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SCRIPT – SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF CHINA

I’m Helen Feng, and welcome to Center Stage, a show that every weekend brings the rich performance culture of China, both past and present.  And in a few of our recent episodes, we’ve traveled all over China to bring you the rich diversity of its folksongs.  In today’s episode, we take a look at the work of one composure , Bao Yuankai  who took 24 of the most memoriable of those folk melodies and created an orchestral masterpiece called the Sights and Sounds of China.  So, sit back and enjoy this episode of Centerstage as we bring the symphony into your homes.  

In 1991, composer Bao Yuan Kai premeired his 24 Pieces by Themes on Chinese Folktunes For Symphony Orchestra. . .which plainly put, is 24 Han Ethnicity folk melodies strung together in a Medley arranged for western traditional orchestra.  24 Pieces was actually a part of his greater symphonic work called the Sights and Sounds of China.  This was one of the first efforts in Bao Yuan Kai’s personal exploration of combining the distinct nature of Chinese traditional music with Western orchestra and arrangement techniques.  Later, his works would expand into a symphonic series called (中国风) or the Rhapsody of China that would go further to explore traditional Opera, Chinese Nursery Rhymes, the music of china’s minorities, Ancient music, etc. etc. all rearranged for a western symphony.  We start today’s program with two of the 24 pieces including Happy Sunrise and the Guessing Song.

Welcome back to Center Stage, and to more on the symphonic works of reknowned composer Bao Yuan Kai. His work 24 Pieces by Themes on Chinese Folktunes, was part of his greater symphonic series, Rhapsody of China.  For this series Bao Yuan Kai looked at the works of great western composers such as Bartok, taking influence from Bartok’s use of the sounds from the countryside of Hungary, Romania, and North africa in writing his early 20th Century compositions.  In using Chinese folktunes and traditional sounds, Bao Yuan Kai wanted to (quote unquote) let Chinese people know more about the forms of western music by the melodies that they were familiar with; meanwhile showing foreigners the artistic charm of Chinese music by a form that their familiar with.  So,  back to this perfect amalgam of east and west with the famous song from Shaan (3) xi Province about a girl by the name of Lan Hua Hua.

That was one piece from the 24 Pieces by Themes of Chinese Folktunes, Lan Hua Hua.  This work encompasses the folk music of Heibei, Yuannan, Shaan (3)xi, Sichuan, and Jiangsu, many of these pieces should already be familiar to you our audience as they have appeared in past episodes of Center stage on our many episodes about folk songs. Many of these folksongs depict nature or life, but some, like Lan Hua Hua are stories.  This famous piece is about a beautiful girl who struggles against an arranged marriage so she can be with her love, a struggle which eventually costs her life.  Their love is depicted by the oboe and cello, with brass and strings symbolizing her struggle and wrath. Now we return to the stage as we continue with the 2nd half of the piece Lan Hua Hua.  

Welcome back to our program and now onto more from the Sights and Sounds of China. We return to more Shaanxi Folk Song with a piece called Going to the West Gate.  This is a song about the migration of the poor people of China’s Highlands to better living, but because of this migration, two lovers are separated. Here is their sad lament called Going to the West Gate.

That was going to the west gate, and we follow it with a happier tune called Going to Watch Yangge.  Yange is a type of dance popular in the villages of Northern China danced around the time of festivities.  In this song, villagers go to see the Yangge dance and on the way are greeted by many interesting things. Let’s take a listen.

Much of China’s music was lost and Chinese traditional culture virtually unseen in the west.  But in 1980’s, that began to change, and composer Bao Yuan Kai hopes that China’s arts community is waking up now to a new renaissance.  One which digs deep into it’s past traditions while searching for invention. We close today’s show with a musical game that’s played all over China in hundreds of different forms.  Here is the Heibei version of “Can You Guess what Flower it is.”

That was the last piece in our a brief look at the 24 Pieces by Themes on Chinese Folk Tunes from the Symphonic work, the Sights and Sounds of China by composure Bao Yuan Kai..

字幕

节目1  (1) 太阳出来喜洋洋

Happy Sunrise

Arranged by Bao Yuankai

Conducted by Chen Zuohuang

Performed by China National Symphony Orchestra

采访1

鲍元恺：在一个文明更替的迅速变化当中，怎么样把民歌保存在现实生活当中，使大家还能够听到跟我们现在审美的趣味比较相接近的东西呢？一种方法就是采用管弦乐。所以，在1990年的时候，当时谭利华对我有很大的支持，说一定要坚持把它做下去。当时用了一年的时间，把河北、云南、陕西、四川、江苏和山西这六个省份我最熟悉的汉族民歌，通过管弦乐小品的形式，把它变成音乐会可以演奏的、而且可以变成视听制品的东西。中国这些传统的民歌，通过一种新的艺术形式使它得到一种更新，或者是传播。

So I wondered, at a time of rapid cultural transition, how could I preserve China's folk songs while making them appeal to modern tastes? I thought of a symphony orchestra.

Starting in 1991, I spent almost a year collecting folk songs of the Han nationality. They are from Hebei, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Shanxi. I arranged them for a symphony orchestra to perform in concert, in such a way that the form of Chinese folk songs could be kept alive.

(2) 猜调

Guessing Song

节目2 爱情悲剧（兰花花）

Lan Hua Hua (Part 1)

节目3 爱情悲剧（兰花花）

Lan Hua Hua (Part 2)

采访2

鲍元恺：1961年的时候，我差不多就有一个想法，就是说我将来一定想把我们汉族的民歌用管弦乐开一场音乐会，而实现的时候呢，是1991年——30年了！

It’s an idea I’ve had since 1961, to hold a symphony concert of folk songs of the Han nationality. By the time this idea became the reality, it was 1991, 30 years later.

节目4 情歌（走西口）

Going to the West Gate

节目5 节日（看秧歌）

Going to Watch Yangge

采访3

鲍元恺：现在有37个国家演出这个作品——包括咱们中国的乐团、台湾的乐团到一些国家去演出，还包括这些国家自己的乐团，加在一起是37个国家。这我实在是没想到。但我觉得这里面有一个很重要的因素，就是环境，我们今天在这个时间段——我们中国的经济高度发展、我们的政治力量强大了，那么这个时候国际上的中西融合的要求被迅速加强了。现在不仅仅是我们需要西方文化，西方也特别迫切地需要中国文化！

To date, ‘Sights and Sounds of China’ has been performed in 37 countries and regions. This is beyond my imagination. But still, there are reasons for it. Modern China is developing rapidly, both economically and culturally. There’s now a great demand for international cultural communication. Not only China needs western culture, the West also needs Chinese culture very much.

节目6 对花

Flower Guessing Song

Arranged by Bao Yuankai

Conducted by Yu Long

Performed by China Philharmonic Orchestra

采访4

鲍元恺：最后的《对花》，那是一种民间的对花场面，就是用花名——我唱，这边一队人——我来问你，你来答，很火爆的场面。那我用全双管、大乐队，然后这里边加上“落子”，就是河北省的打板，呱拉板，那么我用西方的管弦乐里面的一些乐器，象响板，来模拟这种声音，那就弄得很热闹。

‘Flower Guessing Song’ is about the names of different flowers. It’s a duet, with one singer asking a flower’s name, and the other responding immediately. I use a grand orchestra to bring out the liveliness of the scene. I use the Hebei folk instrument, the laozi, and western instruments like castanets to imitate the sounds.