Chinese Orchestra

            The Chinese Orchestra began in the 1930’s. Most scholars agree that the ensemble grew out of the Jiangnan Sizhu tradition based upon instrumentation and music repertoire of the early ensembles. The basic concept of the ensemble is the western Symphony set-up, ie having a conductor, the use of notation during performance, and the half circle seating, but using traditional Chinese instruments. The first ensemble of its kind was formed in Nanking and broadcasted over the radio. Its creation was meant to spark nationalism and was used for a wide range of entertainment and government purposes.

The orchestra has gone through many changes in instrumentation while originally mixing western and Chinese instruments. Originally the ensemble used cellos and double basses to fill out the low range and oboes for higher range as well as horns and trombones to fill out a low wind sound. As the Chinese instruments have been improved, western instruments gradually dropped from the orchestra. The dahu and dihu were made to replace the low strings while the sheng was improved with more pipes to fill the role of the brass. Other major improvements across the board were equal-temperament tuning, accurate intonation, and range.

Over-all I find this to be a really cool mix of traditional and western values of music.

This is the dahu that eventually replaced the cello. This is a demonstration of the instrument performed at a competition hosted by the Taipei Chinese Orchestra.

This is a tutorial of the Bass Sheng played by a musician from the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. This instrument was created to extend the range of the Chinese Orchestra as range was a major concern throughout the development of the orchestra. It shows playing technique, range, and harmonic capabilities as well as solo repertoire demonstration.

This video shows two professional musicians from the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. This shows the advancements made in standardized tuning and value of intonation with eachother.

Performance of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

Expressive playing is important to Chinese and the Yueqin soloist is so much fun to watch.

Resources:

"Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra | HKCO." Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra | HKCO. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.

Kuo-Huang, Han, and Judith Gray. “The Modern Chinese Orchestra.” Asian Music, vol. 11, no. 1, 1979, pp. 1–43. www.jstor.org/stable/833965.