One of the advantages of being a university teacher is that I get the chance to see amazing performances. The other day, my roommate, Kendra, and I were out having adventures in the city (I’ll have to tell you more about those in another post). As we were getting on the bus to head back to campus, someone behind me said my name. I turned around, and there were two of my students that I had taught previously.
I was happy to see these two students, and we chatted as we stood together on the bus. It was a bit crowded, so we didn’t have seats. As we talked, the two girls mentioned that they were rushing back to campus so that they could go to a free concert that started at 7 p.m.
“It’s free?” I asked.
“Yeah, do you want to go too?” Martina, one of the girls asked.
I looked at Kendra who raised her eyebrows back at me. We had been looking forward to a long evening at home, but a free concert sounded even better. “What do you think?” I asked her.
“Let’s do it!” Kendra said.
“Are you sure it’s ok if we go? Did we need to get tickets or anything?”
The girls assured us that it would be ok, so after we got off the bus, we headed toward the concert hall which was not far from our apartment on campus. When we passed one of the gates, we joined the throng of people that even 25 minutes before the start of the concert was already heading over to get good seats.
At the entrance, we learned that we were supposed to have registered if we wanted to attend, but thankfully, the coordinators made an exception and allowed us to join the audience. We found some seats, and waited for the concert to begin.
I looked at the program and saw there was one instrument that I recognized, the 唢呐 (suo na) which is a trumpet-like instrument with a very piercing sound. It wasn’t my favorite instrument, but I was still excited about the performance. After the performance, my opinion of this instrument is completely different. I loved it!
I can write about this performance until I’m blue in the face (I’m not gonna do that), but the best way for you to understand traditional Chinese music is to listen to a taste of it. We were allowed to film this performance, so I took several videos. Usually, I took videos near the beginning of the song and then put my phone down so that I could enjoy the rest of the song. So I didn’t usually catch the climax on video, but that will just mean that you can find a chance to enjoy this music for yourself!
This video is from the second song. I forgot to film the first song, because I was too excited. As you can see, this is a bamboo flute (笛子, dizi) quartet called, 《晋城往事》(Jincheng wang shi; Jincheng is a city in Shanxi Province, and wang shi means the past events). The song seems a bit melancholy to me. I also think it’s interesting that the bamboo flutes are different sizes, creating sounds.
This percussion song had my favorite introduction because one of the instrumentalists was talking about the song, and when he talked about the sounds, he did some beat boxing, but I missed getting that on film. It was incredible. This song is from Hunan, and it’s about beating a gangster (according to my dictionary and what I could understand from the introduction). Throughout the performance, they had some impressive interactions with each other. I especially liked when the middle two guys had a back and forth interaction where they each clapped their clappers in perfect succession.
This reed pipe quartet was interesting. I think the instruments look and sound a bit like bagpipes, but the Chinese name for them is (笙, sheng). They had high and low ones depending on the size.
Ok, now you get to hear the 唢呐, suo na, the trumpet-like instrument. I think this instrument is perfect for this song which is called 《百鸟朝凤》(bai niao chao feng) which means that all birds pay homage to the phoenix, or figuratively, there is peace under a wise ruler. I love this song because the suo na sounds exactly like birds here. I was so impressed with the skill of these performers.
Since I live next to a mountain, I often hear birds in the morning and evening especially. There is one bird that I sometimes hear at night that sounds very weird. The first time I heard it, I thought that it was a child calling out, but the cry is so unique, that I realized it probably isn’t that. I’ve heard it several times since, and I always wish that I could record it, but I haven’t been able to yet. But one of the sounds that these isntruments made sounded like that bird. I also heard a duck at one point.
Toward the end of the song (sorry not in the video), the guy on the suo na started playing a note for a very long time. He kept urging the audience to cheer him on, and we did, amazed that he was holding the note for so long. As it went on for a minute or two, I realized that he must be breathing, and later the guy who talked about the songs told us that he was, but that is also impressive–being able to breath while holding a note on a woodwind instrument–wow.
I took a longer video of this one because I loved it so much! This song is called 《牛斗虎》 (niu dou hu) which means that the ox is fighting the tiger. As you watch the video, see if you can figure out which one is the ox and which one is the tiger (and let me know in the comments!). The video starts off slow and then builds in intensity, and I loved watching how both of the drummers interacted with the drum and each other in perfect synchony. These guys are professional!
These last two sound very traditional, especially for my area. If I go to the park and see groups of old people playing together, often it sounds like this. But the second one has a very impressive part. One of the suo na players starts twirling his instrument–while he’s playing it!!!! I’m glad I got that part on video for you to see also. Everyone in the audience was quite impressed.
I hope you enjoy this little taste of traditional Chinese music. There are lots of other traditional Chinese instruments–I was a little bit disappointed that they didn’t have any pipas or guzhengs here because I really love the sound of those stringed instruments. This group focused more on woodwinds and percussion. But it helped me to see these instruments in a new light, and I absolutely loved it! So thankful for my students who let me know about this amazing, free concert!!!
