subject: Phases Of The Moon: Traditional Chinese Music [print this page] I don't know why, but I greatly enjoy classical Chinese music, at least what I've heard of it. This CD is a good introduction.
It is apparently not purely Chinese. Most of the tracks are performances by the Chinese Broadcasting Traditional Instruments Orchestra from the 1950s and 1960s. That is, from when mainland China was very isolated from the rest of the world.
Despite that, there is a lot of Western orchestral organizing of the music. The instruments are traditional, but the arrangements are not necessarily.
Track 1: The Moon Mirrored in the Pool is a slow, shy evocation of that feeling, of one lonely soul out alone at night, seeing the moon reflected in the water, implying a still, windless night. It's quietly beautiful.
Track 2: The Moon on High is a more obviously orchestrated piece. Sometimes it sounds as though it could be a movie soundtrack. It combines some contemplative sections with some with sprightly, uplifting energy.
I do wonder why the communist orchestra adapted their traditional music to Western forms. The result is beautiful, but seems to go in spirit against the harshness of the Chinese government at that time to all things Western (except Marxism, of course - though it could be argued that Mao was as much an emperor of China as a leader of the working classes).
I suspect that these musicians had all had Western training in music, and it was simply natural to them to combine what they knew from the West with Chinese music and instruments. I am afraid to think about what happened to them during the Cultural Revolution. I suspect they may have been found guilty of thought crimes. I hope they were simply sent to the countryside to learn from the peasants rather than sent to jail or executed.
If you think that sounds paranoid and extreme, you have no knowledge of the history of modern China.
I'm not saying anything really happened to them -- maybe nobody knows -- but highly talented musicians with training in Western orchestration would have been classified as intellectuals and, as such, suspect by nature.
Track 3: Days of Emancipation is sprightly, energetic and uplifting. It's obviously a celebration. I suppose the "emancipation" refers to the communist takeover of mainland China. Well, if you just accept it as a fun piece of music, ignoring that it's officially celebrating a horrible disaster for the ordinary people of China, it's good to listen to.
Track 4: Dance of the Yao People is energetic and enjoyable.
Somehow Chinese singers and musicians manage to transmit a wealth of feeling that is deep and resonant. My wife once laughed at me for playing a sad Chinese song to her. "Somebody die," she said, not understanding why I listened just for the pathos of the words I couldn't understand.
Anyway, while may not a pure example of Chinese classical music, this album is well worth your time.
