Friday, 9 January 2009, 18:37
Yesterday was really interesting! We got to learn percussions, and then we went to watch an opera!
Started by learning percussions from zhuang lao shi, who's parents owned opera troups when they were in China. I thought that the percussions would be easy to play, but it turned out harder than expected because the scores for percussions were written in chinese characters, and I could hardly remember what character represented my instrument. It was also harder than the erhu or the dizi to coordinate in a group, maybe because it was so noisy.
After that, we ate a quick lunch and then went down to Bedok to watch an opera. At first, I thought it was going to be in quite a formal setting, but in the end it was actually quite rustic. The actors and actresses improvised on stage, and they worked without scripts but still managed to come out with apparently, nice sounding words in groups of fours or sevens (I don't know because I don't speak hokkien, haha). We got a chance to go up onto the stage, watch the actors and actresses put on make up, fiddle around with their props and look around backstage! There was also an instrument used, which used strings using fishing lines and another trumpet looking instrument which had a mouth piece made from plastic straws! Zhuang lao shi was playing the percussions for the opera (which was about a family going fishing, the daughter falling overboard, a fisherman finding the daughter and reuniting the family) all at one time and he didn't seem to have any problem, though we were struggling with it through the morning.
We were supposed to figure out the importance of the percussions in an opera, and here's what I found out:
1. It is to fill up the time without any acting
1. When the emperor or other characters come onto stage
3. During the departure of characters/to signal the departure of characters
4. To create the mood for the scene
5. The beat changes according to what the emperor does (though I didn't really understand what was going on)
6. The percussions also show when the opera is ongoing, and when it is not.
7. It acts as accompaniment for singing and the music played
8. Beat speeds up when something important happens (like when the daughter fell overboard)
All in all, it was really interesting, and a good experience for me! :D
Labels: Elaine
Music, AWESOME
