Digital Dialogue: With Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Lorenzen (Bonn) and Prof. Michael Shiyung LIU (Shanghai)

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The Digital Dialogue was co-organized by the Heidelberg “Epochal Lifeworlds” Team and the Confucius Institute at Heidelberg University with its partner university, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Jacqueline Lorenzen, who held the Argelander Professorship for the Law of Sustainability and Ecological Transformation at the University of Bonn, and Shih-Yun LIU, Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, engaged in a dialogue to discuss legal as well as justice issues related to sustainability and ecology from an administrative and historical perspective.

 

Legal questions of international, inter- and intragenerational justice in climate protection policy 

 

Abstract: In view of the politically and socially highly controversial so-called German Heating Act, the question of social compensation mechanisms as well as that of distributive justice in the context of climate protection measures is increasingly coming to the fore. I would therefore like to discuss the extent to which state actors are obliged to establish inter- and intragenerational justice on the one hand, but also international justice on the other and by means of which instruments this justice can be implemented. 

 

About the speaker: Jacqueline Lorenzen is Argelander Junior Professor for the Law of Sustainability and Ecological Transformation at the University of Bonn. She studied law at the University of Heidelberg, where she also received her PhD. Before taking up her position at Bonn University, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg and was part of the research network „Rethinking Environment“ in which the Heidelberg worldmaking team is also participating. Currently, she is particularly devoted to juridical questions of sustainable city planning and development and addresses problems within the dynamic Climate Change Law from an international, European and national perspective. Current publications are, for example, Natürlicher Klimaschutz in der Stadt – Handlungsfelder, Instrumente und Herausforderungen (Deutsches Verwaltungsblatt 2023, 398–406); Staatsziel Umweltschutz, grundrechtliche Schutzpflichten und intertemporaler Freiheitsschutz in Zeiten der Klimakrise (Verwaltungsblätter Baden-Württemberg, 2021, 485–494). 

Eco-civilization and -justice in Chinese culture 

 

Abstract: Environment has been translated to “环境huanjing” in Chinese, a term of Chinese characters learned from Japanese “kankei” in Meiji period. However, it may not mean ancient Chinese had no ideas of natural surroundings and its protection. I would like to discuss the possibility how to covert the traditional Chinese norms in protecting environment to modern social values and maybe, the legal infrastructure too. 

 

About the speaker: Michael Shiyng LIU is Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Global Professor at the Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD in 2000 from the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on environmental history and the history of medicine. He was professor at the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica. He is the author of Prescribing Colonization: The Role of Medical Practice in Japan-Ruled Taiwan, 1895-1945 (Ann Arbor, MI: AAS, 2009), “Eating Well for Survival: Chinese Nutrition Experiments during the Second World War,” in Angela Ki Che Leung et al. eds., Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia, (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2019), “Transforming Medical Paradigms in 1950s Taiwan,” East Asian Science, Technology and Society 11 (4): 477-497 (2017), and other related publications. 

How the Wild Changed Me – a Philosophical Journey LUNG Ying-Tai in Conversation with Barbara Mittler and Monika LI (translator)

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Talk in English, reading in German.

Diese Veranstaltung findet in Kooperation mit dem 9. Literaturherbst Heidelberg, CATS und der National Central Libary statt.

An unsuccessful writer is sent by her Buddhist master to the foot of Mount Kavulungan in southern Taiwan for two years so that her restless nature can find peace there while observing nature, people and animals. When she meets a mysterious fourteen-year-old girl, she embarks on an adventure to the mysteries of Mount Kavulungan, the namesake mountain of Taiwanese author Lung Ying-Tai’s most recent book release. In 84 episodes, she tells a ghost story, a crime story, a love story, and more, taking her readers on a philosophical journey that leads into Taiwan’s nature, history, traditions, and society. In conversation with Barbara Mittler (Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University) and Monika LI (translator), Taiwan’s most famous author will discuss her socially critical reflections on zeitgeist, experiences of lifeworlds as well as her own biographical journey and the multiple roles of an author in contemporary Taiwan. Traditionally, Chinese intellectuals have taken several possible positions, that of serving the country/ruler as a chenshi 臣仕/guan官; that of critiquing the ruler directly, from outside the bureaucracy or from inside, as the official censor (who may then be risiking to lose his job, thus being/becoming the “pure official”  qingguan 清官) and, thirdly, that of the critic from afar—only seemingly a “silent loner”—who is so abominated by the abuses of power that he is no longer willing to “wag his tail in human dirt,” a metaphor from Zhuangzi, a famous Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE. Lung Ying-Tai has taken on all three of these positions, and with her latest book—which will be the basis for the conversation and from which we will hear excerpts—moved from enfant terrible to minister to become the “silent loner”: Why?

LUNG Ying-Tai is one of Taiwan’s most renowned essayists and cultural critics, whose writing significantly contributed to Taiwan’s democratization. In the 1990s she taught Taiwanese literature and Culture in Heidelberg. She served as Taiwan’s first Minister of Culture (2012-14) and subsequently taught at the University of Hong Kong from where she resigned in 2019. With more than 30 published works (many of which censored, but, nevertheless, well known in the People’s Republic of China), she is considered the most well-known author in the Chinese speaking world.

 

 

 

Barbara Mittler studied Sinology, Musicology and Japanese in Oxford, Taipei and Heidelberg. Since 2004 she has been Professor of Sinology in Heidelberg, where she co-founded the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” (from 2007) and, building on this, the Center for Asian Studies and Transcultural Studies (CATS, opening 2019). Her research focuses on Chinese cultural politics, with work on Chinese music, the early press, the Cultural Revolution, and image and text in the formation of cultural memory, among others. In 2000 she was awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, in 2002-2004 she was a Heisenberg Fellow, in 2009 she received the Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities, and in 2012 the Fairbank Prize for her book on the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She has been a member of the Leopoldina – National Academy of Sciences since 2008, and of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences since 2013. As a fellow and visiting professor, she has stayed at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, at the Humanities Center of Stanford University, and at EHESS in Paris. She is currently leading two projects, the China-School-Academy, a project of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which produces teaching and learning materials for school subject teaching on China (https://www.china-schul-akademie.de/), and the Heidelberg part of the BMBF Collaborative Research Center on Epochal Lifeworlds, which, together with international fellows, investigates the interplay of humans, nature, and technology in moments of “collapse” and the “critical transitions” that characterize historical epochs.

Monika LI grew up bilingual – German and Hungarian – and studied German, philosophy and sinology in Heidelberg. She first came to Taiwan in 2009 as a scholarship holder at the National Taiwan University. She lives with her family in Berlin and Taipei, where she translates Taiwanese literature into German.

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Realities, and Disrupted Futures – Literary Visions of Chinese Science-Fiction

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Diese Veranstaltung fand in Kooperation mit dem 9. Literaturherbst Heidelberg statt.

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) in Peking.

 

In Mumbai, a teenage girl rebels because Artificial Intelligence (AI) gets in the way of her love interest. In South Korea, two students create avatars of their teachers. In Munich, a quantum computer scientist’s plan for revenge threatens the world. These speculative scenarios were published in the prize-winning book AI 2041: Ten Visions For Our Future (German title: KI 2041: Zehn Zukunfsvisionen) written by AI-expert Kai-fu LEE and science-fiction author CHEN Qiufan.

In this book, CHEN and LEE address the effects of artificial intelligence on people’s everyday lives as we are more and more getting used to self-learning software programs, such as chatbots, digital assistants and navigation systems, controlling our lives, with artificial intelligence thus becoming more and more decisive for many areas of our future. At the same time, our future has never felt so uncertain with the climate crisis, wars and global geopolitical power shifts threatening our freedom. How will artificial intelligence have changed our lives in twenty years? And what perspectives do science-fiction and speculative literature offer us in imagining our future with AI? We will approach and discuss these and further questions in a conversation with CHEN Qiufan and by readings of selected texts by the author.

CHEN Qiufan is an award-winning science fiction author, translator, creative producer, curator and Board Member of the World Chinese Fiction Association. His novel The Waste Tide was published in German translation in 2019 by Heyne under the title Die Siliziuminsel (translation: Marc Hermann). A selection of his short stories has been published in different German science fiction anthologies. A collection of texts on the future use of artificial intelligence by Chen Qiufan and AI-expert Kai-fu Lee was published by Campus in 2019 under the title KI 2041: Zehn Zukunftsvisionen. The book won the German Business Book Prize (Deutscher Wirtschaftsbuchpreis) in 2022.Chen is the founder and COO of the content production studio Thema Mundi and lives in Beijing and Shanghai.

 

Petra Thiel studied Modern Sinology, Romance Studies and Religious Studies in Heidelberg and Shanghai. Her PhD thesis focuses on gender and the contemporary coming of age novel in China and in global contexts. She is the Director of the Confucius Institute at Heidelberg University.

Worin noch niemand war – Rurale Räume im interkulturellen Vergleich – Lesung mit LUO Lingyuan

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Wissenschaftliche Tagung an der Universität Heidelberg (Hybrid-Format)

Seit etwa zehn Jahren entwickelt sich in Deutschland eine ‚Neue Regionalliteratur‘, die den Gegensatz von Stadt vs. Land bzw. Dorf in neuer Weise thematisiert: Weder zeigt sie die heilende Landschaft, in die sich verletzte Zivilisationsmüde zurückziehen, noch den Aufbruch in den sozialistischen Musterdörfern oder die hintergründige Gewalttätigkeit bäuerlichen Lebens in der Provinz. Stattdessen ist diese Literatur – darunter so erfolgreiche Texte wie der mit dem Deutschen Buchpreis ausgezeichnete Roman Vor dem Fest (2014) von Saša Stanišić oder Juli Zehs Unterleuten (2016) – eng verzahnt mit den Diskursen der Soziologie, Stadtplanung und Regionalgeschichte. Beobachten lassen sich v.a. neue Raumtypen, die als Folge eines gewollten Strukturwandels entstanden sind. Durch die Verschränkung städtischer und ländlicher Strukturen entstehen Übergangsbereiche zwischen Land bzw. Dorf und Stadt, die die Vorstellung vom Land bzw. seiner Besiedlungsform Dorf als geschlossenem, naturnahen Gefühlsraum verändern. Zweifelsohne vollzieht sich ein Wandel in dieser Lebenswelt, in der weiterhin etwas gesucht wird, das – um Ernst Blochs berühmtes Zitat aufzunehmen – „allen in die Kindheit scheint und worin noch niemand war […].“

Die Konzeption dieser Konferenz wollte über eine literarische Bestandsaufnahme hinausgehen und ausgreifen auf die sich seit den 1960er Jahren vollziehenden sozialhistorischen und ökonomischen Veränderungen zwischen Stadt und Land. Ziel war es, Bausteine für eine Phänomenologie des sozialen Wandels zusammenzutragen. Insbesondere der vergleichende Ansatz sollte länderspezifische Besonderheiten als auch gesellschaftsübergreifende Gemein-samkeiten sichtbar machen. Der Fokus lag dabei auf problemorientierten Vorträgen, die jeweils einen Ausblick auf zu erwartende Entwicklungen erlauben.

Der Konferenztag schloss mit der Lesung der chinesisch-deutschen Autorin LUO Lingyuan (Berlin). Sie erlebte ihren ersten Erfolg 2007 mit einem Erzählband (ausgezeichnet mit dem Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Förderpreis), in dem eine Beschreibung dörflichen Lebens in China enthalten war: Du fliegst jetzt für meinen Sohn aus dem fünften Stock! Sie laß einen unveröffentlichten Text zum Thema der Konferenz vor und führte anschließend ein Podiumsgespräch. Mit der Lesung sollte die besondere Rolle der Erzählliteratur, die historische Veränderungen eindrücklich in den gesellschaftlichen Diskurs einschreiben und so in Erinnerung halten kann, in die Praxis der Konferenz eingeholt werden.

Konferenz-Programm

Donnerstag, 05. Oktober 2023

Sektion 1: raum und Biographie als Instanzen des Wandels
10.00-10.30Gertrud Maria RÖSCH (Heidelberg) Eröffnung
10.30-11.00Thomas DÖRFLER (Jena): Vom Land in die Stadt und zurück. Die Wohn- und Arbeitspräferenzen der Wissensgesellschaften im Epochenumbruch
11.00-11.30Gertrud Maria RÖSCH (Heidelberg): Lob des Herkommens. Erinne-rungen an ein Aufwachsen auf dem Land in der Gegenwartsliteratur
11.30-12.00YANG Zhijun (Shanghai): Zur Inkarnation des ländlichen Raums in der anti-idyllischen Heimatliteratur Österreichs
12.00-13.30

Mittagspause

Sektion 2: Der ländliche raum in der Literatur

Präsenz und Digital
13.30-14.00LIU Dongyao (Beijing): Vom Dorf zur Welt – Land und Stadt bei Fried-rich Dürrenmatt
14.00-14.30LIU Yang (Chongqing): Zur wissenschaftlichen Konstruktion des rura-len Raums in Adalbert Stifters Der Nachsommer.
14.30 – 15.00Bernd ZEGOWITZ (Frankfurt): Der wilde Osten. Karl Mays Erzgebirgi-sche Dorfgeschichten
15.00 – 15.30TAN Yuan (Wuhan): Der goldne Spiegel und die orientalischen Erzählungen in der Literatur der Aufklärung.

Abschluss-Diskussion, danach Pause
20.00

Lesung mit LUO Lingyuan (Berlin)

Präsenz und Digital, Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Universität Heidelberg

Musikalische Ausstellungsführung und Workshop: Seidenstraßenklänge – Auf dem Weg zu Turandot

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Kreative Dialoge—Ferne Klänge neu hören bei der 25. CHIME-Konferenz in Heidelberg Barbarian Pipes and Strings Reconsidered—Negotiating Authenticity in the Musics of China—Transcultural Perspectives

mit NACHIN (Morin Khuur) und chinesischen Marionetten

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) -Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtete. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektierten, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße veränderten; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Im Rahmen der CHIME-Konferenz in Heidelberg vom 01.-04.10.2023 gab es eine öffentliche Führung mit musikalischer Begleitung durch die Ausstellung STAUB UND SEIDE: Alte Routen – Neue Perspektiven entlang der Seidenstrassen des Völkerkundemuseums vPST. Die Ausstellung folgt den Spuren der Steppen- und Seidenstraßen durch die Zeit. Objekte aus den Sammlungen des Museums veranschaulichen historisch wichtige Epochen und Aspekte: archäologische Grabbeigaben aus der Tang-Zeit verweisen auf eine der Blütezeiten des Seidenstraßenhandels, Objekte aus dem 13./14. Jh. aus China und dem Iran auf die letzte Hochphase der Handelsrouten zur Zeit des mongolischen Großreiches. Textilien, Alltagsgegenstände und Fotografien vermitteln einen Eindruck Zentralasiens zur Zeit der wissenschaftlichen Wiederentdeckung der „Seidenstraßen“ im 19./20. Jh. Das musikalische Programm wird von der Musikerin NACHIN 那琴 gestaltet. Für eine detailliertere Beschreibung des Musikprogramms und der Biografie der Künstlerin schauen Sie bitte in den untenstehenden englischsprachigen Text.

In Ergänzung des Programms wird es zudem einen Marionetten-Workshop “TURANDOT PARADOXES: Turandot—Symbol of the Silk Road: Conceiving a Transcultural Puppet Play” mit Joachim STEINHEUER and Ksenja FEDOSENKO geben, in welchem eine Puppen-Adaption der Puccini Oper TURANDOT vorgestellt wird.

English:

 

SOUNDS FROM THE SILK ROAD
Oktober 4, 2023, 10.00, Völkerkundemuseum vPST

Nachin
启 OPENING
(inspired by the Heart Mantra of the
Goddess of Music Yangjin Lamu— 妙音天女心咒 )
For Dengshih, Amankhuur and Cymbals

Traditional
Dorven Oirdiin Uriyaa
For Morinkhuur

Nachin
对话 Dialogue
Improvisation for Amankhuur

齐宝力高 Qi Baoligao
Ezen Bogdiin Khoyor Zagal
For Morinkhuur

Featuring NACHIN (Morinkhuur, Amankhuur, Dengshih, et al.)

 

This exhibition follows the traces of the Steppe and Silk Roads through time. Objects from the museum’s collections illustrate historically important epochs: archaeological grave goods from the Tang period refer to one of the heyday periods of the Silk Road trade, objects from the 13th/14th centuries from China and Iran speak of the last peak phase of the trade routes at the time of the Mongol Empire. Textiles, everyday objects and photographs convey an impression of Central Asia at the time of the scientific rediscovery of the “Silk Roads” in the 19th/20th century.

These objects from different time periods are juxtaposed with contemporary narratives, interviews, video documentaries and artistic works: rapid developments meet slow narratives, thus illuminating connections between the “New Silk Road” and the “Steppe Corridor” and their historical routes. Works by contemporary artists play a special role in the exhibition.

Echoing this concept, the Musical Guided Tour and the Puppet Workshop will feature older and newer (imaginary) soundsfrom the Silk Road, played by musicians and marionette players present at the CHIME Conference.

In the moving recital that will accompany the guided tour and respond to and reflect upon some of the objects in the exhibit, Nachin will illustrate different types of musicking on instruments featuring prominently in several countries along the Silk Road, the Morinkhuur (Horsehead fiddle), the Mouth Harp (also known as jew’s harp), and the Dengshig, for example, a body-sounding percussion-instrument, mostly used in Buddhist music, made from four types of copper. She will illustrate different styles of music—religious and folk, traditional and contemporary, professionalized and popular, juxtaposing musical improvisation, pieces from the traditional repertoire and newly composed ones, e.g. by Mongolian composer Qi Bao Li Gao.

Nachin 那琴

Nachin 那琴 – A native Mongolian from Ordos, in Northwest China, Nachin graduated in horsehead fiddle performance from the National Minorities University of China in 2020, and took courses in ethnomusicology, She has studied various types of horsehead fiddles, and has been taking lessons with a number of traditional masters. She has given recitals of Morin Khuur music both in China and abroad, and has participated in music festivals and music programs on China Central Television (CCTV). Since 2020, she has taken lessons from Badma, a representative inheritor of China’s national intangible cultural heritage in the genre ‘Long-Tune’. Since 2015, she has carried out fieldwork on regional traditional music in Mongolia as well as in Inner Mongolia. A native Mongolian from Ordos, in Northwest China, Nachin graduated in horsehead fiddle performance from the National Minorities University of China in 2020, and took courses in ethnomusicology, She has studied various types of horsehead fiddles, and has been taking lessons with a number of traditional masters. She has given recitals of Morin Khuur music both in China and abroad, and has participated in music festivals and music programs on China Central Television (CCTV). Since 2020, she has taken lessons from Badma, a representative inheritor of China’s national intangible cultural heritage in the genre ‘Long-Tune’. Since 2015, she has carried out fieldwork on regional traditional music in Mongolia as well as in Inner Mongolia.

Konzertabend: INTERVENTIONEN – Ying WANG trifft auf Gustav MAHLER

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Kreative Dialoge—Ferne Klänge neu hören bei der 25. CHIME-Konferenz in Heidelberg Barbarian Pipes and Strings Reconsidered—Negotiating Authenticity in the Musics of China—Transcultural Perspectives

Ying Wang: Of Detours and Updates. For Voices and E-Guitar (2023)

Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde  für eine hohe und eine mittlere Gesangstimme mit Klavier (Originalfassung von 1908, veröffentlicht 1987)

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG | ensemble aisthesis

Leitung: Ekkehard Windrich

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) – Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtet. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektieren, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße verändern; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Der zweite Konzertabend, den das Konfuzius-Institut Heidelberg in Kooperation mit der CHIME Foundation und dem Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) am 03. Oktober 2023 in der Aula der Alten Universität veranstaltete, wurde eingeleitet durch eine englischsprachige Podiumsdiskussion zu Gustav Mahlers  “Lied von der Erde” und seine “Cover”. Moderiert von der Sinologin und Musikwissenschaftlerin Prof. Barbara MITTLER diskutierten der deutsche Komponist Stefan HAKENBERG und die chinesische Komponistin WANG Ying mit der Musikerin DAI Xiaolian und Mitgliedern des KlangForum Heidelberg über Fragen des Exotismus und des “Chinesisch-Seins” (“Chineseness”). Für eine detailliertere Beschreibung der Veranstaltung schauen Sie bitte in den untenstehenden englischsprachigen Text.

English:

Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde, in the version for two voices and large orchestra completed in 1908, was premiered posthu- mously in November 1911, six months after Mahler’s death. It requires an ensemble of some 90 musicians. The composition by WANG Ying Of Detours and Updates for voices and E-guitar had its world premiere in the spring of 2023, when it was performed in conjunction with the so-called Kammerfassung (chamber version) of Mahler’s Lied, as arranged by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), to be performed in 1921 in the Vienna Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen (Society for Private Musical Performances). This performance never materialized and the piece subsequently remained unfinished. It was completed by Rainer Riehn in 1983. The present concert will combine WANG’s interventions with Mahler’s piece in yet another version, however, its Urfassung for two voices and piano. This first ever version was prepared by Mahler himself during the composition process in the summer of 1908 in Toblach (South Tyrol), but remained unpublished until 1989.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Das Lied von der Erde
For piano, mezzo soprano and tenor

WANG Ying (*1976)
Of Detours and Updates
For Voices and E-Guitar (2023)
Composition commissioned by
KlangForum Heidelberg e.V.
with the support of the Ernst von
Siemens Music Foundation (2023, world premiere)

Ying Wang

Ying Wang was born in Shanghai, China. After studying composition at the Shanghai Conservatory, postgraduate studies took her to Germany in 2003 to York Höller at the HfMT Cologne, where she also studied electronic composition with Michael Beil. Lessons with Rebecca Saunders and Johannes Schöllhorn rounded out her education. In 2010, she completed her studies in contemporary music at the HfMDK Frankfurt on a scholarship from the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA). In 2012, Ying Wang participated in the Cursus de Composition et d’informatique musicale/Ircam Paris.Ying Wang works on her compositions with renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Avanti! Orchestra Helsinki, renowned conductors such as Markus Stenz, Brad Lubman and Marcus Creed and established ensembles such as Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Alternance, Lucerne Festival Ensemble, Cassatt Quartet, Ensemble Resonanz, Ensemble PHACE and Ensemble Kontrapunkt. Her compositions are performed at renowned festivals such as Tage für Neue Musik Zürich, Acht Brücken and Wien Modern. Her works have been performed in Paris, New York, Stockholm, Berlin, Beijing, Lucerne and many other metropolises. 2013 she was awarded the production prize of the Giga-Hertz-Prize and the composer prize of the 5th Brandenburg Biennale. In addition to the IEMA scholarship 2009/10 she received further scholarships from the Experimental Studio of the SWR, the the Federal Ministry of Vienna and, on the advice of Peter Eötvös, a scholarship from theEdenkoben manor house. In 2014 she was awarded the IRINO PRIZE for chamber orchestr in Tokyo, and in 2017 she was awarded the Heidelberg Female Artist Prize. In 2015, the Deutschlandfunk invited her as “Composer in residence” to the festival “Forum Neuer Musik” in Cologne. Ying Wang has received numerous composition commissions, including from SWR, DLF, Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Lucerne Festival, Kasseler Musiktage 2011/2013, Lanxess “Young Euro Classic”, Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Kölner Philharmonie and many others. Since 2013, Ying Wang has been teaching composition at the Shanghai Conservatory.

SCHOLAHEIDELBERG

SCHOLAHEIDELBERG – Virtuosity coupled with versatility. Both individually and collectively, the vocal soloists of the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG are equally at home with widely differing styles and vocal techniques, all the way up to microtonal intonation and vocal and respiratory noise. Under the artistic directorship of their founder Walter Nußbaum, works from the 16th/17th and the 20th/21st centuries meet head-on, often with astounding results. A new interpretive culture materializes from an intensive concern with historically informed performance and contemporary music. The ensemble’s extensive repertoire is the fruit of close collaboration with leading present-day composers. Much noted are the commissions for new works deriving from projects like Heimathen and Prinzhorn. SCHOLA HEIDELBERG performs in its home city, all over Germany and at international festivals like the Salzburg Festival, Milano Musica, the Lucerne Festival, the Biennale in Venedig, the Biennale Salzburg and the Festival d’automne in Paris. The Schola has successful cooperative partnerships with the Ensemble Modern, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Gürzenich Orchestra.
SCHOLA HEIDELBERG‘s CD recordings of vocal compositions from the 20th/21st centuries have received several international awards.

ensemble aisthesis

ensemble aisthesis – A sensory understanding of new sound worlds. The ensemble aisthesis focuses on contemporary music from the 20th/21st centuries. Its Greek-inspired name reflects the bid for all-encompassing perception. Under the artistic direction of founder Nußbaum, the instrumentalists (up to 20 in number) have steadily built up an extensive repertoire ranging from modern classics like Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Lachenmann to forward-looking Romantic works by Wagner or Mahler. Commissions invariably take shape in close conjunction with the composers. Close collaboration with the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG has resulted in concert formats like Prinzhorn or Heimathen and the CD Nuits – weiß wie Lilien (“Nights – White as Lilies”). The ensemble aisthesis performs regularly in Heidelberg and has been invited to festivals like musica viva Munich, the Zurich Festival, the Romanische Nacht in Cologne, the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, the Kasseler Musiktage or the Basel Music Forum. One much-noted recording by the ensemble is LEIBOWITZ – COMPOSITEUR, issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. It contains a representative cross-section of René Leibowitz’ works, impressively documenting his impact on the musical world.

Roundtable Discussion: Creative Transformations – Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde and its “Covers”

/in , , ,

Kreative Dialoge – Ferne Klänge neu hören bei der 25. CHIME-Konferenz in Heidelberg Barbarian Pipes and Strings Reconsidered—Negotiating Authenticity in the Musics of China – Transcultural Perspectives

mit WANG Ying, Stefan HAKENBERG, DAI Xiaolian und Mitgliedern des KlangForum Heidelberg, MODERATION: Barbara MITTLER

 

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) – Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtet. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektieren, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße verändern; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Der zweite Konzertabend, den das Konfuzius-Institut Heidelberg in Kooperation mit der CHIME Foundation und dem Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) am 03. Oktober 2023 in der Aula der Alten Universität veranstaltete, wurde eingeleitet durch eine englischsprachige Podiumsdiskussion zu Gustav Mahlers  “Lied von der Erde” und seine “Cover”. Moderiert von der Sinologin und Musikwissenschaftlerin Prof. Barbara MITTLER diskutierten der deutsche Komponist Stefan HAKENBERG und die chinesische Komponistin WANG Ying mit der Musikerin DAI Xiaolian und Mitgliedern des KlangForum Heidelberg über Fragen des Exotismus und des “Chinesisch-Seins” (“Chineseness”). Für eine detailliertere Beschreibung der Veranstaltung schauen Sie bitte in den untenstehenden englischsprachigen Text.

English:

Already 25 years ago, at our last CHIME conference in Heidelberg, Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde played a significant role. This is why we are revisiting it again this time.

When Gustav Mahler, in his Lied von der Erde, covers Tang poetry, he does so not in first, but in fourth, even fifth derivation: he follows, but also himself rewrites in some places—and there are significant differences between the piano Urfassung and the reworked symphonic version—Hans Bethge’s recreations of poetry that are themselves based on German translations of a French translation of the Chinese texts. Mahler’s is thus a quadruple “cover” of the Chinese poetry, and he translates, transforms it, into yet another language: music.

How far removed from the “Chinese universes” in which the Tang poets found themselves, is his work which falls into the high-time of musical exoticism (which also sees the making of Puccini’s Turandot)? And what does it mean if a Chinese composer like WANG Ying, is responding to his “exotic” transformations with a set of contemporary Chinese poems, accompanied by electric guitar? Must we consider the “Chineseness” of her particular use of this instrument, so prominently linked to the Chinese protest music that accompanied her childhood years – notably the demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in 1989?

What does it mean, on the other hand, if a German composer like Stefan HAKENBERG, in his composition for CHIME in 1998 unusually employs a duo of two of the oldest Chinese instruments, the literary zither Guqin, and some of the most emblematic melodies from this instrument’s repertoire in his composition? The making of this composition was accompanied by an extended philological search for the “originals” of Mahler’s poetry (which by now have all been identified!) 1 so that they could be recited in their original Chinese as well as in their German rereading in the composition. Must this composition still be called “exoticist,” after all? And why does WANG call her composition Of Detours and Updates—thus pointing more to the ruptures and changes—whereas HAKENBERG titles his work In diesem Zusammenhang—thus hinting at integration and contextual connections rather than disjunctions and breaks? And how does one translate their attempts at rethinking both Chineseness and Exoticism into musical practice?

This Roundtable will ask questions about Exoticism and Chineseness, considering HAKENBERG’s and YANG’s, and some of the many other covers inspired by Mahler’s composition—such as those created at the Gustav Mahler Reseach Center for the 2022 Mahler Musikwochen in Toblach where Mahler composed Das Lied von der Erde. All of these works seem to be inspiredby Mahler’s use of (Chinese) poetry, his musical form and specific motifs as well as his musical imagery) and the importance and meaningfulness of engaging in the experiment of transcultural montage.

Konzertabend: SELTENE ERDEN – MOND und STEINE – ERINNERUNGEN – EPHEMERA

/in , , , ,

Kreative Dialoge – Ferne Klänge neu hören bei der 25. CHIME Konferenz in Heidelberg Barbarian Pipes and Strings Reconsidered—Negotiating Authenticity in the Musics of China – Transcultural Perspectives

Werke von ZHAO Yiran, Maxim KOLOMIIIETS, Nalini VINAYAK, Chihchun Chi-sun LEE et al.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG | ensemble aisthesis mit DENG Haiqiong (Guzheng), Lalit Kumar GANESH(Tabla), DAI Xiaolian (Guqin), CHEN Teng (Erhu), CHANG Chia-ling (Liuqin) und anderen

Uraufführung — Maxim Kolomiiets: Mond und Steine, Werk für 5 Stimmen, Schlagzeug, Klavier und Harfe, 2022/23

Yiran Zhao : fú yóu, für 6 Vokalisten, 2023

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG | ensemble aisthesis

Leitung: Walter Nußbaum

 

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) – Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtet. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektieren, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße verändern; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Begleitend zur 25. CHIME-Konferenz kann im Völkerkundemuseum vPST die Sonderausstellung „Klangkörper – Moving Instruments“ besucht werden. Die Ausstellung (Zeitraum: 03.10.2023 bis 18.02.2024) präsentiert nicht nur chinesische Instrumente der museumseigenen Sammlungen aus verschiedenen Epochen; sie ermöglicht den Besuchenden auch durch zahlreiche Klang- und Videobeispiele ein tiefes Eintauchen in die Welt der fernöstlichen Musik. Die Ausstellung bietet außerdem einen Einblick in einen ganz anderen Bereich der darstellenden Künste, den Opern- und Puppenbühnen, die eng mit den musikalischen Traditionen verknüpft sind.

English:

SELTENE ERDEN—MOND und STEINE—TRACES of MEMORY—EPHEMERA
October 2, 2023, 19.30, Aula der Alten Universität

ZHAO Yiran
蜉蝣
Fú yóu (2023)
For 6 vocalists
***
TRADITIONAL
汉宫秋月
Autumn moon over the Han Palace
For Guqin and Erhu
***
Maxim KOLOMIIETS
Mond und Steine (2023)
WORLD PREMIERE
Text: Serhij Zhadan
For soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor,
baritone, percussion, piano and harp

***BREAK***

Nalini VINAYAK
Memories in Raag Kirwani (2005)
For Zheng and Tabla
***
TRADITIONAL
月兒高 — The Moon is High
For Zheng
***
Chihchun Chi-sun LEE 李志純
Zheng Tu《箏途》 The Path of the Zheng (2004)
For Zheng
***
DENG Haiqiong 邓海瓊
Memory-Voyage (2023)
WORLD PREMIERE
For Zheng and Percussion

The moon in Chinese is 君 子 之 光 , “the wiseman’s light,” the sign of the pure and beautiful mind of the wise man. And thus the moon accompanies the wise man, reflected in water, even onhis longest journey. Watching the moon can thus help the wise man travel both through space and through time. Indeed, the moon never leaves the wise man alone, as Wang Wei rhymes. The moon, then, is the wise man’s friend and resonates with him and his music—and do not these words echo,almost exactly, Goethe’s formulations in An den Mond?

This concert sets out to present distant sounds, as they set off on multiple journeys, engaging them in several multilayered dialogues to echo with each other on many different planes. Not unlike “rare earths,” these distant sounds, even though in fact rather common, appear completely dispersed, rare, not concentrated—and even if so, by chance, they are almost impossible to distin- guish, to isolate, to trace.

The (rare earth) musical elements in this concert stem from many different times and places. And yet, not unlike Wang Wei and Goethe, theycontain specific elements and moments of repetition—they speak of ephemerality, the vicissitudes and changes, the movement, the voyages of life—and they revert to a set of specific reverberating metaphors, not only the moon, but also gentle as well as cold winds, and snow. They speak in a melancholy tone of loneliness and stillness, of loss and fear, but they also appreciate and remember the beauty of the (fleeting) moment. They offer dialogues between distinct but parallel sets of voices—a harp and the Chinese Guzheng, two baritones, percussion and Tabla. These distant yet complementary sonic articulations open our eyes for the importance of seeing what one does not always see. They convey the importance of looking closely, of looking twice, even three times, of listening attentively, of feeling things out. They help sustain moments of loneliness, of emptiness, they give us hope—as in that German evening song “Der Mond ist aufgegangen”:

Seht ihr den Mond dort stehen?
Er ist nur halb zu sehen
Und ist doch rund und schön!
So sind wohl manche Sachen,
Die wir getrost belachen,
Weil unsere Augen sie nicht sehn.
Do you see the moon up there?
You can only see half of it,
all the same, it is round and beautiful.
And indeed this goes for many things
that we laugh at without hesitation,
just because our eyes don’t see them.

Yiran Zhao

Yiran Zhao (*1988, CN) is a composer, performer, and sound artist based in Berlin. Her works focus on various modes of expression incorporating both musical and performative elements, lighting, visual arts, and other media. With great interest in the physicality of performance, since she came to Europe she has been working extensively with the human body and objects as compositional material.

Zhao studied composition in CCOM Beijing, HMDK Stuttgart, and the Musik-Akademie Basel; and also scenic composition in ABPU Linz, where she also taught. Within the framework of the KUNSTWELTEN from the AdK Berlin, she led workshops for students of various age-groups in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in 2018 and 2019. She has worked with numerous artistic groups and festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America; including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Garage, Ensemble Phace, ensemble this ensemble that, the Philharmonia Chorus Stuttgart, SPOR Festival for Contemporary Music and Sound Århus, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Festival Internacional Zaragoza Contemporánea, ZEIT RÄUME Basel Biennale für neue Musik und Architektur, WIEN MODERN, Progressive Art HA-SS Fest Armenia, and many others.

She is supported by Ernst von Siemens Stiftung as composer-in-residence and concert curator for the “Forum of Younger Composers 2016” at the Bavarian Academy of Arts. She is recipient of the INITIAL Special Grant from Akademie der Künste (AdK) Berlin 2021, Berlin-Basel fellowship of HGK Basel & AdK Berlin in Atelier Mondial 2019, Berlin fellowship of AdK Berlin 2017, Karlsruhe Composition Competition 2015, stipend of the Hochschule für Musik Basel 2014, the Deutschlandstipendium 2013/14, the State Stipend China 2010, Prizewinner of “Yanhuang” Composition Competition China 2010, Con Tempo Young Chamber Music Competition China 2009, the Ensemble Recherche Composition Competition 2008.

Maxim (Maksym) Kolomiiets

Maxim (Maksym) Kolomiiets was born in 1981 in Kyiv. He graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine as an oboist (2005) and as a composer (2009) and from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln as a composer (class of Johannes Schöllhorn, 2016). He took part in International Young Composers Academy in Tchaikovsky city (2013), and reading sessions by Ensemble MusikFabrik. He is the winner of the national competitions Gradus ad Parnassum (Kyiv, 2000), Step to the Left (Saint Petersburg, 2012), Skoryk Competition (Lviv, 2021) and III Prize on Varele Komponistenpreis (Oldenburg, 2015).Maxim Kolomiiets is the author of two operas. One of them was presented in a concert version in October 2020 by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Luigi Gaggero as conductor.His music has been performed at the international festivals (selection): MATA-Festival (New York), Summe New Music Courses in Darmstadt (Darmstadt), New Talents (Cologne), Donaueschinge Musiktage, Warsaw Autumn (Warsaw), World Music Days (Leuven), Other Space (Moscow), Gogolfest (Kyiv), Contrasts (Lviv), Randfestspiele (Zepernick), Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (New York).Among the performers of his music are Ensemble MusikFabrik (Cologne), Haydn-Orchester (Bolzano), Arditti Quartett, Amaryllis Quartett (Hamburg), Ascolta (Stuttgart), KlangForum Heidelberg, notabu.ensemble (Düsseldorf), Latenze Ensemble (Basel), Lions Gate Trio (U.S. und Europe), Neo Quartet (Gdansk), Ukho Ensemble (Kyiv), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Kyiv), Kyiv Chamber Orchestra (Kyiv), Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Kyiv), Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (Moscow), Ian Pace (London), Helen Bledsoe (Cologne), Hayk Melikyan (Yerevan). Maxim Kolomieets took part as the performer in many Ukrainian and foreign festivals and master courses: historically informed performance with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and contemporary music with Ensemble Recherché (2007, 2008), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (2010), impuls academy (Graz, 2011), Per suonare l’oboe (Freiburg, 2011), Montepulciano (Italy, 2015) as an oboist, a composer and a conductor. He is the co-founder of the contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Nostri Temporis (2007), the founder of the baroque music ensemble Luna Ensemble (2014) and music curator at the Gogolfest (Kyiv) in the year 2017.

Chihchun Chi-Sun LEE 李志純

Chihchun Chi-Sun LEE 李志純 – Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Chi-Sun LEE’s works were described as “eye-openingly, befittingly, complex, but rather arresting to hear” by Boston Globe, “exploring a variety of offbeat textures and unusual techniques” by Gramophone and “eastern techniques blended with sophisticated modern writing style” by “Amadeus” Il mensile della grande musica. The winner of the 1st Biennial Brandenburg Symphony International Composition Competition in Germany and 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, is originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  She has received numerous honors; these include commissions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra (the 1st Taiwanese and the 4th Asian composer), Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University (2018 & 2001), Barlow Endowment, the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO), National Orchestra of Korea (NOK) and Taiwan National Chinese Orchestra, Theodore Front Prize from International Alliance for Women in Music, ISCM/ League of Composers Competition, International Festival of Women Composers Composition Prize, Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, Gugak Fellowship, and the Golden Melody Awards nomination for “best composer” (2019 & 2009) and “Best Crossover Music Album Award” (2022). She was the 1st Taiwanese/Asian composer to serve as a composer-in-residence at NeoArte Syntezator Sztuki, Poland in 2022 with a portrait concert. In 2017, Lee is honored with Alumni Achievement Award in Music in Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to Music at Ohio University’s 100th anniversary of music department.

Dai Xiaolian 戴曉蓮

Dai Xiaolian 戴曉蓮is Professor of guqin in the Department of Chinese Music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She notably studied the guqin under the tutelage of her great-uncle, the renowned master Zhang Ziqian 张子谦from the Guangling School, then absorbing the best from various schools of teaching. She has recorded and published multiple CDs and teaching DVDs, and edited and published the several textbooks, contributing significantly to both the popularization and professional training of guqin music. A few years ago, she has set up the Lingran 泠然Ensemble, which successfully staged the “Guqin Whispering Concert” Series both in China and overseas, receiving much acclaim.

CHANG Chia-Ling 張嘉玲

Chia-Ling Chang, born in Taipei in 1994, is a musicologist and a musician of Liuqin and Zhongruan. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the National Taiwan University of Arts, where she studied Liuqin with Tsui-Ping Cheng, and received her master’s degree from the Institute for Musicology at the University of Leipzig. In her career, she worked as a Zhongruan musician in the Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra and has been a member of the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble since 2009. Chang also has a great passion for music theory, composition and music arrangement. She has previously been taught by Chih-Hsuan Liu, Ju-Chi Chen, Wen-Ching Su in composition, Dr. Chu-Wei Liu in music aesthetics and analysis, and Dr. Wei-Han Lee in music history. Currently, she works as the spokesperson of general music director in the Theater of Freiburg. Furthermore, she is devoted herself to the PhD of Musicology at the University of Bonn and often invited as a soloist for different formal occasions.

Chen Teng 陈腾

ChenTeng 陈腾is a PhD music candidate at the University of Southampton. She was awarded a master’s degree in music at King’s College London. Teng is also a young contemporary erhu player, who graduated from Shanghai Conservatory in 2017. In 2019, she cooperated with London Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts: East meets West, held at LSO St Luke’s, London. She was an External advisor of Erhu performance for the Performance as Research module at Goldsmith, University of London.

Nalini Vinayak

Nalini Vinayak, a well-known professional Sitarist and Tabla player from India hails from a family of composers and musicians dating back to early 1900. Blessed by her grandmother Sri. Andavan Pichai, a saint and composer, www.andavanpichai.com , Nalini has carved a niche for herself in the field of music, as a performer, composer, Ensemble Director and teacher. Nalini received her training in Carnatic classical music at a very young age from her her mother and Guru Smt. Kamakshi Kuppuswamy, a renowned Carnatic music vocalist who has performed worldwide. Nalini spent several years learning Hindustani Classical Music on the Sitar in the Indian tradition of the Guru Shishya Parampara under the tutelage of Pandit Janardan Mitta (disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar) of the Maihar Gharana.  Her passion and love for rhythm drew her towards the Tabla and she received intense training under Sri. Srinivasa Rao of the Delhi Gharana. The combined knowledge of the Carnatic tradition from her mother and Hindustani tradition from her sitar Guru gave her an added edge compared to others in fusing the two styles. Nalini’s artistry and command over melody and rhythm have rendered her style and compositions unique. Nalini was the only female Sitar player to have been invited to perform Saint Thyagaraja’s Kritis at the Thyagaraja Aradhanai at Thiruvaiyaru in 1987.  She has performed in premiere music platforms like the Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts, Indian Fine Arts, Bharat Kalachar, Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, Nungambakam Cultural Academy, Tansen Thyagaraja Festivals, ICCR and Rasika Ranjini Sabha. She has performed extensively in Chennai, New Delhi, Kerala, Hyderabad and Madurai and has been a seasoned performer in the prestigious December music festival in Chennai. Nalini was a frequent performer for the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India. She was commissioned specially to perform for Ms. Pupul Jayakar, Cultural Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Government of India in 1988.  Nalini’s Carnatic music concert and Hindustani music concert on Sitar have been archived by ICCR. She has performed jugalbandhi concerts with Narmada Gopalakrishnan (daughter of Violin Vidwan M.S. Gopalakrishnan), Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (daughter of Violin Vidwan Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman) and with Veena player B Kannan.  She has released with Magnasound recording company (now owned by Sony) a full Carnatic music on sitar album “Samarpana” and a jugalbandhi album “Nada Sangama” in 1989.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG – Virtuosity coupled with versatility. Both individually and collectively, the vocal soloists of the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG are equally at home with widely differing styles and vocal techniques, all the way up to microtonal intonation and vocal and respiratory noise. Under the artistic directorship of their founder Walter Nußbaum, works from the 16th/17th and the 20th/21st centuries meet head-on, often with astounding results. A new interpretive culture materializes from an intensive concern with historically informed performance and contemporary music. The ensemble’s extensive repertoire is the fruit of close collaboration with leading present-day composers. Much noted are the commissions for new works deriving from projects like Heimathen and Prinzhorn. SCHOLA HEIDELBERG performs in its home city, all over Germany and at international festivals like the Salzburg Festival, Milano Musica, the Lucerne Festival, the Biennale in Venedig, the Biennale Salzburg and the Festival d’automne in Paris. The Schola has successful cooperative partnerships with the Ensemble Modern, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Gürzenich Orchestra.
SCHOLA HEIDELBERG‘s CD recordings of vocal compositions from the 20th/21st centuries have received several international awards.

ensemble aisthesis

ensemble aisthesis – A sensory understanding of new sound worlds. The ensemble aisthesis focuses on contemporary music from the 20th/21st centuries. Its Greek-inspired name reflects the bid for all-encompassing perception. Under the artistic direction of founder Nußbaum, the instrumentalists (up to 20 in number) have steadily built up an extensive repertoire ranging from modern classics like Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Lachenmann to forward-looking Romantic works by Wagner or Mahler. Commissions invariably take shape in close conjunction with the composers. Close collaboration with the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG has resulted in concert formats like Prinzhorn or Heimathen and the CD Nuits – weiß wie Lilien (“Nights – White as Lilies”). The ensemble aisthesis performs regularly in Heidelberg and has been invited to festivals like musica viva Munich, the Zurich Festival, the Romanische Nacht in Cologne, the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, the Kasseler Musiktage or the Basel Music Forum. One much-noted recording by the ensemble is LEIBOWITZ – COMPOSITEUR, issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. It contains a representative cross-section of René Leibowitz’ works, impressively documenting his impact on the musical world.

Vernissage zur Ausstellung “KLANGKÖRPER – Moving Instruments” mit musikalischen Beiträgen

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Kreative Dialoge – Ferne Klänge neu hören bei der 25. CHIME-Konferenz in Heidelberg Barbarian Pipes and Strings Reconsidered—Negotiating Authenticity in the Musics of China – Transcultural Perspectives

mit DAI Xiaolian (Guqin), CHANG Chia-ling (Liuqin), CHEN Teng (Erhu), NACHIN (Morin Khuur)

Genau 25 Jahre nach der letzten Internationalen CHIME (Chinese Music Research Europe) – Konferenz in Heidelberg, Barbarian Pipes and Strings veranstaltete das Centrum für Asienwissenschaften und Transkulturelle Studien (CATS) gemeinsam mit dem Konfuzius Institut und der CHIME Foundation eine Konferenz, die Chinas musikalische Praktiken aus transkultureller Perspektive neu betrachtet. Wie gefährlich, fremdartig oder (un)authentisch bestimmte musikalische Stile oder Instrumente wohl sind, und wem sie “gehören”, sind durchaus relevante Fragen in einem Land, wo Melodien, Instrumente und Klänge von „anderswo“ seit jeher zum “typischen” Repertoire gehören. Kontroversen über Eigentums- und Urheberrechte an alten und neuen Volksliedern oder regionalen Opern und Klagen über Exotismus oder Selbstorientalismus spielen immer dann eine Rolle, wenn von unterschiedlicher Seite “Authentizität” beansprucht, angefochten oder neu verhandelt wird. 5 Konzerte, die „Chinas“ vielfältige musikalische Praktiken—von der Guqin über die Tabla, bis hin zur Morin Khuur, immer wieder neu reflektieren, begleiteten die Konferenz. Zu hören waren wandelbare Klangkörper—Instrumente und Melodien, die ihre Form und ihren Klang auf ihren musikalischen Reisen, u.a. entlang der Seidenstraße verändern; seltene, ephemere Klangtexturen als Spuren musikalischer Erinnerung im transkulturellen Dialog, und schließlich eine fulminante Intervention von WANG Ying zu Gustav Mahlers “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), das als Ausnahmewerk in der Reihe der Sinfonien Gustav Mahlers, in der Tradition des musikalischen Exotismus steht. WANG stellt Mahlers Vertonung altchinesischer Lyrik in der Nachdichtung durch Hans Bethge eine Reihe von chinesischen Gegenwartsdichtern und ihre Erinnerungen an die Klänge chinesischen Protest-Rocks gegenüber und schließt so eine transkulturell gedachte „chinesische“ Reise um die Erde.

Begleitend zur 25. CHIME-Konferenz kann im Völkerkundemuseum vPST die Sonderausstellung „Klangkörper – Moving Instruments“ besucht werden. Die Ausstellung (Zeitraum: 03.10.2023 bis 18.02.2024) präsentiert nicht nur chinesische Instrumente der museumseigenen Sammlungen aus verschiedenen Epochen; sie ermöglicht den Besuchenden auch durch zahlreiche Klang- und Videobeispiele ein tiefes Eintauchen in die Welt der fernöstlichen Musik. Die Ausstellung bietet außerdem einen Einblick in einen ganz anderen Bereich der darstellenden Künste, den Opern- und Puppenbühnen, die eng mit den musikalischen Traditionen verknüpft sind.

English:

The plurality of sounds that make up the music “of China” not only echo the long historical trajectory of its creation, they also reflect the multitude of cultural influences and inspirations that have left their (musical) traces over time. The musical instruments employed to create these soundscapes also point to continuous cultural exchanges along the historical Silk Roads. The clamorous gongs and cymbals used in Buddhist and Daoist rituals, the string instruments accompanying the lavishly decked out singers in Beijing Opera, or the lutes and other plucking instruments used in the local teahouses—many
of these instruments originated outside China, but have been an integral part of Chinese musical traditions for centuries. The exhibition presents “Chinese” instruments from the museum collections from different eras and enables visitors to immerse themselves deeply in the musical worlds of the Far East with the help of a myriad of sound and video examples. The exhibit also offers glimpses into the arts of local opera and puppet theater to be found in China. The Musical Vernissage will be accompanied by original sounds from these instruments, played by some of the musicians present at the CHIME Conference.

Flowing Streams 流水 Liushui for Guqin Trio (8’)
Three Six 三六 San Liu for Liuqin (4‘)
Dialogue 对话 Duihua for Amankhuur (5‘)
WANG, Huiran 王惠然 (1936-2023)Melodies from
Liuqin Opera 柳琴戲排子曲 for Liuqin (5‘)
Uran Tangnee for Morinkhuur and Voice
(inspired by the Heart Mantra of the
Bodhisattva Tara/Green Tara 绿度母心咒 ) (5‘)
Galloping War Horses 战马奔腾 Zhanma benteng for Erhu (4‘)

This musical vernissage will bring to life some of the instruments as moving resounding bodies—Klangkörper, moving, both in the sense of physical displacement and emotional affect. We begin with one of the oldest instruments in China, the 7-stringed literati zither Guqin 古琴 (literally “Old Instrument”). The instrument is said to have been created by the legendary emperors of prehistoric times. The first archaeologically documented specimens date back to the 3rd millennium BC. In the beginning it had 5 strings representing the 5 elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth). With its curved upper part, it refers to
heaven, with the straight lower part to earth ( 上圓象天、下方法地 ): it thus represents the whole world in itself.

Flowing Streams 流 水 Liushui –
Guqin trio is associated by an informed audience with the moving story of that humble woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi 钟 子 期 (ca. 413 – 354 BCE) who would listen to the accomplished Guqin player Yu Boya 俞 伯牙 (ca. 387 – 299 BCE) playing the Guqin. Doing so, Ziqi could thor- oughly understand Boya’s deep self. As he was playing “Flowing Streams” Ziqi heard the streams flowing, the inner music in the minds of both player and listener resonated. Such authentic encounters epitomize the notion of the zhiyin 知音(the person who—without words—understands the sounds one produces—and derived from there, one’s “best friend”). The piece performed here, emblematic for the Guqin repertoire, is an arrangement for three Guqins by Lü Huang 呂黃 from 2013. It is based on a monodic version from the
Tianwenge qinpu 天闻阁琴谱 (Qin Handbook of Hearing Heaven Pavilion,published in 1876 by Wei Zhongle 卫仲乐 (1909 –1997).

The Liuqin 柳 琴 (literally, Willow Instrument, as it was made of willow wood), on the other hand, is the youngest instrument in our set of performances: some two centuries old, it originated as a folk instrument in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). It originally had only 2 strings. In the 20th century, a three- and finally a four-stringed version came into use. The instrument which is played with a plectrum, has its strings elevated by a bridge. The soundboard has two soundholes. Three Six is one of the so-called Eight Great Pieces 八大曲 Ba Da Qu from the Jiangnan sizhu 江南丝竹 repertoire. This instrumental music (sizhu 丝 竹 , literally means “silk and bamboo,” and refers to string and wind musical instruments, as strings had historically been made of silk while bamboo was the material from which Chinese flutes are made) from Jiangnan prominently employs the Liuqin.

One important figure in the redevelopment of the Liuqin is the Pipa virtuoso WANG Huiran 王惠 然 (1936-2023), also known as the “Father of the Liuqin 柳 琴 之 父 who modernized the Liuqin and who also incorporated some techniques from Pipa playing. This is evident in his composition Melodies from Liuqin Opera 柳琴戲排子曲 which should remind us of the fact that in the beginning, the Liuqin was used to accompany local operas in Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui.

In our musical vernissage, we will also hear the Amankhuur (Mouth Harp, also known as Jew’s Harp) and the Morinkhuur (Horsehead Fiddle), two instruments which feature prominently in several countries along the Silk Road. The Amankhuur that we will hear in Dialogue is a small plucked instruments consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. The frame is held against the performer’s parted teeth or lips, using the mouth as a resonator. Mouth harps like the Amankhuur are particularly dynamic, moving instruments. Currently found in many different parts of the world, they most likely originated in Siberia, specifically in or around the Altai Mounains. The earliest depiction of someone playing what looks like a Mouth harp is a Chinese drawing from the 3 rd century BCE, and curved bones discovered in the Shimao fortifications in Shaanxi, China, dating back to before 1800 BCE but archaeological finds of surviving examples in Europe have sometimes been claimed to be almost as old.

The Morinkhuur, on the other hand, are younger: they initially emerged in the Eurasian steppe and are probably the best-known musical instruments associated with Mongolian music and nomadic culture. Horsehead fiddles come in different shapes and sizes. The thick bow and the two sturdy strings, made up of 90 to 120 horsetail hairs pulled together into bundles, contribute a great deal to the unique tone of a typical horsehead fiddle, which can be loud and quite deep, often close in timbre to the human voice. A Morinkhuur can play harmonies, overtones and solid notes simultaneously, and its rich “vocal” qualities, unsurprisingly, make this an ideal instrument to accompany songs such as Uran Tangnee. The Morinkhuur produces moving sounds in every sense of the word: the music and playing techniques very often contain references to nature, and to the traditionally nomadic lives led by Mongolian herdsmen, as is clear e.g. from the frequent imitations of sounds of Mongolian horses running, deer chirping, camels wailing, or larks twittering. Some genres of horsehead fiddle music are used to accompany dancing, but they are also significantly used in healing rituals and ceremonial purposes.

In the course of history, these types of fiddles have spread to many other regions and cultures along the Silk Road, well into Xinjiang, and even to parts of Turkey. They are a form of Erhu 二胡 (also known as Huqin 胡 琴 , literally, a two-stringed— er 二 —barbarian—hu 胡 —instrument—qin 琴 ), a stringed instrument that reached the Chinese court during the Tang Dynasty (618-906) from Central Asia. Played with a horsehair bow, this “Chinese violin” has since developed into a central component of folk music and is still used by street musicians today. Galloping War Horses is an Erhu solo piece which alludes to the “barbarian origins” of the Erhu. Composed by Erhu performer Chen Yaoxing 陈 耀 星 (*1941) in the 1970s. In this musical composition, CHEN employs unique playing techniques to portray the valiant and unwavering spirit of the cavalry warriors on the grassland, charging forward fearlessly in battle.

Dai Xiaolian 戴曉蓮

Dai Xiaolian 戴曉蓮is Professor of guqin in the Department of Chinese Music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She notably studied the guqin under the tutelage of her great-uncle, the renowned master Zhang Ziqian 张子谦from the Guangling School, then absorbing the best from various schools of teaching. She has recorded and published multiple CDs and teaching DVDs, and edited and published the several textbooks, contributing significantly to both the popularization and professional training of guqin music. A few years ago, she has set up the Lingran 泠然Ensemble, which successfully staged the “Guqin Whispering Concert” Series both in China and overseas, receiving much acclaim.

Chen Teng 陈腾

Chen Teng 陈腾is a PhD music candidate at the University of Southampton. She was awarded a master’s degree in music at King’s College London. Teng is also a young contemporary erhu player, who graduated from Shanghai Conservatory in 2017. In 2019, she cooperated with London Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts: East meets West, held at LSO St Luke’s, London. She was an External advisor of Erhu performance for the Performance as Research module at Goldsmith, University of London.

Nachin 那琴

Nachin 那琴 – A native Mongolian from Ordos, in Northwest China, Nachin graduated in horsehead fiddle performance from the National Minorities University of China in 2020, and took courses in ethnomusicology, She has studied various types of horsehead fiddles, and has been taking lessons with a number of traditional masters. She has given recitals of Morin Khuur music both in China and abroad, and has participated in music festivals and music programs on China Central Television (CCTV). Since 2020, she has taken lessons from Badma, a representative inheritor of China’s national intangible cultural heritage in the genre ‘Long-Tune’. Since 2015, she has carried out fieldwork on regional traditional music in Mongolia as well as in Inner Mongolia. 

CHANG Chia-Ling 張嘉玲

Chia-Ling Chang, born in Taipei in 1994, is a musicologist and a musician of Liuqin and Zhongruan. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the National Taiwan University of Arts, where she studied Liuqin with Tsui-Ping Cheng, and received her master’s degree from the Institute for Musicology at the University of Leipzig. In her career, she worked as a Zhongruan musician in the Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra and has been a member of the Taipei Liuqin Ensemble since 2009. Chang also has a great passion for music theory, composition and music arrangement. She has previously been taught by Chih-Hsuan Liu, Ju-Chi Chen, Wen-Ching Su in composition, Dr. Chu-Wei Liu in music aesthetics and analysis, and Dr. Wei-Han Lee in music history. Currently, she works as the spokesperson of general music director in the Theater of Freiburg. Furthermore, she is devoted herself to the PhD of Musicology at the University of Bonn and often invited as a soloist for different formal occasions.