although i was not able to hear the traditional chinese music at huzhou, i still managed to hear some today here in shanghai.
much of chinese shopping is organized by neighborhoods -- and that includes music-related things. the music street here in shanghai is jingling rd...although it took me a long time to figure that out. i wandered around that general neighborhood for quite some time simply enjoying the scenery of the hustle and bustle of shanghai life. eventually i happened upon one music store and asked if there was a street for music...indeed there was! jingling lu [road].
once there i had hours of fun testing out various chinese percussion instruments. there were enormous calf skin drums, bamboo clackey things whose name currently eludes me, smaller bells, and, of course, a plethora of different gongs. i cannot stress enough how much i love gongs...and how good and inexpensive they are here. anyway, after testing lots of different instruments i purchased 1 20-inch gong [which got a lot strange looks as i walked home], plus two other smaller gongs. i have a sinking feeling i'll be headed back to jingling lu some time before the end of my visit.
on the way home i happened upon what seemed to be a senior citizens music club. they had stacks of sheet music lying around, and then there were 20 or so people sitting around drinking tea and listening as a song was sung...they all were taking turns singing, and there was a house band of a pipa, erhu, and someone playing the aforementioned bamboo clackey-things. it was quite lovely.
that's all for now...looking forward to the performance on thursday...
nat
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