| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
CHINESE THEATRE AND DANCES. 197
much sought for. The children begin their training in these arts, very young.
Boat races have also their music, which is evidently intended to inspirit the oarsmen. The following is a description of such an event, (so far as it relates to music).
" On each side of the little mast that supports the national flag, are two men, who leave off striking the tum-tum, and executing rolls upon the drum, whilst the mariners leaning over their oars, row on vigorously, and make the dragon junk, skim rapidly over the water.
Whilst these elegant boats are contending with each other, the people throng the quays, the shore and the roofs. . . . They animate the rowers with their cries and plaudits; they let off fireworks; they perform at various points, deafening music, in which the sonorous noise of the tum-tum, and the sharp sound of a sort of a clarinet, giving perpetually the same note, predominate over all the rest. The Chinese relish this infernal har mony."*
We have dwelt with some detail upon the music of the Chinese, for we consider these people, musically as well as ethnologically and philologi-cally a series of contradictions, and especially differing from all our conceived notions of right and propriety: a nation where music is heartily loved, and taught to youth,f and yet where
• Alns worth, around the world, p. 102.
t Tbe following is a short synopsis of Chinese education. " When thooeing a wet-none, the mother most seek a modest, virtuous, affable |
||
|
|
||