April 15, 2011

CCIV has just published a new book entitled Reading Chinese Music and Beyond, edited by Dr Joys H. Y. Cheung and Mr Wong King Chung. The aim of the book is to provide the guidance to students to understand and appreciate Chinese music.

As the blurb reads: “In our digital age, a few taps on the key pad can load up different kinds of Chinese music to our ears. While the internet offers our students increasing convenience to find example sounds of Chinese music, social forces that shaped the formation of those musical examples do not speak across automatically. We need informed guidance to understand the diverse Chinese cultural spaces that nurtured related performers, listeners, composers, and commentators, whose thoughts, feelings, and pursuits open for us diverse kinds of stories, issues, and meanings. Musical cases from cultural spaces beyond offer valuable insights as well.”

Informed guidance is what the six articles offer: “Music of Qin: From the Scholar’s Study to the Concert Stage” by Bell Yung; “Pipa Stories as Cultural History of Chinese Music” by Joseph S. C. Lam; “The Making of a National Music Icon: Xian Xinghai and his Yellow River Cantata” by Hon-lun Yang; “The North Wind Blows: Sounding Bitterness in The White-Haired Girl, a Communist Political Ritual” by Joys H. Y. Cheung; “Representing the Minority Other in Chinese Music” by Chuen-Fung Wong; and “Trafficking in Taiwan Aboriginal Voices Revisited” by Nancy Guy.

This book will be essentially for classroom use but is also accessible for the readers with a keen interest in Chinese music. For enquiries, please call 3442-2477 or send an email to ci@cityu.edu.hk.

Written by: Audrey

October 9, 2009

Having read Hoito’s blog and spotted the song Greensleeves, really couldn’t help but jot a few words here in remembrance of this song – or perhaps, the so-called folk or country songs which have become a canon in their own right.
The exact year or composer of Greensleeves is unknown yet it’s popularly believed to be in the Elizabethan time. The music is beautiful enough, though as Hoito said, nowadays the reason why young Hong Kong students know about this song is probably because of the public examinations that they have to take.
Every country has its own folk-style, and it’s undeniable that some of the so-called English Oldies have become favourites in places that have travelled far and wide from the original land. In such a cultural transfer, I do feel that perhaps it’s more to do the feelings with which the songs attach rather than the connotations (if there’s any) or the socio-political phenomenon that the songs purportedly portray that appeal to the hearts of the people.
A couple of months ago I watched the live performance of ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’ on youtube – I don’t intend to delve into the history of the songs or its anti-war elements, yet what touches me deeply is when seeing all the people inside the concert hall – from young to old – literally sang in a chorus…..at that moment – I guess many of them might not think about war, or any political or social events, but the mere fact that they were all there – and they all knew how to sing the song.

Written by: hiuylee

April 7, 2009

As the 2nd Huqin Festival of Hong Kong will soon be kicked-off, so just wanna drop a note here to alert everybody who would like to take a glimpse at the various kinds of Huqin (Chinese stringed instrument) to attend the concerts and activities held by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra to mark the occasion. Details can go to: http://www.hkco.org/eng/concert_32nd_info_c13_eng.asp?caller=2009huqin

If anybody still has some memory ofthe first Huqin Festival, which was held in Hong Kong in 2001, then probably the spectacular opening ceremony - Music from a Thousand Strings – which featured a thousand participants from the community playing huqin together alongside with huqin virtuosi and a full-sized orchestra on the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza, had left a deep impression on you.

Of course size is not all that matters, yet for those joining in the experience it’s surely a special one that’s well remembered. This year the HKCO made another attempt to promote huqin - Global Huqin Relay. The idea is that players from Hong Kong, China, Canada, Japan, and Singapore will play Huqin at their respective time zones to keep the live music going round the world until it comes back to Hong Kong. If you wanna join, you can register with the HKCO between now and May 1, 2009.

For those who want to get a taste of what huqin music’s about, then there’s a free concert held at 3-5pm on April 18, 2009 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Foyer. Guided appreciation for the performances by HKCO huqin musicians will be provided too!

Written by: hiuylee

January 8, 2009

Today’s a special day for the Pulse because we’ve produced our first Podcast programme for our readers! Special thanks of course should go to our first guest – Professor Wong Chuen-fung, assistant professor of the Department of Music at the Macalester College in Minnesota, who’s squeezed time during his stay in Hong Kong before returning to the US next week. The first programme is about music of minorities in China, especially music of the Uyghur and its relationship to issues like identity.

If you don’t have much idea about what Ugyhur music is, or how it’s like to carry out research into the discipline of ethnomusicology, or even if you’re simply curious about his excursion to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and his learning experience of the traditional Uyghur instruments such as the rawap (Central Asian plucked lute) there, then this is a programme for you. You can also get a taste of what these music’s like, as music excerpts specially prepared by Professor Wong will be played during the programme. So just enjoy it!

Just a few more words, though….We want to make more interesting programmes for you all, so if you’ve any idea/thoughts or any topic that you’re interested, you can drop us a line at the blog!

Podcast: Play on page | Play in new window

Written by: hiuylee

December 18, 2008

What kind of music do you listen to? Canto-pop, Japanese pop, heavy metal, jazz, or rock and roll? Can you imagine what kind of music people listened to during 1950’s in Hong Kong?

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Written by: King-chung

December 15, 2008

Have you ever heard classical guitar playing Butterfly Lovers, one of the most well-known Chinese legend that has been made into different forms of arts such as film, opera and violin concerto? If not, probably you can try to listen to classical guitarist Yang Xuefei’s arrangement of Butterfly Lovers (Falling in Love), in which she has employed various classical techniques such as tremolo as well as fully made use of the guitar’s tonal colour to get to the lyrical heart of the piece. It’s a pity that she did not perform this piece last night at her recital at the Hong Kong City Hall, though fortunately she did perform another traditional Chinese music Yi Dance , a piece originally composed for Chinese instrument, Pipa, in 1960 by the Chinese composer Wang Huiran based on the folk culture of the Yi people of southern China. Yang imitated the sound of Pipa in certain parts of the score, which reflected the versatility of the guitar. The transcription of traditional Chinese music into guitar repertory may be a recent phenomenon but I believe anybody who happens to listen to these pieces will discover not only how penetrating the sound of the guitar can be but also how different instruments can reveal the various aspects of a piece of music.

For the story of Butterfly Lovers, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers

Written by: hiuylee

December 8, 2008

Many people have attempted to pen Hong Kong’s history but few like Dou Wun, a naamyam singer, used naamyam to narrate his story, and that of Hong Kong’s. Arriving in Hong Kong from Guangdong in 1926 at the age of six, he started his more than five decades’ profession as a naamyam singer. His last major series of performances before passing away in 1979 was when he sang for three months in 1975 at the Fu Long Teahouse in Sheung Wan. The live recordings of these performances are now converted into six CDs, which will be released on December 17 (Wed). I think it’s a valuable part of HK’s cultural heritage, and it’s certainly worthwhile to get to know a bit more about it.

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Written by: hiuylee

December 3, 2008

Winter’s finally around the corner (or approaching?) as the temperature dropped quite drastically  before rising a bit in the past couple of days. Winter’s often a time for nostalgia, or sorrowless, though somehow it also offers a sense of tranquility especially when walking at night. It was especially so when wandering around the Nan Lian Garden last Sunday. Stepping into the garden, it was the sound of Guqin that directed my path. While the sound was a recording, I soon came to the venue where the real concert was to be staged.

Or perhaps it’s better called a sharing?  Some of the pieces were rarely performed in public by renowned Guqin expert Yao Gongbai, who is currently in town to deliver series of talks and demonstrations. But they’re being played this time because this year marked the 25th anniversary of the passing away of his father Yao Bingyan, the famous expert on reconstructing the “lost” qin pieces.  With his eyes half-closed, he immersed in the piece ”In Memory of my Friend” – bringing the audiences to the realm of nostaglia.

If the tradition that poems are meant to be sung rather than read, then that night’s performance also carried good testimony to such a motto.  When Sharon (CCIV colleague) came to the stage to sing two traditional Chinese poems (from Gushi 19), accompanied by Yao’s Guqin playing, the music and the words seem to become inseparable from each other and relive the moment of sadness or futility from a long, long time ago.

http://www.nanliangarden.org/home.php?eng, go to “concerts and performances” section of the website

Written by: hiuylee

November 7, 2008

It is often said that music transcends national boundary and a common language for all. So the best way of understanding it is to first listen to it. Chinese musical instruments are classified into Blown (cui), Plucked (tan), Bowed (la) and Struck (da). This system of classifying instruments was introduced at the beginning of the 20^th century following the decline of imperial dynasties and the rising popularity of Western music in China. So just enjoy it!

Reference:
http://www.english.cciv.cityu.edu.hk/Ancient_Music

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Written by: hiuylee