Tan Dun reveals bird orchestra dream
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 6, 2012
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Singer Dadawa (R) whispers to Tan Dun in front of birds at a press conference in Beijing, June 4, 2012. [Sina.com.cn] |
The world-renowned composer Tan Dun revealed Monday that he plans to conduct a bird orchestra in order to realize a ten-year long dream, the Beijing Times reported.
Collaborating with Tan Dun, world music singer Dadawa and erhu performer Tan Wei, the China Broadcasting Traditional Orchestra (CBTO) will hold a special concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on June 8 at which they will give the first-ever erhu interpretation of the score from Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The erhu, known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin," is a widely-used traditional Chinese musical instrument with a two-stringed bowed fiddle.
But Tan Dun aims to add something special to the mix at the concert. "My dream has come true that now I can conduct birds to sing along with human performers!" Tan told the Beijing Times.
The exclusive human-bird section is called "Improvisational Performance with 12 Birds," and a 100-person orchestra will improvise along with 12 birds.
"This will be absolutely the first time that this has happened," Tan continued, emphasizing the importance to him of the human-bird section of the concert. "Technically speaking, it is extremely difficult," he said. "It is very difficult to keep 100 musicians in order, let alone birds. I have been experimenting with it repeatedly for more than ten years! And I invented a form of sign language, which I adapted into a conductor's hand gestures, which will let the music flow freely and naturally."
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Tan Dun and the China Broadcasting Traditional Orchestra rehearse in Beijing for a concert, June 4, 2012. [Sina.com.cn] |
When asked about how he had managed to make birds listen to his direction, Tan Dun said that he had considered a range of approaches before eventually using the strategy of imitation to reproduce "bird language". "I learned from Beijing's 'Bird Man,' " Tan explained. "Now what we have achieved is that we can make them sing when they should be singing and ask them to stop when they should. They are listening."
He added: "Audiences will never know whether they are hearing the birds singing or the human imitation of birdsong."
Discussing the creation of the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," erhu concerto, Tan said that it has been a long time in the making. "In the movie, we used the cello. Now I wish to do a folk music version and let the cello talk to the erhu."
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