Yayue project update 雅樂項目更新: Three (More) Yayue for the Confucian “Capping Ceremony” 《三加禮》第二套 (Dec. ’22)

Over the last eighteen months I’ve been engaged in an ongoing project to familiarise myself with the ancient and charming instrumentarium of Chinese court ceremonial music, known as Yayue, a close ancestor of the Japanese gagaku. I’ve approached this from the point of view of first understanding the characteristic atmosphere of a traditional Confucian ritual, known as the “three caps ceremony”, which was (and still is) a sort of coming-of-age ceremony. The three short movements would be used to accompany (I understand- but I am still learning) the “capping” of the ceremonial participants with three different sorts of hat, each with their own symbolism.

I’ve already composed two sets of these three short pieces. Here is a rough rendition of the second set, recorded in class by the Nanhua University department of ethnomusicology Yayue ensemble.

在過去的十八個月，我一直在進行一個項目，主旨為熟悉一個古老而迷人的樂器組合，即中國的宮廷音樂，被稱為“雅樂”，跟日本雅樂是近親。我是從首先了解傳統儒家儀式（稱為“冠禮”，或“三冠禮”，或“三加冠”，或“三加禮”，四個名稱我都看過）的特有氛圍的角度來探討這個問題的，這是一種成年儀式。按我所知（本人還在學習中），這三個簡短的樂章將用於伴隨儀式參與者戴上三種不同類型的帽子，每種帽子都有自己的象徵意義。

我已經創作了兩套這三首短曲。這是第二套的粗略演繹，由南華大學民族音樂學系雅樂樂團在課堂上錄製。

Three (More) Yayue for the
Confucian “Capping Ceremony”
《三加禮》第二套

No.1（一）

No.2 （二）

No.3 （三）