Disc 1: A Chinese Musical Journey - Beijing: A Cultural Tour with Traditional Chinese Music 2.110551 - 66 min.
The Places
Beijing/Peking, the capital of China, has been the site of various cities with different names. Under Kubla Khan, who established the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), a new city, Khanbalik (Cambaluc) was built, to be destroyed by the Ming Emperors, the second of whom made Beijing once again the capital. Many of the historical remains come from the period of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and the following Qing (1644-1911). These include the former imperial palace, known as the Forbidden City, and other palaces, parks and dwellings. The Great Wall is represented by the well known sight of the Jinshanling section of this ancient structure, built during the early years of the Ming dynasty.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Beijing/Peking is played on Chinese instruments, and makes use of traditional works and more modern arrangements, in traditional style. The instruments to be heard include the Chinese flute (dizi), the zither (qin), the Chinese lute (pipa), the three-string lute (sanxian) and the two-string Chinese fiddle (erhu). The Shepherd and His Flute, for example, is played on the Chinese dulcimer (yangqin), The Moon Over Guanshan on the sanxian and Song of the Tea-Pickers, taken from Yue Opera, is arranged for an instrumental ensemble. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the titles of pieces explain their mood and origin.
1. Outer Court of the Forbidden City [2:36]
2. Inner Court of the Forbidden City [5:54]
3. Summer Palace [5:04]
4. Old Summer Palace/Ancient Observatory [3:16]
5. Ancient City Gates/Bell and Drum Towers [3:39]
6. Tiananmen Square [3:03]
7. Temple of Heaven [4:55]
8. Beihai Park [4:51]
9. Prince Gong's Mansion [4:14]
10. Downtown Beijing/Peking Opera [5:41]
11. Shichahai [2:46]
12. Courtyard Houses and Hutongs [5:17]
13. Ming Tombs [4:12]
14. Great Wall at Jinshanling/Juyongguan Pass [6:21]
Disc 2: A Chinese Musical Journey - Shanghai: A Cultural Tour with Traditional Chinese Music 2.110552 - 66 min.
The Places
The city of Shanghai, China's most important port, owes some of its prosperity to the so-called unequal treatises forced on China during the 19th century. The place had its origin as a settlement during the Tang dynasty (618 A.D.-906 A.D.), but the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong to the British and made possible the development of foreign trade through the five 'treaty ports', of which Shanghai became the most important. The growth of Shanghai into an international trading centre and the concessions made to various foreign countries explain the interesting mixture of architectural styles, continued today with the high-rise buildings of recent years.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Shanghai is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Performing the music are the wind and string ensembles known as 'silk and bamboo', from their silk strings and bamboo pipes, and ensembles that also include percussion. Instruments given prominence include the dizi, heard first in Moonlight Autumn Night by the Lake, a transverse bamboo flute, and the yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer whose strings are struck with two bamboo sticks. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is largely representational, its character indicated in its titles, although these may sometimes be drawn from opera or from poems.
1. The Bund [10:49]
2. Old Style Western Lane Houses [4:01]
3. Shanghai Old Street Yu Yuan Garden [6:09]
4. People's Square Nanjing Road Pedestrians Street [3:00]
5. Old European Style Public Buildings [6:33]
6. Downtown at Night [4:35]
7. Temples of Shanghai [3:31]
8. Old European Style Apartment Buildings [5:44]
9. Villas in Old French Consession Area [6:01]
10. Street of Cultural Heroes in Duolun Road [4:51]
11. Old Shikumen Style Lane Houses [4:30]
12. The Bund at Night [5:56]
Disc 3: A Chinese Musical Journey - Hangzhou: A Cultural Tour with Traditional Chinese Music 2.110553 - 66 min.
The Places
Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, held a position of importance from the time of the Sui dynasty (581 A.D.-617 A.D.), and is sited at the end of the Grand Canal, with linked waterways that provided communication between the provinces of China. It was the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1276), visited by Marco Polo in the following Mongol Yuan dynasty. He compared Hangzhou to Venice, praised its traditional arts and crafts, and commented on its great importance in the spice trade and on the beauty of the West Lake with its bordering pavilions and temples. Historical monuments abound, with temples and pagodas, and buildings that recall ancient China.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Hangzhou is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Unusually there is a Bach Minuet, transcribed for the Chinese dulcimer, the yangqin, used to accompany a visit to a silk museum. Other instruments heard include the dizi, the Chinese bamboo transverse flute, and ensembles of wind and strings, known as 'silk and bamboo' from their silk strings and bamboo pipes. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is generally associated with a scene or poem, as revealed in its evocative titles.
1. West Lake [4:48]
2. Six Harmonies Pagoda/Maojiabu Village [5:26]
3. Fei Lai Peak/Ling Yin Temple [5:28]
4. Tiger Running Spring/Red Carp Pond [5:11]
5. Yunqi Bamboo Path [4:57]
6. Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies/Dragon Well Tea Village/Tea Fields/Making Tea [7:04]
7. Jing Ci Temple/Mausoleum of General Yue Fei/Emperor Qian Monastery [6:04]
8. Huqingyutang Traditional Chinese/Medicine Shop/Hefang Old Street [5:45]
9. Xi Ling Seal Society Site [2:54]
10. Modern Side of Hangzhou [3:26]
11. Night on West Lake [1:13]
12. Silk Museum [1:27]
13. Wuzhen Town [6:30]
Disc 4: A Chinese Musical Journey - Xi'an: A Cultural Tour with Traditional Chinese Music 2.110554 - 66 min.
The Places
The capital of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, its name translating as 'Western Peace', was the Chinese capital during the Tang dynasty (618 A.D.-906 A.D.). The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, completed in 704 on the orders of the Empress Wu Zetain during her period of rule as Empress of the Zhou dynasty, soon replaced by the restored Tang, is one of the oldest such structures in China. Of particular interest is the tomb of the Emperor Huang, regarded as the founder of the unified Chinese nation, and the remarkable terracotta warriors and horses discovered around the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang Di, founder of the Qin dynasty who died in 210 B.C.. The tour ends with vies of the precipitous Huashan (Flower Mountain), so called from its five peaks, groups in the shape of a great flower.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Xi'an is played on traditional Chinese instruments. The excerpts include, to accompany the terracotta warriors, a contemporary composition inspired by Zhang Ji's poem 'Night at the Maple Bridge' giving particular prominence to the zhongruan, a form of Chinese lute of ancient origin. Other instruments heard are the Chinese transverse bamboo flute, the dizi, the Chinese plucked zither, the guqin, and the Chinese lute, the pipa. A glimpse of operatic stage performance finds a place for a Shaanxi opera tune, an example of the music to be heard in the many regional forms of Chinese opera.
1. Big and Small Wild Goose Pagodas [4:08]
2. Bell and Drum Towers/Old City Moat and Wall [3:40]
3. Bell and Drum Towers at Night/Tang Dynasty Song and Dance Show [4:00]
4. Famen Temple and Museum [8:39]
5. Forest of Stone Steles/Wenchang Gate and Huajue Lane Streets [3:51]
6. Shanxi Style Puppet Show [1:54]
7. Shanxi Old Style Courtyard Houses [6:52]
8. The Great Mosque [5:01]
9. Tomb of Emperor Huang [3:01]
10. Museum of the Qin Terra Cotta/Warriors and Horses [6:46]
11. Huaqing Hot Springs, Lishan Park, Qian Mausoleum, Mao Mausoleum Museum, Tomb of Princess Yongtai [4:18]
12. Huashan Mountain [8:40]
Disc 5: A Chinese Musical Journey - Guilin: A Cultural Tour with Traditional Chinese Music 2.110555 - 66 min.
The Places
Guilin, in Guangxi Province, is famous for its scenic beauty, in which nature seems to imitate Chinese art in a remarkable way. Other districts too boast the extraordinary rock formations that are a feature of the area, set against the lakes and rivers. This region is the home to a number of the 56 ethnic minorities of China, with glimpses of the Yao and Tong peoples, of the spectacular Dragon Spine terraced hillsides where rice is grown in Longsheng Country and the thin ribbon of rushing water that forms the Longsheng Waterfall.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Guilin is played on traditional Chinese instruments. Performing the music are wind and string ensembles known as 'silk and bamboo', from their silk strings and bamboo pipes, and ensembles that also include percussion. Instruments given prominence include the dizi, a transverse bamboo flute, its characteristic timbre produced by a vibrating membrane over one of the holes, the yangqin, a Chinese dulcimer whose strings are struck with two bamboo sticks. Happy Family and Three Five Seven feature the Chinese shawm, or the suona, and the sheng, a free-reed mouth organ, can be heard in the music that accompanies Longsheng Waterfall. Traditional Chinese music, like Chinese painting, is largely representational, its character indicated in its titles, although these may sometimes be drawn from opera or from poems.
1. Two River and Four Lakes Park/Elephant Trunk Hill/Folded Brocade Hill and Fubo Hill [6:24]
2. Night in Guilan [5:52]
3. Mountains in Yangshuo/Moon Hill [4:46]
4. Yulong River [6:02]
5. Yulong Bridge [4:40]
6. Gaotian Village [3:03]
7. Scenery of the Li River [6:17]
8. Ancient Towns in Yangshuo/West Street in Yangshuo [7:20]
9. Longsheng Waterfall [4:44]
10. Yao and Tong Minority Dwellings [4:09]
11. Dragon Spine Terraced Fields [6:30] |
[ NTSC ] (???)