Experiencing place
By Tucker Harding

近八十架款式各异,年代不同的钢琴,像是在向人们诉说着一段段神秘的往事. 中外游人在此驻足流连,不忍离去. 但是,你千万别以为这些"老掉牙"的家伙已经没用了. 第二届鼓浪屿国际钢琴艺术节举行在即,钢琴博物馆还为这次巡演提供了四台演奏用琴呢.

The mystical crossover caught me off guard(出其不意), leaving me standing there, arms hanging, in a silent battle to keep my composure. The cause: a particular piece of Mr. Hu Youyi's collection of antique pianos in his museum on Gulangyu.

The piece, an automatic piano, was made in 1928 by the Haines Bros. company of New York. The combination of its mint(崭新的) condition and warm sound denotes an instrument well loved through the years. Of the 70-plus pieces in the museum, our guide revealed that this unit, which rests in a private section off-limits to the public, has the best sound of them all. He wanted us to hear for ourselves.

As it began its soft chords, I felt the distinctive pang(剧痛) of homesickness creep into my throat.

Unlike a normal automatic, this piano uses a particular kind of playing mechanism called "Ampico" and is categorized as a "Reproducing Piano". They're called such because they not only play the individual notes of whatever song has been inserted (the medium being a roll of grooved paper), but they actually reproduce the "keyboard touch" of the person who originally recorded the sheet, including the intensity with which each note was struck. This allows for perfect replication of the player's individual sound and tonal nuances. In a sense, it's not really a replication at all; nor is it a reproduction: it's the actual sound of a person playing a song on that piano at the time of recording. In this case, it was an American named J. Milton Delcamp playing his song in the late 1920s, and as he gently struck those keys, his notes struck me, nearly 76 years later, on the other side of the world. Rather than sound, however, it was location that caused the mystical to occur.

The people and places of my China life belong to their own segment of my reality - one that seems non-transferable, unable to cross over to my American life. As far as its notes could reach, however, this piano was able to bridge into Gulangyu, forming a bubble of New York around itself. Upon entering there, I pleasantly ached for that place and wondered whether the player, in that far-away time, ever imagined that someday his sound would be immortalized in China. It was then that I realized the mystical effect "Place" had on this listening: only by standing in that room here in China could the Haines Bros. piano, that song, and the ghost of Delcamp create what they had for me. The beauty of the moment was that the song needed China to exist as it was. In any other place, it simply would have been a different song.

The old Ampico is in a marvelous setting on Gulangyu - a piano heaven - and its one warm, melancholic tune, "Salut D'Amour"(爱的礼赞), will live on, sharing with us a kind of beauty it never could have achieved at home.

 

 

Music palace
By Grace Tang
All photos by Su Yuan



It's a world of ancient pianos!

Born in different parts of the world, the centuries-old pianos gather together in the two-building museum now.

Their yellow keyboards couldn't gloss over the superior craftsmanship from centuries ago. They stood there, quietly. However, with the beautiful melodies of music echoing around, they seemed alive again. Graceful piano lamps, although out-of-use, added to their delicacy.

How could these ancient pianos have survived the vicissitudes(世事变迁) of life? What kind of fingers have danced on them? How could they settle down in Xiamen finally?

For answers, you could trace the piano history from this little house - Gulangyu Piano Museum. It's really the palace of music. Here, you feast upon 70 plus ancient pianos and over one hundred ancient piano lamps and candle sticks originating from Britain, France, Germany, America, Austria and Australia.

The piano family in this house ranges from grand and square to upright and pianola(自动钢琴). You could meet artistic piano cases featuring carvings and inlays, as well as a street piano put downtown once for monkey shows and street performances.

From wooden to iron frames, from relatively weak to ample sound, the pianos are just the epitome of piano history. What you are enjoying is not only the lovely pianos, but also the bygones hidden behind them.

When you are strolling among the rare collections, graceful music, as if a wave on Gulanyu Island, is sweeping across the exhibition hall. Epoch-making sonatas written by Beethoven, beautiful waltzes by Schubert and piano concertos by Mozart - whether you are a music expert or not, you will get indescribable comfort and calmness from them.

Eye contact with great musicians! On the walls, hang oil paintings and photos of generations of music genius. They smile serenely, witnessing the worldwide spread of piano culture for centuries.

It's amazing that all the rare collections were donated by Mr. Hu Youyi - a keeper of pianos living in Australia.

Devoting his whole life to collecting pianos, Mr. Hu brought the rare treasure back to his hometown - Gulangyu Island. The familiar and echoing sound of pianos from Gulangyu is his nostalgia(乡愁). In this sense, the piano museum is also cast by the son's deep love to his motherland!

Featuring the harmony of humanity and nature, as well as that of nature and music, the music palace will lead you into a deep absorption in the beautiful landscape of Gulangyu and the beautiful melodies of music.

TIPS:
Gulangyu Piano Museum, located in Shuzhuang Garden, Gulangyu Island, is at this point in time the sole museum displaying ancient famous pianos collected from all over the world. The first exhibition hall was set up in January 2000 and the second in December 2001.

 

Ronisch(罗西尼)



Carl Ronisch himself was appointed purveyor of the Court of Saxony, which led to the company bearing the title "Carl Ronisch Court Piano Factories Dresden", with three crowns on the iron string frame of the piano. 1902, Dresden, Germany.
罗西尼被任命为宫廷御用制琴师. 其制造的钢琴荣获"德莱斯顿省卡尔罗西尼宫廷钢琴制造厂"的勋号;琴内铸铁板上有三个宫廷勋章. 1902年,德国德莱斯顿.

Steinway & Sons(士坦威)



World famous brand, square piano, 1864, New York, U.S.A.
世界知名品牌,四角钢琴,1864年,美国纽约.

Clemento(克莱门第)
The oldest piano in the museum, square piano, 1801, London, U.K.
馆内最早的钢琴,四角钢琴,1801年,英国伦敦.