A concert called “Chinese Church Music Since the Tang Dynasty” was held by Beijing Catholics in mid-October.
Live-streamed on October 16, the virtual concert received more than 50,000 views as the prologue of the recent seminar “The Chinese Face of Jesus Christ” which explored the Sinicization of Catholicism, was conducted on the same day.
Different styles of religious music were presented in the Church of the Savior in Beijing, covering the sacred music of Nestorianism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.
According to Tianguang (Heaven Light) Newspaper, an online Chinese-language Catholic news agency based in Beijing, the pieces which are mostly rooted in Chinese indigenous music were performed via traditional Chinese musical instruments in chronological order, spanning the dynasties and periods of Tang, Ming, Qing, the Republic of China, and modern times.
“The purpose of the concert is to show people what the Christian music in China has experienced, what has survived, and what we can enjoy at present.”
Some excellent works with Chinese characteristics were selected. Many were from Hymns of Universal Praise, a church hymnal published in 1936.
This is the most important church music hymnal in modern times, whose theological and translation levels reached their peak in the recent century,” said Sun Chenhui, associate researcher at the Institute of Music of the Chinese National Academy of Arts.
“Appreciating the sacred music adapted from Chinese classical poems and music and knowing their background, we are not only nurtured by these church music works which are ‘sinicized’ at a high level but also catch a glimpse at the efforts of church predecessors who strove to sinicize sacred music in order to preach the gospel throughout China,” said Joseph Li Shan, the Catholic Archbishop of Beijing.
The concert ended with a piece titled “The Lord’s Prayer”.
- Translated by Karen Luo
