In big cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, suddenly popular concerts in business districts have attracted symphony orchestras ranging from professional permanent to temporary formations to join in, and large groups of onlookers will stop and watch in shopping mall lobbies. In large and medium-sized performance venues, the symphony concerts of "Genshin Impact" and "Glory of Kings" were rushed by "two-dimensional" enthusiasts, and it was difficult to get a ticket. The members of the symphony orchestra are also diverse, ranging from surgeons to retired cadres, from community volunteers to workplace elites.
Even though the content of the orchestra's performances is so diverse and its members come from all walks of life, a video of a symphony orchestra whose performance level is not too high has been spread through the Internet recently and has become popular. In the video, the performers are wearing cassocks, and this monk-like symphony orchestra plays music by Russian composer Glinka and Italian composer Paganini.
People can't help but ask, who are they, where are they, and what are their intentions?
The string orchestra in its early days
The bus traveling between Hong'an County and Tiantai Mountain
Wearing cassocks to perform classical music
What naturally arouses people's strong curiosity is the dress of the orchestra members, which is due to the unchanging dress etiquette of classical music.
Regardless of their environment and composition, all kinds of symphony orchestras, once they perform on stage, will mostly appear in dark-colored formal attire, including but not limited to tuxedos, large dresses, small dresses, and Chinese tunic suits. This stems from the consistent serious atmosphere of symphony concerts, and also reflects the historical style that classical music was once exclusive to the wealthy classes in Europe. Therefore, it has been criticized by many people.
Among them is the fast-talking American pianist and music critic Charles Rosen. Rosen, a prolific author, complained about the dress etiquette that binds musicians in his 2003 book "The Piano Notes: The Pianist's Hidden World." In his opinion, the range of body movements of musicians when playing is comparable to that of athletes. Instead of wearing a restrictive black tuxedo, it is better to wear T-shirts, shorts and sportswear. This is also a relief for musicians.
Rosen's views naturally laid a theoretical foundation from the academic world for people who seek innovation and change in the future to perform in various unconventional and strange costumes, such as dressing up as dolls and clowns to attract attention, but it must not have Not the main focus of people's attention to the Kasaya Band video. As a attire for a specific industry, the cassock has its own particularity, exclusivity and seriousness.
Monks need to abide by the precepts and have a self-contained set of life rules and work scope. Even if the public does not know much about what monks in temples practice day and night in the traditional sense, it certainly does not include playing the overture to "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka on the violin.
However, from the perspective of the historical scope of the origin and development of classical music, the relationship between classical music and religion that we are familiar with today is inseparable. Once upon a time, in the long-established era of European theocracy, composers were supported by the Holy See and their writing served their employers. Even though European composers since Beethoven have embarked on the road of market-oriented operation and are no longer the product of the powerful and no longer subject to the face of their sponsors, their music based on their beliefs still emerges in endlessly.
The composer's music is like this, and so is the performer's image. The Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis, who became popular in Europe eight years ago, is one of the representatives. On September 13, 2017, I listened to a concert conducted by Kurunzis conducting the Music Eternity Orchestra at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and felt his magic and charm live for the first time. In the music review written by
afterward, I summarized his popularity into three points: "The first is the sense of ritual. The concert venue lights are all turned off, the stage lighting is kept to a minimum, the orchestra is equipped with music stand lights, and the flickering stage lights wake up People's memories of the chapel before the invention of electric light. The second is the selection and processing. The selected pieces cover the most mysterious, weird and beautiful chapters of classical music, adding contrast to each other, and adding fuel to the fire with exaggerated rhythms.All the musicians appeared in monk-like solid-colored robes, Kurunchis led the audience without a baton, and the orchestra players sat on the floor during the choir's encore. These are ways that go against today's concert tradition but have historical references. One is reminded of the piety in a medieval monastery. "
The emergence and popularity of the cassock orchestra seems to be the reappearance of the monk phenomenon in Kurunchis in the form of monks. However, who are the musicians who wear cassocks and play the piano?
Tiantai Mountain Hong Chan Music
Out of the Circle Video Inside Body Wearing cassocks and holding violins, the members of the symphony orchestra all hold degree certificates. Although they came from all over the world before becoming monks, the place where they embarked on the path of music and formed the orchestra was in Hubei.
Screenshot of the online video
. It's about a three-hour drive from Hankou Railway Station. I drove north from the hot Wuhan and drove through many mountains and around countless bends. After that, I drove to the foot of Tiantai Mountain in Qiliping Town, Hong'an County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, surrounded by green mountains. The top of the mountain, which is more than 900 meters above sea level, is as flat as a tabletop. Although it has experienced many ups and downs with the changes of rivers, it is said that the rooftop has been popular for more than a thousand years. The Tiantai Temple on the top of the mountain has a long history.
The main peak of Tiantai Mountain is shaped like a desktop. In 2003, Master Wule came from Wuhan to serve as the director of Tiantai Temple. In order to promote the local tourism economy, a new Tiantai Temple was built at the foot of Tiantai Mountain the following year. Tiantai Temple, built in an asymmetrical shape, is full of exotic flowers and plants, with gurgling mountain springs and gurgling streams. It is like a paradise. Tiantai Temple covers an area of 1,000 acres, and there is also a 120-acre Zen tea garden. There are also buildings on the wasteland outside the temple. In order to alleviate the long-standing problems of local drinking water and irrigation, the Tiantai Temple at the foot of Tiantai Mountain was built on the mountain.
Under the rule of Abbot Wule, the Tiantai Temple is surrounded by mountains and rivers, lined with green trees, and has its own tea garden to implement the "Three Zen". , that is, Zen forest, Zen tea and Zen music, among which Zen music is the most bold attempt.
Abbot Wule is the advocate and initiator of Zen music in Tiantai Temple.
Abbot Wule was born in a military family and studied music in Wuhan before becoming a monk. College, he has played the violin since he was a child and loves classical music. By chance, he heard church music while visiting a Christian church, and he was deeply shocked and came up with the idea of using music to promote Buddhism.
Compared with Buddhism that follows a set of established rules. Music, the Zen music promoted by Wule is extremely inclusive, including many Western classical music and Chinese classical music. They do not carry strong emotions and emphasize the music vocabulary. The music reveals a sense of purity and innocent beauty. Common characteristics.
As far as Western classical music is concerned, string-based music from Baroque to Viennese classical music and even early Romanticism have been absorbed into Zen music, including Pachelbel's "Canon" and Bach's "On the G String". "Aria", Mozart's "Serenade" and "Turkish March", Beethoven's "Violin Concerto in D Major", Glinka's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" Overture and Paganini's "Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major" . Chinese music includes the string version of Hua Yanjun's "The Moon Reflects on Two Springs", the violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, and excerpts from the opera "Red Guards of Honghu Lake" originally from Hubei.
With the concept of Zen music, we need the entity to play Zen music. In 2005, Master Wule began to encourage believers and monks to pick up instruments and play instrumental music, and the prototype of the Tiantai Mountain Monk Symphony Orchestra appeared for the first time. The development of this symphony orchestra, which is now composed of monks, has roughly gone through three stages.
The first stage was from 2005 to 2008. With practice pianos donated by believers, monks from Tiantai Temple began to learn string music from teachers in the Orchestral Department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music, and a string quartet emerged. The monks go down to the mountain once or twice a week. In order to take a 45-minute string lesson, they often have to drive about six hours between the temple and the music school.
The second stage was from 2008 to 2014. Tiantai Temple established a performance team composed entirely of monks, named Guangxuan Art Troupe, which included a string orchestra, a dance troupe and a choir.Monks often have multiple jobs, including learning to play the piano and singing, and some also need to undergo physical training. Master Wule will select the musical instrument for the monk based on his personality and finger shape. Some monks were also given names by the master to pay tribute to the master composers: Shi Musol (Ski), Shi Handel, Shi (Li) Huanzhi.
Ren Baoping, a well-known chorus conductor who served as the artistic director of the Tiantai Temple Choir, was deeply touched by this: "I was the artistic director of the Tiantai Temple Choir when it was founded, and I rehearsed 70 or 80 Chinese and foreign choral works for them. The monks did not sing in chorus. The foundation is not just monks with musical background selected from all over the country. They are passionate, dedicated, and dedicated, playing musical instruments and singing choruses. Their level has improved rapidly in the past few years." In 2012, Tiantai Temple launched the annual Zen Music Culture Festival. As of 2018, a total of eight sessions have been held. The third phase of
is from 2014 to 2018. In order to expand the performing team, improve the professional level of monks, and strengthen the echelon construction of performers, Tiantai Temple established the Buddhist Music Academy in 2014 and was unveiled on May 6 of the same year. Professor of the Orchestral Department of the Central Conservatory of Music, former concertmaster of the Beijing Central Orchestra, and violinist Liang Danan served as the first director. Music masters such as Ye Xiaogang, Guo Shuzhen, Sheng Zhongguo, and Bao Yuankai shouldered the mission of aesthetic education and have all gone to the mountain to provide voluntary guidance. Tiantai Temple has become the only music school where students do not seek fame, monks do not seek salary, and teachers do not seek remuneration. It is as elegant and unique as the Zen music it admires.
Tiantai Temple Buddhist Music Academy Wuci Monument
Across the Ocean Journey to the West
In its heyday, Tiantai Temple had more than 300 monks. The huge temple was packed to the brim, with people coming and going, and music playing endlessly.
The monks chant sutras and circumambulate the Buddha in the Main Hall every day with piano accompaniment. Between meals, they practice piano in the small theater that can accommodate about a hundred people. They also practice their body in the body room on the second floor of the small theater. Practicing piano, voice and martial arts are almost the constant theme of more than 80 monks from the art troupe working from nine to five.
Like the Shaolin monks, the art troupe serves as a local cultural business card and performs extensively across the country. Unlike most symphony orchestras, admission to the Monk Symphony Orchestra’s concerts is free. Coupled with the strong visual impact brought by the performance of Western music in Kasaya, during the ensuing tour, the orchestra was very popular wherever it went, whether it was Beijing, Shenzhen, or Hong Kong, China, and attracted a large number of domestic and foreign audiences. Media reports followed.
Even in the audience, the monks playing musical instruments are the focus. In July 2017, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Slatkin, arrived at Wuhan Qintai Concert Hall to perform. The monks of Tiantai Temple appeared in the audience in neat yellow cassocks to watch the performance, and inadvertently became more eye-catching stars than on the stage. After the concert, the monks in the audience chatted with the American musicians on the stage. Even Slatkin curiously walked to the audience to communicate with the monks.
Just as performance invitations were booming and the professional standards of musicians were rising, the development of the art troupe encountered obstacles. However, as a new thing, there are bound to be people who don’t understand it. The development of the art troupe has been in an embarrassing situation of stagnation since 2018, and it was even in danger of disbanding on the spot.
But Abbot Wule and the orchestra have always insisted on striving for self-improvement and adhering to the international route. Due to his frail health, he decided to move the art troupe abroad for development in April 2019. After weighing the opinions of many parties, and with the persuasion of a cultural company, Abbot Wule set his sights on Madagascar, an island country far away in Africa.
Nearly a hundred monks volunteered to go on the expedition and began a five-month "Journey to the West" that lasted from April to September 2019. However, the monks did not go to the West to collect scriptures, but "sent scriptures": in addition to bringing essential musical instruments, they also transported scriptures and ritual instruments.
The author of this article visited Tiantai Temple to meet the monks
Even with the guarantee of modern technology and convenient transportation, moving from Tiantai Temple to Madagascar is a long journey that takes nearly 48 hours.The monks first drove from the mountain to Wuhan Airport, flew to Shenzhen, and then drove to the airport in Hong Kong, China, to fly to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and then transferred to Antananarivo, the capital, and then drove to the band's new location. After
was launched, the monks found that the performance invitations promised by the cultural company had not been fulfilled, and the company was "empty of people" and disappeared. With the perseverance of practice, the monks decided to start from scratch. In the first few months, the heat was unbearable, and everyone lived in iron houses like shipping containers. When it rained, a strong wind would blow off the iron roofs, so the monks used cement to reinforce the roofs. These unimaginable difficulties make some people retreat, but more people choose to stay.
They purchased construction materials including steel bars and cement from China, and the cargo ship arrived at the port after a two-month voyage. After experiencing hardships like "Journey to the West", they started building a business in Madagascar from scratch. By May 2024, the Main Hall, which is similar to Tiantai Temple but has a more primitive style, has been built. A 500-seat theater was built.
Madagascar is a tourist destination with an endless stream of European and American tourists. Today, the Jinghui Symphony Orchestra under the Art Troupe is the only symphony orchestra in Madagascar and the first symphony orchestra composed of Chinese residents stationed overseas. The orchestra and the Dawn Chorus perform Zen music and dance for free every weekend in the theater to tourists of all colors, and demonstrate the official bronze replica of Zeng Houyi's chimes unearthed in Hubei. Most of the videos of monks playing that have gone viral were filmed in theaters where the band was stationed in Africa.
However, Hong'an Tiantai Temple, the birthplace of the monk band, has lost its bustle of people in the past and no longer lingers around. There were 300 monks in its heyday and now less than 40 remain in Tiantai Mountain.
The door of the small theater used for piano and martial arts practice was closed tightly, and the black grand piano in the Main Hall that was originally used to accompany chanting was tightly wrapped in a red cloth cover.
Statue of violinist Dawn
Statue of Mozart
Grand piano in the Main Hall of Tiantai Temple
Even though the art troupe moved to a foreign country, some artists who once went to the mountain to tutor monks continued to go to the mountain to spread aesthetic education. Tourists have not forgotten the Tiantai Mountain Zen Music. People keep calling to inquire whether there are any performances on the mountain.
Musical Zen Stone Carvings on Tiantai Mountain
On the rock wall halfway to the top of the mountain are the three characters "Music Zen" engraved on it. In the dazzling souvenir shop at the Tiantai Temple on the top of the mountain, only tourists who are attentive enough can catch a glimpse of the stills and art photos taken by the previous art troupe on the colorful jade articles, and use their peripheral vision to scan the strings of Chinese knots hanging on the wall. The faded color photo of Master Wule with an emaciated face holding a violin.
Photos of the art troupe displayed in the souvenir shop of Tiantai Temple on the top of Tiantai Mountain
The monks who stayed in Tiantai Mountain occasionally played the piano, sang and danced privately in their dormitories. Zen music was also played in the canteen of the temple open to monks and believers, but There is no trace of music in this temple that was almost synonymous with it in the past, like a wisp of smoke diluted in the air by the wind.
The past of Zen music floating up and down Tiantai Mountain has gone far away, and music has gradually become the immortal legend of Tiantai Temple.
(Except for the annotations, all pictures in this article are provided by the author)
