Preview DRT #4: Species & Environment
Preview: Saturday, 23rd of February
In episode #4, Datscha Radio Taipei will focus on aspects of environment and species and the arts. A modest, two-part introduction will accompany the show. As a definitve highlight I am honored to welcome the Erhu instrumentalist HUANG Chen-Chi in the studio. Since she can only stay until 4:20 pm, I advise you to listen from the beginning as she has prepared a very special program for Datscha Radio.
Within the frame of her music you will also be able to listen to an excerpt from my conversation with Margaret Shiu from the Bamboo Curtain Studio, “The Plum Tree Tea Talk”. What is the role of the arts in communicating new perspectives on the environment? How can we include all members of the community? What actions are currently taken by the city council to foster a new kind of awareness?
Another special treat will be a presentation of the work of Japanese composer Tomoko Momiyama. Most of her pieces deal with communication between species and un-animate surroundings.
I am also very happy and proud to be able to include the radio art piece “The Culture of Disappearance” by the American artist Jacki Apple in this upcoming broadcast. This composition was conceived of in 1991 and was then still recorded on tape.
The broadcast will approach its end with an extensive interview with the Philippine composer Christine Muyco. We talk about invasive species and further environmental perspectives in the Philippines, framed by selected compositions by her. Last but not least, and having already heard quite a bit about frogs, I am delighted to close this show with a selection of Yannick Dauby’s “Songs of the Frogs in Taiwan”. Yannick is presently traveling, but, with a bit of good fortune, he’ll be also present at Datscha Radio’s last show.
Live Concert: Huang, Chen-Chi
Programm:
- Dance of the Amis Tribe (阿美族舞曲)-using elements of folksong music
- Singing of Birds Resounds in the Valley (空山鳥語)-Using glissando, which is the crucial skill that makes Erhu sounds special, to make imitation of language or sound effects.
- Horse Racing (賽馬)-If you have never played or heard this piece, never say you have learned Erhu.
Interview and Talks (Pre-recorded): Christine Muyco, Margaret Shiu, et al
Radio Art Special: “Culture of Disappearance” by Jacki Apple
Selected Compositions: Christine Muyco, Tomoko Momiyama
About the Artists
Huang Chen-Chi:Currently the Principle second Erhu of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Huang is an experienced, highly talented young Erhu player who has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra for many times. Her performance is exquisite, shows creativity and freshness and the tone sounds warm and solid.
Her other notable solo appearances include The Sound of Memory (日常尋聲) at the Taipei ZhongShan Hall (2017), Set off at Dawn(天一亮就出發) at the National Concert Hall in Taipei (2013) and Music and Sound(樂兮 鳴兮) at the National Taiwan Normal University (2009).
Huang graduated from the Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology, National Taiwan Normal University, focusing on performing art and preservation of traditional music of Taiwan. Apart from performing with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, she is also a lecture in Erhu at the Chinese Culture University and Nanhua University.
The Erhu is a traditional Asian two-stringed instrument that came to China more than one thousand years ago. The Erhu is also a very versatile instrument, being used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements.
Maria Christine Muyco is Associate Professor 5 of the Composition and Theory Department, College of Music, University of the Philippines. Composed for voice, European instruments like cello and piano, but also for electronic music, percussion, musical saw. Has been taking part in Festivals and conferences all over the Globe.
Tomoko Momiyama works internationally as a music composer, dramaturg, and producer of multi-disciplinary art events, installations, and performances. She graduated from Stanford University in the U.S. with B.A. in Music and Human Biology and further studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands in The Hague under the Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists. Tomoko’s works, many of which are community-based and site-specific, have been performed throughout Japan, as well as in different parts of Asia, Europe, North and Central Americas, and Africa.
Margaret Shiu is the founder and artistic director of the Bamboo Curtain Studio. The aim of this artist residency (and garden) lies in facilitating international artist contacts, provide a space for experimental and environment-orientated installations and to foster an ecologic understanding that leads us to a sustainable way of living and creating art. She’ll be our live guest on the 10 of March, but for now, you have to content with a recording.
Jacki Apple is an American artist, writer, composer, producer and educator based in New York City. She has worked in various disciplines such as performance art and installation art. As well as art making, Apple is also a prolific writer, penning over 200 reviews and critical essays on topics such as performance art, media arts, installation art and dance. The Culture of Disappearance series (1991) deals with biological as well as cultural extinction.
The Culture of Disappearance (1991)
A radio “opera” about extinction, and the conditions of loss and denial endemic to industrial and post-industrial society. It is a dirge for the exterminated species of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a grieving. It raises questions about the terms of human survival in a social order that defines us as “separate,” and reveals how those values are manifested in our socio-economic and political relations — i.e., conquest vs. cohabitation, consumption without regeneration. We eradicate cultural memory just as we eliminate species. The sung “mass” of names of the dead from insects to languages is sometimes obliterated by the relentless pounding of machinery. Embedded in the litany are anecdotes of annihilation.
Source: http://www.somewhere.org/
Yannick Dauby explores the soundscapes of Taiwan through field recording, audio documentaries and community projects. Composing electroacoustic music (aka “musique concrète”) and performing improvised music with found objects, analogue devices and digital processing. Creating soundtracks and sound environments for contemporary dance, public art and films. Involved in activities about ecology and local traditional cultures.
http://www.kalerne.net/yannickdauby/field-recordings/
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