{"id":23158,"date":"2017-02-24T03:50:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T11:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23158"},"modified":"2017-02-21T22:13:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T06:13:14","slug":"a-musical-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/02\/24\/a-musical-consensus\/","title":{"rendered":"A musical consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sound of Dragon Ensemble plays at Orpheum Annex on March 9. (photo from Sound of Dragon Ensemble)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sound of Dragon Ensemble takes the name of its upcoming concert, Consensus<\/em>, from a work of the same name by Vancouver composer John Oliver. Oliver\u2019s \u201cConsensus\u201d will be featured in the ensemble\u2019s March 9 performance at Orpheum Annex, along with a number of other works, including one by Israel-born, Vancouver-based Itamar Erez.<\/p>\n

In its mission to preserve the traditions of Chinese music, the Sound of Dragon Society \u201ccelebrates diversity and creativity in the contemporary applications of this music\u2026. By presenting musicians and ensembles from different ethnicities, nationalities and musical trainings\/genres, Sound of Dragon Society redefines Chinese music and reflects Vancouver\u2019s multicultural environment and a highly creative music scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the concert\u2019s promotional material, Oliver\u2019s \u201cConsensus\u201d \u201cis a metaphor for inter-cultural music making\u2026. Regardless of where [musicians are] from, there is one thing most can agree on: music was born of about four or five notes in all cultures. This idea inspired Oliver to build his piece on four notes with ever-changing rhythms between different instruments to create great complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 9, the ensemble will also perform pieces by local composers Mark Armanini, Farshid Samandari, Bruce Bai and Lan Tung; Toronto composer Tony Leung; and Italian composer Marco Bindi. The concert includes Vancouver conductor Jin Zhang and dancer\/ choreographer Dong Mei.<\/p>\n

Erez\u2019s \u201cRikkud\u201d is described as \u201ca kind of a chaotic, ecstatic dance, with some moments of relief until the very exhausting end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis piece is based on the last movement of my \u2018Piano Trio,\u2019 which was premi\u00e8red by members of the Standing Wave ensemble back in \u201999,\u201d Erez told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cIt is a very rhythmic and playful piece, influenced a lot by East Indian rhythms, and based on a simple pentatonic motive, which is a scale used often in Chinese music. Rikkud<\/em> simply means dance in Hebrew. I had to rewrite the composition in order for it to work for the unique instrumentation of Sound of Dragon Ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erez, on guitar, is also part of the ensemble\u2019s \u201cplucked strings\u201d section, with Zhimin Yu on the ruan<\/em> (Chinese lute). The ensemble\u2019s bowed strings are played by Tung and Nicole Li on erhu<\/em> (Chinese violin) and Marina Hasselberg on cello; winds, by Charlie Lui on the dizi<\/em> (Chinese flute) and Mark McGregor on the flute; and Jonathan Bernard plays percussion instruments from around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played with the ensemble in last year\u2019s festival,\u201d said Erez. \u201cLan got in touch with me few months before, asking if I would be interested in taking part in this \u2013 of course, I was delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s concert program features two poetry-inspired works: Armanini\u2019s music is set to two poems by China\u2019s Wong Wei (circa 692-761 AD) and Bindi\u2019s \u201cHymn to Aphrodite\u201d gets its inspiration from Greek poet Sappho (circa 630\u2013570 BCE).<\/p>\n

Bai\u2019s \u201cFall\u201d is locally inspired, by a Vancouver autumn, and Tung\u2019s \u201cOriole\u201d takes \u201ca 1940s Chinese pop song and pays tribute to Shakti, the highly influential 1970s<\/p>\n

Indian fusion band led by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain.\u201d The choreography of Mei, one of whose specialties is the Uyghur style, \u201cdeveloped at the crossroad of the ancient Silk Road in northwestern China,\u201d adds her touch, both traditional and modern, to Leung\u2019s \u201cDesert Dew\u201d and Samandari\u2019s \u201cBreath of Life\u201d (which is described as \u201ca metaphor for how Persian and Western music have influenced each other\u201d).<\/p>\n

Tickets for Consensus<\/em> are $15 ($10 for students, seniors and children) and can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com <\/a>or soundofdragon.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sound of Dragon Ensemble plays at Orpheum Annex on March 9. (photo from Sound of Dragon Ensemble) Sound of Dragon Ensemble takes the name of its upcoming concert, Consensus, from a work of the same name by Vancouver composer John Oliver. Oliver\u2019s \u201cConsensus\u201d will be featured in the ensemble\u2019s March 9 performance at Orpheum Annex, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[6774,4469,6775],"class_list":["post-23158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-inter-cultural","tag-itamar-erez","tag-sound-of-dragon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}