Post by carlos alden on Mar 22, 2009 19:36:55 GMT -8
Several times a year you will hear a lot of Chinese music on The Nacho Celtic Hour. The astute listener might wonder why this specific genre comes up on a radio show that features Folk Music, Celtic Music, and Kids' Music.
It's all my fault. i studied Chinese in college, met my wife in a Chinese class, and together we lived in China in 1986-1987 teaching English. While there I fell in love with a lot of Chinese music, especially the traditional folk music I heard early in the mornings while walking in the park. I studied pipa when I lived there but did not pursue it once returning home. I did, however, bring back a large collection of tapes and listened to them a lot.
In 2001 we returned to Asia for a family trip and I bought a few more instruments, and continued study of them upon returning home. At that point I REALLY got inside Chinese music, learning repertoire on my chosen instrument, and started to perform out with Chinese friends.
I've got the Chinese music bug and absolutely want to share it with Spokane Public Radio listeners. Here is a website with some video and sound clips of the ensemble I played with, Dragonwind:
www.eaglelake1.org/dragonwind.html
Chinese music is an amazingly multi-faceted genre, encompassing traditional folk music from a huge number of minority cultures, religious material from thousands of years of Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam, court music from successive dynasties, wonderful collections of Chinese Operas from many different regions, and last but not least the body of modern, Western-influenced Chinese music that spans the gulf from cheesy overproduced glitz to hard-corps heavy metal and hip-hop. It's a HUGE culture with a LONG history and MANY talented individuals. No wonder the music is so cool.
It's all my fault. i studied Chinese in college, met my wife in a Chinese class, and together we lived in China in 1986-1987 teaching English. While there I fell in love with a lot of Chinese music, especially the traditional folk music I heard early in the mornings while walking in the park. I studied pipa when I lived there but did not pursue it once returning home. I did, however, bring back a large collection of tapes and listened to them a lot.
In 2001 we returned to Asia for a family trip and I bought a few more instruments, and continued study of them upon returning home. At that point I REALLY got inside Chinese music, learning repertoire on my chosen instrument, and started to perform out with Chinese friends.
I've got the Chinese music bug and absolutely want to share it with Spokane Public Radio listeners. Here is a website with some video and sound clips of the ensemble I played with, Dragonwind:
www.eaglelake1.org/dragonwind.html
Chinese music is an amazingly multi-faceted genre, encompassing traditional folk music from a huge number of minority cultures, religious material from thousands of years of Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam, court music from successive dynasties, wonderful collections of Chinese Operas from many different regions, and last but not least the body of modern, Western-influenced Chinese music that spans the gulf from cheesy overproduced glitz to hard-corps heavy metal and hip-hop. It's a HUGE culture with a LONG history and MANY talented individuals. No wonder the music is so cool.