“The Night of the Hunan Museum” Series of Activities: “Ancient Music of Hunan”-A Cultural Heritage Salon Successfully Held

On the evening of July 23, in a starry midsummer night, the the Hunan Museum held a unique activity called “Ancient Music of Hunan”-a cultural heritage salon. Chen Xuliang, Deputy Party Secretary of the Hunan Museum, attended and delivered a speech. In this cultural feast, many musicians gathered together to reproduce the origin and development of Hunan music in the form of musical performances and artifact show. The audience listened to the ancient sounds that have lasted for thousands of years, feeling their depth and magnificence.

Chen Xuliang, the deputy Party secretary of Hunan Museum, attended and delivered a speech

Exploring the Ancient Roots and Modern Inheritance of Music

Music, as the precursor of civilization, has carried the memories and emotions of the nation since ancient times. Hunan, as one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization, has a long and rich musical culture. At the beginning of the activity, Zhang Yinyue, vice president of  the Hunan Provincial Song and Dance Drama Theatre and a national first-class performer, led the audience to trace the origin of the Hunan music and told the legend of Emperor Shun's southern tour in the melodious ancient music of “Shao Yin” by erhu. She has devoted herself to the innovation and integration of folk music for many years. With the erhu, China's most representative bowed string instrument, she told the story of the Hunan music embedded in bowstrings with its rich history and culture from the perspective of music and culture. With the evolution of the times, the Hunan music has been inherited and developed through continuous innovation and change. More and more ensembles and composers have made unprecedented attempts to integrate western music while adhering to the foundation of national music. Through the song “The startling Dream of the Rainbow Skirt”, the teacher-student group of the Hunan Vocational College of Art not only showed the splendor of Tang Dynasty music, but also incorporated modern arrangements that mingled tradition and modernity in the melody, presenting an audio-visual feast. And the guqin performance of “Mist and Clouds Over Xiao-Xiang River” by luthier Xu Hanzhi added a personal and innovative interpretation based on the tradition, conveying the patriotic feelings of the literati and their deep understanding of nature. The Ganqi Dance performance brought by Liuyang Cultural Center allowed the audience to witness the ancient music of the Confucius Sacrifice, which has continued to this day, highlighting the grandeur of Hunan's eight-toned harmony. In the “Ancient Music of Hunan” salon, the guests led the audience to trace the ancient roots of Hunan music and explore its modern inheritance and innovation through wonderful performances.

Zhang Yinyue, the vice president of the Hunan Song and Dance Theater, along with musicians Li Qing and Li Shengnan, performed the piece "The Fair Lady"

The teachers and students group from Hunan Vocational College of Art played "Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon"

 Xu Hanzhi performed an excerpt from "Misty Clouds over the Xiao and Xiang Rivers"

Liuyang Cultural Center performed the Ganqi Dance

The Perfect Fusion of Music Performance and Artifact Show

This salon innovatively integrates music performance with artifact show, creating an all-round experience of audio-visual integration for the audience. After each performance, an interpreter guided the audience to focus on the related artifacts and told the stories behind them, closely linking music and history. For example, after the performance of “The startling Dream of the Rainbow Skirt” and “The Clouds Chasing the Moon”, the interpreter introduced a group of Tang figurines, which are seated female musicians with instruments such as brass cymbals, bili(Double-reed ethnic wind instruments),clappers,shu-konghou,ancient drums, pipas, demonstrating a typical representative of music and dance of the Tang Dynasty and epitomizing the musical and artistic achievements of the Hunan Province during the period of a national unity and prosperity. In addition, the interpreter also introduced the pig-shaped chime and the Du You Qin, which also provided strong evidence for the origin and development of Hunan music. The exquisite performances of the guests and the professional explanations of the interpreter led the audience to deeply understand the historical background and cultural value of these instruments, and to feel the ancient people's love and pursuit of music.

Strikingly, the activity also demonstrated digitized instrumental sounds. Sounds from the pig-shaped chime and the heirloom zither Du You Qin enabled the audience to travel through time and space, listen to the sound of history and feel the flavor of ancient music.This trans-historical music experience not only allows the audience to feel the unique charm of those ancient musical instruments, but also aids in the better inheritance and protection of Hunan's musical and cultural heritage.

A Series of Activities to Light up the Cultural Night Sky

In order to further develop the social and educational functions of the museum and to meet the public's demand for visiting during the summer, the Hunan Museum extended its opening hours to 20:30 from July 2 to September 1, 2024. And in order to cooperate with the extension of the opening hours, the Hunan Museum launched a series of activities called “The Night of the Hunan Museum”, which is aimed at enriching the cultural night life of the general public and adding vitality to the night of the Hunan Museum. As an important part of “The Night of the Hunan Museum” series of activities, the “Ancient Music of Hunan” salon activity leads the audience to appreciate the glorious history of Hunan music culture from the primitive stage to the Han and Jin dynasties. It demonstrated the unique charm of Hunan music culture, enhancing the museum’s nights with a rich tapestry of sound and tradition.

The “Ancient Music of Hunan” Cultural Heritage Salon has brought to a successful close, using music as a bridge linking the ancient and the modern, as well as tradition and contemporary life. Looking ahead, the Hunan Museum will continue to explore the infinite possibilities of “The Night of the Hunan Museum”, offering the public a more diverse array of cultural experiences with richer and higher-quality content, allowing Hunan culture to take on new vitality and vigor on the stage of the new era.