Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music

Various Artists

album cover

The Ageless Music of China

Several times on this captivating overview, what sounds like a woman's fragile contralto appears, offering an animated, twisting-in-the-wind melody. But it isn't a singer. It's the erhu, a two-stringed violinlike instrument that, when played by a master such as Wang Guotong, acquires eerie voice-like characteristics, evoking quiet sobbing or playful laughter. Coming from silk strings, such vivid expressions can be unsettling at first, but as the melodies of "The Moon Mirrored in the Pool" unfold, they become familiar, even soothing.

The erhu is one of the instruments that is central to China's traditional music. This collection, performed by the China Recording Company in 1980 and released on CBS Records in the West in 1991, offers glimpses of others. Among them: the zitherlike qin, a plucked instrument notable for its sharp articulation; bamboo Chinese vertical and transverse flutes, and the fourstringed pipa, which has between nineteen and twenty-six frets and a warm resonance similar to the mandolin. Each gets a turn in the spotlight—one joy of this collection is hearing how these diverse and exotic instruments resonate when they're at the forefront of an ensemble.

In China, traditional melodies are often linked to specific images. The musicians are expected to bring landscape-painting titles, like "Spring on the Pamir Plateau," to life. To do this, they pluck strings just so, sustain breathy long tones, and essay swooping lyrical lines that suggest a bird in flight. These effects require deep concentration and phenomenal control—it takes methodical, highly disciplined execution to make music feel this effortless. It's a rigorous type of virtuosity, yet the players never exhibit any strain. In profoundly tranquil tones, they conjure flowing water and beautiful moonlit lakes, not merely describing nature but aligning every aspect of the music with it.

Genre: World, China
Released: 1991, CBS
Key Tracks: "The Moon Mirrored in the Pool," "Days of Emancipation," "Spring on the Pamir Plateau."
Buyer Beware: Much of what is marketed as "traditional" Chinese music in the West is shoddy synthesizer-heavy reworkings of folk songs. Look for some indication of traditional instruments.
Next Stop: The Guo Brothers and Shung Tian: Yuan
After That: Lei Qiang: Chinese Traditional Erhu Music, Vol. 1.
Book Pages: 818–819