Chinese Harmony
Eddie McGuire and his group of Chinese musicians, 'Harmony', captivated a large audience in Brodick Hall last Saturday.
Written by Alison Prince
Friday, 19 October 2007
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The Music Society had never heard – or seen – anything quite like the Harmony Chinese Music Ensemble, who played in Brodick Hall last Saturday. 79 Arran people were enthralled by the lightness and precision of the music, and found it surprisingly accessible. As one regular concert-goer admitted, ‘I thought it might be difficult to understand, but it’s not. The tunes are lovely.’
The instruments themselves fascinated everyone, and people crowded round at the interval to take in the details of them. Particularly intriguing were the two guzhengs – flat harps with long strings that run over a viaduct of small individual bridges that can be slid along the dark wood base to alter the pitch for tuning. The player wears long tortoiseshell picks taped to the thumb and first three fingers of the right hand, and the sound can vary from staccato to a mellow ripple. Both were heard in a piece called ‘High Mountains and Flowing Rivers’ – composers in China have always been much influenced by nature.
Hooi Ling Eng, the group’s percussionist, deployed an amazing range of instruments, and the curious onlookers were thrilled to pick up a wooden frog and tap it on the head with its hardwood beater. It gave out a hollow ‘clop’ sound or a rhythmic rattle when the beater was run along the ridges on its back. Hooi Ling had bought this particularly large frog from Arran Asia in Brodick that afternoon, and was delighted to add it to the smaller ones she already possessed. At the concert, she played drums and gongs, ringing bowls and a Chinese version of ‘skulls’ that gave a ‘tick-tock’ rhythm – and most curious of all was a weirdly resonant brass hand-gong shaped like a Frisbee. Struck in the centre, it gave out a startling sound like a rising human cry.
Eddie McGuire, the well-known Scottish composer and founder of the Whistlebinkies folk group, played a sweet-toned bamboo flute and introduced each item, explaining its meaning and tradition. He was responsible for setting up Harmony, together with YanMei Wu, the guzheng player who on Saturday also captivated the audience as a dancer. As neat and quick as a little cat, she was delectably flirtatious in her folk dance from the Anhui Province. However, she also composes music and choreographs her own dances. ‘The Wee Peacock’, which she wrote in Scotland and awarded no Chinese title, is utterly bird-like and yet speaks its own subtle language.
At one point, audience members found themselves singing a Chinese folk song about the moon, and at the next, they were listening to a funny piece called Washing Clothes. ‘I tried to get hold of a washboard,’ Eddie said apologetically, ‘but my friends on Arran had given theirs away.’ There was a wonderful piece on dragons, those perhaps real prehistoric creatures that link our cultures on so many levels, and an Outer Mongolian number about racing wild horses featured the wooden frog instruments in an intoxicating gallop. The applause at the end was long and enthusiastic, and the same question was being asked all over the hall – ‘When can we get them back?’ Soon, we hope.
Friday, 19 October 2007
218 views 0 commentsThe Music Society had never heard – or seen – anything quite like the Harmony Chinese Music Ensemble, who played in Brodick Hall last Saturday. 79 Arran people were enthralled by the lightness and precision of the music, and found it surprisingly accessible. As one regular concert-goer admitted, ‘I thought it might be difficult to understand, but it’s not. The tunes are lovely.’
The instruments themselves fascinated everyone, and people crowded round at the interval to take in the details of them. Particularly intriguing were the two guzhengs – flat harps with long strings that run over a viaduct of small individual bridges that can be slid along the dark wood base to alter the pitch for tuning. The player wears long tortoiseshell picks taped to the thumb and first three fingers of the right hand, and the sound can vary from staccato to a mellow ripple. Both were heard in a piece called ‘High Mountains and Flowing Rivers’ – composers in China have always been much influenced by nature.
Hooi Ling Eng, the group’s percussionist, deployed an amazing range of instruments, and the curious onlookers were thrilled to pick up a wooden frog and tap it on the head with its hardwood beater. It gave out a hollow ‘clop’ sound or a rhythmic rattle when the beater was run along the ridges on its back. Hooi Ling had bought this particularly large frog from Arran Asia in Brodick that afternoon, and was delighted to add it to the smaller ones she already possessed. At the concert, she played drums and gongs, ringing bowls and a Chinese version of ‘skulls’ that gave a ‘tick-tock’ rhythm – and most curious of all was a weirdly resonant brass hand-gong shaped like a Frisbee. Struck in the centre, it gave out a startling sound like a rising human cry.
Eddie McGuire, the well-known Scottish composer and founder of the Whistlebinkies folk group, played a sweet-toned bamboo flute and introduced each item, explaining its meaning and tradition. He was responsible for setting up Harmony, together with YanMei Wu, the guzheng player who on Saturday also captivated the audience as a dancer. As neat and quick as a little cat, she was delectably flirtatious in her folk dance from the Anhui Province. However, she also composes music and choreographs her own dances. ‘The Wee Peacock’, which she wrote in Scotland and awarded no Chinese title, is utterly bird-like and yet speaks its own subtle language.
At one point, audience members found themselves singing a Chinese folk song about the moon, and at the next, they were listening to a funny piece called Washing Clothes. ‘I tried to get hold of a washboard,’ Eddie said apologetically, ‘but my friends on Arran had given theirs away.’ There was a wonderful piece on dragons, those perhaps real prehistoric creatures that link our cultures on so many levels, and an Outer Mongolian number about racing wild horses featured the wooden frog instruments in an intoxicating gallop. The applause at the end was long and enthusiastic, and the same question was being asked all over the hall – ‘When can we get them back?’ Soon, we hope.
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