Tang Dynasty music 唐代音乐: "Ji Hu Xiangwen"《急胡相问》from the Dunhuang Scores《敦煌乐谱》

An excerpt from a January 5, 2022 concert at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, entitled "Si Lu Zhi Yue: Tang Yun Huixiang"《丝路之乐·唐韵回响》(Music of the Silk Road: Echoes of Tang Melodies), which featured reconstructed music (played on period instruments), dance, attire, and makeup of China's Tang Dynasty (618-907), with accompanying digital projections featuring images from the Mogao and Kizil Caves, as well as pages from Medieval scores of Tang music.

The piece performed here is an excerpt of "Ji Hu Xiangwen"《急胡相问》(Quick "The Barbarian Asks"), from the 10th-century Dunhuang Scores (called Dunhuang Yuepu《敦煌乐谱》, Dunhuang Pipa Pu《敦煌琵琶谱》, or Dunhuang Qupu《敦煌曲谱》in Chinese) (manuscript P.3808, no. 19), which appears to be performed in an arrangement based on the reconstruction of this piece by the late musicologist Chen Yingshi (陈应时, 1933-2020).

Filmed by Shanghai Conservatory of Music ethnomusicology professor Dr. Mei Xiao (萧梅) at the Shanghai Conservatory of music (上海音乐学院), January 5, 2022.

The concert was co-organized by Shanghai Conservatory of Music musicology professor Dr. Zhao Weiping (赵维平, planning and artistic director) and Dai Xiaorong (代晓蓉, producer and visual director), who serves as the director of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's School of Digital and Media Arts. Professor Xu Jianqiang (徐坚强) served as the conductor, and Professor Wu Qiang (吴强) served as the ensemble director. Professor Zhang Lin (张麟) and Associate Professor Zhuang Li (庄丽) were invited to serve as dance director and designer.

The concert included several pieces from the Dunhuang Scores, known in Chinese as Dunhuang Yuepu《敦煌乐谱》, Dunhuang Qupu《敦煌曲谱》, Dunhuang Juanzipu《敦煌卷子谱》, or Dunhuang Pipa Pu《敦煌琵琶谱》, which were found in 1900 in Mogao Cave 17 near Dunhuang in Gansu province, northwest China. They comprise 25 pieces in pipa tablature with instructions for the tablature (manuscript P.3539), plus an additional incomplete piece (manuscript P.3719), all written on the backs of scrolls containing Buddhist texts. These three manuscripts, which were among up to 50,000 manuscripts that had been stored in the cave since it was walled off for unknown reasons early in the 11th century, were taken in 1908 to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris by the French sinoloist Paul Pelliot (1878-1945).

Additionally, the concert featured "Jiu Huzi"《酒胡子》(The Wine Puppet, or the Drunken/Vinous Sogdian), a xiao qu (小曲, short instrumental piece) from China's repertory of Tang-era yanyue (燕乐, banquet music), which survives in the form of Medieval Sino-Japanese tablatures preserved in Japan.

More information:
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https://web.archive.org/web/202201180...
https://www.shcmusic.edu.cn/2015/0428...