Renovation of an 8000 Year Old Bone Flute, Shanghai

Tang Junqiao playing the flute with her troupe

Tang Junqiao, a bamboo flute player and professor of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, together with her team, has successfully renovated the Jiahu Bone Flute, a traditional Chinese instrument dating back 8000 years. Inspired by the precious and magical instrument, Tang and her team recently put up a large-scale original music show titled, “Sound of Nature and Rhyme of Flute” this May at Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, recreating the sounds of ancient China.

As far as archaeological findings show, it is believed that the bone flute was the oldest instrument of China. It is also well known that the flute is one of the traditional musical instruments, with the strongest Chinese cultural flavors. Chinese archaeologists unearthed more than 30 flutes made of red-crowned crane bones at Jiahu village, Wuyang County of Henan Province during the 1980s. Archaeologists and musicians of traditional Chinese music identified them as the earliest physical musical instruments unearthed so far in China, as well as the earliest playable musical instrument in the world.

Jiahu Bone Flute

Tang said that her teacher, Prof. Zhao Songting, who has been regarded as the King of South China in flute performance, was invited to play this crane bone flute unearthed in Jiahu. He left behind some precious musical materials many years ago. Master Zhao once hoped that the Jiahu Bone Flute could be renovated for public show some day, but unfortunately he passed away with unfulfilled wishes.

Sponsored by the National Art Foundation, Tang decided to carry out her teacher's wishes, at the end of 2016. Through arduous work, Wang Hongyuan, a well-known senior flute maker, conducted more than 60 experiments with different materials, such as mahogany, rosewood, cedar, purple bamboo, Xiang Princess bamboo, bitter bamboo and resin composites. Based on the proofs and references of archaeological findings, finally, they made a close imitation of Jiahu Bone Flute, with resin and bitter bamboo. Compared with the sound recordings left by Master Zhao Songting during the last century, the bone flute renovated by the team of Shanghai Conservatory of Music managed to produce similar sounds, but of better pitch and richer sound quality.

At the news release held by Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Jiang Guoji, President of the Traditional Orchestra Association of Zhejiang Province and also a student of master Zhao Songting, made an impromptu performance with the generic bone flute. The flute itself had a delicately small length of 10 cm, and both tips resembled the shapes of bird bones. With different sized holes carved on the body, the melodious musical sounds of the flute was high-pitched, loud and clear.

As explained by Mr. Lin Zaiyong, President of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the flute is a traditional musical instrument of China, one of the carriers and symbols of ancient Chinese culture. After successfully remaking the bone flute, the SCM established a powerful team, to create a piece that can fully show the features of the traditional instrument. Among others, the big names in the renovation team included composer Xu Shula, multi-media music producer Dai Xiaorong, editor Xu Ying from China National Opera and Dance Group, and first-class choreographer Fei Bo from China Central Ballad Group, etc. With their joint efforts, The Sound of Nature and Rhyme of Flute was put on stage, which was taken as the artistic and spectacular representation of time-honored Chinese culture, with the 8000-year old bone flute.

Co-starring Tang Junqiao, Jiangguoji and Wei Sijun, the musical show of Sound of Nature and Rhythm of Flute displayed a cross-field performance with various styles of Chinese ethnic music, symphony, electronic music and chorus, etc., and fantastic multimedia visual stage presentations full of Chinese features.

Translated by Wu Jinying