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Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage A Chinese state-sponsored traditional music
ensemble overcome Christopher Conder’s fears!
organs) ranging from the hand-held origi- nal to the mighty bass sheng, its size closer to that of a Western chamber organ. And then there are the drums and a great big gong. “The sound is very different from a symphony orchestra,” Liu explains. “The volume is not too big and there are so many kinds of percussion. For me what’s very interesting is melody. We come from the East. In the West it’s harmony, but in China I think it’s melody that is most interesting and different.”
Xuanzang’s tourists… L
ike all proper world music journal- ists, I have an innate mistrust of state-sponsored folk ensembles. Frankly, if I’m not sat at the feet of
a toothless elder somewhere off-map, cap- turing the dying gasp of an obscure tradi- tion, I don’t really feel like I’m doing my job. Who wants to be complicit in some dodgy government’s soft power campaign, subjected to the anodyne, inoffensive and unexciting? Or worse, something vaguely sinister: genuine working-class traditions with all nuance and variation steam- rollered flat, homogenised into barely dis- guised propaganda?
Yet the China National Traditional
Orchestra’s staging of Xuanzang’s Pilgrim- age at London’s Sadler’s Wells theatre intrigued me. Despite my enthusiasm for the music of neighbouring Vietnam and Korea, and my conviction that China will be ruling us all by the end of my lifetime, I knew little about the country’s music. The enthusiastic promoter promised me that, for all of its big-budget bombast, the show offered real insights into the instruments and musical traditions of this vast country, and he wasn’t wrong.
Xuanzang (c. 602–664 AD) was a Bud- dhist monk from the Henan province of China, whose journals of his seventeen-year pilgrimage along the Silk Road to India have entered into folklore and even spawned international interest: for exam-
ple, the Damon Albarn / Chen Shi-Zheng / Jamie Hewlett opera Monkey is based on Xuanzang’s travels, albeit refracted through several other fictionalised versions.
“A lot of people know this story,” con- ductor Liu Sha tells me over pre-show soft drinks. “It’s a classic.” Xuanzang’s Pilgrim- age is the first full stage show from the CNTO, and the narrative provides an oppor- tunity to showcase regional musics. As Xuanzang (bamboo flautist Ding Xiaokui) passes through the lands on the Chinese border he meets Uygur, Kazak, Tajik and Indian musicians, all played by guest ensem- bles. Other encounters demonstrate the instruments of the Han majority, from the grand drums of the border guards at the Yumen Pass to the heartbroken princess playing her konghou (harp).
Complementing the musicians on stage is the orchestra in the pit. Liu takes me down to stand with him during the sound- check, where I am as submerged in their music as they will later be in tumbling dry ice. It’s an orchestra, but not as we know it. In the place of the violins and violas are erhu, gaohu and zhonghu, with just two strings and played upright. Other stringed instruments include the zheng zither, the pipa, liuqin and daruan lutes and Chinese variations on the cello and double bass, whilst in the wind section are the squeaky suona trumpet, the bamboo flute and a dazzling array of sheng (mouth-blown pipe
in duet or, at most, in a small group. Some instruments used by the CNTO today are recent adaptations that would have been utterly unfamiliar a few generations ago. The idea of having a hundred musicians playing these ‘traditional’ instruments together would have been inconceivable. When composer Li Huanzhi formed the CNTO in 1960, he aimed to create a unique- ly Chinese cultural institution that could compete with the orchestras of the West. Fifty-eight years later the CNTO has proven the longevity of his vision, but the last decade has involved much soul searching about how to represent traditional music in the modern age.
T
Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage is the third in a trilogy of sorts, written by composer-in-resi- dence Jiang Ying and following Impression of Chinese Music and Rediscover Chinese Music. Each has become progressively more ambitious, the narrative, acting and elabo- rate staging moving them further from the typical role of an orchestra. This show is “the world’s first Chinese concert in drama,” Jiang explains. “It sets a new option for Chi- nese music innovation.” Her aim is to make folk music accessible to save it. She sees her work as an entry point: “At last people are willing to accept this kind of traditional music. If it is rejected by the audience in the first place then it is difficult to encourage them to come again.”
It’s easy to be snooty. I certainly had a “what am I doing here?” moment as I was greeted by brash CGI on the stage screens and sweeping, Celtic-sounding strings. But, leaving my preconceptions behind for the second night (and reassured by fellow fRoots writer Andrew Cronshaw’s approval) I found myself totally immersed, enjoying the grandeur of the tale and the insight into a culture that can’t remain foreign to us for much longer.
F
he existence of a Chinese National Traditional Orchestra is a contra- diction. Until the Maoist regime, traditional music was played solo,
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