Being a weeklie podcaste from Madison, Wisconsin featuring several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of live music from divers artistes
Show #186: Melody of China
July 30th, 2009
This week’s show takes me far afield from any area of music of which I have any knowledge. I am woefully ignorant about Chinese music both traditional and contemporary and this is exactly the stuff performed here by Melody of China. Despite this, the songs here are fantastic. You will hear the erhu (two-stringed fiddle), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), dizi (bamboo flute), guzheng (zither), and the ruan (lute).
Melody of China hails from San Francisco and was formed in 1993 to promote the classical, folk, and contemporary music of China. China is a big country with nearly 1.3 billion people and a long & storied history. Trying to figure out all the types of music there must be a Sisyphean task. But, as Confucius said, every journey starts with a single step.
Today I present Melody of China’s set at the National Folk Festival earlier this month on the 11th in Butte, Montana. There are 12 songs but I don’t know the names of them. However, someone introduces the pieces and the musicians.
Line-up (as best I can gather):
Xian Lu – dizu
Gangqin Zhao – guzheng
Yangqin Zhao – yangqin
Haiyue Zhang – ruan
Hong Wang – erhu
Here’s the group playing at the Switchboard Music Festival earlier this year.
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