The pipa is a four-stringed plucked instrument that originated in Central Asia and is often referred to as the "Chinese lute." Migrating to China around 2,000 years ago, the pipa steadily gained popularity for the next several centuries, especially as an instrument of the imperial court. Its musical style has continued to evolve in the modern day with help from musicians like Wu. The Boston Globe once wrote, "Wu Man is one of the rare musicians who has changed the history of the instrument she plays."
Wu has worked with musicians from a stunningly diverse array of cultures and countries, including composer Philip Glass, jazz innovator Henry Threadgill and English folk guitarist Martin Simpson. However, in no way does Wu ignore the traditional history of the pipa in her music.
"It is important to be respectful to tradition," Wu said in an interview with The Dartmouth, demonstrating in person as much grace and poise as the instrument she plays. "If you want to understand a country, you need to learn its history. It's the same with an instrument. Traditional music is part of this instrument. It helps explain why the pipa sounds like that, why it sounds bendy."
These "bendy" sounds are caused by the multiple tones that can be produced by a single note or chord. Wu describes this phenomenon as analogous to and the result of the structure of the traditional Chinese language. Many non-native Chinese speakers express frustration with mastering Chinese tonality, which makes for a steep learning curve, and even with the pipa, complex tonality can cause unwanted twangs if the instrument is in the hands of a less skilled player. Wu, however, who has played the pipa since the age of 12, no longer experiences such amateur problems.
"There are two styles of playing the pipa," Wu said. "The lyrical, or civil, and the martial. The civil is more poetic and elegant lots of left-hand movements while the martial usually tells a story, like a battle. To understand the pipa, you need to be able to play both."
After becoming the first person to receive a master's degree in the pipa from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Wu moved to the United States in 1990. Since then, her career has taken her all over the globe. This week, Wu found herself in Hanover as part of the Dartmouth music department's residency program. Dartmouth music professor and ethnomusicologist Ted Levin worked with Wu in Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, and it was upon Levin's suggestion that Wu was invited to the College. Wu attended two of Levin's classes Global Sounds and Ethnomusicology on Tuesday to discuss music with the students, and in the evening, she was the guest of honor at a dinner discussion at the Chinese Language House.
On Wednesday, she also screened a film she produced, titled "Discovering a Musical Heartland Wu Man's Return to China," in a classroom in the Haldeman Center. The film was beautifully shot, aided by gorgeous natural landscapes of rural China, and it showcased traditional music of Chinese villages admirably. With its focus on three main groups of musicians in small villages across the country, the film put forth a poignant, but still slightly distressing, mood. The film's musician subjects agreed that their genre of music is fading in popularity the traditional music of Chinese villages will one day disappear, and most of the world will never have known it had even existed.
"I'm nervous," Wu said before the film was screened. "I'm a musician, not a filmmaker, but this is a passion."
However, through the production of this film, Wu proves herself to be not only a musician, but also an artist, expressing interests in multimedia, arts and theatre. This summer, Wu plans to work in Singapore as part of a group of Asian artists putting on an eclectic production of Shakespeare's "King Lear."
Friday's concert can be seen as a culmination of Wu's artistic abilities while also highlighting the pipa's musical potential. The first half of the program is dominated by martial, civil and traditional pieces from history for example, a likely highlight of the first half of the show is "Ambush from 10 Sides," a martial composition about a battle in 202 B.C. that is so difficult, it is typically only performed by pipa virtuosos. However, with assistance from Robert Schultz on percussion instruments including the marimba, Spencer Topel on the violin and Yang Yi on the zheng another Chinese string instrument the concert will incorporate elements of modern world music, exemplified by the Western chords present in 1960's "Dance of the Yi People."
"Collaboration with modern artists is always interesting," Wu said.
However, perhaps most exciting is the second half of the show consisting solely of "Ancient Dances," a piece in three parts that premiered in 2005 and serves as the namesake for the concert. Composed by Chen Yi and Wu, "Ancient Dances" adds the visual of Chinese calligraphy to the music, another of Wu's multimedia ventures.
When asked if she had any favorite pieces, Wu smiled before responding.
"Friday night['s concert] is good," Wu said. "It has a lot of my favorites."
Wu's audience can expect to be taken on an artistic journey from the battlefield to the pastoral green in a virtuosic display of musicality, as tremolos, rolls, pizzicatos, sliding notes and harmonics abound. During the show at 8 p.m. in Spaulding on Friday, perhaps even the age-long classic standoff between East and West will be softened, with boundaries melted by the sway of music.
