CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Taste of China

Zankel Hall
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 7:30 PM

Wu Man, Curator, Pipa, and Host
Dong Female Singing Group
Zhao Jiazhen, Qin
Ba Da Chui, Percussion Quartet

Program is approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes, including one intermission

Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture is made possible by a leadership gift from Henry R. Kravis in honor of his wife, Marie-Josée.

This performance is sponsored by Roche.

Program Notes:

THE PROGRAM

DONG FEMALE SINGING GROUP
Big Songs
“The Beauty of the Mountains”
“Song of the Cicadas
“White Cabbage”
“The Cuckoo Announces Spring”

BA DA CHUI, Percussion Quartet
Regional Festive Pieces
“Roosters Coming Down the Hill” (Jinji chushan)
This piece, arranged by Tian Longxin from the daliuzi percussion of the Tujia minority in Hunan, exploits the effects of gongs and cymbals.
“Squabbling Ducks” (Yazi banzui) and “The Tiger Bares its Fangs” (Laohu moya)
These two pieces are arranged from the ritual percussion of peasant groups around Xi’an province.

ZHAO JIAZHEN, Qin, and WU MAN, Pipa
Pipa and Qin: Classical Works
“Lanterns and Moon Competing in Brilliance’ (Dengyue jiaohui)
This folk piece is influenced by the ensemble styles of Shanghai region and inspired by New Year’s festivities, with syncopations, short repeated phrases, and additive rhythms.
“Recalling an Old Friend” (Yi guren)
Among the most intimate pieces in the qin repertoire, this song did not become popular until the early 20th century.
“Crows Cawing at Night” (Wuye ti)
This evocative piece was reconstructed in modern times from the 1425 score Shenqi mipu.'

DONG FEMALE SINGING GROUP
Folk Stories
Courtship song with ox-leg fiddle
“Playing the Fool” (the only way a spurned lover can conceal the pain of rejection)
Song with bic bac lute for the evening courtship session
“Gandang”

ZHAO JIAZHEN, Qin
Qin: Ancient Echoes
“Nie Zheng Assassinates the King of Han” (Guangling san)
This bleak piece evokes the ancient legend of a son avenging the murder of his father. Reconstructed in the 1950s from the 1425 score, it has become a popular song.
“Flowing Waters” (Liushui)
With its use of swirling arpeggios and rippling harmonics, this ancient piece may seem unusually virtuosic; played with taste and sensitivity, however, technique remains subordinate to imagery.

BA DA CHUI, Percussion Quartet
Traditional Percussion
“Lagua”
This piece was arranged from the percussion ensemble of the Jiangzhou region in Shanxi.
“Deep in the Night” (Ye shenchen)
This is a popular melody from Beijing opera, with drum/clappers and a pipa part newly arranged by Wu Man.
“Making the Palace of Heaven Resound” (Nao tiangong)
This percussion piece was adapted by Wang Jianhua from a Beijing opera based on the story of the Monkey.


DONG FEMALE SINGING GROUP

China is rich in a wide range of traditional folk song. Ironically, the cultures of the ethnic minorities attract more attention than those of the Han Chinese who comprise over 90 percent of the population. The Dong ethnic group is located on the southern province of Guizhou. The recent mixed blessings of urban migration and tourism can only partially offset the chronic poverty of such mountainous areas, while posing new challenges to local cultures.

Solo singing is common, but the Dong also have choral songs called al laox, “big songs” (Chinese dage), their unison sometimes varied with polyphony and imitation of the sounds of nature. Singing—for work, courtship, drinking, ritual, narrating history—is largely of a formal ceremonial nature. With no written language, their songs embody their history. Some songs are accompanied by the Dong’s distinctive plucked lute (bic bac, Chinese pipa), as well as a local bowed fiddle oh is (known as ox-leg fiddle for its tapering shape, not its material), remarkably like a medieval rebec.


BA DA CHUI

Percussion is the engine-room of Chinese music, accompanying storytelling, opera, ritual processions, and even political campaigns. Large percussion ensembles are a major feature of rural life. Ba Da Chui, a virtuoso and innovative quartet of state professionals based in Beijing, incorporates polished arrangements of local percussion pieces. Its main focus, however, is the percussion that accompanies opera, notably Peking opera. A variety of drums, cymbals, gongs, and woodblocks create complex patterns in irregular meters. The opera percussion is led by a small high-pitched drum and clappers; a large barrel drum is also h. Programmatic music is actually a rarity in Chinese instrumental folk music; like the highly programmatic pieces found in the more literate world of qin and pipa, Ba Da Chui also includes several items that evoke the world of nature.


Elite Solo Traditions: The Qin and Pipa

The seven-string plucked zither qin (pronounced “chin”), or guqin, is an intimate solo instrument whose prestige far outweighs its tiny minority of players and its soft dynamic. The qin was an essential component of the culture of the imperial literati, along with Chinese chess, calligraphy, and painting. Its scholarly detachment and union with nature have made it a favorite of poets and painters for over 1,000 years. Though now at home in the conservatories, its typical social life is in amateur gatherings of aficionados. The qin has recently gained a new global life in concert, on CDs, in film, and on the internet; new players continue to emerge, replacing the stellar generation of senior masters who kept the qin alive through the troubled years of Maoism. Though it is largely associated with old white-bearded men doing taiji, female players (like Zhao Jiazhen and Mingmei Yip) are becoming more common.

The form of the instrument has changed very little for more than 2,000 years. The contrast in timbre between open strings, pitches stopped with the left hand, sliding expressively, and ethereal harmonics creates a mesmerizing soundscape; the ebb-and-flow of free tempo often confounds the sense of meter.

Soft in dynamic, the qin is capable of a wide range of expression—not only meditative, but also zany, inebriated, and even violent. Notation, otherwise of minor importance in most Chinese genres, has a long tradition for the qin in a complex system of tablature. Though evoking ancient stories back to the time of Confucius, most pieces have a history of several centuries.

Like Wu Man and the “Class of 1978” composers at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, Zhao Jiazhen studied with revered masters Wu Jinglue and Zhang Zijian. She has since become a professor at the conservatory, while also touring internationally and recording for CD, TV, and film. In her current role, she is able to further cultivate a new generation of qin players. Zhao Jiazhen performs pieces handed down from master to pupil, as well as works reconstructed from early scores by such masters as Guan Pinghu and Yao Bingyan—notably the 1425 Shenqi mipu, itself containing many pieces that were already considered to be ancient.

Wu Man’s own instrument, the pipa, serves as a bridge between literati and folk traditions. Known today largely as a solo instrument emanating from the conservatories, the pipa has ancient links with courtly and folk ensembles. A pear-shaped fretted lute with four strings, the pipa was already popular during the Tang dynasty (618–907), the scene of the first great world music boom; medieval poems and frescos sing its praises.

Repertoire for the pipa dates back to the 18th century. Much of it displays the delicate touches of the “civil” style, but a few celebrated “martial” pieces that imitate the sounds of battle point the way to a gritty percussive avant-garde use of the instrument. The more earthy folk style relates to the instrument’s role in regional ensemble folk music (notably the “silk-and-bamboo” ensembles that are still thriving in the Shanghai teahouses) and in accompanying narrative-singing. For this concert, Wu Man occasionally plays in duet with the qin, a new musical experiment.


—Stephen Jones

© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation.

More Information:

One of China’s most notable musicians curates and hosts this concert of traditional Chinese music. There’s a percussion quartet; Zhao Jiazhen, a hypnotic virtuoso of the qin; and music from the Dong ethnic minority.

Wu Man, Curator, Pipa, and Host
THE CURATOR

WU MAN

Since moving to the United States from China in 1990, pipa virtuoso Wu Man has not only introduced the traditional Chinese instrument and its repertoire to Western audiences, she has successfully worked to give this ancient instrument a new role in today’s music. As a result, she has made the pipa accessible to a larger audience, including musicians and composers who value the instrument for its unique tonal qualities and virtuosic character. These efforts were recognized when Wu Man was made a 2008 United States Artists Broad Fellow.

Wu Man continually collaborates with some of today’s most distinguished musicians and conductors. She has performed as soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras and her touring has taken her to the major music halls of the world. Wu Man is a principal member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, and often performs and records with the groundbreaking Kronos Quartet.

Wu Man begins her 2009–2010 concert season at Carnegie Hall as part of Ancient Paths, Modern Voices. Her travels throughout China to select musicians for the festival have been documented on film, Discovering a Musical Heartland: Wu Man’s Return to China.

This November, Wu Man and the Kronos Quartet present the world premiere of a new staged work with video, A Chinese Home, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. In May of next year, she is scheduled to perform in Moscow with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists, with whom she was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for Best Small Ensemble Performance (world premiere recording of Tan Dun’s Pipa Concerto). She also has plans to tour Europe and Asia with the Silk Road Ensemble, in addition to performing with the Taipei Chinese Traditional Orchestra.

Recent recordings include Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic with the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch; Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago, featuring Wu Man’s performance of Lou Harrison’s Pipa Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the CSO Resound label; and New Impossibilities with the Silk Road Ensemble on Sony/BMG.

Born in Hangzhou, China, Wu Man studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she became the first recipient of a master's degree in pipa performance. Wu Man was selected as a Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University, and was selected by Yo-Yo Ma as the winner of the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize in music and communication. She is also the first artist from China to have performed at the White House. Visit wumanpipa.org for more information.

Dong Female Singing Group

Zhao Jiazhen, Qin

Ba Da Chui, Percussion Quartet