Title of Piece: The Butterfly Lovers
Performer: Bei Bei
Culture of Origin: Chinese
Instrumentation: Guzheng (Chinese Zither)
This piece is written by Bei Bei, a well known guzheng performer, in both China and the United States. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California. The Butterfly Lovers is based off of the Chinese folktale that shares the same name. The story of The Butterfly Lovers is similar to the well known Shakespeare work, Romeo and Juliet. This song depicts the Chinese folk legend about a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shan-bo and Zhu Ying-tai. They could not be together while they were alive as various life events kept them apart. Therefore, similar to Romeo and Juliet, Liang Shan-bo and Zhu Ying-tai chose death. Both of them turned into butterflies, finally ran from the rules and expectations of society and were free to love and be with each other for eternity.
Reflecting back on this week's reading and looking at the instrument classifications that Wade (2013) talks about, she states the "Chinese classified their instruments according to the natural material that produced each instrument's sound" (pg. 35). China and India were the two oldest countries to classify their instruments through this mean and their instruments were thought to be significant items to their culture. According to figure 2.1, the zither is a summer instrument and reflects the silk type of instrument in terms of the eight sounds. Thinking about the symbolism that The Butterfly Lovers holds and the idea that it symbolizes two lovers, choosing death over life to be together for eternity, I personally think that the choice of instrument is appropriate, knowing how the eight sounds are organized. The seasonal classification of summer for the zither and the beliefs of the Chinese culture for the eight sounds of natural materials help make the connections with the cultural importance and significance of this piece.
I do find it helpful to be able to classify and organize instruments from different countries into pre-existing, known groups. Having an instrument classification system makes it possible for everyone, regardless of where they are in the globe, to get a clearer picture of unknown/unfamiliar instruments. With a classification system, it is possible to compare and connect them with familiar instruments. In terms of Western music classification, a listener would consider the zither to be a chordophone. The western instrument classification system is derived from the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of instruments (Wade, 2013). A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. When considering the idea of instrument classification, it is best to look at how other cultures develop their own classification systems for instrument types when listening and evaluating music from a different culture. Knowing that a zither is a string instrument, and the closest western instrument in comparison would most likely be the harp, it is possible to make connections within our own culture and experiences. By being able to make connections within our culture and instrumentation knowledge, we can help deepen our understanding of others culture's music and instruments.
Wade, B. (2013). Thinking musically: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York, New York: Oxford University Press
Wow, what impressive Zither playing! I can definitely see why it is called "The Butterfly;" the musician is performing the zither so fast that I can picture the fast flapping of butterfly wings. You are definitely right that classification systems help people to get clearer pictures of known and unknown instruments. I am finding classification systems particularly helpful with out listening examples for the listening quizzes. As a string player, I am not familiar with percussion instrument names beyond the standard ones we see in bands. When listening to the reading examples, I have found myself looking up different percussion instruments online because I know what kind it is (i.e.; membranophones and idiophones), but not the particular name. There are a great number of different percussion instruments from around the world and if I were not able to narrow it down to one category in the classification system, it would take me a very long time to just find the name of the instrument I am looking for.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of this piece before! It's absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for adding in the story that it connects to as part of context. In your mention about classifying the instruments or sounds based on seasons, I remember looking at the chart for the cardinal directions. I found it interesting that while if you were take the directions into thought, there would be eight (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest) the classification system did not use all but rather duplicated Northwest and Southeast. I wonder if this has anything to do with where the material type came from or if there is another cultural reason for it. But you hit the nail on the head by talking about how these types of classifications allow people who may not be familiar with certain instruments to get a clearer picture of the unknown instruments. Thank you very much for sharing your selection and your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteRachele and Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed listening to this piece and doing some background research about it. It has some very programatic elements to it as well. As I was listening, I could envision the butterflies flying and the flapping of their wings as the disappear into the sky.
I think that the classification systems are very important, especially as we are diving into more pieces with 'unknown" instruments being able to have a general understanding is important. Having to narrow down the sounds to a specific instrument I think would be almost impossible, however being able to group the instruments into pre-existing classifications make it easier for us to have a better understanding of the instruments and the pieces we are listening to.