Author: Ng Teck Seng 黄德成

English translation: Wang Chenwei 王辰威

Translator’s introduction: This article was published in Singapore’s leading Chinese newspaper sparked interest and debate within the music community, and prompted an opposing article by Zang Zhuomin, published on 29 Feb. in the same newspaper.

For the benefit of readers who are less at ease with Chinese, I have embarked on a translation of both articles. After presenting the original points of both authors, I shall then write a new article presenting my opinions.

For accuracy sake, I clarified with Mr. Ng on several points in his article. He explained that as there was a limit of 2000 Chinese characters, he could not elaborate on many of the terms used. I have added annotations in the translation to clarify such terms. The annotations marked “N.B.” are my own.

The title of article alludes to the theme song of the famous Chinese TV series «Journey to the West» 《西游记》 (1986), entitled 《敢问路在何方》 which means “Where is the path”. While the original title merely read “Chinese music”, Mr. Ng requested to add “orchestral” to the English title to clarify the context and avoid misunderstanding.

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May I humbly ask all Chinese music practitioners – do we feel that our mission to promote the music of the Chinese civilisation is noble, our responsibility great, and our confidence high? Or have we lost the will and strategic direction, descending into short-sightedness and compromise just for the sake of earning a living? The answers to these questions can foretell whether the development of Chinese music will have bright prospects.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the development of Chinese music has always been plagued by the lack of science in their sound production. Do Chinese instrumentalists in Singapore understand that as much as one pursues the ideal timbre, the frequency spectrum of the instrument already predetermines whether two instruments playing the same pitch can result in the constructive interference of harmonics, and whether two instruments playing different pitches can blend with each other effectively? Whether the instruments can cohere as a group, sound in-tune and project well?

[Mr. Ng elaborated that the resultant waveform created by instruments of similar frequency spectra sounds cohesive and stable, while the opposite is true for instruments with differing spectra.]

Do our outstanding performers, who place much emphasis on intonation, have a solid grasp of the theory and flexible application of different tuning systems*, using it to enhance the cohesiveness of their sound and the emotional appeal of the melody? Without such experience in sound production, what reason do we have to claim that our music is profound and refined?

[*Mr. Ng elaborated that “flexible application of different tuning systems” means whether a player is able to switch between types of intonation to adapt to the musical context. E.g. for optimal harmony, one would use just intonation (纯律); for modulation, equal temperament (平均律); for melody, fifths tuning (五度相生律). Only a player who understands these three tuning systems will be able to apply them to their playing.]

If this is the reality, then the limiting factor to the development of Chinese music can only be one – until today, our civilisation (whose scientific tradition has been deficient), still lacks basic logical thinking about acoustics. One thinks only about music and hardly about acoustics, not to mention using acoustics to improve the functional sound production of instruments. Our education is still incapable of cultivating humanities scholars equally adept at scientific reasoning. This explains why for the past decades, hardly a single problem has really been solved with the science of sound production in musical instruments. China and Singapore face a similar situation.

Such is the crisis of the development of Chinese music: other than trying to invite famous performers with richer expressive capabilities, Chinese music performances nowadays seem to have not much other choice at making themselves more attractive. The apparently waning interest level in various Chinese music competitions probably already hints at a worrying trend. Other than grand slogans, it seems that there are no other ways to let people feel that Chinese music – especially orchestral playing – is an art form with an enduring appeal.

How many Chinese musicians understand, that nobody can listen to dozens of people playing solo simultaneously without getting tired? And that no connoisseur can tolerate poorly vibrating musical instruments lacking in timbral finesse*?

[*By “人文内质”, Mr. Ng meant a refined timbre than can appeal to the collective senses of man and evoke deep emotions.]