Yang Guan San Die, or, Three Variations of Yangguan
渭城朝雨浥轻尘，客舍青青柳色新。劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人。
The song was composed for a famous poem in the eighth centuries soon after when it was written. The song became a classic farewell song sung down the centuries, and additional lines were added by others to the song as refrains. The poet, Wang Wei described a scene at the departure at the pass, Yang Guan, which can be understood as the border of the country. There is the translation of the poem: The morning rain of Weicheng dampens the light dust, the inn is green with the colour of fresh willows. Let's finish another cup of wine, my dear sir, out west past the Yangguan, old friends there will be none.
I spent two weeks learning this song from my mum. The song was performed on Gu Qin, an instrument invented over 2000 years ago. The music score was inherited from eighth centuries, therefore the song I was playing sounded the same in the past.
More information about the song:
The ruin of a tower on a hill at Yangguan
The Great Wall, with various passes including Yang Guan, was the defence system and the country border of ancient China. The part of the wall we saw was in Shaanxi province. It was constructed in the 13th century and with the change of the borderline, it was left there unused and unchanged since then. It is generally collapsing and vanishing. This form of this work is created based on the watchtowers. I used my own breathe to fill 150 balloons with the air I exhaled out of my body. The building of this work and the laying of the balloons is similar to the construction of the wall, engaging body and energy. By pinching each ballon, I deconstructed the tower generally, indicating the collapse and vanish of the borderline happening at this moment.
This work talks about the history and borderline. The music is a recall to the past. How important is history? How was it to have different races on each side of the wall? How does it feel to see a vanished border which means a mixture of races? I had a feeling of nostalgia.