China: Shawm suite

Brilliant playing by the Hua family shawm band, Yanggao county, north Shanxi (the same place where Li Manshan's Daoist band is active):

Da Yanluo suite at 1992 funeral, filmed by Stephen Jones.

For more versions of this piece, and other suites of the Hua band, listen to the amazing CD

Walking Shrill (Pan Records, 2004).

Further background:

Stephen Jones, Ritual and music of north China: shawm bands in Shanxi (Ashgate 2007; paperback, Routledge 2017).

Stephen Jones, “Living early composition: an appreciation of Chinese shawm melody”, in Simon Mills ed., Analysing East Asian Music: patterns of rhythm and melody, Musiké vol.4 (Semar, 2010), pp.25–112.

Steve also discusses it in

https://stephenjones.blog/dissolving-boundaries/

—a blog that contains much simulating discussion of ritual and music in Yanggao, China, and the world, including

https://stephenjones.blog/2017/03/14/walking-shrill-shawm-bands-in-china/

Twitter: @Stevejonesblog