Sheng! L'orgue à bouche - 9th seminar [live]
In every era, there are visionaries who use their experience to advance a tradition which might otherwise risk stagnation. In the early 1980s, Chinese musicians were no longer satisfied with only playing music based on pentatonic scales * augmented by a few diatonic scales.
In 1985, Weng Zhengfa and Mou Shanping, two teachers well-versed in research and experimentation, created the renovated 37-pipe sheng, with a register between G3-G6, including keywork and couples pipes. Inspired and informed by sheng master, Xu Chaoming, their renovation respected traditional fingering and tonal aesthetic.
This new model greatly expands the possibilities for interpretation, from performing traditional music to playing melody, harmony, polyphony, and cluster, which conforms to Western musical parameters. Now, after thirty-five years of experience, it is considered to be one of the most successful refurbished instruments in the world today.
In this seminar, Wu Wei will introduce research in organology, new repertoire for sheng, teaching, interpretation, and theoretical research of the three, aforementioned sheng masters whose collective skills have contributed to the success of the new model.
Their work also serves as the foundation for our research into the acoustics and organology of contemporary repertoire for sheng.
After Wu Wei's presentation in English, the webinar will include a Q&A session in English-French-Chinese-German. To best facilitate this session, we strongly invite you to send your questions before February 13, 2021.
