Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes: Recent Episodes
Carlson Wong, RTI
If you like Chinese or Taiwanese traditional music, then you must not miss Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes. A favorite of many, this program is listed as one of the top ten shows in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2009 by Passport to the World Band Radio, a leading shortwave magazine. A vast array of instruments are featured and it is a show that will satisfy your hunger for exotic music.
Tea music has been a favorite of many avid listeners of Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes so I decided to play this music for you in my last episode of the program. This is the last episode and I hope you enjoy it and it is time to take a bow and say THANK YOU.
Wang Ming-yu began learning erhu at a very young age. In 1995, he received his master’s degree in music and at the same time, he received training of conducting from Prof.Graveson Mark Adam. Wang Ming-yu has been invited to perform with Strauss Festival Orchestra of Vienna before.
Yim Hok Man began learning to drum when he was ten. At fourteen, he was admitted to study western percussion for five years and he later joined the Central Philharmonic Orchestra as a percussionist and stayed there for 20 years. On various occasions, Yim Hok Man performed under the batons of world-class conductors and exchanged performing experience with renowned percussionists of many famous orchestras.
Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra was established in 1989 and is the first of its kind in southern Taiwan. The conductor of the album we feature today is Kwan Nai-chung, a prolific composer, who engages in composition and is active in the music circles of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Some famous tunes in Chinese classical music featured on today’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes are performed by Taipei Chinese Orchestra, the first professional Chinese orchestra in Taiwan and conducted by Wong Ching-Ping, a famous conductor and a pipa master.
Zhang Weiliang is a famous dizi and xiao perfomer. He started playing dizi at the age of eight. He himself has taught his performance experiences to many students.
Sauljaljui is an aboriginal singer and performer from Taiwan. She mixes pop, Latin reggae, folk and R&B in this album.
Wang Zhongshan is a celebrated young guzheng performer. He is of Mongolian descent but was born in Henan province, China. He has taken part in performances and musical production for TV series and motion pictures. He is innovative in the use of guzheng playing technique and pionered the use of cyclic fingering on guzheng to enrich its expression.
Yu Xunfa was a famous Chinese bamboo flutist and he was born in Shanghai in 1946 and passed away in 2006. He made his debut at the age of twelve which resulted in his being accepted as a student by Lu Chunling, a famous Chinese dizi educator.
Du Chong is an artist of great talents in the field of Chinese wind instrument music. He has been engaged in traditional wind instrument performance and the performance of Chinese panpipes or Pai Xiao. Pai Xiao.is known as panpipes in the west.
Li Chen was born in Shanxi and moved to Inner Mongolia in 1994 during his childhood with his family. Li Chen is a national first class performer in China. His expertise is in Mongolian folk music performance and he has developed his own personal style of dizi performance when playing Mongolian folk music.
The Hakka people came at various times over the centuries to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. During the centuries of wandering throughout mainland China, they absorbed the folk music of each region and it became a distinctive type of music known as the Hakka Eight Tones. This type of music was brought to Taiwan during the fourth Hakka migration between 1645 and 1867.
Jiang Guoji who grew up on the West Lake coast in China, is best known for his dizi. The dizi is a Chinese transverse flute.
Some Taiwanese classics you hear today are performed by Zhan Yongming, a Chinese first-grade national dizi player. Famous Taiwanese folk songs include “Rain Night Flower” or "The Torment of a Flower" and “Longing for Spring Breeze composed by Teng Yu-hsien (1906-1944), one of the most distinguished composers and he is regarded today as the Father of Taiwanese folk songs.
This year, officially on January 25th, 2020 (first day of the first month according to the lunar calendar) marks the Year of the Rat and the year of the Rat includes those born in the year 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020.The twelve animal signs in order, are the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.2020 is the year of the Rat and is the first of all the 12 animal horoscope signs.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a selection of music from Amis and Puyuma tribes in Taiwan. There are currently 16 officially recognized tribes in Taiwan. The Amis are the largest tribe with a population of around 200 thousand making up a total of 37% of Taiwan’s entire indigenous population.
The National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO), wanting to convey the beauty of Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island) through Chinese music, has tried to record a selection of songs on the theme of flowers and plants of Taiwan.
The composer is Liu Chi-Hsuan who said Ripples of Nanying was originally conceived by Prof. Gu Bao-Wen and was created on consignment from NCO (National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan) in July 2016. Lyricist, Huang Ying said that the lyrics are dedicated to the sentiment for unification between the older and younger generations.
The album is performed by National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO). In recent years, the NCO has strived to use the traditional music to recount the best stories Taiwan has to offer.
The composer, Tsai Chieh-Cheng has never lost his passion for music and has produced more than 80 records. This album features a variety of instruments.
The erhu player is Wang Ying-chieh who was born in Taiwan and her music studies began in the Western classical tradition with piano, violin and composition. She has been invited as a guest soloist and has performed with ensembles such as Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany, Ensemble KNM in Berlin, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, etc. Other players are the accordionist Fanny Vinces, pianist Jennifer Hymer and the guitarist Christelle Sery.
The producer, Ou Tsung-yang said the erhu performer of this album, Wang Ming-yu is one of the few musicians he has ever met who sincerely embrace the erhu instrument with his life.
Have you ever heard of the pipa instrument (Chinese four-stringed lute) played with a Mexican band? This week, to offer you a unique listening experience, Wu Man, the world’s premier pipa virtuoso, works with Son de San Diego, a local San Diego group that enjoys playing and learning traditional music from Southern Veracruz, Mexico.
Xie Daoxiu (1940-2019) was a famous qin master in China. He had devoted himself to the Art of Lingnan Qin Group for more than 40 years. The most ancient traditional music of Lingnan Qin Group is said to be composed early in Song Dynasty (960-1279). Qin is the most ancient instrument of Chinese traditional music.
Taipei Zheng Xin Zheng Music Orchestra was founded in 1977 by Prof.Tei-Don Wei, a famous musician from Taiwan. The Orchestra has made more than hundreds of performances, if not thousands, in Taiwan and abroad.
Liuxing was born in 1962 and he started to learn yueqin (moon guitar) at the age of twelve. His first edition of Zhongruan Concerto Reminiscences of Yunnan was completed in 1984. Zhongruan, according to sources from the Wikipedia, is a Chinese plucked string instrument. The zhongruan has a straight neck with 24 frets on the fingerboard and 4 strings.
Qian Zhaoxi (1936-2005) had written a large number of musical pieces. Twelve of his works including Primitive Safari that we feature today had been awarded prizes in national and international competitions.
Chamber music has had a long history in China. In the Zhou Dynasty more than 2000 years ago, references were made to “room music” which was a kind of music in the back palace.
Du Chong graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1985. He studied dizi under great masters, Lu Chunling (a leading exponent of southern Chinese dizi music) and Zhao Songting (a famous flute player).
Daiya was born in 1964 and started to play dizi at the age of seven. Daiya is a three-time winner of dizi music in China and came to Taiwan in this April to perform with a local orchestra. He has given recitals all over the world.
Drukgyal Tsering is a Tibetan who sings traditional Tibetan songs and has worked in theater and as a poet and model. He grew up in a Tibetan region but went to school in Beijing, China. This week’s program focuses on mantras, which originated in temples and thrived among the common Tibetan people.
Ku Huiman was born in Shanghai, China and is virtuoso pipa performer. She entered the Shanghai Conservatory at the age of nine where she was under the tutelage of a master musician, Wei Zhongle (1909-1997), who was a virtuoso of many instruments including pipa and dizi.
This week's Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a selection of tunes taken from an album called the Best of Wind 2003.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features The Sky Builder composed by Phoon Yew-tiean from Singapore and the tune is about a famous Chinese myth as well as Poem of Neptune by Wang Ming-hsin from Taiwan which is an ode to Goddess Ma Zu that people in Taiwan and Fujian, China faithfully believe in.
Kang Qiao is a musician with great talents in art and since his college years, he had actively participated in the movement called “campus folk songs”, writing and singing his own songs. He continued to write after graduation from Chung Hsing University in Taiwan on a much wider range of topics including novels, verses and current affairs. His music is inspired by the true story of China’s greatest traveler Xu Xia-ke (Ming Dynasty 1586-1641) and this album will take you on a trip to experience the beauty of mountains and rivers.
Dharma Master Cheng Yen was born in Taichung, Taiwan. She founded the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation in 1966 in Hualien, eastern Taiwan in 1966. Tzu Chi has then provided international humanitarian aid ever since and has become the first NGO in Taiwan to attain association status with the UN Department of Information in 2003.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features Stories on the Lands of Ancient Yan (ancient Chinese state) and Zhao (one of the seven major states during the Warring States period in ancient China) as well as Jiang Nan Yu Si (Jiangsu Folk Songs).
National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO) changed its name in 2012 from National Taiwan Academy of Arts Experimental Chinese Orchestra (founded in 1984). NCO has performed in many countries in the world including in the US, Europe and Asia.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes, a wuxia novel, by Hong Kong-based writer, Jin Yong was first serialized in newspapers from 1957 to 1959. Symphony Condor Heroes based on The Legend of the Condor Heroes was performed by Taipei Chinese Orchestra which was founded in 1979 and it became the first professional Chinese orchestra in Taiwan.
This week's first part of Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a symphonic poem for Pipa solo Ambush on All Sides, a masterpiece in Chinese classical music describing the story of General Xiang Yu (Hegemon-King of Western Chu) in 202 BCE being defeated by Liu Bang, the first emperor of Han Dynasty (202-195 BCE). In the second part, you will hear some famous folk songs with the conductor Henry Shek and the Gunma Symphony Orchestra. The Gunma Symphony Orchestra in Japan was founded in 1945 and has a history of more than 70 years.
Huang Xiaoqiu tells the ancient story with Asia Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the music is based on the handscroll Along the River during the Qingming Festival, a painting by the Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145). According the Wikipedia, the painting captures the daily life of people and the capital.
The liuqin is a four-stringed Chinese mandolin with a pear-shaped body, according to the Wikipedia. The conductor of Sunrise Sionowest Orchestra is David T.H.Chen, a native of Taiwan and he pursued his musical studies at Austria’s Mozarteum Music Conservatory.
Yu Xunfa was a national First Class bamboo flutist of China. Yu was born in Shanghai in 1946 and passed away in 2006. In 1971, he invented the wind instrument known as koudi. (a very small Chinese flute made from bamboo)
Lim Kek-tjiang was born in Indonesia in 1928 and passed away in Australia in 2017. Lim graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory with distinction. Lim was conductor of the Jakarta Radio Orchestra, music director and principal conductor of the Peking Central Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic . He played a key role in establishing the Hong Kong Philharmonic as a professional orchestra in 1974 and in 2002, he also founded the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (ESO) in Taiwan. Two of the many performances of ESO are on Taiwan's EVA Air's boarding and disembarkation background music. (Sources from the Wikipedia)
This album is produced by Wang Sen-di who was born in Taichung, central Taiwan in 1959. Wang has contributed much to the promotion of traditional Chinese music. The performer is Qi Yao who was born in Nanjing, China in 1974. Qi Yao has shown her talent in music since she was a child.
Open String Band is a group that combines eastern and western musical instruments such as the bass, drums, guitar and guzheng (Chinese zither).
This week's show features famous tunes including Peacock Dance, Dance of the Yi Tribe (A Xi is Dancing), The Divine Horse and Dancing Melody for Worshipping Confucius.
Yim Hok-man is a renowned percussionist with more than 50 years of performing experience. Yim has impressed his critics with his exceptional performance. This week's Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features Yim Hok-man's live performance with Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, an orchestra established in 1977 in Hong Kong.
Zeng Yongqing was born in Tianjin in 1944 and is China's national first class dizi performer. He tried to imitate the music in Peking opera with dizi in the album Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features this week,
For six decades, traditional Paiwan songs had been neglected. None of the people in the local villages could sing any of their songs in entirety. It was not until 2005, when Camake Valaule was assigned to Taiwu Elementary School, did the songs start to be sung again. The Paiwan are one of the 16 officially recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan and Taiwu Elementary School is located in Taiwu Township in Ping Tung County, southern Taiwan.
Characterized by a special way of singing and storytelling, Shuo Chang is a popular public entertainment that has mesmerized the Chinese people for hundreds of years. It is a performing art that makes use of languages, music, acting with talking and singing.
First appeared in the 14th century, Xi-qu is a general term to describe various forms of local Chinese operas. Xu-qu or Chinese operas had undergone many changes to evolve into the forms we know today. Peking opera is probably the most familiar one.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features qin music performed at International Symposium on the Art of Qin in Sichuan in 1995. You will hear music performed by Li Xiang-ting, who has been invited to London University to instruct qin music; Sun Yu-han, who learned from Wei De-dong, a qin maestro from Taiwan; Wei Jia-li, who had played qin for more than 40 years and Gao Zhong-jun, who had had 50 years of qin playing.
Wu Man is a famous pipa virtuoso who inherits the tradition of Pudong school of pipa. Wu Man was born in1963 to an artistic family in Hangzhou, China and is currently residing in California, USA. She is internationally recognized for her interpretations of contemporary pipa music.
Zhang Weiliang is a dizi virtuoso and he invites you to have a cup of tea, “drink” the beautiful scene and feel the rhythm of dizi (flute) accompanied by other Chinese instruments.
Chinese massage is a traditional method to stimulate one’s body especially the acupoint with the force of the hands and effects of qi or chi energy force. Dr.Wang Xudong blended the spirit of Chinese massage into this music.
Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO), former known as Taipei Municipal Chinese Orchestra, was founded in 1979 and was the first professional Chinese Orchestra in Taiwan at the time of its founding.
Jing Ying Soloists are made up of four musicians: Tong Leung-tak, erhu and kouqin player; Lan Si-kwan, bawu and dizi player; Chan Man-cheong, pipa and zheng player as well as Ho Man-chuen, a percussionist.
Palace Music was composed by a famous Chinese composer, Zhang Fuquan who has acclaimed as an iconic composer and made famous several of his soundtracks.
Dr.Cai Kexin said he has done a lot of compilation and most of the selected tracks are western-oriented classical or pop music. The selected tracks featured in the album are composed of Chinese and Western orchestra and most of the melodies are recorded by Li Xiaopei, the most experienced recording engineer in China. Dr.Cai said he and the former chairman of Taiwan Cement Company Leslie Koo spared no efforts to shape Chinese music culture.
Fusion Music by Longyuan Music works on creating high quality musical works while inheriting and carrying forward excellent Chinese traditional music.
Master Hong Yi (Li Shutong, 1880-1942) was a man of letters in the modern history of China. His great accomplishments in every aspect were highly esteemed by intellectuals and people in the Buddhist circle.
Qin music in the early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) stemmed from the ancient music of the Song (960-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) Dynasties. So it was fair to say that the origin of qin music of Sichuan (Shu) dated from the time no later than the Ming Dynasty. Wang Huade, the performer was born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China in 1922 and passed away in 2008. He was known as the “king of Sichuan Qin”.
Most traditional zheng pieces come out of various folk music, genres and are classified according to the region. The performer for this week’s program is Lai Yi-Chieh, who received her MA in musicology from Taipei National University of the Arts.
2019 is the year of the pig according to the Chinese zodiac. The twelve animal signs include the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Sheep, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog and the Pig. So the Pig is the last, which is the twelfth of the 12-year cycle of animals. This year’s Lunar New Year starts on Feb. 5th . So join us on this week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes to find out more about customs and traditions you should know to celebrate the Lunar New Year while listening to the festive music.
Ma Shui-long was a famous Taiwanese composer. He was born in Keelung, northern Taiwan in 1939 and passed away in 2015. He had won numerous for his compositions which include symphonic and chamber music as well as choir, piano solo and percussion. His works have been performed all over the world.
This week's Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a selection of Chinese orchestral works including “The Parting of Lady Wang Zhaojun” about one of four beauties of ancient China, Wang Zhaojun leaving her native place to marry Xiongnu ruler and “The King of Qin Breaking up Battle Arrays” depicting the story of the people who re-wrote the words of a military song to praise Tang Taizong, the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
Taiwan has many ethnic groups and the Hakka people, according to the 2016 population census, make up of 19% the entire 2.3 million people, totaling around 4.5 million people. Hakka mountain songs also display the free spirit of the Hakka people who used to live in the mountainous areas in the pre-industrial agricultural society. This week’s program features contemporary and modern Hakka songs.
The voice of the Hakka people has taken different forms throughout different ages. It has been expressed at times through singing, performing, folk songs to convey joyous praise and indignant protest. Over a period of more than 1,700 years, the Hakka people have gone through five migrations and historical records show that two Hakka people sought to establish a branch of a temple in Taiwan in 1586 in Lukang, Taiwan. Lukang was known as the economic and transport hub of central Taiwan in earlier times.
Zhang Weiliang is a dizi virtuoso from China. He has been invited to perform and give lectures in different parts of the world. Some of his students have become core members in various art troupes.
Choo Boon-chong was born in Singapore and he joined the Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra in 1969. Choo joind the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and travelled with the Orchestra to perform in Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan.
Taipei Cheng Hsing Zheng Music Orchestra was founded by Prof.Wei Te-dong and his students in 1977. The aim of the Orchestra is to promote zheng music and ancient zheng is a traditional instrument with a more than 2500-year history. It is also known as the Chinese zither.
Taoyuan Guzeng Ensemble was founded in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan and is composed of elites with rich performing experiences. Different from other ensembles Taoyuan Guzeng Ensemble positions itself as ensemble with a group of musicians willing to absorb the experience from other performing groups through more exchanges.
Cheng Hsing Zheng Music Orchestra was founded by Prof.Tei-Don Wei, a well-known musician and his outstanding students in 1977 in Taiwan.
Hua Mulan is a legendary woman warrior from the Northern and Southern dynasties period (320-589) of Chinese history. That’s quoted from the Wikipedia, and it says that her existence is believed to be purely fictional.
A vast array of Chinese and Western instruments such as guqin, dums, guitar, pipa, xylophone, accordion, etc. are used in this week’s album to present you with a different listening experience.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a collection of Taiwanese folk songs performed by Taoyuan Music Fans Sizhu Chamber Music Ensemble.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features works composed by Tung Chao-ming and performed by Chai Found Music Workshop Taipei.
Kaohsiung Chinese Orchestra is Taiwan’s first professional Chinese orchestra in the southern city of Kaohsiung. Founded in 1989 and in 2000 was renamed the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra.
Chinese dulcimer also known as yangqin or taqin is the only universal instrument among all Chinese instruments. The performer Elsa Huang was born in Taiwan in 1975 and is one of the rare talented players of the Chinese dulcimer.
The album is to mark the 30th anniversary of the Wistaria Tea House recorded in 2011. The Wistaria Tea House, acording to the Wikipedia, is a historical teahouse near National Taiwan University in Taipei. The establishment is situated in a Japanese-style wooden house built in the 1920s.
A Root is a fusion ensemble that brings together instruments such as sheng, liuqin, piano, double bass and world percussions. A Root is composed of professional musicians from Yilan, northeastern Taiwan.
This week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features spiritual music much different from Buddhist chanting music. The album itself is called “Mantra of Hope: on Beikajei Beikajei Mohobeikajei Lazasamu Gadesoha
This edition of Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features a selection of Guangdong Music produced in 1989 and released by Hugo Recording in Hong Kong in 1990.
This album is performed by the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO). NCO is committed to promoting traditional music from Taiwan and this week’s Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features Lion Dance and Electronic Music by the Third Prince.
This album is performed by the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan (NCO). NCO has strived to use traditional music to recount the best stories Taiwan has to offer.
Zhang Wei-liang is a dizi master and has performed in different countries in the world. He has also given lectures at various schools and some of his students have won prizes in different national competitions. Dizi can be made of bamboo, wood, plastic and stone. It has one blowing hole, one membrane hole and six finger holes.
Wong Ching-ping, a famous pipa player said for many years, the silk-string pipa was seldom played on stage and he learned the technique from a certain silk-string pipa enthusiast.
The steel-string pipa has only been in use, according to the pipa maestro, Wong Ching-ping, in the last five to six decades, the sound it produces is crisp and has a longer sustention. Wong Ching-ping is a famous performer, composer and conductor. He graduated from National Taiwan University.
Pendulum is an album of original compositions performed on the pipa by Chung Yufeng featuring great musicians from Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia and Sweden.
This album was recorded in Nevian in south of France with French musicians in the spring of 2015 and was produced by Lien Peiju, a Taiwanese pipa player. Her passion took her from Taipei, Taiwan to Beijing, China to seek out Lin Shicheng, the legendary pipa maestro. Lien Peiju has not only acquired the virtuoso technique but also the poetic spirit of unique to the Pudong Style. There were originally two major schools of pipa during the Qing Dynasty and from these five schools emerged and one of them is Pudong Style.
The Hakka people are the second largest ethnic group in Taiwan comprising about 15 to 20% of the entire population. In the first part of the program, Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes features traditional Hakka folk songs that have been sung for generations in the Meinung area of southern Taiwan. In the second part, instrumental ensemble is featured. The instruments used in Hakka ensembles are mainly suona, flute, erxian, banhu and percussion instruments.
The Amis Tribe, with a population of around 200,000 is the largest among the 16 recognized tribes in Taiwan. Polyphonic singing is found among every aboriginal tribe in Taiwan except for the Pingpu and each tribe differs in the complexities of musical tribe and rule for polyphony.
The composer, Chen Dawei is a famous composer and graduated from the Shanghai Music College in 1965 with excellent grades. Chen has been composing for movies, TV, symphony and traditional orchestra for many years.
Both China and Taiwan have a long history of culture of tea drinking. Originally sung by the cultivators plucking tea on green hills, the tea ballads generally are a reflection of the people’s passion for nature.
Taiwan’s National Chinese Orchestra was established in 1984. The director of this album is Wang Ming-Shean who has undertaken the education works of fine arts for decades.