Erhu music

[petronia]

My CD-RW drive is being temperamental (the DVD drive has already been temperamental for a good while). So burning progresses, but slowly. ^^; In the meantime, am uploading some of the promised erhu music. It's a folk instrument - serves pretty much the same purpose as a fiddle - and thus more immediately accessible than the pipa (which I've always thought of as a "courtly" instrument, like the lute) or the qin (which is utterly tied up with scholarly ideals, to the effect that it's designed to be played solo for an audience of plus or minus one, with the one being a connoisseur).

Lei Qiang - Moon Reflected on Er-Quan Spring

(Why is it not translated "Moon Reflected on Two Springs"? Is it the actual name of a spring? No, I don't know these things, I'm lame. This is a famous song, but then they all are.) Mr. Lei Qiang actually busked in the Montreal metro for a couple of years after he emigrated, until - well, until he didn't need to anymore. I remember him as a staple of my commute to high school, sawing away in Snowdon station under the sign of Orpheus's lyre (the rather poetic icon used by the then-STCUM to designate licensed busker locations).

Here's a livelier one you can dance to:

Lei Qiang - Boys and Flowers ~ Raise the Red Lantern

The album's pretty orchestrated, as you can see, but nowadays they often have mixed Western/Chinese traditional orchestras. It's like Renaissance/Baroque music, you can either perform it with all period instruments or disregard that aspect. Also like Renaissance/Baroque music, many of the instruments simply can't carry a solo over modern orchestration, though the erhu can.

Here's a random guqin (seven-stringed Chinese koto) track I downloaded just now:

Anonymous - Changmenyuan (Sorrow of Changmen Palace)

I have no idea who plays this or when/how it was recorded, but you can hear the grating-silk sound of the player's fretwork. It creates an odd sense of immediacy, like listening to Glenn Gould mutter. XD "Changmenyuan" is a classical drabble challenge poetic topic: the sorrow of Empress Cheng after she loses the favour of Han Wudi and retires to Changmen Palace. Yes, I'm getting the names off Google, damn me if I can normally remember which Emperor did what when. XD;;

EDIT -- Anonymous - The Moon Represents My Heart (Guzheng Instrumental)

CLASSICO-POP KITSCH AHAHAHAHA. XD (Not qin, which simply cannot be abused like this. It's zheng, which has a higher more akarui sound, and can be used in orchestras. In general if you hear a koto-like thingy being played as a supporting instrument, it's zheng.)

Comments

[absenceofmind.livejournal.com]

oh, ER-HU!!! i ADORE the er-hu, the shanghai orchestra came to our school last week and they were bloody brilliant, the pipa soloist in particular was like OMFG HOW MANY FINGERS DO YOU HAVE?

my fave er-hu song, though, is the horse races. waah, so much FUN!

[squidlet.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I got burned a while back buying Chinese orchestral music, and am now woefully short on pieces from this genre.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Thank you--not just for the songs, but for your notes, because I know next to nothing and am grateful for a crash course in what's what. Lei Qiang is suspiciously familiar from amazon, though I didn't order either of his albums. XD; Those are quite orchestrated. I presume solo erhu is also something that occurs? (Well, if he was busking on street corners... ^^;)

Love the immediacy, the intimacy of the guqin track. Fantastic.

Yesterday I found a whole mixed bag of stuff here, winds and strings and whatall together:
http://www.ibiblio.org/chinese-music/html/mp3.html#Traditional
I downloaded everything under "Traditional Music" and much of it's pretty. ^^; I was wondering, the track called "Eve of New Year"--is that a holiday song? Like, one that wouldn't be performed except in the appropriate season?

So, what instrument would get played in a brothel (shamisen equivalent)? XD; Haha my priorities not misaligned at all.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

There is solo erhu (one or two tracks out of what I'm sending you are), but in general it's accompanied; by yangqin (big percussive xylophone-with-strings) to set a tempo, if nothing else. Erhu tends to be the solo/melody-carrying instrument in a small orchestra of zheng and yangqin and flute for call-and-response, like the violin/fiddle. In fact, like I say, just replace it with the word "fiddle" and you'll get a good idea of how and in what context it's played.

More where that guqin track comes from (I love it myself); will add to stack for burning. As for that site, I think my dad actually downloaded everything off it, though it's stashed on his computer of course. XD (You're going to get multiple versions of these tunes. They're "Danny Boy"-like standards.) As for "Liang Xiao", that's... a good question. I guess it's a holiday song of sorts but I wouldn't object to hearing it at other times or anything, not like I'd have a problem with "Frosty the Snowman" being played in July. Would like to know how other Chinese people (possibly from more traditionalist backgrounds) feel about that, though.

You might have a little erhu-led band in the corner, depending on the period and the brothel, but the courtesan would play pipa. "The sound of large and small pearls falling on a jade platter," quoth the poet. It's what's called a biwa in Japanese, actually; didn't geisha use to play that too? A lady poetess, now, would play qin.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I do too. Bowing on my heartstrings, is what that instrument's like.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I may upload some more, more people are interested than I thought would be.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Sure, of course! With the caveat that I'm hardly more than a casual listener myself. ^^;

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for these mp3s. I think I've only heard Chinese music live once but I liked it. I think when I was younger I didn't like Asian instrumental music, but as I get older I'm liking it more.