The Temple Of Resonance

Uni Percussion (Taiwan) Esplanade Annexe Studio Feb 8, 5pm

What Is Qin

Zi De Guqin Studio (China) Singtel Waterfront Theatre Feb 8, 8pm

Esplanade’s annual Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts takes place near Chinese New Year, showcasing a wide range of artistic events with artists and groups from China and East Asia.

Two contrasting ticketed musical events captivated audiences on a busy Saturday evening that also saw the Chingay Parade taking place.

If one wandered into the black box venue which hosted The Temple Of Resonance, and gazed at the hundreds of instruments and bric-a-brac involved, one could be forgiven for imagining Uni Percussion of Taiwan to be a large group of percussionists ready to make a big noise.

However, Uni was Hsueh Yung-Chih, a veritable one-woman band.

A loud clangour announced her entry through a sliding door, and she proceeded to work on a bass drum and gong, separately and together, then systematically moving to the xylophone where many mallets did their job. There was a method to this, which paralleled a worshipper’s rituals when visiting a temple.

Why do they do it, what and how were some of the ideas explored here.

This also included the playing of mechanical plastic toys – the noisier, the better – a large drum set and eventually tossing jam-jar covers into a heap. The seemingly mundane sounds, magnified by overdubbing, were eclectic and exhaustive, making viewers aware that all actions have motives and nuances.

The final bit of dissecting Taiwan’s temple culture was interactive, involving the audience making wishes for the new year by the drawing of fortune sticks (in this case, drumsticks).

The usual platitudes of “world peace”, “good health” and “success in exams” came out on top. This zippy yet thought-provoking 55-minute show had no time for dull moments.

Completely different was the formal concert by Shanghai-based Zi De Guqin Studio, which posed the question: What is Qin?

Qin is a generic Chinese word for an instrument, whether bowed, plucked or struck. On this evening, the ensemble – attired in traditional period costumes and led by percussionist Chen Xi – focused on music performed on the guqin, guzheng, zhongruan and pipa, with support from bamboo flutes and percussion.

There were atmospheric solos, such as Flowing Water for guqin, with its deep sonorous twang, Lin Jiliang’s Touring Mount Ta...