M. The "stone chimes", consisting of sonorous stones varying in tone
and hanging in frames, which were played on those solemn occasions,
have a haunting melody such as can be heard nowhere else.
China, I believe, is the only country that has produced music from stones.
It is naturally gratifying to me to hear that Chinese airs are now having
a vogue in London, and that they will soon be heard in New York.
It will take some little time for Westerners to learn to listen intelligently
to our melodies which, being always in unison, in one key and in one movement,
are apt at first to sound as wearisome and monotonous
as Madame Patti's complicated notes did to me, but when they understand them
they will have found a new delight in life.
--
* Wu Tingfang is quite correct to deplore this statement as a description
of Chinese music. However, in all fairness, it is an accurate description
of how a Western ear first hears CERTAIN types of Chinese music.
After successive hearings this impression will fly away, but until then
CERTAIN types are reminiscent of two alley-cats fighting in a garbage can.
This is not meant as a degrading comment, any more so than Wu Tingfang's
comments on opera. Some music is an acquired taste, and after acquirement,
its beauty becomes not only recognizable but inescapable.
Certain other types of Chinese music can easily be appreciated
on the first hearing. -- A. R. L., 1996.
--
Although we Chinese do not divide our plays into comedies and tragedies
there is frequently a good deal of humor on the Chinese stage; yet we have
nothing in China corresponding to the popular musical comedy of the West.
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