JEREMY MOYER: A Discovery of Chinese Folk Tunes

Jeremy Moyer

A Discovery of Chinese Folk Tunes

© 1997 Jeremy Moyer (624060952477)

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Rarely heard traditional folk songs from Taiwan and the south of China played on Coconut Shell Fiddle, Pipa Lute, and a variety of percussion instruments.

tracks

1 Spring (Cun Jing)
2 Madly in Love (Tao Hua Guo Du)
3 Meng Jiang Mourns Her Lost Husband (Meng Jiang Nu Diao)
4 By The Light Of The Lantern (Xiang Si Deng)
5 The 5th Watch/Copper Coin (Wu Gen Gu/Diu Diu Tong
6 Endless Hostility (Qian Li Yuan)
7 Three Stanzas From Yang-Guan (Yang-Guan San Die)
8 Happiness and Good Cheer (Bai Jia Chun)
9 Thinking Back (Si Xiang Qi)
10 Walking to Changhua/Xue-Mei Dreams of a Gentleman (Zhang-Hua Dia

notes

Originally from Waterloo Ontario, Canada, Jeremy Moyer has spent several years in Mainland China, Taiwan, and New York City's Chinatown learning Chinese Music. He performs a repertoire of folk songs and ancient classical pieces from the Cantonese and Taiwanese musical traditions. Moyer plays the Gaohu (Cantonese high-pitched fiddle), the Taiwanese Coconut Shell Fiddle, and the Erhu (standard Chinese two-stringed fiddle).

Moyer has always been attracted to the living folk music traditions - music which can be heard many mornings in the parks and teahouses of Chinese communities yet which is rarely represented on recordings or in formal performances. While working in Taiwan in 1996, he played the Coconut Shell Fiddle regularly with 78-year-old fiddler Zhang Shi-Dong, learning by rote Taiwanese folk tunes, folk opera pieces, and ancient religious and court songs which have been passed down through the Chinese oral tradition. While living in New York City from 1998 to 2001, Moyer played the Gaohu and studied Cantonese music with Yeung-Yee Lee. He was also a member of the Chinese Chamber Ensemble of New York where he played the Erhu.

'A Discovery of Chinese Folk Tunes' was recorded in Canada in 1997. It features music for the Taiwanese Coconut Shell Fiddle. The music is arranged and performed in a rustic traditional manner preserving the style of Moyer's Taiwanese teacher, Zhang Shi-Dong and the older generation of Chinese folk fiddlers. "The subtlety of the music and the playing requires several listenings before one can adjust to the gentle nature of the sounds, indeed, to the philosophy which breathes life into those sounds. There is a delicacy here which makes our frenetic lifestyles seem almost frivolous..." Harry Currie, The Record.

Since returning to Canada and settling in Montreal in early 2001, Moyer has been performing regularly on the Chinese two-stringed fiddles. In addition to giving concerts of contemporary world music and Chinese repertoire, Moyer gives interactive musical children's presentations, he gives lecture-presentations and workshops and he has performed at folk festivals and appeared at numerous Chinese-Canadian community events. He also performs regularly as a member of the group Galitcha (Punjabi folk and world music) and with George Sapounidis (Greek music and Chinese folk songs).

Moyer's current project 'Two Strings Dancing Ch'i' features his own contemporary world music compositions for the Chinese two-stringed fiddles. Visit the www.jeremymoyer.com website in the following months for concert dates and CD release information or email the artist (link on middle-left of this page) for more information.

Moyer speaks fluent English, French, and Mandarin Chinese.

reviews

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  • dude
    author: ashley

    This cd is sooooo cool, the best cd i have heard in months upon months. I love this stuff.

  • accomplished readings of trad folk tunes
    author: Carlos Alden host, "The Nacho Celtic Hour"

    This CD is a collection of Chinese folk tunes. Having lived in China, and playing the erhu, I have a keen ear towards this music already. Jeremy has done an excellent job of creating a good selection of offerings for the Western ear. Having studied with a few erhu masters, I can hear that he is not an expert, but that doesn't matter. As a folk musician myself, I recognize that technique is often the least important aspect of storytelling in music. Another reviewer noted the odd similarities between a few tunes on this CD and some French Canadian fiddle tunes. I heard this as well, and it's to his credit that Jeremy is able to grasp the musical essence of the tunes and present us with something that is intelligible. (I have also noted the similarities between Irish traditional music and Chinese folk tunes as well. If you like this idea, find and listen to The Chieftains in China CD.) This CD will get play on my folk/Celtic weekly radio program, as well as be in my CD player. Great work.

  • author: CD Baby

    Rarely heard traditional South Chinese folk songs played on Coconut Shell Fiddle, Pipa Lute, and a variety of percussion instruments

  • Amazing Performance
    author: Arturo

    Great music !!! If you like and collect world folk music than this CD is for you. Jeremy Moyer does an amazing performance of Taiwanese folk tunes.

  • Wisdom of the ancient east. Waterloo's Jeremy Moyer explores centuries-old musi
    author: Harrie Currie, The Record, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada 6/28/97

    Understanding Chinese culture and language - whether Mandarin or Cantonese - would be beyond most of us born into the nations of the Western world. All the more remarkable then, that a young Waterloo man has not only learned to speak fluent Mandarin during his three-year sojourn in China, but also has learned to play several traditional Chinese musical instruments to a standard where he has made a new CD of his accomplishments.... The subtlety of the music and the playing requires several listenings before one can adjust to the gentle nature of the sounds, indeed, to the philosophy which breathes life into those sounds. There is a delicacy here which makes our frenetic lifestyles seem almost frivolous, and the CD must be listened to with no distracting background noises, no interrupting telephones, and with no time constraints, for there must be contemplation during and after the listening session. At first there seems a repetition of sound which, to Western ears, seems almost monotonous, but this gives way to the discernment of the fragile differences in phrase, mood, and style. There is an eerie echo of early French Canadian fiddle music on some tracks - 1 and 10 in particular - but speculation on common ancestry would be fruitless. What emerges here is the culmination of an achievement which few of us could even contemplate, let alone accomplish. Moyer is to be congratulated.

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