Chinese konghou 箜篌 (Tang-style harp) builder Wong Wai Kee 黄袆琦
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- Опубликовано: 24 июн 2022
- "Konghou: Cross the Ocean of Time"《箜篌：时光复原师》, a 17-minute video focusing on the musical instrument builder Mr. Wong Wai Kee (黄袆琦; Mandarin: Huang Huiqi; b. 1939), a native of Hong Kong (with family background from Zhongshan, Guangdong province) who now lives and builds instruments in his workshop in the Nansha District (南沙区) of Guangzhou (广州市), Guangdong province, southern China.
In 2008 Wong began the project of researching the history of Chinese harps and building reconstructed Tang-style konghou (箜篌, harps), completing his first instrument in 2009, and many more since then. His instruments have notably been used in concerts of the "Yinxiang: Guoyue"《印象·国乐》(Impressions of Our Nation's Music) project, performed in various cities in China since 2014, as well as by numerous soloists and ensembles.
The video includes footage documenting some of the processes involved in the production of a Tang-style shu konghou (竖箜篌, angular harp), including the lacquering, which is done in the workshop of master lacquer artist Mr. Jiang Heping (蒋和平) in Zhuhai (珠海市), Guangdong. It also shows Mr. Wong's wife, Ms. Xu Bilan (许碧兰), tuning and playing a shu konghou. Several other instruments, including feng shou konghou (凤首箜篌, phoenix-headed arched harp) and bamboo wo konghou (卧箜篌, fretted zither plucked with a bamboo stick), as well as several different styles of shu konghou produced by Mr. Wong, are also shown.
In addition to playing and teaching the konghou, Ms. Xu has developed and painted the designs on the soundboxes of many of Mr. Wong's konghou, never repeating a design from instrument to instrument, and often drawing inspiration from elements such as dragon, phoenix, magpie, and red-crowned crane. In order to give the konghou she paints such beautiful clothing, she often traveled to lacquer exhibitions to study the items therein, whether these exhibitions are held in Guangzhou or Beijing; as long as she has the time, she will not miss such events.
Also featured in the video are the musicians and dancers of the Beijing-based Tang Dynasty Ritual and Music Restoration Group (Chinese: Tang Dai Li Yue Fuyuan Zu, 唐代礼乐复原组) and its director, Mr. Xu Ge (徐戈), as well as Ms. Zhang Qian (张倩), a shu konghou player based in Guangzhou, who performs "Xing Hua Tian Ying"《杏花天影》(Apricot Blossoms Against the Sky), a song by the Southern Song Dynasty poet-composer Jiang Kui (姜夔).
Additionally, starting after 11:10, there is a performance of the Cantonese piece "Liu Lang Wen Ying"《柳浪闻莺》(Orioles Singing Among the Billowing Willows) by an ensemble featuring Mr. Wong on pipa and Ms. Xu on shu konghou, with gaohu, zhonghu, dongxiao, and zhongruan. This piece, whose title is also translated as "Orioles Singing in the Willows," was composed by Tan Peiyun (谭沛鋆), perhaps in the 1940s, and popularized in the 1950s in the arrangement made by Chen Pingjia (陈萍佳).
This video, which is part of the series "Chinese Stories, Chinese Dream"《中国故事新说》, was probably filmed in 2020, and uploaded to the Internet on November 25, 2020. It was produced by Tencent News (腾讯新闻) and sponsored by the Hengchi (恒驰, officially Shenzhen Hengchi Automobile Trading Co., Ltd), a company which is also based in the Nansha District of Guangzhou.
《时光复原师》《时光复原师》第四期：箜篌 
Видеоклипы
The same video, with English subtitles (part 1 of 3):
ruclips.net/video/sJqLXIBUjos/видео.html
(part 2 of 3):
ruclips.net/video/zaPks4tdNeo/видео.html
(part 3 of 3):
ruclips.net/video/pu1B2yPa6nY/видео.html
See also:
ruclips.net/p/PLm8mLM41EccAZ9xKdyO4gcMfFzb3S7Xdq
facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155642906955562
What a devoted wife!
Are you sure this is not an actual composite bow attached to a transversal rigid wooden or metallic bar through a leverage mechanism that affects tuning? I've noticed the original paintings seem to depict an instrument for indoor (the simple thin one) that could be just the frame of the instrument used in an special chamber with superb acoustics and there is the bulky one that seems like the indoor one with a resonance chamber, this chamber could be attached to the instrument for acoustics only and not for mechanical and acoustic reasons like the ones I've seen before, in such situations you don't need to even carve the instrument, you can just use soft wood veneers or a very thin carve in such forms. I've observed also the original carving techniques for some French clogs that are made with a carving technique that depends on the wood grain, the craft men employ a twisted timber that has the required for of the angled long point of these clogs, that renders the form strong, allowing conventional carving techniques impossible in straight grained lumber to carve such form, I think that could also be the technique employed to build these slender Kong Hou.
From the examination of surviving specimens of angular harp from Central and East Asia, the resonator was made of hollowed-out wood (sometimes narrower, sometimes wider), covered with animal skin (in the Middle East and Central Asia), or with a wooden soundboard (in East Asia). You can refer to the several hundred iconographic examples I have collected in my "Angular harps" Facebook photo album, which may be found in the "Photos" section of my Facebook page (David Badagnani). Mr. Wong's instruments seem to feature resonators that are swollen in appearance, much larger and wider than would have been typical in Medieval times (probably reflecting 21st-century norms).
@@dbadagna Yes, I figured something like that regarding the dimensions of the instruments featured in the documentary. Thank you for the reference.
@@dbadagna Impressive collection you got there hehehe. It's clear to me that what I refer as the outdoors version is the original instrument, Is it that thin instrument then a product of the central Asian instrument with the Manchu composite bow manufacturing? I wonder if it was a literati instrument like the guqin or used during tang / gagaku music.
@@TheGrmany69 The images in my album are arranged more or less in chronological order, and clearly the earliest iconographic examples of angular harps are from Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, and their resonators are rather large. If you want to make claims about visual representations of angular harps with smaller-than-normal resonators, you should be specific regarding which iconographic examples you're referring to, and do so within the context of all the extant images of this instrument type for that period, and keeping in mind the limitations of 2-dimensional representation, as well as artistic license.
In East Asia, the shu konghou (angular harp) was not a literati instrument, but instead used in court yanyue (banquet/entertainment) ensembles, often played by female court musicians. You can refer to some of the historical documentation, including long, vivid Tang-era poems describing this instrument, contained in the "Shu konghou" page of my "Early Chinese Music Resources" website.
I don't think this millennia-old instrument type was influenced by Manchu composite bow design, although in its earliest forms there may have been some oblique connection with the hunting bow, as has long been claimed regarding the origin of plucked string instruments in general. Search for the term "steppe harp" for examples of these early Central Asian instruments.
@@dbadagna Oh Cool! I did perceive a transition but couldn't tell if it was a through chronological ordering. It's interesting to see how the harp grew in complexity to be a reminiscent of Western/Mediterranean harp.
答臘鼓?
I love how closely accurate it is to Tang Dynasty music as compared to those inauthenticish abomination presented in Chinese TV.
It seems to be a type of drum that is equivalent to the Indian tabla, which was transmitted to China in the Sui-Tang period from the Central Asian oasis states of Shule and Kucha. There is a Baidu Baike article about it, which includes some historical references:
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《旧唐书·音乐志二》：“答腊鼓，制广於羯鼓而短，以指揩之，其声甚震，俗谓之揩鼓。”
元·吴莱《题唐明皇羯鼓录后赋歌》：“大声嘈嘈忽放肆，都昙答腊矧敢前。”
清·翟灏《通俗编·声音》：“都昙答腊，本外蕃乐部，都昙似腰鼓而小，答腊即腊鼓，肖其声也。”
Based on this Sui/Tang-era drum's description, it also sounds like a tabla:
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● Qigu (齐鼓, single-headed drum of Central Asian origin, shaped like a lacquer bucket, with a thin circular film or paste that was affixed to the center of the drum head to facilitate tuning and improve the instrument's tone)
音乐响起的时候愣了一下，和电视剧里偶尔听到的朝鲜宫廷音乐几乎一模一样
In a way, Korea's traditional music preserves some aspects of the instrumentation, sound, and style of Chinese music from the Song and Ming dynasties.
@user-io7zg3ol9q Double-reed pipes similar to the original Tang-Song bili continue to be used in parts of southern China, as well as in places like Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Cambodia.
@user-io7zg3ol9q You're wrong.
@user-io7zg3ol9q "Chinese music" encompasses a multitude of local and regional traditions, and it's impossible to know about them all, though some of us who specialize in this field do our best.
Bili-type double-reed pipes using soft reeds that cannot overblow the octave are used in Cantonese opera accompaniment and Cantonese instrumental ensemble music (called houguan, 喉管), and the same type of instrument is used in Minju (闽剧) opera of Fuzhou, Fujian. Here is a video showing one used in this context:
ruclips.net/video/jNQeSTH1K64/видео.html
@user-io7zg3ol9q In Taiwan, the yamu di (鴨母笛), also called yamu dazai (鸭母哒仔) or Taiwan guan (台湾管), which is of southern Fujianese origin, is used in gezai xi (歌仔戲) accompaniment.
ruclips.net/video/gRyQlMN7xak/видео.html