Female Announcer:
>>From the Library of Congress
in Washington, D.C. [Silence]
Nora Yeh:
>>Welcome.
I'm Nora Yeh, folklife specialist
in the American Folklife Center
in the Library of Congress.
On behalf of the entire
staff I want to thank you
for attending the 2011
Homegrown Music
of America Concert Series
here in Coolidge Auditorium.
The Homegrown series was designed to
feature the finest traditional music
and dance from various
states around the nation.
The American Folklife Center works
with many dedicated state folk arts
coordinators across the country.
They help us select the most
exciting and talented performers
from within their communities.
Thus it allows us to
bring the most important
and representative traditions from
every state here to Washington,
D.C. We also collaborate with
every state [sic], I'm sorry.
We also collaborate with
the Millennium Stage
of the Kennedy Center to
bring you these concerts.
In fact, the same ensemble will
present a slightly different program
there at 6:00 this evening.
>>Today's performance will be
videotaped as an acquisition
to be deposited in the
American Folklife Center Archive
and it will be loaded to the
Library's website as a webcast;
that way those who are
not here today as well
as future generations can
enjoy it and learn from it.
So, just as a reminder,
now would be a good time
to turn off your cell phones
unless you want your phone call
to be archived and
preserved for posterity.
>>As you may know, the Coolidge
has a long history hosting folk
and roots music since the 1930s.
Many leading musicians in ethnic
music traditions have played here.
Because of that we have documented
numerous wonderful performances
for the American Folklife
Center and the Library.
>>We'd like to thank Chris Kozlovsky
and Edward Casey of National Sound
for doing the lights,
sound, and recording;
and Integrated Technology Services
or the ITS team for videotaping.
Another "thank you" goes
to Mary Cliff of WAMU
for including our concerts
in her program, "Traditions."
Last but not least, we want to
acknowledge Solomon Haile Selassie
for managing the lighting.
>>Today we have a very
special presentation
from the state of Florida.
And to introduce the performers
is the state folklorist
of the Florida Folklife
Program Blaine Waide.
Please join me in welcoming Blaine.
[Applause]
Blaine Waide:
>>Thank you, thank you, Nora.
Good afternoon.
As Nora said my name is Blaine
Waide and I'm the state folklorist
with the Florida Folklife Program.
I would like to thank Peggy Bulger,
Nora Yeh, Thea Austen and the rest
of the staff at the
American Folklife Center
for including the Florida
Folklife Program
in the 2011 Homegrown
Concert Series.
It is a great honor to be here and
to introduce the wonderful musicians
who will perform for you shortly
including Florida's own Ann Yao.
I should also note
that the Chinese way
of saying her name would be Yao Ann.
>>While the American Folklife
Center has always been a key partner
and supporter of all the
state folklife programs,
there is a special connection
between the Florida Folklife
Program and the Center.
Peggy Bulger, the director here,
helped establish the Florida
Folklife Program in the late 1970s
when she was hired as the state's
first folk arts coordinator
and state folklorist.
All of us in Florida are
extremely proud of all of the work
that she has done here at
the American Folklife Center.
And I strive daily to continue
what she began in Florida.
>>The Folklife Program is part of
the Division of Historical Resources
in the Department of State.
Our mission is to document
and present Florida's folklife,
folklore and folk arts.
To do so we coordinate several
major annual programs as well
as other special projects.
These are designed to
increase public awareness
about the state's traditional
culture.
Our annual programs include a
field work survey to identify
and document the state's folklife.
We feature folk artists documented
in this survey at the folklife area
of the Florida Folk Festival
which is the nation's longest
running state sponsored
folk festival.
Our other major programs are
the Florida Folk Heritage Awards
and the Florida Folklife
Apprenticeship Program.
The Heritage Awards honor
outstanding folk artists
and folk culture advocates who have
made longstanding contributions
to the state's heritage.
The apprenticeship program provides
support for master folk artists
to share their skills and
knowledge with apprentices.
This program preserves
their traditions
with their communities [sic]
within their communities
and maintains Florida's
living cultural heritage.
We also engage in outreach efforts.
Right now we're very excited
because we're reissuing an LP Peggy
and her staff first released on
vinyl, actually, in the early 1980s.
That album, called "Drop
on Down in Florida,"
featured African-American
traditional music collected
in the field.
We're working with the
Grammy Award-winning label,
Dust-to-Digital Recordings
on this project.
Dust-to-Digital specializes
in putting together these
fabulous multi-media sets
of historical material both reissues
and previously unavailable
recordings.
So we're extremely pleased to be
working with them on this project.
>>Yao Ann is a widely respected
zheng player who has been working
with the Florida Folklife
Program for over a decade.
She is one of the state's
best traditional musicians.
Ann grew up immersed in traditional
music in her grandfather's house
in Shanghai and then went on to
attend the Shanghai Conservatory
where she mastered the
zheng as a solo instrument.
Several years after graduation,
she moved to the United
States eventually settling
in New York City.
There she began performing
with the innovative ensemble,
Music from China.
This group combines
traditional Chinese instruments
with cutting edge modern
compositions.
Around twenty years ago she moved
to Florida where she performed
for many years at Disney's
Epcot Center.
Her work with the Florida Folklife
Program has included performances
at the Florida Folk Festival,
and she has also participated
as a master artist
in our apprenticeship
program on two occasions.
We honored her with a Florida
Folk Heritage Award in 2009.
>>I am extremely pleased
to present Yao Ann along
with Wang Guowei and Chen Yihan.
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>Thank you, Blaine
and thank you, Nora.
And I am so honored to be here
to present this Chinese
musical tradition
with my friends Wang
Guowei and Chen Yihan--
from New York and Connecticut.
This is our pleasure to be here
and [to] introduce our
music to you all here.
>>And, as you will
see in the program,
traditional Chinese music
usually has song titles
and these titles usually
have symbolic meanings
or are descriptions of
sceneries or events.
>>The first piece that we are going
to play is called "Harvest Gongs
and Drums" and this is composed
[sic] modern composed music during
the 1970s.
And the music celebrates a
harvest, a bumper harvest,
and it has a special melody
from Shandong province--
theatrical music called liuqindiao.
And this music describes the use of
-- imitates the patterns of gongs
and drums in celebrating
a bumper harvest.
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece -- the piece we
just played is modern Shandong
music, the next piece is
classic Shandong music
and this music is called
"Musical Brocade."
This piece has four small
individual pieces together,
so each piece has a unique --
describes the scenery --
so I hope you enjoy it.
Especially for this
piece the technique
for the zheng [is] quick back-
and-forth plucking of the strings.
[Tunes instrument]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece is [an] erhu
solo called a "Joyful Night."
This piece is written by Liu Tianhua
a well-known composer [known]
for his innovative compositions.
This piece was reportedly composed
during a New Year's Eve gathering
with his students.
[Silence]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece is
a pipa solo called
"The Ancient Tunes from Yinzhou."
Yinzhou is an ancient town
of the Chongming Island
in the Shanghai area.
And this is a collection
of small tunes originally
from that area during
the Qing Dynasty.
Customarily, pipa players
do not play them all
but only play a few of them.
[Silence]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece is called
[Mandarin] it's "Cormorants Sporting
over the Waters" it is classical
music, Chaozhou classical music.
After this, it's going to be
a modern composition called
"Snowy [sic] Spring
in Snowy Mountain."
[Silence]
[Tunes instrument]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Tunes instrument]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>Thank you.
The next one is an erhu
solo, "Song of Henan."
Henan is a northern province known
for its local theatrical
music called Yuju.
The erhu imitates the
vocal sound of Yuju.
[Silence]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece is
"Dance of the Yi People."
This is a popular pipa solo
inspired by the folk tunes
of the Yi people in
southwestern China.
The music emulates
the dancing rhythm
and the charming melodies of the Yi.
[Silence]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>>The next piece is a zheng
and erhu duet called
Fisherman's Night Song."
This is a classical piece
originally written for the zheng.
The music depicts a
fisherman singing on the boat
when he returns home in the evening.
[Tunes instrument]
[Music]
[Applause]
>>Thank you.
[Silence]
Ann Yao:
>>The next piece that we
are going to play is called
"An Old Poem in Three Verses."
This is a duet originally
written for soprano and zheng
by contemporary composer Zhou Qinru.
The music is based on an ancient
poem from "The Book of Songs"
and expresses the longing for
love and agony over a social taboo
that prevents public dating.
Since this is a modern
composition so the original tuning
on the zheng is pentatonic
on one key
but this piece has three
keys in difference octaves.
[Tunes instrument]
[Music]
[Applause]
Ann Yao:
>>Thank you.
And the final piece is a trio
from the Guangdong Province
classical music called
"Thunder in the Drought."
This is Cantonese music
originally written
for the yangqin --
a hammered dulcimer.
And the music celebrates
the end of a drought.
It is typical Cantonese music
as it features delicate
ornamentation and improvisation.
And this is the final piece.
>>I have to return the key back
to the original scale
[tunes instrument].
[Music]
[Applause]
Female Announcer:
>>This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.