Ancient Chinese Experimental Music -From Yue Jing- No.1 + No.2 - ADACHI Tomomi

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• published: 20 Oct 2014
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"Ancient Chinese Experimental Music -From Yue Jing- No.1 + No.2" is a composition for five unspecified instruments by ADACHI Tomomi, commissioned by Tokyo Gen'On Project in 2014. These pieces are transcriptions of some fragments from assumed English translation of ancient Chinese music book, "Yue Jing" (Classic of Music.) Four Books and Five Classics are the authoritative books of Confucianism in China written before 300 BC. One of these books is Classic of Music (Yue Jing or Yüeh-ching) which written about music, only the book is not survived, it was lost probably in the Burning of the Books in the Qin Dynasty. Japanese scholar, OGAWA Sotaro (1873?-1909) was a dilettante of Chinese literature and Japanese traditional music, he studied medicine in London from 1905 to 1908, then moved to Paris and committed a suicide at the Seine in the summer of 1909 because of his paranoia which was caused by racial discrimination. He published a translation of Classic of Music as a limited edition in London in 1908. He wrote he found fragments of Classic of Music in Dalian, China where passed to take Trans-Siberian Railway in 1905. He translated them into English (though his English ability was poor, maybe one reason of this translation is for his English practice,) only these translations were survived. After his suicide, the original fragments were not found from his left articles. The book included some very weird descriptions of music; An ensemble is conducted by heartbeats of one player. It shows a harmony of group. Funeral music, players make only gestures playing music without sounds. Melodies to confirm the life and death of inhabitants in remote areas. Music in the form of a snake. The temperament that should not be used except in dream. Method to play a flute by using a percussion. Ancient Chinese Experimental Music No.1 is composed with a suggested scale and a training method to get a quiet mind. No. 2 is based on rhythmic cycles of "San Fen Sun Yi" which is ancient Chinese tuning system (it is the same with Pythagorean tuning as a result). One fragment suggested to extend a tuning system to a rhythmic structure for understanding of cosmic order with musical practice. Each instrumental part has a different cycle with the tuning ratio, and a basic cycle is 8.64 seconds (1/10,000 of a day, 1/100 of a day is ancient Chinese basic time scale). To realize the polyrhythm precisely, audio scores are provided for each part. Two pieces may be performed separately, these are partly overlapped in this performance. Classic of Music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Music Ensemble: Tokyo Gen'On Project Masanori Oishi (saxophone), Shinya Hashimoto (tuba), Yoshiko Kanda (percussion), Aki Kuroda (piano), Sumihisa Arima (bass) Full program of the concert (English) http://tokyogenonproject.net/?p=70 (Japanese) http://tokyogenonproject.net/?p=58 ADACHI Tomomi http://www.adachitomomi.com Tokyo Gen'On Project http://tokyogenonproject.net 足立智美《古代中国の実験音楽 〜楽経から〜 第一番＋第二番》5楽器（委嘱新作 2014） 演奏：東京現音計画 大石将紀（サクソフォン）、橋本晋哉（チューバ）、神田­佳子（打楽器）、黒田­­亜樹（ピアノ）、有馬純寿（ベース） 2013.9.13 杉並公会堂小ホール