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Vocalists star at world music festival
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Lively Hungarian music, a capella interpretations of Cuban rhythms and crossover music that draws from Chinese and high-tech sources will be among the offerings starting next week at the Shanghai World Music Festival.
The voices of nine artists and artistic groups from seven countries and regions will be heard during the festival from Monday to the following Monday at Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Wanda Plaza in Baoshan District and Himalayan Art Center.
Most of the concerts are open to the public free of charge.
As an old Chinese saying goes: Strings are not as good as bamboo, while bamboo is not as good as flesh. It indicates ancient Chinese aesthetics in preferring wind instruments (mostly made of bamboo in China) over stringed instruments, with vocal music the most touching of all. Likewise, the World Music Festival will emphasize the beauty of vocal music this year, said Yang Lei, producer of the festival.
The festival will open with Roma, or Gypsy, music from Hungary. The Roma have a saying that time is for wandering and the soul is for singing. Parno Graszt, a Roma music ensemble from Paszab, Hungary founded in 1987 and well known in Eastern Europe, will present its music of bounty, passion and heartbreak.
“Traditional Hungarian music is similar to traditional Chinese music in the way that they are both based on a pentatonic (five-note) scale,” said Agota Revesz, consul of the Republic of Hungary in Shanghai. “Some historians even suggest that there might be some historical relation between the two nations, which may help the two people to appreciate each others’ music better.”
Though not typical Hungarian folk music, Roma music and the musicians that play it are very popular in Hungary, according to Revesz, who said she thinks Chinese audiences will like it as well.
The festival will feature a variety of world music styles as it always has since 2008. It includes a cappella combined with traditional Cuban music, Moinba music from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and traditional drum music of the Middle East.
An all-male Cuban musical group, “Vocal Sampling,” will present their distinctive a cappella adaptations of traditional Cuban salsa music, son and rumba. Vocal imitations of the piano, cowbell, conga, bass and trumpet are used to amazing effect in their performances.
Local audiences also will hear the music of the Moinba ethnic group in Tibet from Yanggima, who just won second prize in the reality TV show “Chinese Idol.”
Belgian pianist Jean-Francois Maljean will bring a crossover concert “Rong” (meaning reconciliation and tolerance in Chinese), which combines ethnic music from west Qinghai Province and 3D media.
“I like crossover creations that combine Western and Chinese music. It is not the first time I’ve done such experiments,” said Maljean, “I enjoyed the creation of combining music of the Dong ethnic group in China with my music last year. And it is even more interesting to combine ethnic music with high-tech elements this time.”
Visit www.worldmusicshanghai.com (Chinese only) for more information.
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