Primitive Instruments
Posted by Peter McClintock on 11/17/2006November 16, 2006
Today all the onstage musicians who appear in the first scene showed up for their first rehearsal. The opera opens with a ritual ceremony, performed for the Emperor and his court. Tan Dun told us that when he visited the historical museum in Xian, where the first Emperor reigned in 221 B.C., he asked the director of the museum what kind of music would have been played back then. The museum director told him that the musicans of that time would most likely have used very primitive methods, including using stones to strike their drums, as well as striking ceramic pots with sticks. Tan Dun took this idea and decided to utilize twelve drummers, each of whom strike their drums with two rocks, one in each hand, and in tandem they also strike the rocks together to create a very unique sound. There are also three ceramic pot players. We are still trying to find just the right kind of pots to use to create the most interesting sounds. Each player sits in front of a row of pots, all different sizes, and therefore with different pitches, and strikes them with wooden mallets. In addition, there is also a zheng player onstage; the zheng is a very traditional Chinese string instrument, played by plucking with the fingers.
From the first moment, we were all transfixed by the elemental power of these primitive sounds. It’s going to make for a viscerally exciting opening scene, and while we were only rehearsing with these players on their own, once they are combined with the full orchestra, the chorus, and the soloists, this first scene is going to be quite amazing!