今日小記

近日過於勞累，終於今日不能再戰，只想睡覺。睡起來又覺得很孤獨無助，一切都沒有希望，於是特別想出去走，不管去哪，去個遠的地方。終於在等車中平靜下來，希望回到現實中去解決問題。生活總還是要濄的。到了一處中餐館，吃了一盤雞肉蔬菜飯，覺得心情又好很多。夜裡狂風大作，心卻更加平靜下來，能百年不遇的寫點東西表達自己的心情。

我覺得人不能離開生活太遠。季方明這句話很對，至少對我來說。如果迷失在工作中而不能享受生活的樂趣，那確實不能算是好的人生。即便是吃一頓可口的飯菜，或是把家裡收拾乾淨，適當給自己放一放假，這都對人的身心健康有很大好處。心境是最重要的。對我來說，如何創造好的心境有時不容易。像現在這樣的平靜，能有幾回呢？

DVD review:Christa Ludwig "Die Winterreise" and Lieder Recital Birthday Edition

This DVD set, released by Arthaus Musik in 2008, is a special edition in celebration of Christa Ludwig's 80th birthday. As the world renowned mezzo-soprano, Christa Ludwig has played numerous leading roles in major productions of European and American opera scenes since her debut in as Orlovsky at Frankfurt in 1946. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with and been favored by such world class conductors such as Klemperer, Levine, Solti, Bohm, karajan, and Bernstein.

Two DVDs are included in this birthday edition, both from private lieder recitals dating back to 1994, accompanied by pianist Charles Spencer. The first program features Schubert's song cycle "Winterreise", a work intended for tenor and piano, at the same time a portray of a man's lonely journey in the dark winter after he discovered his beloved fell in love with someone else.

A lieder cycle used to be considered not appropriate for female singers, Ludwig was the second female singer, after Lotte Lehmann, to give a concert hall performance of Winterreise in 1994. Back in 1986, DG released a new recording of the "Winterreise" performed by Christa Ludwig with piano accompaniment by James Levine. As the first female singer's recording of "Winterreise" to be released by a major label at that time, Ludwig's performance was reviewed as made one aware of "advantages accruing to a female interpreter".

Twenty-two years later, the current DVD release still includes in the programme notes an interview with Ludwig on her justification of performing the song cycle. "I still maintain that this is the winter's journey of a soul and not that of a man or a woman", said Christa in the interview.

Originally written for higher register, as a custom for mezzo, the songs were transposed to fit the natural vocal range of Ludwig, giving the full display of her mature and warm voice. It also turns out that her lower and powerful voice does a even better job depicting the gloomy darkness of the winter as compared to a tenor voice.

The story of "Die Winterreise" is less narrative than is a collection of emotion, from desperate to loneliness, solitude to fear, and courage to hope, which Ludwig portrayed by her changing voice as well as her moderate use of body language and facial expression. Mr. Spencer's responsive playing is highly effective in setting the tone for the music, ranging from "Frozen Tears" and "Spring Dreams"

to the vivid imitation of the sorrow hurdy-gurdy in "Der Leiermann".

The second program, "Lieder Recital" announces its lighter mood by setting the backdrop less dark and lighting brighter. The repertoire of this recital, featuring lieder by Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, and Richard Strauss, is designed as a contrast to the darkness of the "Winterreise". Besides the most well known works of Schubert such as "Die Forelle" (the Trout) and "Der Tod und das Madchen" (The Death and the Maiden), there are lighted-hearted works especially toward the second half, including Bernstein's "I Hate Music--A Cycle of Five Kid Songs", and Wolf's "The Gardener" and "How far already".

The recital reached its most humorous and delightful moment when Ludwig performs Bernstein's celebrated "I Hate Music" song cycle, the only non-German song cycle in the entire program. Both performers gave a heart warming portrait of the childish character.

Also included in the DVD set is a selection of Master Classes with Christa Ludwig on the stage of Vienna’s Volkstheater in 1999.

日本の音楽とらんま１・２

日本のアニメの音楽はおもしろいです。らんまの音楽が私は本とに好きです。

印地語，文字，古琴

我想這個博客的文字更豐富起來也倒是件有意思的事情。不過上一篇文章變成了印地語（HINDU)純屬意外。不知為什么我的博客上有這幾種輸入的選項， 印地語，馬來語，泰米爾語等。

最近學習古琴，覺得其實演奏樂器與音樂悟性本沒有直接關聯。人的身體動作之協調其實獨立于大腦對音樂的感知能力。另外，動作的規范與演奏樂器本身的傳統有很大關系，所以必須有人為的約束，而非像對音樂領悟的天成。不過古琴的音樂是很有意思的。

榮先生的香港老師，蔡德允先生，活了106歲，到前兩年才過世，看照片顯得精神矍鑠，聰明過人。她家祖居浙江，家譜可追溯到東周或春秋時期，到她是第28代，真是奇人。

लिटिल स्टार

इ दोन' क्नोव वही अल ऑफ़ ठेस तुर्नेद इन्तो सम कंद ऑफ़ इंडियन स्क्रिप्ट। आईटी'स इन्तेरेस्तिंग। इ'म व्रितिंग अबाउट थे एर्हू स्टुडेंट ठाट इ जुस्त हद फॉर अ मोंठ, पेपे। व्हेन इ गावे हिम अ कॉपी ऑफ़ थे कद ठाट माय फाठेर प्लायेद, हे लिस्तेनेद तो आईटी एंड व्हेन हे रेतुर्नेद तो में तवो वीक्स लेटर, हे सैद हे वास "सुर्प्रिसेद"। हे एंड हिस विफे अरे बोथ फ्रॉम मेक्सिको एंड व्हेन हे हेअर्द थिस मेक्सिकां पीस "लिटिल स्टार", हिस विफे अल्मोस्त क्रय। इ जुस्त नेवर थौघ्त सोमेथिंग कैन तौच अ सोल सो दीपली इन अ मोमेंट व्हेन इ, व्हो मेड थिस कद फॉर हिम, दीद नोट क्नोव अ थिंग अबाउट आईटी.

King's Noyse Celebrates R&B 40th Birthday

Olde, Newe, Borrow'd, Blue--if this makes you think you're at an old English wedding, you'd probably not be surprised to come in and hear some old Irish tunes. Well, if you didn't happen to see a violin that is played rested on someone's left arm and a lute that has a bent neck.

Relax, now, this is not some kind of avant-guard innovations--on the contrary, these are old fashions. Last Saturday, a group of eager audiences--some of whom may not know what they are expecting--spent their two evening hours in the intimate space of Synod Hall in Oakland, being surprised, amazed, and pleased at a special concert of the Renaissance & Baroque Society's 40th anniversary.

One of the most celebrated early music groups in the country, King's Noyse is indeed an all-star band. Founded by David Douglass in 1988, the group mostly performs violin consort repertoires from 16th and 17th century, with its members among the leading musicians in their fields, such as Robert Mealy and Shira Kammen. Their Saturday concert was joined by the world renowned lute player Paul O'Dette and vocalist Ellen Hargis.

Dividing the concert program into four parts with the title "Olde, Newe, Borrow'd, Blue" may sound corny but at the same time the repertoire turns out to be incredibly creative and refreshing, presenting a wide variety of different musical styles. Many were especially entertained by the last part, "Blue", which features arrangements of modern great hits, such as Gershwin's "Summertime", Beatles' "Michele", and Thelonius Monk's "'Round Midnight'.

The whole concert was elaborately designed in terms of instrumentation, alternating among ensemble playing to solo vocal accompanied by the lute.

Many audience new to King's Noyse were particularly impressed by the authentic instruments they play on. The violins, played rested on the arm instead of the shoulder, delivers a very soft but clean sound, sometimes with rich timbre variation and little vibrato. The deep sound of the bass violin reminds one of the excellent acoustics in the Synod Hall. Frequently, O'Dette had to play louder to maintain the balance with the fiddles, due to the soft volume of the lute.

Hargis demonstrated her versatility with the traditional voice of "Barbara Allen", more modern voice of Monk's "'Round Midnight", and the expressive narrating voice in the lively piece "The Battel".

I am amazed by the power of a five-people string ensemble like King's Noyse to deliver radically different sounds. There is the smooth flow of the Renaissance sound; there are also the vivid sounds depicting scenes in a battle, such as "March of the horseman", "Bagpipe and Drone", and "Burying the Dead"; in Leonard Berstein's "Some Other Time", one hears the sound comparable to a string orchestra. Needless to say, Mr.Douglass's arrangement and improvisational creations for the violin band is no doubt glittering from the beginning to the end.

May the Pittsburgh audience continues to find the music from R&B surprising, amazing, and pleasing in their 50th,60th, and 70th anniversary.

Silk screen meets Blue Pipa in Pittsburgh

MUSIC REVIEW; Silk Screen meets Blue Pipa in Pittsburgh

by Shuo Zhang

10/03/08

 

Pittsburgh has been blessed by the music of pipa—an ancient Chinese lute, since the ‘Music on the Edge’ project presented a concert featuring collaboration between Pitt composition professor Eric Moe and pipa soloist Wu Man in 2005.  Three years later, last Saturday night, at the opening concert of Silk Screen Film Festive 2009, another pipa virtuoso, Min Xiao-Fen, brought her Blue Pipa to the curious audiences in the packed concert hall of Pittsburgh CAPA High School.

 

Min, an internationally acclaimed pipa soloist and composer, moved to the United States in 1992 from China, where she has established herself as an accomplished musician. She has since worked with numerous prominent composers, including Carl Stone, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Philip Glass, and Tan Dun, among others, to perform pipa music ranging from traditional Chinese to Western classical and jazz. A featured jazz artist at Lincoln Center for the Arts, New York City, Min founded the Blue Pipa Trio in 2003, whose current member also includes guitarist Steve Salerno and bassist Dean Johnson.

 

Their Saturday performance was the most inspiring in the unfolding of the music throughout the concert, which reminds one of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Tai-Chi—a process moving between the two poles of “yin” and “yang”, rest and motion.

 

Starting from “lyrical” style traditional repertoire for solo pipa, the first half of the concert culminated when the sound from battlefields of ancient China swept the concert hall with the “martial” style piece “Shi Mian Mai Fu” (Ambush from All Sides). A piece called by New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn as “energetic, rolled strumming similar to the technique guitarists call rasgueado; rapid solo figuration; and clear-textured counterpoint”, Min, with her virtuoso mastery of the complicated right-hand skills, demonstrated the power of a relatively small instrument over the large space of the concert hall. It may come as more astonishing than what Franz Liszt did to show the power of piano as comparable to a symphony orchestra back in the 19^th century, considering the size of the instrument.

 

The last piece before the intermission, Written On the Wind, a commissioned piece by New York based Chinese composer Huang Ruo, presents an experimental approach that combines vocal and pipa, both played by Min, with the two unfolding in a linear fashion rather than vertically structured.  Interestingly, the lyrics for the vocal part in this piece are not in any language in existence—rather, they are non-sense syllabus, supposed to be “personal words, feelings, stories”, “that meant to kept to her [the performer] own”. A not uncommon design seen in modern Western compositions, Min’s presentation was full of contrast and affection, on top of which a special flavor cast both musically and phonetically, showing her background in Mandarin Chinese oral delivery.

 

 

The second half featured the whole crew of Blue Pipa Trio performing their most classic pieces such as “Chinese Take-out”, “Red Haired boy Dancing with Golden Snake”, and “Fortune Cookie”. The concert reached its climax when the trio played the last piece, “Fascinating New Year”, another work that features Min’s singing. As a matter of fact, there is more than singing—but really was singing and dancing and mumbling—the voice, the bodily motion, and the instruments all came together to the most exciting state, just as the audience were heated up to the top of their fervor.  

 

As a trend, the collaboration among Chinese instrumentalists and jazz musicians has been proved to be fruitful in the States in recent years, in which a Chinese instrument usually leads with a Chinese flavored melody and other Western instruments follow and explore with their potentiality where the music is going. I have heard American audiences speaking of it as “inspiring” and “most refreshing”, and the Blue Pipa is no exception.  Throughout each piece, the potential of all three instruments are fully explored and the exposition of their individual parts by Salerno and Johnson are proved to be full of inspiration.

 

Overall, the Chineseness and the spirit of jazz gave the music a fresh liveliness. Although one might argue that there can be more variety for Blue Pipa Trio in terms of timbre—indeed, the tone quality of three plucked stringed instruments may run the risk of sounding homogenous. On the other hand, Min’s vocal performance and some of the double bass part played by Johnson using the bow do add to the diverse layers of the music’s tone color.

 

“I needed a harmonic instrument that can provide the chords for my music”, said Min in an after-concert discussion about her thoughts on the instrumentation. “But piano is definitely not the one that I’m looking for. It has to go well with the flavor and timbre of pipa”.

 

 

Mr. Shuo Zhang is a Ph.D student of Music at University of Pittsburgh.