絲竹
Collection
Silk and Bamboo: Chinese Instrumental Music
'Silk and bamboo' is the old Chinese shorthand for music: silk for strings, bamboo for flutes. This collection follows Chinese instruments from the scholar's study to the concert hall.
It opens with the qin, the seven-string zither of the literati. 'Qiu Feng Ci' is a short beginner's piece; 'Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank' is one of the best-loved works in the repertoire, played by the Hong Kong master Lo Ka Ping.
The longer recordings are live concerts from the Chinese diaspora in the United States. The Flowing Stream Ensemble, led by Betty and Shirley Wong, played classical Chinese music in Bay Area halls in the 1970s. Brooklyn library audiences of 1989 and the 1990s heard erhu and a programme of gaohu, pipa and zheng, the pipa played by a young Wu Man. Expect spoken introductions — they are part of the record.
- 秋風詞Qiū fēng cí — Autumn Wind Poem1:47
- 平沙落雁Píng shā luò yàn — Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank4:45
- 布魯克林中國音樂節目Chinese program, Brooklyn Folk Arts series24:42
- 張寶利二胡音樂會（1989年）Zhang Bao Li, erhu, at Brooklyn Public Library, 198931:56
- 流水樂團音樂會（1977年）The Flowing Stream Ensemble at Hertz Hall, 197743:14
- 流水樂團音樂會（1972年）The Flowing Stream Ensemble in concert, 19721:11:21