Happy Friday everyone,
Thank you for subscribing to Wu Fei’s Music Daily. This is episode #436 — Sichuan dollhouse 娃寨.
This piece was created and recorded yesterday on multi-vocal tracks, sung/spoken by me. It draws from the tradition of Luogu 锣鼓经. Luogu literally means "gongs and drums."
Luogu is a Chinese percussion ensemble that typically comprises several types of drum and several types of metal idiophone (including gongs and cymbals) and wooden idiophone (including temple blocks and Chinese claves).
Luogu is commonly used as an accompaniment in Chinese opera including Kun opera, Beijing opera and Cantonese opera and accompaniment for lion dance. In Chinese opera, luogu provides the basic rhythmic background for songs, speech, movements, dances and martial arts. It is also played for the entrance and exits of actors and transition between scenes.
Luogu helps to describe the environment, depicting the characters and commenting on the actions. Luogu is also used to produce sound effects such thunder or waves.
I studied Beijing (Peking) opera ensemble music for a year when I was a young student. Before the students were allowed to play the percussion instruments, we must learn how to sing the rhythms like what I did in this recording.
Hope you are having a fun weekend, or about to have one!
Wu Fei 吴非
Wufeimusic.com
翻绳— A string transforming game I used to play as a child.
