Storyteller in Song

20LIFEMonday, July 24, 2017 CHINA DAILY » CHINADAILY.COM.CN/LIFE STORYTELLER IN SONG Cloud River Mountain, a collaborative work by four Western composers, is based on Chinese myths and legends and features the expressive voice of Chinese folk singer Gong Linna. Chen Nan reports. ne day in 2011, while on a tour of China with four other international Ocomposers, the American composer Michael Gordon We had an amazing walked into a small music experience of store filled with televisions, all playing different music videos. cross-cultural One in particular caught his attention. It was Gong Linna, a musical Chinese folk singer known for her expressive voice. communication.” “I had never seen or heard anything like Gong Linna and Gong Linna, folk singer I was deeply impressed by her performance artistry,” recalls Gordon, who, through hand than I expected,” says Zol- signals, asked the store owner litsch. to write down the name of the He also brought Chinese artist. sheng (a traditional Chinese A few days later, Gordon wind instrument) player Nie attended a symposium on con- Yunlei to the project for the temporary Chinese music, and first time. one of the speakers was the “When the sound of the German composer Robert Zol- sheng was mixed with Western litsch, Gong’s husband. instruments, such as an elec- Gordon and Zollitsch kept tric guitar and clarinet, it func- in touch and decided to tioned as a secret ingredient, explore the possibilities of powerful and very Chinese,” cooperation. says Zollitsch. Along with fellow compos- The German composer ers, Julia Wolfe — his wife— grew up in Munich, Germany, and David Lang, Gordon is the and came to China on a schol- co-founder of Bang on a Can, a arship to study guqin (the Chi- New York-based musical orga- nese seven-stringed zither) in nization, which is known for Shanghai in 1993. projects such as the annual Before settling down in Bei- music festival, Bang on a Can jing, he researched traditional Marathon, and the ensemble music in the Inner Mongolia Bang on a Can All-Stars. and Tibet autonomous Gordon and Zollitsch col- regions, while collaborating laborated on a 30-minute set with a number of Chinese of songs that premiered at the musicians. He met Gong in 2015 Bang on a Can Marathon. 2002 and they married in This was later expanded 2004. into a 70-minute concert, In 2009, Gong received rave titled Cloud River Mountain, reviews after she released the which was performed at the song Tan Te (Disturbed) Gerald W. Lynch Theater at online. Composed by Zol- John Jay College on July 14 litsch, the song uses sounds and 15 this year, as part of the rather than words to convey annual Lincoln Center Festi- different emotions and val, which has been held since moods. 1966. During the past few years, At the concert, Gong per- Zollitsch has been working on formed 11 songs, with lyrics in pieces inspired by poetry of both Mandarin and English, Chinese folk singer Gong Linna (top and above left) performs in the concert Cloud River Mountain in New York in mid-July. The concert was a collaboration of musicians the Tang (618-907) and Song composed by Zollitsch, Gor- from the West and East. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY (960-1279) dynasties, hoping don, Wolfe and Lang. to both enliven Chinese music The four composers also col- and bring back classical laborated on an instrumental cross-cultural musical com- concert. Sometimes I sang like composer Lang, who won the Sun, which was based on Tian the traditional Chinese vocal poems to a modern society. piece. The music and lyrics munication,” says Gong. one of the mythical figures 2010 Grammy Award for best Wen (Asking Questions to performance practices that “For years, we have been were inspired by ancient Chi- Born in Guiyang, the capital with sounds of crying and yel- small ensemble performance, Heaven) by Qu Yuan, a poet Gong Linna brings to her sing- talking about reviving tradi- nese poetry and myths, which of Southwest China’s Guizhou ling,” says the 42-year-old sing- composed Moon Goddess, during the Warring States ing,” says Gordon, adding that tional Chinese music and was an idea initiated by Zol- province, Gong started learn- er. which was inspired by Tang Period (475-221 BC). The piece Gong is the first Chinese sing- bringing it to the world. The litsch. ing Chinese folk singing at a Since each of the composers Dynasty (618-907) poet Li tells the Chinese myth of a er they have worked with. most important thing is to “We did rehearsals from 10 very young age and enrolled at has a unique style, Zollitsch Shangyin’s work about the young archer named Hou Yi, Zollitsch gave each compos- maintain the unique identity am to 5 pm for about a week. the Chinese Conservatory of gave the composers different goddess who lives on the who shot down nine suns to er the lyrics and a translation of Chinese music,” says Gong. With the diverse back- Music in Beijing at age 16. materials based on their own moon. cool the earth. of the Chinese myths. “Then grounds of each composer, we “I performed not as a singer styles, Gong says. Gordon composed the “It was fascinating to they developed their own Contact the writer at had an amazing experience of but also as a storyteller in the For example, American piece, When Yi Shot Down the explore Chinese culture and ideas. It worked much better [email protected] American urges bar patrons in Beijing to tell personal stories By CHINA DAILY 4corners, a hole-in-the-wall before they come for storytel- hutong (alley) bar-and-restau- If you go ling that it will be about China Sven Romberg narrated a rant in Beijing, which mostly but almost overwhelmingly, personal story in public for the serves Canadian and Southeast Thursday storytelling the stories are about home and first time as a freshman at Asian food. Every Thursday begins at 9:30 pm. about travel,” Romberg says. American University in Wash- evening, he goes from table to 27 Dashibei Hutong, “Something about distance ington in 2005. table asking regulars and new- Xicheng district, Beijing. makes it interesting.” As part of an assignment on comers if they have a story to 010-6401-7797. Tavey Lin, 4corners co-own- local culture in the US capital, tell. er, says Romberg is a storyteller he had visited a popular jazz The venue’s resident dog, at heart — he wants to tell you bar called HR-57 Center for the Bojangles, commonly known about his life and interesting Preservation of Jazz & Blues as Bo, greets patrons at the “We hear again and again things that have happened to and bought a soft drink door, while a board inside holds someone comes out to a story- him. because he was then underage. up the sign “Storytelling telling night, they’re feeling “Our format is very off-the- He had expected to listen to theme: Bully”. alone and … hear a story that cuff and we encourage that sort jazz but a woman there walked “Pow, pow,” says Romberg, might have nothing to do with of atmosphere,” says the onstage and said that the even- imitating a feisty young girl he them but they’ll find some con- 33-year-old. ing would be about storytel- once knew and punches the air nection … and they go home Biology teacher John Men- ling. in an attempt to teach the invis- feeling a little bit less alone,” denhall, who has watched “I was so terrified of public ible bully a lesson. Burns says. “As the world Romberg onstage, says he is speaking,” recalls Romberg, He usually weaves his anec- becomes more and more digi- among rare hosts of such now 32. “I almost left, but end- dotes with action and intona- Sven Romberg hosts weekly storytelling nights at 4corners bar in Beijing. MARK MARINO / FOR CHINA DAILY tal, it’s important to connect events in Beijing. ed up sticking around.” tion. The night goes on as with people in a more direct Aside from hosting the story- Romberg didn’t tell a story others recount and remember way.” telling night at the hutong bar, that night but did so the follow- their own such stories — a persisted since ancient times as often hears about storytelling and tell stories and connect Before 4corners, Romberg, Romberg occasionally runs ing month at the same venue. woman who found out from a way of writing history, the act events from Australia to Ant- with each other,” Burns says who grew up in Georgia and workshops to help others He told his audience about his her parents that she had bul- of telling stories in public set- arctica. over phone from New York. Tennessee, would host storytel- improve their own storytelling brother who “woke up” during lied her brother during their tings and recognizing them as “It makes sense to me that A top quality in storytelling is ling nights in his Beijing apart- ability and formulate narra- a knee surgery. childhood and a teacher who art is a modern movement, people who have all chosen to the speaker’s willingness “to be ment with many people. tives. Over the past three years, witnessed his students’ pranks according to Catherine Burns, be in a very different part of the vulnerable”, she says, because The crowd was different Romberg has been hosting go wrong. the artistic director for The world, or the part they grew up many stories are about people’s every time, he says.

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