Lewis Liu wrote: >2. What types of chinese music, what piece of chinese music have you >listened to? Pretty wide, I think. Guqin music, guzheng music (classics: Gaoshan Liushui), the ancient "Wen" pipa pieces -- ChunJiangHuaYueYe, as well as the "Wu" pieces like "Bawangxiejia" (The Tyrant doffs his armour)and Shimianmaifu (The Ambush on all sides), erhu pieces (Liu Tianhua, Hua Yanjun, Liu Xijin), Jiangnan Siju (silk and bamboo), Cantonese music, Operatic music, music from Xian (suona pieces) and really a lot of other things. I play the erhu, liuqin, zhongruan and piano. >3. I don't think western composer can write music that are similar >to chinese ancient music. (Chinese ancient music usually were written >for snigle or a couple of musical instruments, not for large >orchestra.) This is quite true, actually. Ancient music is difficult to follow, or to write in the style of. But there is the attraction (the neo-ancient styles...) >4. To my listening experience, some chinese music written in 1940s >to 1960s are very similar to those music written by Tchaikovsky. May >be due to the influence of USSR to China during these years. (eg The >Butterfly Lover Violin Concerto, Yellow River Piano Concerto compared >with Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, for example) Tchaikovksy alone? Surely a generalisation. Many composers from the era sound like Shostakovich and other composers. The Butterfly Lover's Violin concerto's main themes come from Yue opera. Very obvious if you've heard any. (well worth the try, really) >5. I have heard from a piano teacher that just playing the black >keys on the piano can produce chinese-like music. (You may try. >My experience, it is true.) Only very very basic Chinese-*like* music can be produced that way. Cantonese music, Xinjiang Music, Yunnan Music and lots of other forms of music use combinations of modes and scales, and are definitely not just "black-note" music >6. Bach or Handel also wrote music in style of German, French and >Poland. Beethoven wrote Turkish music. Why not others? I don't really understand you here. Why did they not write in a Chinese style, or why did other composers not write in a German, French or Polish style? I think this has got to do with the cultural exchange at that time. As I remember Jean-Baptiste Lully was responsible for a lot of the dance-forms incorporated into the Baroque music. >7. It is highly recommended to listen to those CDs labeled Hugo from >Hong Kong. The performance and recording are rated as premium. Yes, they are generally of a high standard. Among my favourites is a disc of modern Chinese music written by Lam Doming called "The world of Insects". If you thought Martinu's 6th Symphony's opening sounded insectlike, or if you thought that "the Flight of the Bumblebee" sounded like a bee, you'd be amazed with the work on this disc. Also includes many other interesting pieces, for example "Autumn Execution". "Zhongguo Changpian" China Records also produces many good CDs. Derek Lim [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]