KITCHENER-WATERLOO, Canada—The celebration of traditional Chinese culture presented by Divine Performing Arts (DPA) at Waterloo-Kitchener’s Circle in the Square Theatre on Tuesday delighted Mr. Morrison, dean of the Faculty of Music at a large university.
“It was a wonderful show, it was great, visually stunning—the costumes, the colours. I think one of the things that struck me was the rhythm, and the music of course and the melody and harmony. But the rhythm and the dance are just very lively. I thought a brilliant show.”
Music, Mr. Morrison explained, is “fundamentally rhythmic, and we as human beings are fundamentally rhythmic. I thought the choreography worked very well with the rhythmic life of the music.”
DPA is a New York-based performance company founded by leading Chinese artists seeking to revive China’s traditional culture and present it to audiences around the world through Chinese classical dance and music.
“The music was very compelling,” said Mr. Morrison.
“I particularly liked where the music represented more of the Chinese culture than the Western because I wanted to hear more of the Chinese culture. But certainly the rhythmic aspects of the music worked brilliantly with the choreography and the colour. The various colours of the orchestra, the instruments and so on worked so beautifully with the colours of the costumes and the sets.”
The Divine Performing Arts orchestra has broken new ground with its blend of Chinese and Western instruments, thereby bringing together two of the world’s greatest classical music traditions. The show also features leading solo musicians including a soprano, a tenor, and a baritone.
“I found myself noticing Western and Eastern at different times, thinking parts of it sounded fairly Western and then all of a sudden there would be the sounds of the erhu or one of the Chinese scales used in an otherwise Western context and so you get this little hint of the more Eastern Chinese tradition,” Mr. Morrison said.
He was especially struck by the sound of the erhu, a two-stringed instrument known for its stirring, soulful tones.
“I love that instrument. I think that sound is one of the most gripping, haunting sounds of anything that I have heard. I mean it's gorgeous! It's almost an extension of a human-like sound even more so than a violin or a traditional stringed instrument, which can be very vocal-like. The erhu is just an amazing sound, it's beautiful.”
He added that the type of scales that are used for the erhu have “a sort of very deep emotional quality to them. There is a certain sense in which one feels quite connected to that music in a fairly deep way.”
He was also impressed by the wide variety colours used in the show, saying they “were really bright and vivid and sharp, I thought that was amazing. The colours really do take your breath away.”
The show overall, he said, was a “wonderful mix and connection between the visual and the aural.”
“It's all there, it's very exuberant it's very passionate, emotional, both the music, the dance and the drama, so it's a real package. All of it works together wonderfully. Much more than just the music alone or just the dance alone. The choreography worked I thought particularly well.”
Mr. Morrison has published on music of the twentieth century, particularly that of Ligeti, Schoenberg, and Bartok, and on aesthetics and music education. His current research interests include aesthetics and the listening experience, aesthetic music education, and music in the context of liberal education.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Divine Performing Arts.
For more information please see DivinePerformingArts.org