A listening journey · Step 12 of 12
Living tradition today
The journey began with flutes of crane bone and bells more than two thousand years old. It ends with a singer in Beijing, a club in Changhua, an evening practice in Taoyuan and a park in Shanghai, where the old music is taught, practised and played, much of it by people who do it for love.
Listen
- 四郎探母：杨延辉坐宫院自思自叹Sì láng tàn mǔ: Yáng Yánhuī zuò gōngyuàn — The Fourth Son Visits His Mother: “Yang Yanhui sits in the palace and sighs”2:48
- 洗馬科Xǐ mǎ kē — Washing the Horses8:40
- 和樂軒樂器練習Hélèxuān yuèqì liànxí — Instrument practice at Helexuan, Bade3:46
- 楊浦公園拉二胡Yángpǔ gōngyuán lā èrhú — Erhu in Yangpu Park, Shanghai2:28
The teacher's voice
The first recording is from The Fourth Son Visits His Mother, one of the most popular plays in Peking opera, sung by Tian Hao in Beijing in 2017. He was one of a group of singers recorded for a music-research project, among them performers who also teach.
UNESCO, which lists Peking opera as intangible heritage, notes that it is still passed on mostly from master to student, through oral teaching, watching and imitation.
The club
In Taiwan, the loud and festive beiguan music of temple processions has been kept for two centuries by amateur clubs whose members are called zǐdì, "sons and younger brothers". The second recording is the club Lichunyuan in Changhua, one of the oldest in Taiwan, playing a fast and difficult piece for four suona over drum, gongs and cymbals. Its late teacher Li Jianghan arranged it from a Peking opera tune, and its lead drummer here is Chen Zhulin, the teacher you heard singing at a practice in step 8.
The third recording is a practice, not a performance: an evening at Helexuan, a club in Bade, Taoyuan, rehearsing the instruments played at temple festivals, with traffic going past outside. Music like this is kept alive one evening at a time.
The park
The last recording was made on 26 November 2013 in Yangpu Park, Shanghai: an old man playing the erhu, recorded binaurally, so on headphones you hear the park around him. You heard older people singing together in another Shanghai park in step 10.
Musicians who share
Some of the players on this journey have chosen to put their recordings here themselves: the shakuhachi players Riley Lee and Kakizakai Kaoru in step 5, and Liu Fang, who played pipa and guzheng in step 6 and step 7. Each of them learned from teachers. You can find them, and others, on the artists page.
If you play this music, old pieces in a tradition you have learned, Kotone would be glad to hear from you. The page Sharing your recordings explains how it works: you keep your rights, and your recording joins the others here, with credit and a link to you.
Where to go next
That is the end of the journey, but not of the music. From here, follow an instrument you liked from the instruments page, let one of the streams play while you do something else, or go back to step 1 and listen again with new ears.
Words to know
- 傳承 chuánchéng
- handing a tradition on, from teacher to student
- 子弟 zǐdì
- “sons and younger brothers”: the amateur members of a traditional music club in Taiwan
- 北管 běiguǎn
- “northern pipes”: the loud, festive music of Taiwanese temple processions, played on suona, drums and gongs
Hear it elsewhere
- UNESCO: Peking opera, on how it is taught and passed on