Silk and Bamboo

Series: Oral Traditions  Publisher: A-R Editions
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Silk and Bamboo
Instrumental Chamber Music from the Chinese South

Edited by Chuen-Fung Wong

OT014 Silk and Bamboo
978-1-9872-0877-1 Full Score (2024) 9x12, xv + 181 pp.
Special Price $216.00 Regular Price $270.00
In stock
SKU
OT014
This volume features twenty-four popular melodies from the Southeast Chinese instrumental music genre known broadly as “silk and bamboo”—a term denoting the materials used to construct the string and wind instruments on which these melodies are traditionally played. Though primarily an oral tradition, a major part of this repertoire has also been passed down through notation. Each melody is here presented in three forms: a facsimile of the traditional gongche score drawn from various manuscripts and early published anthologies, a transcription of the gongche notation in the jianpu numeric cipher system often used by silk and bamboo musicians today, and a corresponding transcription in staff notation. Each transcription is presented in two parallel forms: the relatively unornamented version faithfully reproduced from the gongche score and an ornamented realization based on one or more recordings of modern silk and bamboo musicians. This collection offers a glimpse into the contexts and performance practices surrounding this beloved repertoire while also presenting an alternative to the overly prescriptive editions of traditional Chinese music often encountered today.
Silk and Bamboo
1. Parasitic Weeds 寄生草 (Kia senn tshau)
2. Up to the Cloud 上雲梯 (Seong wan tai)
3. Poetry of the West Chamber 西廂詞 (Xi xiong ci)
4. Fish at the Bottom 水底魚 (Tsui te hi)
5. Entering the Palace 南進宮 (Nam jin giung)
6. Lantern and the Moon Competing for Brilliance 燈月交輝 (Deng yue jiao hui)
7. A Drop of Gold 一點金 (Yid diam gim)
8. Triratna 三寶佛 (Saam bou fat)
9. Yearning for Spring 思春 (Si chun)
10. Ornamented Sixty Ban 花六板 (Hua liu ban)
11. Spring in Hundreds of Families 百家春 (Bag ga cun)
12. Rainbow Skirt Tune 霓裳曲 (Ni chang qu)
13. Dragon Roars in Autumn River 秋水龍吟 (Cau seoi long jam)
14. Pipa Poetry 琵琶詞 (Pipa ci)
15. Warm Wind Melody 薰風曲 (Hiun fung khiuk)
16. Nostalgia 懷古 (Fai gu)
17. Running Horses 走馬 (Zau maa)
18. Autumn Moon over the Han Palace 漢宮秋月 (Han gong qiu yue)
19. Rain Pattering on Plantain Leaves 雨打芭蕉 (Jyu daa baa ziu)
20. Autumn Thoughts by the Dressing Table 妝臺秋思 (Zhuang tai qiu si)
21. Calm Lake 平湖 (Pin fu)
22. River-Crossing Dragon 過江龍 (Gue gang leng)
23. An Ingot of Gold 一錠金 (Yat ding gaam)
24. Inverted Sixty-Eight Ban 陽八曲 (Yang ba qu)
Chuen-Fung Wong holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is Professor of Music at Macalester College, where he teaches courses in world music, Asian music, and ethnomusicology. He is founder and director of the Macalester Asian Music Ensemble, which performs traditional chamber music from across Asia. Wong is author of Even in the Rain: Uyghur Music in Modern China (University of Hawaii Press, 2023) and coauthor and editor of Soundscapes in Chinese Music (Hong Kong University Press, 2019) and Listening to Chinese Music (Hong Kong Commercial Press, 2009). He was president of the Association for Chinese Music Research and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.