Title: “A Moonlit Night On The Spring River” and “Ambush from 10 Sides”
Performers: Vivian Ge
Culture: Chinese
Orchestration: Pipa
Here’s
another video that includes performance as well as some verbal explanation of
the tradition from which come the music and the performer. According to miss Ge, the Pipa has a
history of over two thousand years.
That’s coming from a musical history—Chinese musical history—of upwards
of 7000 years! It’s awesome that
these traditions have been preserved for so long…
Or
have they? One of the most
important bits of cultural context I’ve gotten from my reading about China has
involved political and musical reform implemented since 1949, when the People’s
Republic of China was established and a new movement to unite the peoples of
China through music began. New
musical genres, especially involving large, westernized ensembles (like
traditional European classical orchestras, but with Chinese instruments), were
created for the purpose of popularizing guoyue,
or literally “music of the nation.”
Since then, much appreciation has been shown for folk genres,
instruments, and musicians, and conservatories have been established for the
purpose of producing highly skilled musicians.
This brings me to the topic
of authenticity. How do we know
that the music performed in this video is authentic? Vivian Ge doesn’t actually say that she’s playing folk
music, although she does mention that the Pipa “has always had the title of
being the king of folk music.” I
don’t know how much formal training, if any, miss Ge has received, but I guess
it’s possible that this performance is pretty close to authentic or way off.
