Week 4

The audience only have commercialized productions of "Chinese folk music" in hotels and bigger cities to compare the "Ancient Naxi music" to. They can only compare a flashy production with westernized and electric instruments in a concert hall to a Naxi ensemble in a courtyard. Their perception is skewed by the commercialized and flashy music presented by big city hotels. The Communist also censored ethnic art and music during the 1950s. Many of the traditional ensembles were disbanded and music might have been lost. The current traditional ensembles borrow from the ritual model, but only four out of twenty of the pre 1949 musicians were in ritual groups.

Western scholars accused the modern Chinese orchestra as not being authentic enough because the program performed by the orchestra consisted of classical, modern, and folk music, and the program says that hearing the performance will give the audience a general understanding of Chinese traditional music. The professor claims that the choice of pieces cannot give the audience an understanding of Chinese traditional music because there are pieces which are classical and modern. He also adds that by adding a bit and a bit of westernization, the overall feel of Chinese music will be tainted. The professor urges that the East should remain East. I do not agree with the professor. Chinese music has always borrowed from cultures and instruments have been acquired through many years of contacts with other countries. The Pipa can trace its roots from the Middle East, for example. The fusion of different music with each other is authentic. Take hip-hop for example. Current artists sample and fuse different sounds together and develop new sounds. It is had to determine where to draw the line as "authentic" goes. There is a lot of gray area. Music is ever changing and it is impossible to put a finger down and deem certain musics authentic or not. Can you label a biracial child unauthentic? All musics are authentic to its own style.