Yesterday while strolling through Chinatown I passed by Columbus Park and heard some music. I went in to investigate and the music turned out to be coming from a traditional Chinese ensemble. I couldn't really get their name (all information was in Chinese, except for that they played as part of Music Under New York). I'm pretty sure that they're called the Street Musical Club. I can't find anything online about them specifically, but here's a good site with traditional Chinese music:
Internet Chinese Music Archive. The lyrical quality of the playing is remarkable.
By the way, China has the oldest written music: tablature for the
qin. The piece is called Secluded Orchid and comes from the Tang Dynasty. You can get some info on that in the
wikipedia article or on
this page (if you scroll down to the section called music you'll be able to hear it, too) from
John Thompson. It's definitely worth listening to: the amount of harmonics used is stunning, as well as the fact that it could easily be heard as a contemporary piece.
I don't know who the musicians you saw were, but maybe the 'Saw Lady' knows? She plays the musical saw in the subway and in her blog she tells about a lot of the musicians who play with Music Under NY: www.sawlady.com/blog
ReplyDeleteMay be this will help.