One really cool reason to take music classes is that you get to see live performances from incredible musicians during class. Yesterday, three Chinese musicians demonstrated and played the gu zheng (21-string zither), qin/ch'in (7-string half-tube zither), pipa (a lute), erhu (2-string spike fiddle), and xiao flute. I loved listening to the program music because once you know the title, you can really imagine what the musician is playing. You can mentally picture the story and feel the music viscerally, emotionally. It's... I can't fully explain how awesome that is.
Anyway, our first listening example is called "Wine Madness," and we were treated to a live interpretation of it. The CD example has a four-beat pattern and slower tempo (which evokes a sense of drowsiness) while the video version we watched earlier in the week has a three-beat pattern and faster tempo. Madness. The live interpretation matched closer to the faster version. Why? The performer said he agreed with the video version because the CD version is "is just drunk, not mad." OK, so maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.
If I could learn to play one of the five instruments I heard yesterday, I'd choose to learn the gu zheng.
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