Uniquely Satisfying
Unconventional concertos
by Mark Armanini -
fascinated the late
HOWARD SMITH'... this Chinese-Canadian-Vietnamese-Latvian programme is fascinating, eloquent, musically distinguished and deserving of a widespread multi-national following.'
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Mark Armanini's unconventional concertos resemble neither the impenetrable foreignness of Chinese opera or the groaning, musically vanquished — strewn from end to end of 'crossover' battlefields.
The most prominent feature in this programme is the trapezoidal yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer originally from the Middle East — Persia, ie today's Iran — where it was found around 600 years BC.
It arrived in China during the Ming dynasty — 1368 to 1644 — and is now one of the principal instruments in the Chinese orchestra.
Hammered dulcimers of various types are now very popular not only in China, but also Magyar and Balkan Europe, the Middle East, India and Pakistan...
Copyright © 4 February 2018
Estate of the late Howard Smith,
Masterton, New Zealand
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