2006 Chinese New Year Eve Chinese Music Performance (1-28-2006)

The performance invited by CSSA is in the Ball Room, Michigan Union, University of Michigan, on Saturday, 7PM, Jan. 28th, 2006.

Program

New Year Festival - Based on a folk melody in northern China, this piece features the percussion instruments that play a characteristic role in Chinese festival music.

General's Command - The ensemble piece is based on a traditional “labeled-tune” (qupai) named the General’s Command. Different versions of this piece exist in different parts of China, though almost all are associated with triumphant military scenes. The version performed here is very well-known nowadays because it is frequently used in Chinese martial arts movies, most prominently in Once Upon a Time in China (1991).

Fengyang Flower Drum - This is a song-and-dance folk genre from Fengyang of Anhui Province in southern China. Female street-musicians play the flower drum while singing folk songs and dancing. The concert piece is a modern adaptation of the folk music, retaining characteristic rhythmic patterns that originally accompany dance movements.

Performers

Xiao Chen (sheng—mouth organ)

Wan-Thai Hsu, Hsin-Yu Yu (bawu–Chinese free reed & dizi—traversely-blown bamboo flute)

Hsin-Yi Chang, Chia-Ling Chen, Mou-Chi Cheng, Gwo-Ching Shyu (erhu—bowed fiddle)

Dawen Cai, Shu-Lan Hung, Shunyao Jin (ruan & pipa—plucked lute)

Tse-An Chen, Yzonne Chen, Hong Fan (percussion instrument)