Every time when I examine an ancientpainting with people playing musical instruments, I wish it could havethe magic of Harry Porter’s pictures and paintings where charactersjump out to talk to him.
At a time when recording machines wereyet to be invented, melodious tunes were temporal and could not beheard beyond a certain physical space. Fortunately, people can turn toanother art form to find the verve of music: paintings with livemusical performances as the prime theme.
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"Emperor Yongzheng Paying Ritual Visit to Temple of Agriculture" |
The painting “Emperor Yongzheng PayingRitual Visit to Temple of Agriculture” depicts Emperor Yongzheng (reign1722-1735) visiting the Temple of Agriculture in spring to pray for abumper harvest year for his people. The worshipping ritual wasceremonious, and the road leading to the main hall was lined with topofficials and court musicians holding a variety of musical instruments.They were playing Zhonghe Shaoyue, the music used when the emperorsmade sacrifices to the Earth, the Heaven, and in other spectacularoccasions. It’s a slow, grand, forbiddingly austere procession ofsonorities. Confucius, in the Analects, calls it yayue—“elegantmusic”—and laments that the people of his time are discarding it infavor of vernacular tunes.
Today, the same music is available atthe Zhonghe Shaoyue Performance Hall, Temple of Heaven, Beijing. It’snot recorded music but the real thing.
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The grand wedding of Emperor Guangxu |
Zhonghe Shaoyue was also a must-haveat the emperor’s wedding ceremony. This painting depicts the grandwedding of Emperor Guangxu (reign 1875-1908) in 1889. The team ofZhonghe Shaoyue players, armed with a multiple traditional Chinesemusical instruments, was standing in front of the Hall of SupremeHarmony in the Forbidden City, ready to usher in the elaboratepageantry of a wedding ceremony.
