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Water music to our ears and our urban hearts
By Wang yong |
November 2, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT was music on the water, from the water and by the water.
On Saturday night, my friend treated me to a musical feast in suburban Shanghai, where a river mingled monks' mantras on one bank with musicians' murmurings on the other.
Echoing the tide of mantra and murmuring was the rise and fall of the simple splashing sound of water inside and outside an ancient riverside house in the ancient water town, Zhujiajiao. The venue has been adapted to host the "architectural" music show "Water Heavens" by Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun.
The show, lasting around 60 minutes, had four parts: dialogue between monks and Bach; water rock and roll; string quartet and pipa; and four seasons of Zen.
To me, the best moment came when monks's low chanting drifted across the dim river into the faintly lit house filled with no sound other than that of burbling water - real water on the ground (diverted from the river) and poured from above. At that moment, I seemed to see myself stopping to heed the soothing sound of water flowing from behind a Buddhist temple in shaded hills.
The names didn't matter - whether you call it architectural music or something else, Zen or Bach. One of the things that makes Tan Dun great is his treatment of the sound of water as something transcending cultures and genres.
When water sings, strings lose their appeal.
Indeed, if you love water, as a Chinese proverb goes, you are almost a wise man. But the wise man has been lost today in most big-city men.
On Saturday night, it took my friend and me about one hour's drive to escape from Shanghai's urban racket in "Water Heavens" in the ancient water town west of downtown Shanghai.
What do you hear in the streets of downtown Shanghai? Not a single drop of water, let alone a stream or river where people sit and sing quietly to themselves.
Yesterday morning I walked the full 50 minutes from home to work, only to be drowned in the rumbles of motorcycles and cars and the din of mom-and-dad shops forever welding and cutting aluminum window frames for a city crazed with home decoration.
In most modern home decoration, home owners place themselves in a frame far from nature - there's no chanting water as you hear and see in Tan Dun's "Water Heavens." Bars, cars, shops - they are the elements of a so-called modern city.
Make no mistake. My walking route was supposed to be one of Shanghai's quietest - from the former French Concession area to a small road between Nanjing Road W. and Huaihai Road. I couldn't imagine how noiser it could get.
Shanghai World Expo ended two days ago with a loud call for low-carbon living. Low-carbon does not stop at alternate energy sources or new materials. It requires a new architecture of urban space.
Creating more water heavens makes a city cleaner in her outlook and loftier in her soul. Let the water be heard, not the cars.
Heed Tan Dun's call, let water rock, roll and rule.
On Saturday night, my friend treated me to a musical feast in suburban Shanghai, where a river mingled monks' mantras on one bank with musicians' murmurings on the other.
Echoing the tide of mantra and murmuring was the rise and fall of the simple splashing sound of water inside and outside an ancient riverside house in the ancient water town, Zhujiajiao. The venue has been adapted to host the "architectural" music show "Water Heavens" by Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun.
The show, lasting around 60 minutes, had four parts: dialogue between monks and Bach; water rock and roll; string quartet and pipa; and four seasons of Zen.
To me, the best moment came when monks's low chanting drifted across the dim river into the faintly lit house filled with no sound other than that of burbling water - real water on the ground (diverted from the river) and poured from above. At that moment, I seemed to see myself stopping to heed the soothing sound of water flowing from behind a Buddhist temple in shaded hills.
The names didn't matter - whether you call it architectural music or something else, Zen or Bach. One of the things that makes Tan Dun great is his treatment of the sound of water as something transcending cultures and genres.
When water sings, strings lose their appeal.
Indeed, if you love water, as a Chinese proverb goes, you are almost a wise man. But the wise man has been lost today in most big-city men.
On Saturday night, it took my friend and me about one hour's drive to escape from Shanghai's urban racket in "Water Heavens" in the ancient water town west of downtown Shanghai.
What do you hear in the streets of downtown Shanghai? Not a single drop of water, let alone a stream or river where people sit and sing quietly to themselves.
Yesterday morning I walked the full 50 minutes from home to work, only to be drowned in the rumbles of motorcycles and cars and the din of mom-and-dad shops forever welding and cutting aluminum window frames for a city crazed with home decoration.
In most modern home decoration, home owners place themselves in a frame far from nature - there's no chanting water as you hear and see in Tan Dun's "Water Heavens." Bars, cars, shops - they are the elements of a so-called modern city.
Make no mistake. My walking route was supposed to be one of Shanghai's quietest - from the former French Concession area to a small road between Nanjing Road W. and Huaihai Road. I couldn't imagine how noiser it could get.
Shanghai World Expo ended two days ago with a loud call for low-carbon living. Low-carbon does not stop at alternate energy sources or new materials. It requires a new architecture of urban space.
Creating more water heavens makes a city cleaner in her outlook and loftier in her soul. Let the water be heard, not the cars.
Heed Tan Dun's call, let water rock, roll and rule.
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