Chen Tao: Beautiful Music and a Fun History Lesson

Performance Review

Music is much more than some noises and beats put together to create something that sounds nice. It is full of rich history going back hundreds, even thousands of years. Music is traditional, and is carried down from generation to generation in order to keep those traditions alive as time goes on. In order for a musician, composer, or performer to really understand and display the true beauty of the genre of music they pursue, they need to study the history of said genre. A great example of this is Chinese flutist, music educator, composer and conductor Chen Tao. While he is very talented at his craft, he is also very knowledgeable of the history that comes along with it. While being interviewed in my English class, he gave a short performance on two different kinds of flutes, and gave us (the students and our professor) a short history lesson about the style for each flute. 

The first flute performance Chen Tao did was, as he described, from southern China. When listening to it, the notes almost all seem to flow together smoothly and effortlessly, especially at the start of the song. The song sounds very peaceful and calm, and reminds me of being next to a river and watching and listening to the water flow by. Then, the song starts to get a little more exciting and fast, just as a river can suddenly begin to flow very quickly and become more dangerous to be in. There begins to be more abrupt pauses and note changes in the song, while still maintaining the overall flow of the piece. This mimics the twists and turns that a river can take, but in all it still all flows together and remains as one. After the performance, Tao explains that the music mirroring the behavior of a river is no accident. As this song and instrument are both from southern China, they are mimicking the environment around them. The part of China south of the Yangtze River has a calm landscape, mostly having flat land and lots of small rivers, thus influencing the sound of the music from this area. It is also worth mentioning that the techniques used for this song also are much different than the other performance that will be described later. Tao explains that for this flute, he uses more of his fingers and breathing control in order to achieve such smooth and unique notes. It was a beautiful performance, even if it was done over zoom.

After the southern Chinese flute was played, Tao began to play a flute and song from northern China. After listening to the first flute’s sound, it is obvious that this flute had much different techniques. While listening, it is clear that there is something happening with his mouth and the way he is playing this flute compared to the last, which sounds like he is rolling his tongue while playing the note. This creates such a unique sound that catches your attention quickly because of how loud and different it is. The notes are much sharper and easier to distinguish in this piece, and appear to be much higher in pitch compared to the first performance, as well as there are much more of the abrupt pauses that were present towards the end of the first performance. These sounds remind me of being out in the wilderness, they almost sound like different bird calls, especially when he does the tongue rolling technique. The song sounds like it would be one that is played in a movie when an adventurer is climbing up a dangerous mountain and trying to avoid all of the obstacles that are ahead of them. As the song continues, the tempo begins to rise and rise, building the tension up to when it gets really exciting and fast. That part in particular is what reminds me most about being in a movie, it feels like we are following this adventurer up a mountain, and things get more dangerous as they climb along with the climbing tempo and sharper notes. The end of the song comes almost without warning as well and stops immediately. The first performance, the last note was strung out and lasted a few seconds and faded away, as a river does when it flows into the ocean eventually. With this performance, the end note is quick and cut sharply, just as the tip of a mountain is. The tip of the mountain is the smallest, sharpest part of the mountain, and the end of the song reflects that. Tao explains that all of these similarities between the song and mountains is no accident either. Northern Chinese landscape, compared to the south, has much more mountains and is less flowy and smooth. The technique used for this song is not as much about the breathing and finger movement like the first performance’s technique, but Tao explains that it is more in the mouth and tongue and how it moves to create those interesting sounds that mimic birds and other sounds of nature. This was another beautiful performance, and his small history lesson about each of these songs and flutes shows that he has a deep understanding and appreciation for his culture’s music. 

It is a dream for many to be able to play an instrument, sing a song, or compose an orchestral piece and have it be loved by hundreds of thousands of people, but no one can do so overnight. It takes a lot of hard work to get to that point, and Chen Tao has put in all of that work and then some. He is so well versed in his area of music, and even teaches it himself to others in order to pass on his findings and the huge amounts of information he holds. The passion that is seen and heard through his music is undisputed, and it is such a wonderful thing to see. His music is worth giving a listen to, even if there are no lyrics. There doesn’t need to be because the message can be heard through the notes.