Ancient farming songs are still being sung in the fields of
Shanghai suburban Qingpu District. Hear them tomorrow night, along
with contemporary music. French violinist Didier Lockwood and his
band stage a concert combining Chinese instruments and jazz next
week.
Shanghai is one of the most modernized cities in the world but
farmers in the suburban Qingpu District are still singing a
traditional farming songs passed down from ancient times.
The Shanghai Chinese Music Orchestra will invite four girls from
Qingpu to sing the songs tomorrow during a concert, "Reechoes of
Shanghai."
"The Qingpu farming songs were loud, bright-toned and
reverberant. They were created by farmers when they worked in the
fields some 400 years ago," says music critic Wang Shu from the
Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He conducted research into Qingpu
field songs last year.
"I was amazed by their stunning songs, which could compete with
Tibetan folk songs," says Wang. "Now the local government is trying
to preserve this cultural relic and popularize the singing in
primary schools."
Wang Fujian, head of the Shanghai Chinese Music Orchestra, says
the orchestra will serve as a background for the four Qingpu
girls.
"We will try to recreate the greenish watery fields of Qingpu
and a rhythm of farming work with our music," adds Wang, who is
also the concert's conductor and a professor of Chinese folk
music.
Apart from accompanying the field songs, the orchestra will play
some Chinese contemporary music.
"Both some Chinese composers and Western audiences have a
stereotype of Chinese music as 'very sweet, bustling or shallow,"'
says Wang. "It's not true. There is some very mature, deep and
inspiring contemporary Chinese music which fully shows the charm of
Chinese instruments but uses Western composing methods."
The orchestra will play Tan Dun's erhu (a two-stringed, bowed
fiddle) concerto Fire Ritual, Tang Jianping's pipa (a
plucked string instrument with a fretted fingerboard) concerto
Spring and Autumn.
"Fire Ritual' is a very deep masterpiece that pays homage to the
victims of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. It is an amazing mixture
of the human voice and the orchestra, a calling for the souls and a
prayer for peace," says Wang.
Famous flutist Tang Junqiao will play a solo titled
Conflux. She won acclaim for her performance in the
soundtrack of Ang Lee's Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon.
The repertoire also includes compositions incorporating local
opera elements and jazz. A composition titled "Neo-Shanghai Night"
will begin with jazz rhythm and involve saxophone and jazz
drums.
Next Tuesday, French violinist Didier Lockwood will stage a
concert that combines Chinese instruments and jazz. His six-piece
ensemble will cooperate with Chinese erhu player Ma Xianghua and
saxophonist Jin Hao.
Lockwood has had a diverse career, ranging from fusion to swing
and advanced hard bop. In the 1980s, he was considered the next in
a line of great French violinists after Stephane Grappelli and
Jean-Luc Ponty. Lockwood began studying violin when he was six but
stopped his formal training and joined a rock group 10 years
later.
He played in Paris with Aldo Romano and Daniel Humair, among
others, met Grappelli and toured with him. He had a fusion group
called Surya and recorded with Tony Williams.
Lockwood band's and Chinese musicians will play novel
compositions ranging from Starting Block, Snow
Mood to Juggling in Central Park.
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(Shanghai Daily May 18, 2007)