The June 2010 issue of National Geographic had a piece about the history of the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, a Silk Road oasis in northwestern China.
The Buddhist art found in almost 800 hand carved caves are considered among the world’s finest. There is nearly a half-million square feet of wall space decorated with these murals and more than 2,000 sculptures.
Between the fourth and 14th centuries AD over a thousand years of history was documented on scrolls, sculptures, and wall paintings revealing a multicultural world more vibrant than anyone imagined.
And contrary to popular belief and the Dalai Lama’s soft-spoken words of peace, Buddhism, like all large religious movements, has had a bloody and violent history. Some of the cave art at Dunhuang depicts the dark side of Buddhism.
In 1977, a discovery was made in China—a complete set of chime bells were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi, who lived during the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC). These chimes were older than the Qin Dynasty’s famous Terra Cotta warriors (221 to 206 B.C.).
When the chimes were discovered in Hubei Province, a plot of land was being leveled to build a factory. The Red Army officer in charge of the work had an interest in archeology.
The officer discovered that the workers were selling the ancient bronze and iron artifacts they were digging up. He convinced local authorities there might be an ancient tomb buried below the site.
When the tomb was unearthed, a set of chime bells was discovered. These musical instruments were an important part of ritual and court music in ancient times. An American professor in New York City even called these chimes the eighth wonder of the ancient world.
The sixty-five chime bells weighed about 5 tons.
No other set of chimes like this had been discovered in China before and this set was in excellent condition.
A project was launched in 1979 to duplicate four sets of these chimes. More than a 100 scientists and technicians were recruited. In 1998, twenty years after the discovery, the project was completed. One of the sets was sent to Taiwan as a gift.
The first few weeks of 2018 will focus on China’s long history starting with the earliest known musical instrument found in China.
Music in China is traditionally associated with ritual observances and government affairs.
In 1999, Chinese archeologists unearthed what is believed to be the oldest known playable instrument, a seven-holed flute fashioned about 9,000 years ago from the hollow wing bone of a large bird.
To establish the age of the flute, a U.S. chemist at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory analyzed data from carbon-14 dating done in China on materials taken from the site. “The flutes may be the earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated, multinote musical instruments.”
The 9,000-year-old flutes were “exquisitely-crafted” from the wing bone of a red-crowned crane.
In The Book of Songs, an ancient collection of Chinese poetry from the 11th to the 7th century BC, the three-hole Yue is the most frequently mentioned wind instrument, but by the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD), the Yue had all but vanished.
CGTN.com says, “The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ‘southern fiddle’ and sometimes known in the Western world as the ‘Chinese violin’ or a ‘Chinese two-stringed fiddle’. It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras. It is the most popular of the huqin family of traditional bowed string instruments used by various ethnic groups of China. A very versatile instrument, the erhu is used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements, such as in pop, rock, jazz, etc.”
And once you recognize the sound of an erhu, it can usually be readily picked out from other musical instruments, because that sound is unique.
The history of the erhu spans more than a thousand years. The first erhu was heard during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD).
Since the traditional Chinese character for “erhu” indicates it has two strings, the erhu has probably changed little over the centuries.
The Han ethnic group makes up about 92% of the population of China, and Han folk music, in a sense, is similar to Mandarin in that it is made by sliding from higher tones to lower tones, or lower to higher, or a combination of both.
Han folk music is also similar to poetry with slow soothing tempos that express feelings that connects with the audience or whoever is playing the piece. Even the way a moment of silence is delivered changes the meaning behind the music.
The last year for China’s Got Talent was Season 5, 2013-14. The next video shows the five winners of China’s Got Talent from the man who had no arms and played the piano with his bare feet to the acrobat that won season 5.
I have two favorites: one from the United States and one from Norway.
Grace VanderWaal won America’s Got Talent in 2016, at age 12. She writes her own songs and performs them. She then signed a record contract with Columbia Records and put out her first short album that reached #9 in the United States. She went on to win a Teen Choice Award and an award from Disney. She is now 13, and started her first concert tour in early October 2017, at Austin’s City Limits Music Festival. Her first full-length album (she wrote all the songs) is scheduled for release on November 3. I already have my own copy and I listen to it every morning when I exercise. I like her work that much.
Angelina Jordan won Norway’s Got Talent when she was age 8, singing classic jazz. At age ten in 2016, she recorded “I Put a Spell on You.” If you enjoyed that performance, there’s more. You will discover she performs barefoot. Jordan’s first album was scheduled for release this year.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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