This OzAsia concert opened with the first of two Australian premiere works by Chinese composer Tan Dun: Symphonic Poem on Three Notes, performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Cavalcades of sounds produced a complex arrangement featuring a surprising collection of instruments including bells, wheels and other collected objects alongside voices and the stamping of feet.
Conductor Dun was animated, agile, playful and precise, generating much joy and enthusiasm. Young classical percussionist Chenchu Rong, one of China’s most talented emerging artists, filled the space with her modern take on classical music and the instruments that create it.
The second work, Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite), had a melodic tempo that built to epic proportions. The suite was banned after its first performance in Cologne in 1926 because of its brutal and sexual nature, but has become popular for its rhythmic complexity.
After interval, light captured the broad wooden soundboard of the harp claiming centre-stage. Anticipation grew as harp soloist Elizabeth Hainen appeared, her exquisite gown shimmering a golden hue.
Tan Dun’s Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women presents a broad brushstroke of the intimate language (Nu Shu) and culture of a small village in 13th-century China. Rising out of Dun’s extensive research and documentation of Nu Shu during 2012, the gift of 13 exquisite musical movements, accompanied by the same number of visuals, is a tribute to the women and their sacred traditions.
The story at the heart of this work is beautiful. Closely held family ethics and child-rearing “secrets” are traditionally passed down from mother to daughter during a ritualistic ceremony to mark the rite of passage from childhood to womanhood. Mother, sisters and aunties crown a young girl, endowing her with the wisdom of the elders in preparation for marriage.
Poignant images included symbols being etched onto fans; paddling a canoe with a bamboo stick; women washing cloth in the river; wailing into a scarf; covering the face of the mother and child; weeping the innocence of childhood being left behind and the impending forbidden communication between mother and daughter after the wedding.
The visual storyboard was elevated by live sound effects of water accompanying the harmonic tones of Tan Dun’s reverent masterpiece as the hauntingly gentle music pulled at the heartstrings. The picture of a lone woman walking the narrow cobbled streets in a clandestine meeting with her daughter spoke volumes of the fabric of ancestral resilience and strength.
As the performance ended, audience members got to their feet in respect. With tingles throughout my body and a feeling of serenity, I made my way from the theatre.
Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women was performed with conductor Tan Dun, harpist Elizabeth Hainen and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Festival Theatre on September 27 as part of the OzAsia Festival.
More OzAsia coverage
Review: Tao Dance Threatre – 6 and 7
Film review: Faith Connections
Review: Ibsen in One Take
Review: Hiroko Watanabe and Above the Clouds
Review: Synergy Percussion Meets Noreum Machi
Film review: Why Don’t You Play in Hell
Review: Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens
Review: Dream of a Ghost Story
What Australia could learn from Confucianism
Review: Red Sorghum
Secret script inspires Tan Dun symphony
Chinese director pushes boundaries (Ibsen in One Take)
OzAsia shines spotlight on Shandong (festival highlights)
