Dao House... Daoist Music

Dao House...

Daoist Music

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The Qin and the Chinese Literati

Basics

www.silkqin.com/10ideo/wattart.htm

Laozi

Interesting and well-written article by James Watt on the historical development of the qin (guqin), especially its appropriation by the literati. On John Thompson's guqin site, reprinted from Orientations magazine (1981).

Zhuangzi

Metaphysics

Early

"To put it in simple terms, the Chinese literati assumed that if one was full of lofty thoughts, whether as a result of inborn genius or after having immersed oneself in the classics and literature, one was then capable of painting a nobler picture and playing music with greater refinement than the man without similar endowment or accomplishment... The validity of the assumption upon which the literati built their arrogance is open to question."

Shen Qi Mi Pu [Handbook of Spiritual and Marvelous Mysteries]

Political

www.silkqin.com/02qnpu/07sqmp/sq00toc.htm

Art

Also from John Thompson's site, translations of multiple selections from this 15th-century handbook of Daoist music, including "Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream," and "Liezi Rides the Wind." Some of these selections include transcriptions, illustrations, program notes, and even sample recordings. And this page categorizes 24 of the compositions into four aspects of Daoism

Poetry

Literature

Music

Sermons

" It [the qin] is indeed the divine instrument of heaven and earth, and a most ancient spiritual object, thus it became the music used by Sages of our Middle Kingdom to control the government, and the object used by princely men to cultivate (themselves); it is only appropriate to stitched sleeves (i.e., scholars) or yellow caps (Daoists)." [From the Preface]

Tao of...

Resources

Transcription: Page 1 of Qingjing Jing

www.silkqin.com/02qnpu/27sjts/qjj1.htm

One more from Thompson's site, four pages of 16th-century (possibly much older) music composed to accompany the classic Daoist text, still chanted in Daoist temples today. Lyrics here.

Lost Sounds of the Tao

www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/2004notes.html

Essays on guqin master and Daoist priest, Lo Ka Ping (1896-1980), by Allan Evans and Dale Allan Craig. They telll a fascinating story of how Lo's legacy was very nearly lost.

"The tapes seemed able to survive a playback, so the computer was readied to digitally copy its sounds. / There emerged a vibrant expressive art, its first impression the forthright spirituality of a Blind Willie Johnson (yes, some scales had the blue note intonation!)..."

Tan Dun

www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/578/tandun.html

Biographical essay by Linda Wang (University of Southern California, Music) on the celebrated composer, whose works include the Oscar-winning film score for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the orchestral work "On Taoism." Includes a list of his major works.

"On Taoism was composed following his grandmother's Taoist funeral. A voice part, suggestive of a high priest or Beijing opera singer, seeks expression of Tan's earliest memories of Chinese village rituals, theater and folk music through its vocalization of sounds -- all non-words in performance."

Tan Dun on the International Stage

www.taiwanpanorama.com.tw/en/show_issue.php?id=200179007034e.txt&table=2&h1=The%20Chinese
%20World&h2=Overseas%20Chinese

Taiwan Panorama article by Tsai Wen-ting, translated by Christopher MacDonald, gives interesting background on Tan.

"As a child, he... had a habit of following local Taoists around, reveling in the sound of chanting voices and tinkling bells. For a while, he wanted to become a Taoist priest when he grew up."

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / The Gate [Tan Dun]

www.ffaire.com/pr/psoc/crouchingtiger.html

One more on Tan, an announcement of the world premier for his concerto and libretto, from Fanfaire online magazine.

"His orchestral work, On Taoism (1985) marked an important breakthrough; it was the piece he admitted to have changed him 'more than any thing else I wrote during my student years in China.' This piece was a victory over the supremacy of Western musical influences that dominated Chinese music for fifty years."

Steve Lacy [1934-2004]: Snips

http://home.att.net/~lankina/jazz/Reviews/R0010k.html

Among the late jazz saxophonist's classic works is his "Tao Suite," included on the "Snips" album reviewed by Alan Lankin for Jazzmatazz.

"The 'Tao Suite' ('Existence,' 'The Way,' 'Bone,' 'Name,' 'The Breath,' and 'A Life On Its Way') is one of my favorite Lacy compositions. It's a work that Lacy first conceived in the late 1960s and has performed dozens of times... Based on texts from the Tao Teh Ching..."

Steve Lacy: Hooky

www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/l/lacy-steve/hooky.asp

Alan Jones's review, from the One Final Note archive. This album also includes Lacy's "Tao Suite."

"'Tao,' his suite composed for six elements of Lao Tzu's greater principle, is performed here uninterrupted and is championed by its author over two earlier recorded versions. The suite weaves in and out of its own related components and is best enjoyed in its entirety." [Alan Jones]

A Beatle's Tao

www.soak.com/topic/newage/article/tshow/86703/a+beatles+tao

C. Herold informs us that the lyrics of the 1968 Beatles recording "The Inner Light," were inspired by the Daodejing.

King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King

www.andrewkeeling.ukf.net/Keeling-InTheCourtOfTheCrimsonKing.html

A musical and thematic analysis by composer Andrew Keeling, who includes Daoism among the themes of this recording, as well as of In the Wake of Poseidon.

"The note 'E' is important in the structure. I feel it refers to the 'in between' of this song [I Talk to the Wind] and the 'in-between-ness' of the entire work, which could be regarded as an outworking of the act of straddling the opposites. This would imply that possibly a conscious (or unconscious?) reference to Tao is being made. Taoism utilizes the opposites in its search for truth."

Playing by Nature's Paradigm: Systems Science and the Grateful Dead

http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDead/AGDL/chase.htm

Long 1997 essay by Christopher Chase (Seinan Gakuin University, Fukuoka, Japan) identifies Daosim as one of the Dead's influences. From the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics website.

"The idea of structured space is something that appears frequently in Zen and Taoist thought. I sometimes like to call it THE EMPTY CUP PRINCIPLE. It gives us a way of thinking about space and emptiness that is quite different from the negative way they are normally visualized in Western cultures -- as vacant holes or voids we should try to eliminate, avoid or fill. Grateful Dead concerts provided an excellent example of a structured space, of facilitating an interactive experience that lay somewhere between a community festival and a religious gathering."

Louis Andriessen, Tao

www.sospeso.com/contents/composers_artists/tzu.html

2000 American premier of the renouned Dutch composer's second movement of his 1996 Trilogy of the Last Day, performed by the Ensemble Sospeso. And here's an excerpt from Anthony Tommasini's NY Times review of the concert.

Songs Inspired by Zhuangzi

http://homepage.mac.com/psangreg2/CompSite/ZhuangziSongs.html

The lyrics from three songs by Paul SanGregory (composer, music teacher, Taiwan).

"Now am I really dreaming? / a butterfly that's free / or is the insect dreaming? / a still and silent me?"

The Soundworlds of Steve Roach

www.steveroach.com/Press/InterviewExpose.html

Mike McLatchey interviews synthesist musician Roach, who speaks of the Daoist influence in his work. From Expose online magazine.

"The Tao or 'The Way' is described as a reality beyond words and concepts. As the source of all creation, it is in constant flux and transformation, so any attempt to pin it down with even the most complex verbal discourse is like trying to catch the flowing water of a great river in a small bucket... for those trying to make sense out of what I'm doing, based on some established philosophy, Taoism is a good place to start."

Dacianos

www.dacianos.com/hold.html

This Dublin band's music is described as literate and melodic mood music. Their album "Hold Music" includes an eleven-minute epic in which...

"A gently hypnotic guitar chord, starkly beautiful piano, and the hint of a cello start up before gently building for a few minutes until a fragile voice gently sings lyrics based on the Tao Te Ching." [from an OMH review]

The Tao of Vito

www.roblevit.com/body_tao.html

Groove/fusion/jazz CD from Annapolis jam band Uncle Vito, featuring Rob Levit (guitarist, composer, educator).

"Why the Tao of Vito? Perhaps Lao Tzu as translated in Wilhelm's Tao Te Ching summed it up best -- 'being clear about the invisible.'"

becki digregorio: seven worthies of the bamboo grove

http://website.lineone.net/~ssleightholm/grove.htm

Debut album from the Santa Cruz (CA) musician. This is from her page "Just Who Were the Seven?":

"The two Juans were known for drinking wine from a large bowl, which they would occasionally share with the neighbor's pigs."

John Cage,

http://fusionanomaly.net/johncage.html

Engaging account from fUSION Anomaly on the noted avant-garde composer, who consulted the Yijing (I Ching) to determine each "sound event" in various compositions.

"Cage began to use the I Ching in the composition of his music in order to introduce an element of chance over which he would have no control. He used it, for example, in the Music of Changes for solo piano in 1951, to determine which notes should be used and when they should be used."

Chapter 6: "The Ten Thousand Things" (1953-1956)

www.rosewhitemusic.com/cage/texts/DissCh6.html

If you want to know exactly how John Cage used the Yijing as a composition tool, this long, technical dissertation chapter by James Pritchett (Princeton) gives details. For example:

"I Ching hexagram numbers were tossed for each of the twenty cells in this chart. Even numbers indicated that no change in tuning was to occur for that string in that section of the piece. Odd numbers caused tuning changes--hexagrams 1-7 caused one tuning change in the section, numbers 9-15 caused two tuning changes, and so on..." [26' 1.1499" for a string player (1955)]

The Use of the I Ching

www.sfu.ca/~truax/iching.html

...in Barry Truax's (Simon Fraser University, Communication, Contemporary Arts, Canada) computer music.

"Much of the I Ching imagery plays on the dynamic relation of opposites... In a similar fashion, these pieces play on various sonic and musical contrasts without trying to resolve them."

World Premier of P(L)ACES

http://livingroom.org/randy/recent.htm

Memorial concert for young composer Randy Hostetler, whose complex work, an "Electric Groove for 11 Instruments and Lamp Shades," was composed in part through Yijing readings. From the "historical note":

"Inspired by his studies of the I Ching certain portions of the score were determined by tossing hundreds of coins. This led to vigorous exchanges about the worthiness of such an approach... so loud and heated they could be heard through the walls of the adjoining room."

Feng Shui Music

www.geomancy.net/resources/art/art-music.htm

Does Western baroque music facilitate the movement of qi (ch'i) through the body? Fengshui practitioners Cecil and Robert Lee (Singapore) suggest as much.

"The baroque period had a weird fascination with body fluids... Composers believed that they could write music that affected particular body fluids..."

Taoist Classical Music Meditation

www.martrix.org/music_meditation.html

Ron Nansink (martial arts instructor/coach) walks us through the experience. Turn up your sound and try it for yourself - then download some Gong Jin music.

"It was discovered that the unique color of the Gong Jin music is created by the performance of a slow tremelo which wavers at the interval of a perfect form 4th A down to E and back. Some researchers think that this characteristic sound is the basis for its healthful qualities."

Dance Meditation

www.uncarved.org/phunk/meditation.html

"Paul the Pillpopping Priest for the Out of Order Order" argues that dance-induced meditation fits the times better than the quiet, passive introverted techniques of "New Age Pensioners."

"Zen was influenced by Taoism that came before it, and now things are going in reverse - Taoism is coming back to music, but in a uniquely late-20th century way. Dance music is non-programmatic, essentially Taoist music. The difference now is that whereas earlier Taoist stuff like Terry Riley's music maintained the quietness and introspection of classical Taoism, modern-day dance is an acknowledgement that the same principles can be found in the midst of the cyclone too (something Taoism always acknowledged). Noise is the void gnashing its teeth."

The Tao of the Mandolin

www.birdnest.org/birdj/music/taoman.htm

A series of nine essays by John C. Bird (Winthrop University, SC, English) "applying Taoist ideas to the mandolin and mandolin playing."

"Look at your mandolin. Hold it. Strum a chord. Play a tune. Do that every day. Do it for the rest of your life. That is the Tao of the mandolin."

Tao Music

www.taoism.net/articles/taomusic.htm

Sylvain Paquette's meditation on the Dao of jamming with the band. From the True Tao site.

"To me, the Tao is like a band playing music. The band has always been there, always been keeping the rhythm at a regular pulse. They're accomplished musicians, so they don't maky any mistakes. And they always welcome anyone who wants to join them in a jam session."

Do, re, chi: The Tao of Voice

www.musicstaff.com/lounge/article53.asp

Stephen Cheng's (actor, singer) workshop and book offer a Daoist approach to singing. From the MusicStaff.com online resource on music teachers. See also their interview with Cheng.

"His suggestions have a simple, rich logic, consistent with the Taoist principles. Besides, the idea of practicing a high note while embracing someone you love sounds downright joyous."

Epicenters of Justice

http://lightmind.com/library/hempel/epicenters.html

Master's thesis of Drew Williams Hempel (University of Minnesota, Liberal Studies), subtitled "Music theory, sound-current nondualism and radical ecology." From the Lightmind online library, presented in five parts. Deep thoughts on Pythagorean law, Daoist harmonics and qigong, and a whole lot more.

"The reconstructive science of Taoist qi gong and sound-current non-dualism successfully address the western crisis of self/other dualism and subsequent reactionary irrationalism, thus enabling an ecological approach to reality to be achieved."

Lin Hwai-min puts Tai Chi in dance - "Moon Water"

www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200203/27/0327093.htm

Press release on the staging of "Moon Water" by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The choreography for this "poetic rendering of Taoist philosophy" is based on Taijiquan movements. See photos here (from journalist Maxime-Ohayon's site) and here (from the ballet.co site).

"'Moon Water' is a study of real vs. unreal, effort vs. effortlessness, yin and yang, and in the end, a study of time."

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