Chapter 370: The Folk Music Orchestra

In Lingao County, inside the “Arts Compound” where the Central Experimental Art Troupe and the Plaid Skirt Club vied for resources, a hive of activity buzzed. Passersby could hear the sounds of instruments and singing even through the high walls. At the entrance, beautifully dressed young people in Australian attire came and went, most of them young girls.

In preparation for the upcoming Campus Cultural Festival, a grand event to promote the “new culture,” all the newly established new art groups under the Senate had been rehearsing intensely for a month.

There were only four such groups in all of Lingao, including the amateur ones: first, the all-encompassing Central Experimental Art Troupe directly under the Propaganda Department, which already had more than a dozen sub-group signs made; then, the privately sponsored Plaid Skirt Club; and finally, the amateur art troupes of the Women’s College of Arts and Sciences and Fangcaodi.

Except for the two school art troupes, which were more detached due to their amateur nature, the other two groups were gearing up to show off their skills at the cultural festival. Whoever could gain an advantage in the future resource competition would depend on how many impression points they could earn in the hearts of the Senators during these three days of performances.

In the orchestra rehearsal hall in the compound, a rehearsal was coming to an end. As the last note faded, the already tired members began to fidget in their folding chairs, stretching their sore muscles.

This was the first performance group under the Central Experimental Art Troupe: the Central Experimental Folk Music Orchestra. Though Okamoto Shin was ambitious and wanted to stage a light opera, he had to bow to reality—at present, he couldn’t even assemble a symphony orchestra to accompany a light opera. He had to follow Dongfang Ke’s suggestion and start with a folk music orchestra, which had a better foundation. Compared to a Western symphony orchestra, which was almost a blank slate in terms of instruments and musicians, it was much easier to find both for a traditional folk music orchestra.

Most modern folk instruments already existed in this time and space—even if they hadn’t appeared yet or were only in their primitive versions. After showing the instrument makers the relevant materials, they could easily imitate them. There were almost no difficulties in preparing the instruments.

As for the performers, though they could recruit relevant talent from the refugees, the performance mode of a folk music orchestra was different from the traditional silk and bamboo ensemble. Moreover, most musicians learned their instruments by rote, and not many could even read the gongche notation, let alone have any music theory, not to mention concepts like vocal parts and ranges.

“How was it? Was the ensemble okay this time?” Okamoto Shin asked Nangong Hao anxiously as he came down from the conductor’s podium.

Nangong Hao was in his thirties, wearing a white stand-up collar shirt and faded jeans. Though his hair was not long, he had an artistic temperament. As a professional composer and arranger in the Senate, he was a key figure in the art troupe, along with Liu Shuixin, and also a target of the Plaid Skirt Club’s desperate recruitment efforts. At this moment, his forehead was covered in sweat from the continuous rehearsals.

He took the towel handed to him by a maid and wiped his face. He relaxed his brow. “Much better than a few days ago. It’s just that the performance of the bass section is a bit weak. The performers still need to get used to it.”

Traditional folk instruments are mainly high and mid-range, lacking bass instruments. The modern folk orchestra, with reference to the Western system, is divided into four families: wind, plucked, percussion, and bowed. The overall range of the orchestra is large, and each family has high, middle, and low-pitched instruments. These bass instruments, such as the bass sheng, bass suona, and gehu, were all invented in modern times. In the Ming Dynasty, let alone anyone who could play them, no one had even seen them.

Fortunately, the basic playing methods of these instruments were not much different from other instruments. As long as a musician had mastered a similar instrument, they could learn this one quickly.

“That’s a relief,” Okamoto Shin said worriedly. “The first time they played together, I almost peed my pants. I’ve heard them play together before, and it wasn’t this bad…”

Nangong Hao smiled. “What you heard before was a performance in the traditional silk and bamboo ensemble style. Of course, that’s no problem for them. But that kind of performance is based on a single-line melody, with added embellishments, forming a heterophonic texture. Now I want all the instrument sections to play according to their independent parts. And the pieces they are familiar with are mostly pentatonic. Sometimes they use a heptatonic scale, and the temperament is different from Western music. Modern folk orchestras are mostly based on the Western twelve-tone equal temperament. It would be strange if they could play well.”

“I didn’t expect a folk orchestra to have so many intricacies. I thought it was just a matter of gathering the musicians and rehearsing a few more times.”

“You could do that,” Nangong Hao said, looking at the handwritten score. He made a few marks with a pencil. “But then it wouldn’t be a folk orchestra. It would just be a traditional silk and bamboo ensemble. It definitely wouldn’t achieve the effect you want. Besides, at our current scale, we’re at most a folk music band, far from being an orchestra.”

There were only thirty musicians in the rehearsal room, including trainees and amateur musicians, which made it a folk music band. A full-fledged folk orchestra would have at least sixty performers.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Let’s take it slow. Will this level be okay for the cultural festival?” This was Okamoto Shin’s biggest concern.

“It’s certainly not enough to impress the Senators, but it should be enough for the naturalized citizens and natives,” Nangong Hao said. “It’s good enough that they can play. Though a folk orchestra is called ‘national music,’ it actually has a large component of Western music. Except for the instruments, you could say that it’s all played according to Western music theory. Overall, a folk orchestra is a product of the combination of Chinese and Western music. It’s difficult for our purely Chinese-style performers to adapt.”

“Chief, please have some tea.”

As they were talking, a woman in her thirties brought over a teacup. She was not tall, and her appearance was not outstanding. A pair of “liberated feet” peeked out from under her dress, but her demeanor exuded a charming air.

“Thanks,” Nangong Hao took the teacup. He didn’t like this woman named Liu Yisi very much. Though she was highly skilled in the pipa, zheng, xiao, and di, her constant display of coquettishness always made him uncomfortable. She had the air of a courtesan. He guessed that besides being the leader of a theater troupe, Liu Yisi had probably also been a prostitute in a brothel.

The problem was that this Liu Yisi was also the mother of Liu Siyu in the orchestra and the “adoptive mother” of Zhao Jinghan. Several of the young girls in the orchestra were her disciples—they all called her “master.”

In other words, a third of the musicians in the orchestra were her students. In terms of the number of instruments she could play and her skill level, she was one of the best in the orchestra, acting as a half-teacher. Moreover, Liu Siyu was a student at the Women’s College of Arts and Sciences, and Zhao Jinghan was the personal secretary of Senator Zhu Mingxia. All of this made Liu Yisi always act arrogantly in front of the naturalized citizen musicians in the orchestra.

Seeing that the chief did not show her any favor, Liu Yisi was a little disappointed. She was an old hand in the world of pleasure and was very good at reading people’s expressions. Seeing Nangong Hao put down the teacup, she quickly took it and retreated.

Nangong Hao picked up his baton, walked to the conductor’s podium, and tapped the music stand. “Alright, let’s review ‘The Charm of Youth’ one more time. You should all be very familiar with this piece by now. When you play, pay attention to the rhythm and express a cheerful and youthful atmosphere.”

The musicians of the folk orchestra couldn’t even read the five-line staff, let alone understand Nangong Hao’s conducting. Nangong Hao was doing this purely to give them a feel for it and to get them used to the new performance mode.

The practice continued for another hour. As the sky gradually darkened, Nangong Hao finally announced the end of the rehearsal. But this was only for the full rehearsal. The musicians would have to continue with targeted individual practice after dinner, and a few would even need special tutoring.

As for Nangong Hao himself, he had more important work to do: arranging the music for the cultural festival performance. After all, the current conditions were different from the other time and space, and he had to re-arrange the music accordingly.

Wang Qisuo stood up, cleaned his flute, and put it in its special wooden box. He had been sitting on a folding chair for almost the whole day, and his back was sore. Being a soldier in the garrison and also having to be a “musician” was very painful for Wang Qisuo. Though his guard duty this month was only a third of the usual, spending the whole day here playing the flute was not a pleasant task.

If I had known, I wouldn’t have played the flute for no reason. Now I have to come here to rehearse every day. It’s such a waste of time…

He was only a part-time “cultural and entertainment activist.” In addition, he had guard duty the next morning, so he didn’t have to stay for “extra lessons.” After returning the flute, he went to the locker room to change into his uniform, stretched his back, and then walked out of the courtyard quickly—if he took the urban rail back now, he could still make it for dinner at the cafeteria, and he could save the meal allowance the orchestra gave him…

Just as he was about to leave, the gatekeeper called out to him, “Qisuo! You have a letter!”

“A letter?” Wang Qisuo was very surprised. His mailing address was not here. If someone wanted to write to him, they would send it to his barracks.

“A soldier brought it specially. He told me to give it to you before dinner.”

Wang Qisuo thanked the gatekeeper. There was no stamp on the letter, so it was obviously delivered by a special messenger. He opened the envelope. Inside was only a thin, pink piece of paper. It was an invitation: inviting him to a family banquet.

The host was Huang Ande, who was holding a banquet at his new residence tonight to celebrate his “housewarming.” Since the end of Operation Engine, Huang Ande had not only been decorated for his merits and promoted in rank, but had also been selected to study at the General Staff’s tactical class for half a year. He was clearly a rising star in the Fubo Army, and a group of brothers had naturally gathered around him. Though Wang Qisuo was neither a member of the old security regiment nor an old brother from Penglai Water City, he had fought alongside Lu Wenyuan and had gone on reconnaissance missions with him many times, sharing life-and-death experiences. They also kept in touch regularly.