Music for the soul

The music of non-western cultures is unique and different from the type of music we are used to hearing. For some it may be unpleasant, but for many it provides a win­dow into the lives and beliefs of different people. On Saturday April 1, the Vancouver based Orchid Ensemble and Michigan Tech conScience chamber choir paired up to de­liver a beautiful performance in the McArdle theatre of the Walker building. The perfor­mance began at 7:30 p.m. and went until around 9 p.m. It featured Lan Tung on the Chinese violin, or erhu, Yu-Chen Wang on the Chinese zither, or zheng, and Jonathan Bernard on percussion.

The Orchid Ensemble was established in 1997 and is a JUNO nominated group. They draw inspiration from a variety of cultures and musical styles, combining these with the ancient Chinese instruments and other artists with which they decide to collabo­rate. The chamber choir joined the Orchid Ensemble on stage after the intermission to perform an additional three songs, each with its own story and history.

The music was low and haunting, follow­ing its own path without refrain. At times it was fast paced and heart pounding, leaving the listener breathless. Several of the songs mingled the styles of other musical cultures such as the strong improvisation provided by Indian culture. Under this cultural influ­ence, it is as though the music has a mind of its own, stretching into the quiet spaces between listeners and strangers and weav­ing its own song, making a personality and a name for itself. I am no professional when it comes to interpreting music, but the per­cussion sounded like raindrops falling into a deep pond and the strings sounded like trees in the wind.

Each instrument is designed not to flow with the other instruments but rather they are each separate, each playing its own tune and somehow they find harmony in one an­other. They do not support each other, rather the harmony is found in between their dif­ferences.

Every song played its own story and each person singing or playing was unique and individual. There was balance in the chaos of differing voices and sounds, all brought together by this common goal, to tell a story. To evoke a feeling. To create an atmosphere. This music was never intended to be heard, like western style music, this music was in­tended to be felt.

This music utilizes discord as an element in which harmony, beauty, balance, and feel­ing can be understood. It decorates the air with artificial sounds of nature, human in­terpretations of natural imbalances and bab­bles of sound that permeate our everyday. It brings emphasis to the sounds we take for granted, but are the sounds that surround us and make up the lives we live.