Renowned Composer: The Music and Dance Are Presented Perfectly (Photo)

By Zhou Rong in Taipei

(Clearwisdom.net) Renowned composer Professor Ma Shuilong attended the first performance of the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular in Taipei on March 15. Professor Ma has composed a lot of original music for the repertoire of many well-known companies. His music is in the idiom of traditional music, and creative in the combination of Chinese and Western musical instruments. After seeing the performance, Professor Ma highly praised the detailed designs of the stage sets, the flawless match between the music and dance, the simple but effective choreography, and the solid skill of the performers.

Renowned composer, Professor Ma Shuilong said, "The stage design of the performance is detailed and exquisite. The music and dance are seamless."

Ma Shuilong recently held three music release conferences at the end of 2007. This year, he continues to compose large symphonies based on oriental culture. His works are not only welcomed at home, but he is also the first Eastern composer whose individual compositions were played in concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.

Ma Shuilong said it is difficult to complement music and dance. However, he said that the music and dance performed by Divine Performing Arts matches so flawlessly that the dancers and the composer must have coordinated and cooperated very well with each other in order to achieve such a perfect show.

Ma Shuilong is adept at putting visual aesthetics into his music, and he also stresses the concept of "hearing paintings with one's ears and seeing music with one's eyes." From this basis he observed the entire performance closely. He believes that stage design should not be overly complex, otherwise it would be too presumptuous and dominant. He felt that the stage design of Divine Performing Arts is very appropriate, and the backdrop and the dancers match each other perfectly. The animations on the backdrop are fantastic, he said.

Professor Ma said that the show focused on traditional Chinese dance. In terms of choreography, every piece was simple but effective, and very neatly done. The dancers have solid skills, not only in traditional Chinese dance but also in Western dance. He recognized that the performers of Divine Performing Arts have received strict training and have been able to fully understand their own culture. They put their thinking into a body language, which he found really remarkable.

As a professional musician, after listening to the Erhu soloist perform ("Predestinated Relationship"), Ma Shuilong said that the performance and interpretation of the Erhu was quite good. "This music is very familiar. Although the playing of the music is not that difficult, it's not easy to interpret it. The interpretation only depends on the performer's inherent character. I think the entire performance was interpreted with the player's heart."

Ma Shuilong said that the Divine Performing Arts performers had a profound understanding of Eastern tradition. He said, "At the same time, they have gotten excellent and rigorous dance training. And they performed very well through their body language, so I think their future development should be promising."

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2008/3/16/174433.html

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