A new approach to folk

A German composer has spent over 20 years researching and writing music for traditional Chinese instruments

As the man behind the hit songs performed by his singer wife Gong Linna, including Tan Te, or Perturbed, and Fa Hai You Don't Understand Love, German composer Robert Zollitsch is widely known in China for his pioneering Chinese folk songs. But the 48-year-old, who has been researching and writing Chinese folk music for over 20 years, says that his chamber music, mixing traditional Chinese folk and orchestral instruments, is a better vehicle for conveying his thoughts and emotions about Chinese folk music.

"Songs can reach millions of people overnight, due to the singer's interpretation and fast spread of the TV and Internet. But chamber music is a complete set of work on its own, which takes time to appreciate," says Zollitsch, who is better known in China as Lao Luo.

For the upcoming concert in Beijing, which gathers together 26 young Chinese musicians, nearly 20 works of the composer will be performed, including Ru Tong Ni Wo, or Like You and Me, which combines the sheng, a Chinese mouth-blown reed instrument, and accordion. The song Dong Tian will be performed on three guzheng (traditional Chinese zithers), and a voice-based musical piece will be performed by five female singers, including Gong.

"There are many performances in China which combine Chinese and Western artists but most of them are dominated by the Western part," Zollitsch says. "With my works, I want to put the Chinese artists and their folk instruments in focus because the audience, including the Chinese audience, rarely knows how beautiful and great those instruments are."

Zollitsch grew up in Munich, Germany, learning the Bavarian zither. When he first heard Chinese folk music, he was impressed by the sounds and rhythms produced by the instruments, which cannot be produced by their Western counterparts.

"I was curious about the instruments and I didn't know why Chinese folk music stopped progressing," he says.

In 1993, he came to China on a scholarship to study guqin (the Chinese seven-stringed zither) in Shanghai. Over the next three years he researched traditional music in the Inner Mongolia and Tibet autonomous regions, while collaborating with a number of Chinese musicians.

"What I have learned in China is that Chinese folk music is far broader than what we have now," he says.

He was doing research on the Internet one day and stumbled upon information about a folk band of about 10 people from a remote village in Shaanxi province. "Their job is playing music for funerals and weddings. Though they have never received academic training, they are very skillful and have a good sense of music," Zollitsch says.

He went to the village and invited the band to play at a music festival in Germany. The feedback was beyond his expectations.

"Audiences in Germany have never seen those instruments. They played like a rock band," he says.

"Young composers are not willing to write folk music, because they are constrained by the traditional folk music format. They should be confident about China's folk music and free their minds."

After marrying Gong in 2004, Zollitsch visited villages near her hometown in Guizhou province, which have many ethnic groups. His big break came after he composed and produced albums, including Jing Ye Si and Ye Xue, for his wife.

"Before I met him, I was a struggling folk singer because all Chinese folk singers sing and perform in the same way. I didn't know where I should go and why I sang. Now, I have gained a new perspective about Chinese folk music," says Gong, 39, who is known for her powerful and expressive live performances.

She will host the concert and she thinks highly of her husband's exploration of Chinese folk music.

"His has deep musical roots in Chinese folk music and his Western influence is just an approach to make Chinese folk music come alive," Gong says.

She cites Qing Zhu, or Green Bamboo, as an example. It's one of the songs Zollitsch wrote for her around 2006. "When I first listened to the song, it reminded me of the fighting scene in the bamboo forest in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/30/2014 page29)