Xinhua News Agency, Zhengzhou, January 31, Title: This "ancient" orchestra uses innovation as a new instrument to play the "sound of history"
Xinhua News Agency reporter Shi Linjing
The flute sound of the prehistoric ancestors, the singing of the female musicians of the Xia Palace , the melodious singing bells in Zhenghan City, the bell music of princes and grandsons on the bank of Danjiang River... bells, drums, chimes, flutes, pipes, pianos and shengs, walking into the Chinese Ancient Orchestra of Henan Museum is like walking into a historical concert hall, thousands of years ago The sound of nature spans ancient and modern times and is continuous.
During holidays, the Chinese Ancient Orchestra Concert Hall on the first floor of the main exhibition hall of Henan Museum is always packed with seats and it is hard to get a ticket. Huo Kun, the group leader, has long been accustomed to this.
The Huaxia Ancient Orchestra is the "Internet celebrity" IP of Henan Museum. Since its establishment in 2000, the orchestra has restored and performed stage performances of ancient musical instruments, costumes, music and performance scenes in the Central Plains region based on musical cultural relics, bringing the audience "can A History of Listening.”
The picture shows the performance of actors from the Chinese Ancient Orchestra. (Photo provided by interviewee)
As the "old man" of the orchestra, Huo Kun has spent 21 years in the China Ancient Orchestra. "When it was first established, there were only a few people in the group. We were both researchers and performers. Since the program content and format at that time were relatively simple and the audience was not large, we were often like 'lonely bell ringers.'" Huo Kun said.
"The ancient orchestra is an extension of the museum exhibition hall and a carrier for cultural relics to come alive. This requires us to start from the depths of history, resonate with the aesthetics of the new era and the needs of the people, and create creations that are willing to listen and understood. content." said Wan Jie, Secretary of the Party Committee of Henan Museum. Based on this, in recent years, the Chinese Ancient Music Ensemble has focused on the innovative expression and dissemination of ancient music, and has carried out innovative practices in artistic creation, talent training and other aspects.
In addition to performing ancient music, the orchestra also attempts to use ancient musical instruments to adapt and perform world famous music, film and television music, game music, etc., to bring a new audio-visual experience to the audience. Not long ago, the Chinese Ancient Orchestra entered the Gongyi Grotto Temple and "resurrected" the ancient musical instruments and figurines on the relief murals from 1,500 years ago to play New Year's songs.
This is not the first time that the Chinese Ancient Orchestra has "reorganized". Fang Xiang's 1,400-year-old performance of the "Harry Potter" theme song, the ancient music version of "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky", and his adaptation of the popular music "The Lonely Warrior" have all sparked heated discussions on the Internet. "Culture is not in the past perfect tense, but in the present continuous tense. We must continue to explore, make the cultural relics in the exhibition hall come alive, and let thousands of years of ancient music fly into the homes of ordinary people," Huo Kun said.
Today, the Chinese Ancient Orchestra has become a "window" for Henan Museum to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional culture. Up to now, the Huaxia Ancient Music Ensemble has restored and reconstructed more than 1,000 pieces of more than 30 kinds of ancient music from ancient times to the Tang and Song Dynasties, excavated and performed nearly 200 ancient songs, and also moved the performances to the "cloud" to play new sounds of ancient music.
The picture shows Huo Kun (third from left) and orchestra members discussing the compilation of music scores and the development of musical instruments. (Photo provided by interviewee)
Young people are also growing up like mushrooms after a rain.
During the Monday morning rush hour in winter, the Agricultural Road in Zhengzhou City was bustling with people and vehicles, but the closed Henan Museum seemed unusually quiet. In an office on the third floor of the west wing of Henan Museum, Liang Douzi, a dancer from the "post-95s" orchestra, is pondering the choreography of the Hu Xuan music and dance. “The museum is closed on Mondays and there are no performances, so I can just sit down and do research,” Liang Douzi said.
"In 2023, the orchestra will recruit 6 new members, many of whom are born after 2000. The joining of more young people has injected innovative vitality into the orchestra. Now the average age of this 'ancient' orchestra is less than 30 years old." Huo Kun said that in the process of innovating and inheriting ancient Chinese music, we have also changed from "lonely bell ringers" to "happy inheritors".
At the end of the year and in the cold weather, the concert hall of the Chinese Ancient Music Ensemble was filled with children who were studying during the winter vacation. When the Chinese ancient music performers were dressed in deep robes with deep robes and jingling rings, like ancient musicians, they were walking in. Many musical "cultural relics" " also comes through time and space, playing the "chorus" of the past and the present.
(Xinhuanet)
