BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
In the desert of western China lies one of the world’s greatest discoveries of ancient cultures, carved into the cliffs along the Silk Road trading route. The Mogao Caves evolved over the years into a collection of 2000 paintings, and a series of murals spanning 45,000 square metres – some of these remarkable artefacts dated as far back as 366 AD.
Chinese composer Tan Dun spent two years immersing himself in this ancient archive of Buddhist history. Surrounded by centuries-old carvings of monks and pilgrims, Tan studied the spiritual narrative preserved within these desert walls.
“I wanted to feel the same thing that, thousands of years ago, people could feel in the same way,” Tan says of his time visiting this UNESCO-protected site.
“Only there can I search for what’s happening artistically, musically, and also religiously in 1000-years ago China.”
Tan emerged from his research with his newest work Buddha Passion, which will see its Australian premiere with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra next month.
The opera in six acts is “like a St Matthew Passion, but it’s the passion story of Buddha”. Inspired by the Mogao site, each act shares the lessons of Buddha – opening with the enlightenment of Little Prince, and concluding with the journey of Buddha to Nirvana.
Beyond the caves (also referred to as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), Tan ventured further into the world to understand and document this cultural history. In the National Library of France, British Library, and Buddhist museums, he delved into collections of Dunhuang manuscripts, as well as evidence of ancient musical instruments he says would once have sounded inside the stone chambers.
Of the 400 ancient instruments that were played throughout this extensive period of Chinese history, Tan says “we lost track – but that’s why we need to do the research”. The composer recouped two or three ancient instruments for his passion – one he describes as the “ancestor of erhu” – and translated the lost notation into modern, readable notation.
The resulting melodies will be performed by the voices of the MSO Chorus, presenting two-and-a-half hours of Tan’s interpreted musical history. But, at its foundation, his Buddha Passion is a story of spirituality.
Reflecting on the themes of his creation, Tan Dun reveals to us: “My religion is music.”
“Music can connect all kinds of cultures and all kinds of language, and all kinds of people. And there’s a spiritual story [within music], somehow representing the most compassionate thoughts,” Tan shares.
“Compassion is going through many traditions – many kinds of passions and cultures.”
Indeed, music itself has been central to Tan’s spiritual path, interwoven with the striking creative output of his career. He explains: “I think my musical experience is like a lifetime, spiritual journey – along with the music.”
Tan describes the birth of his artistic career as taking place “in the field” and with the Peking Opera. Academically, Tan was selected in the 1970s as one of just 30 emerging artists to study in the then-reopened Beijing Central Conservatory, after the school had been closed during the Cultural Revolution.
From there, Tan pursued academia and moved to New York where, during the ‘80s, he worked on his PhD at Columbia University and formed relationships with leading artists such as composer John Cage, director Ang Lee, and artist-activist Ai Weiwei.
“Your academic journey will help you to bring out your spiritual journey to be shared with many, many people,” Tan observes.
He’s since broken into the varied and international worlds of conducting, visual art, and even claims the title of UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador. Although he has forged a career traversing continent, culture, language, and industry, Tan has chosen not to allow common fears to permeate his path to success.
“I never think about competition. I never think about anything else too practical. I am only thinking about music, in most cases,” he says.
“The most gifted quality [you can have] as an artist is that you can concentrate – not to be disturbed. In that, I always believed. That’s why I’m always trying to focus on the writing; thinking.
“When I was working in the field, when I travel – for this case, even when I was living inside of the caves – I find it’s very, very productive.”
Through his historically driven Buddha Passion, Tan returns to a love of the human voice. He has spent each recent decade composing a series of monumental operatic works. In 1989, he wrote Nine Songs, drawn from shamanistic poems that may have been written as early as 340 BC. In 1996, his Marko Polo opera was premiered and went on to be performed in 20 cities.
In 2006, Tan produced The First Emperor – a work he composed to English-language libretto, which shared the history of Chinese unification under emperor Qin Shi Huang. It’s the same 2000-year-old history that shaped the narrative of Zhang Yimou’s 2002 film Hero, scored by Tan himself. (Of course, two years prior, Tan had written the score to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, bringing to the composer a deserved triple-hit of acclaim through Academy, Grammy, and BAFTA awards.)
It seems frivolous to say that Tan has remained humble through these achievements. But emerging artists have much to take away from the personal values Tan says have contributed to his art.
“As a young composer, you are always interested in something new. Like myself – I always feel myself as young forever, because I have a very, very young heart. I am always searching for something new,” Tan reveals.
“But I find the ‘something new’ or ‘newest’ always relating to my dream. So, to capture your dream is what you do as a composer. To capture your dream – to catch your dream – that process is composing.”
On a practical level, Tan describes this translation of music into dreams as a process that evolves over the course of two steps:
“Number one is working on the inspirations. You need to travel, you need to work in the field […] and you need to get into that kind of a dream of freedom,” he advises.
“Number two, you need to have a good academic training, good technique, in order to write it out – produce out – as a best spiritual product.
“And these two steps – if lacking either one of them, it is not possible to be a good composer or good artist.”
But don’t worry if you’re not there, yet. Tan says he isn’t, either.
“I never think I already achieve that – except, my whole life composing is a way to achieve that.”
See Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at 7.30pm October 6 in Hamer Hall. Tan will conduct his own work, sung in Chinese and Sanskrit by the MSO Chorus.
We’ve teamed up with the MSO to celebrate Tan Dun’s new Buddha Passion – be sure to check back in as we bring you more coverage of this work behind the scenes!
Buddha Passion was commissioned by the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Images supplied. Mogao Caves exterior captured by David Stanley, CC BY 2.0; interior by emperornie, CC BY-SA 2.0.
