structure. Much attention goes into re-arranging the decorative pattern of dancers.
Costumes and hand held props such as large plastic lotus flowers and musical instruments form an integral part of the choreographic design. The extensive use costume extensions such as elongated sleeves and other fabrics that glide through the air behind the dancers is often as important as the shapes made by the bodies of the dancers. The lighting design plays an integral role in enhancing the effects of these patterns of colour and fabric. Judy Van Zile refers to this extension of space around the dancer, also featured extensively in Korean dance as the kinosphere.
In terms of content, the Chinese classical dance of Divine Performing Arts has a different set of themes from those found in ballet. Those in common with ballet include tales of heroes and warriors such as Mulan. Generally the focus tends not to be about individuals or romantic duets. Most frequent are recreations of pageants such as the communion of the Emperor with heaven, imperial court ceremonies and Buddhist ceremonies. Many dances depict the relationship between humanity and nature. For examples the long flowing and billowing sleeves represent the clouds, from which rain will come to help crops to grow. In some pieces women mime the sowing of seed crops. One minute into the piece Flower Fairies, a second row of sitting dancers appear to grow out of the ground, by means of a platform that elevates them up from below the stage. Here the dancers represent nature, their hands are cupped together and raised above their heads, like flowers sprouting up out of the soil.
Music and Stage Design
The accompanying music is somewhat variable in its authenticity. Where the orchestra is used, this often gives an inauthentic tint of western style drama. Some pieces use pre-recordings of instruments such as the guzheng zither or xiao flute. Many of the original compositions are somewhat hybrid in nature, combining digital keyboard sounds with authentic acoustic Chinese instruments. The arrangements are in places very well tailored to the spirit and dynamics of the choreography. In the dance Fairies’ Flutes there are subtle shifts in tempo to cue sections of the choreography, a compositional device found in traditional Chinese percussion music and other dance music. The music for Flower Fairies is composed by Carlos Campos. Although his name is Latin American, and the motifs and sound palette of his score could be described as “new age”, many details such as slow glissandi fit the mood of the dance eminently.
The performance also features a variety of musical interludes. These vary from a very good solo performance on the erhu, a bowed string instrument, to some awful light operatic songs.
Another novel dimension to the show is provided by the use of high tech projected computer images that depict a different backdrop for each section of the show. These include animations such as airborne flower fairies who alight at the wings of the stage before emerging as real dancers, and lotus flowers sprouting from a pond, opening and rotating in celestial harmony. The result is a seamless combination of Disney fantasy and real dance performance.
As an opportunity to see aspects of classical Chinese dance I am glad to have attended the performance, despite the cheesy showbiz veneer.
However, from reading the program I discovered that the show is supported by the New Tang Dynasty Television from the USA. The performers are mainly Chinese Americans and many are members of the Falun Gong religion that is outlawed in the PRC. This explains the inclusion of several propaganda dances that portray the persecution of this sect in China.
More recently I have seen extracts of work by Yang Liping on Youtube. She also popularizes classical and regional folk dances from China and has become a cultural icon in the PRC. The leaders of the PRC have not been happy about the global tours of Divine Performing Arts. I am surprised that they have not sought to promote similar tours by Yang Liping who could be an ideal cultural ambassador and whose excellent work should be seen by international audiences.
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