![]() ![]() Li says that the Tang Dynasty adhered to the Confucian idea that music's highest function was as a tool of moral education and socialization. The Little Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, China, where the ensembles perform. Tang Dynasty people ate differently, thought differently and lived in a different environment." "After a thousand years, there's got to be some difference. "How far off are we from Tang Dynasty music? I'm sure there's some distance, but not much," Li says. Li admits that some data must have been lost over centuries of oral transmission. In other words, it's the teacher who gives you the Tang Dynasty equivalent of allegro con brio, or adagio molto cantabile. "Even if you can understand it, you won't get the flavor of the music right without the oral instruction of a teacher." "Our kind of music uses parts of Chinese characters, but no notes," He says. ![]() He says that the script could tell a musician what to play, but not how to play it. He Zhongxin comes from a family with centuries of musical tradition. Think of it as a kind of ancient anti-piracy encryption. Besides, they wrote music in a way that was illegible to all but a few. Most of the time, it was the exclusive province of the emperor and his court. They just ate, drank, listened to music and that's all."Īctually, commoners seldom got to hear court music, except on major holidays. "Really, really, really! Ancient people were so lucky they didn't have any troubles. "I wonder why I wasn't born in ancient times," Wu says. Performed by the Xi'an Buddhist Classical Music Ensemble and the Chang'an Women's Classical Music Ensemble, according to written music in the collection of the Xi'an Buddhist Classical Music Ensemble, as taught by Yu Zhu. She says she was walking by the Little Wild Goose Pagoda one day when she heard the music. Her day job is as a police officer at a local jail. Hui Zhi is the woman who bangs the little gongs. Wind instruments include the sheng, which has a mouthpiece connected to a cluster of bamboo pipes, while percussion instruments include the double cloud gongs, an array of small bronze discs hanging on a wooden rack. The orchestras include stringed instruments such as the pipa, which looks like a lute. Xi'an had 40 orchestras playing Tang court music in 1950. "China's emperor saw this as an event worth commemorating, and so he had his court musicians compose a tune called The Tulip."Įvery Monday, Li's orchestra rehearses at the Little Wild Goose Pagoda, built in the year 709. "A valuable flower once came overland from Europe via the Silk Road. Li Kai, leader of a Tang Dynasty music ensemble China's emperor saw this as an event worth commemorating, and so he had his court musicians compose a tune called 'The Tulip.' Li Kai, who leads a Tang Dynasty music ensemble in Xi'an, says that the music of the Tang court absorbed cultural influences from the West.Ī valuable flower once came overland from Europe via the Silk Road. Chang'an lay at the eastern end of the Silk Road, and scholars, priests and merchants from India, Japan, Persia and Byzantium created a thriving trade there in goods and ideas. It was the capital of the Tang Empire and the world's largest city, with roughly 1 million residents. In the seventh century, Xi'an was known as Chang'an. The notation was used by court musicians of the Tang Dynasty as far back as the seventh century, predating Europe's Gregorian chants, which are commonly described as the earliest written music. They found the key to the puzzle in the city of Xi'an in northwest China, where the music is still performed by a dwindling number of orchestras. Read Anthony Kuhn's essay about modern variations on China's traditional themes.įor many years, music scholars in China and Japan tried unsuccessfully to decipher ancient musical notations that looked a bit like Chinese characters. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |