Lectures on Chinese Music

Frank Kouwenhoven  (CHIME, European Foundation for Chinese Music Research)

13 March 10 am: Overview of Storysinging in China

14 March 10.30 am: Nanguan (Southern Chinese Balladry)

Venue: Ca’ Foscari University, Palazzo Vendramin ai Carmini, Dorsoduro 3462, Venice

The Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies – in collaboration with the Ca’ Foscari University Department of Studies on Asia and Mediterranean Africa, Venice and the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME), Leiden –  has organized the traditional series of spring events devoted to Chinese music, to be held this year on 13-14 March. The aim of the series is to introduce the wealth and variety of Chinese music repertoires to Italian audiences.  

This year two lectures will be given by Prof. Frank Kouwenhoven, the director of CHIME, at the university venue of the Palazzo Vendramin dei Carmini, Venice. The themes of the lectures will be the storysinging tradition in China and Nanguan, traditional Chinese ballads with musical accompaniments. Illustrated by many audio and video clips, the lectures will describe the social and cultural contexts in which these traditional genres are still performed today. They will also explore the relations between poetry and music, the contents of the texts, performance modes, and the history of these musical genres.

CHIME (The European Foundation for Chinese Music Research) organises and hosts numerous festivals, concerts and workshops in Europe and regularly advises major art festivals or third-party organisations wishing to develop Chinese music programmes.

Frank Kouwenhoven, a music scholar from Leiden, The Netherlands, is a founding member of the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME), the editor of CHIME journal  and a music researcher in the People’s Republic of China. He has published various writings on Chinese music and has been collecting popular and traditional Chinese songs since 1986; he is also a director, musical event organiser and cultural consultant for several international festivals.