95 replies to this topic

[浪淘音]

I just want to ask that do any of you has chinese orchesta performance so that i can download them and know more about it....this is because I never heard of it before.....

well, if Zhaoyun wants to make an FTP site for the forum

i can upload some Chinese Orchestral tracks

do you see that first link in my signature? you can order Chinese Orchestral cds from there

[Ying Zheng]

I've encountered an extraordinary amount of difficulty in trying to locate complete tracks of chinese opera on the internet. Does anyone out there know of a good site with some authentic pieces available for download? I am very interested in this.

On another note, I've noticed that several of you are members of a Chinese orchestra. What instrument(s) do you play, and how did you go about locating these orchestras? Are they part of university programs? Joining a Chinese orchestra has always been on my list of things to do; however, I lack the background information necessary to go about doing that.

Thanks,
Ying Zheng

[Yun]

Most schools in Singapore now have Chinese orchestras - my university's one was founded in 1973. I play the double bass, a Western instrument, in the orchestra, because I was assigned to play the bass when I first joined a school Chinese orchestra in 1993 (I was 13 years old).

I think it may be difficult for you to find a Chinese orchestra in Texas or even Columbia University, but you can always run a web search and see what you can find. I know of at least one amateur and one professional Chinese orchestra in California.

[浪淘音]

I've encountered an extraordinary amount of difficulty in trying to locate complete tracks of chinese opera on the internet. Does anyone out there know of a good site with some authentic pieces available for download? I am very interested in this.

On another note, I've noticed that several of you are members of a Chinese orchestra. What instrument(s) do you play, and how did you go about locating these orchestras? Are they part of university programs? Joining a Chinese orchestra has always been on my list of things to do; however, I lack the background information necessary to go about doing that.

Thanks,
Ying Zheng

i compose for Chinese Orchestral and ensemble stuff. I play Erhu as well

[青文景武剑]

it is so amazing when you see the black keys on a piano are exactly the same as chinese music.

wester: 7
chinese: 5

[jwrevak]

it is so amazing when you see the black keys on a piano are exactly the same as chinese music.

wester: 7
chinese: 5

Kind of. The five-tone scale frequently used in Chinese music is called the pentatonic; however, this scale is used by many musical cultures.

[MengTzu]

Does anybody have access to the ancient music used by Xia, Shang, Zhou?

[Yun]

In the Qi capital of Linzi last month, I bought a CD of the Shao succession dance praised by Confucius as being perfectly beautiful and perfectly moral (he supposedly found meat to be tasteless for three months after hearing it). It was reconstructed by the local scholars based on a rediscovered score, and sounds interesting though rather austere and dull (tastes have clesrly changed since then!). There are some fast tracks on the CD, however they are marred by the use of MIDI to provide percussion - I'm quite sure there were no drum sets around in the Spring and Autumn!

[MengTzu]

In the Qi capital of Linzi last month, I bought a CD of the Shao succession dance praised by Confucius as being perfectly beautiful and perfectly moral (he supposedly found meat to be tasteless for three months after hearing it). It was reconstructed by the local scholars based on a rediscovered score, and sounds interesting though rather austere and dull (tastes have clesrly changed since then!). There are some fast tracks on the CD, however they are marred by the use of MIDI to provide percussion - I'm quite sure there were no drum sets around in the Spring and Autumn!

I think there were drums in Spring and Autumn. I'm not an expert, but it seems to say so in the Confucian classics.

Btw, how can I get a hold of these songs?

[jwrevak]

I think there were drums in Spring and Autumn.  I'm not an expert, but it seems to say so in the Confucian classics.

Btw, how can I get a hold of these songs?

The drum is such a basic instrument I would be shocked if it hadn't existed in China even earlier than the Spring and Autumn period. Clearly, in Confucius' day, there were drums. For which kinds of music they were used I'm unsure.

"The Master [Confucius] said, 'He is no disciple of mine. My little children, beat the drum and assail him.' " Analects 11.

In addition, by the 2nd century BC, tuned drums were in use. See Temple’s The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention.

[zheng mu]

Has anyone any detailed info on the differences between the pipa, and the lute which came from bordering countries to the east? Number of strings, did they both use a plectrum, size, etc.?

Edited by zheng mu, 19 August 2005 - 09:42 AM.

[Yun]

The Central Asian pipa was originally five-stringed, and played with a large and long plectrum. In the Song dynasty, it became four-stringed. In the Tang, many pipa players switched from plectrums to using fingernails. See:

http://news.huain.co...news_11529.html

Also http://www.freewebs....sco/instru2.htm (this article was written by me)

The indigenous form of the 'pipa' in China was most likely not shaped like the pipa we know today. Instead it was the instrument known today as the ruan 阮 and which was once also known as the Qin pipa 秦琵琶. Ruan Xian 阮咸, the musician after whom the instrument was later named, is described in sources of the time as being good at playing the 'pipa'. But a tomb mural of the Eastern Jin clearly shows him playing a ruan-type instrument:



Another mural of a zheng player and a ruan-pipa player:

[kaixin]

I wonder if the Chinese pipa has any relations with the ancient Persian "barbat?"
The barbat is no longer used in Persian music, but its modern descendant (ud) is widely used in Arabic countries and Turkey. The "ud" is the direct ancestor of the European lute (lute="al ud").

[Moose]

I'm fascinated by ancient chinese music after hearing some snippets from the "San Guo Yan Yi" TV series and wonder where i can download sound clips or snippets(Not the entire tunes). Not those played by a gu zheng or pipa, but those created by ringing of bells, horns etc etc. Those who saw the Tv series should know what i mean.

[AhMan]

http://mp3.baidu.com/ is the place to look for any mp3 songs.
But you can also find clips from Chinese/HK movies here:http://www.wenyi.com/
Ask fellows here to post the titles for you the paste them into the search box
ah, a more accessible site is:http://www.ibiblio.org/chinese-music/html/anthology.html
http://www.ibiblio.o...raditional.html (Liangzhu concerto is my favourite)