Reviews I Comptes Rendus
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34;.. BULUllN de musique folklorique canadienne 33.4 (1999) Reviews I Comptes rendus Concert Calgary ChineseOrchestra University of Calgary, November6, 1999 I have to begin with a confession.At severaltimes during the way.) And twoA week monthslater, laterI brought they helpedmy camera to open our conference. the work on my photohistory of Alberta music, I thought about the Chinesepresence here, which begins as early as extensive- I'd discovered by then that, in addition to giving them exposure Europeansettlement in the province. My sources(primarily the to a specialized and well-prepared audience, this one-hour gig Glenbowand Provincial Archives, but also the manylocal histo- was in fact a dress rehearsal for their own recital, a week later. ries written by Albertansthemselves) provided next to nothing, and I made Their full concert beganwith a do with a couple of old photographs showcaseby the Children's Orches- of paIadesand the cast shot of a dor- tra. At one of the rehearsalsI at- ky musicalplay, entitled The Geisha tended, a gum-<:hewingsweetheart Girl, from 1920,which demonstrates solemnly infom1edme that Mr. Yin quite clearly the stereotypeswhich had said they were better than the Europeansimposed on Asians. (I on- adults. Well, perhaps we all make ly wish it were truly past tense!) extravagant comments to children, Lethargically, I wondered whether but if half of thesekids keepat their any documentationmight be avail- musicalstudies, this orchestrawill be able and speculatedon the musical stunning in just a few years. Several activities, pastand present,of China- of the adults laughedmodestly to me town in my home town. But I did about their own abilities; at leastone nothing about it. said, "I didn't start until I was 50. Preparingour Societyconference That's too old." But some of the for Calgary this year, I askedmyself children are very young and haveal- what might be a suitable sort of per- ready reachedlevels of prowessthat formancefor our openingnight. The I envy. Not all of them were as im- obvious tags for this burg are pressiveas someothers, and I don't Cowboys and Indians, but Walter seeany purposein singling children Bonaiseprovided such a wonderful out for excessivepraise or criticism. The first half of the evening was a presenceture last yearand insight that I feltinto weCree should cul- - delight; let's leave it at that. plIO'" by FozIa K1IfIn leave that simmering in our minds. Cowboys?Well, as I suggestin the A similar caveatshould apply to book, the cowboy aspectof provincial culture, while certainly the adult orchestra, I believe. CSTM board member Alan genuine and significant, has been overblown and deservesa Thrasher pointed out in his introduction to the group's vacation.In this context, I rememberedthe Chinese,whose pres- performancefor the AGM, this sort of mixed wind/string en- ence in the west may have been ignored, but was constant; in- semble has a history in China that predatesthe Europeanor- deed, even a stereotypicalhint of that presencecan add some chestra.But there's also a prairie tradition behindthis particular valuablereality effect to a westernmovie (One-Eyed Jacks, for ensemble.In many prairie towns, citizens early set about the instance)or tv show (Have Gun, Will Travel). The Chinese creationof town bands(and sometimesoperas, symphonies, and helpedbuild our railways, washedour clothes, and fed us. Fred other cultural groups); famlers, white and blue collar workers, Wah, a westernCanadian poet (Saskatchewan,BC, and now Al- and businessmencoughed up the dough to buy instruments(pos- berta), haswritten of his father's life in the Elite Cafe (in Wait- sibly uniforms) and music and sometimesto lure in a maestroto ing for Saskatchewan,Turnstone 1985, if I remembercorrect- instruct them. (I have, by the way, read of at least one town in ly). (By the way, say eee-light, pard-Anglo Canadiansdidn't which fatcat businessmenwho did not seekto join in the music know how to pronouncethe word any better than the Chinese!) making were shakendown on the street for contributions! Not Besides,I'd left an unpaid debt here, and I felt it was time a bad idea ) to get off my lethargicbutt. In fact, finding the Calgary Chinese Members of the Calgary ChineseOrchestra pay a monthly Orchestrawas so easy that I was humiliated all over again. It fee to participate, attendweekly rehearsals,and work very hard took-what?-two phone calls before I reachedDavid Yin, the at their instruments(several of them double). As I've noted, Orchestra'sconductor. Within two weeks, I was visiting a re- some of them have begun from scratch within the past two hearsal.(They actually invite the public to their rehearsals,by~ years. What they have to offer Calgary's communities(Chinese CanadianFolk Music BULlE7JN 33.4 (1999) ...35 and otherwise)far outweighsanyone's technical deficiencies. drilled into the left side. Presumablythe hole reachesover a bar- Without slighting any other soloists, I'd like to note that I rier, and the player can blow on either or both sides as was particularly moved by Holly Yeung-Yin's performanceon necessary.When the musical momentis right, the player crosses the .long zither, shi. This instrument, which is very similar to handsand (I assume)shifts her embouchureto blow into both the more familiar Japanesetoto, begs comparison to the sides.Voila! Two melody lines at once! (Rememberthose Etrus- Europeanharp; the latter has more strings but (arguably)fewer can wall paintings of the shepherdswith the double recorders?) ways of manipulating those strings. Many of us have seen(at But the player can also return to the right side of the hole least briefly when the koto has appearedon tv) the bending of and double the notes of the regular six holes. Exactly how, I'm strings on the performer's left side of the instrument's not sure. To my ears, these seemsomewhat more difficult to bridges-I'd never realized how many different effects can be keep in tune. Indeed, sometimesthe effect, particularly in the achievedby this technique, dependingon how the strings are alto flutes, is a bit like the mouth organ sheng, almost as if a struck to the right of the bridges. Nor was I aware that players mirliton membranehad beeninserted somewhere, though I don't bring their left hand over to the right believe that to be the case. (When I side of the bridges to make complex visited the Orchestrainformally, Mr. musical tapestries.Stefan Grossman Yin was conducting, and these fas- used to joke that his guitar was a 6- cinating instrumentsnever surfaced. string piano; the she surely could be Orchestramembers did saythat he is called a 25-string piano! (Exceptthat also an authority on some sort of the player gets to touch the strings!) antique lithophone ) It's easyto understandwhy such If Mr. Yin really did invent the zitherswere considered philosopher's Double-ToneFlute, I hope that he's instruments-one feelslike one could gotten an ironclad patent on it. It's fall into the eddying pools of certain to be a big hit; even when he sound Indeed, the audience, plays relatively classical music, the which had been quick (too quick, moment he crosseshis handsacross once!) to leap into applauseat the his chest is a showstopper.I hate to end of eachpiece, sat in absolutesi- think of the cornball theatrics to lencefor many secondsafter Yeung- come, when the Elektrik Soodough- Yin's piecewas complete.No one, I Keltoids get hold of these flutes, suspect,wanted to break the spell. I which they surely will. hope I get the opportunity to hear But the Double-ToneFlute is not more of her playing. a gimmick to Mr. Yin and his stu- dents. (Solos where played by three In many ways, the centrepieceof children and one adult memberof the the Orchestrais David Yin's innova- - Orchestra, as well as by Yin him- tive Double-ToneFlute. It's obvious pMe.,,*A18 self.) For hundredsof years, wind- that Asians have never felt the need players have wanted to be able to to maketheir flutes mechanicallycomplicated, as we have. (Why play more than one note at a time, and, witness thoseEtruscan did we do that? To make it easier to play? To enhancethe shepherds,they've been finding ways of doing it. I found Mr. opportunity to play chromatically or at least in different keys? Yin's own composition, "The Clear River Water," to be mature Or becauseEuropeans like to mechanizethings and claim that and lovely. this makesus superior?)Anyone who hasheard a seriousplayer of the Indian bansuri knows that a simpler flute-a stick of Even if I had gotten off my buns earlier this decade,I don't bamboowith six or sevenholes-does not necessarilymake for supposeI'd have found photographic evidence of an historic simpler music. predecessorto the Orchestra.After all, there were a large num- I'm beginning to get the impressionthat Asian flutes are not ber of restrictions on Chineseimmigrants in thosedays, to our all that simple. The VancouverVietnamese ensemble Khac Chi shame.I doubt that many of them were able to bring suchdeli- feature a long bamboo flute being played by three people all at cate instruments as the she, but there must have been flutes once! The picture is on the cover of their CD, Spirit of Viet- around, and perhaps the odd erh-hu violin. It's not hard to nam. I haven't really had time to investigate that disc or the imagine a lonely worker playing a pentatonic melody in the flute itself, which I gatheris itself a modification'of a traditional prairie twilight. The ideafits-much Native musicis pentatonic, transverseflute-made for only two people. (However, a review after all-so is Scottish music, for that matter! The Calgary of the disc is in the works.) ChineseOrchestra shows us that Chineseclassical music is being I have not had the opportunity to ask Mr.