Light four-stringed Chinese lute, joyous bamboo lute, intelligent two-stringed bowed instrument – they worked with grand and magnificent chime bells to play the charming and marvelous rhymes of central China. At the night of November 14, the Chinese Folk Music Orchestra of Hubei Provincial Opera and Dance-Drama Theatre performed Chinese Music with Chime-bells, a marvelous concert at the music hall of the National Grand Theatre in Beijing. The audiences were intoxicated with the rich tones and superior expressive force of chime-bells. They were amazed at how these musical instruments, produced 2,400 years ago, could so precisely express the themes of modern works.

The concert at the night was a part of the One Hundred Concerts of Chinese Folk Music, an activity sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the National Grand Theatre. Ten orchestras across the country were selected as the first group to make the performances in Beijing. The Chinese Folk Music Orchestra of Hubei Provincial Opera and Dance-Drama Theatre was among the list.

Chime-bells took the lead to play the rhythm of Song of Happiness, a folk song of Tianmen, against jubilantly banging drums. The Fantasy of Happiness portrayed how people longed for the good life. Audiences marveled at the complete harmony of unique sounds of chime-bells and stone-chimes as they mingled with four-stringed Chinese lute and two-stringed bowed instrument.

Subsequently, the concert presented a group of works of unique regional features. Page of Three Gorges, a Yangqin (Chinese dulcimer) concerto, gave priority to Yangqin, normally an instrument for accompaniment, to portray the landscape of Three Gorges and the imposing majesty of the Yangtze River under diversified skills. The Song of Chu Postlude, a concerto of flutes, exposed the magnificence of the Song of Chu through joint performance of Bangdi flutes, Qudi flutes, Nanxiao flutes and Dongxiao flutes. Against the backdrop of such music, chime-bells sound light and profound from time to time, unfolding rich and volatile tones. The greatest shock came with the symphonic suite, Fancy of Honghu Lake, in which a two-stringed bowed instrument played out the musical theme of the most popular “Honghu Lake Water”. Chime-bells and the band presented fortissimo to magnify the imposing intensity, which had shocked all the audiences.

Many people were reluctant to leave at the end of the performance. One mid-aged audience said that concert was novel in the play list and unique. He was most impressed with the part of vocal music. “I heard of chime-bells before. But I never expected them to sound so imposing at the concert hall. It sounds so natural to play modern musical works with the age-old chime-bells.” A physician from the National Grand Theatre was attracted and came to listen to the rehearsal in the afternoon. He sighed with emotion “It is a pity to present such a wonderful concert for only one time.”

Editor: Wen Yi