Oh, let his notes be thy eloquence
- Source: Global Times
- [09:18 April 28 2011]
- Comments
Burnett Thompson contemplates the Bard and an erhu (right). Photo: Courtesy of the artist
By Tom Mangione
Written over 400 years ago, Shakespeare's sonnets continue to enthrall English-speakers, not just from all walks of life, but throughout their lives as well. These 14-line poems cover the nature of love in all of its incarnations: from the passion of first attraction to the doldrums after the honeymoon phase; from sagacious self-awareness to melodramatic abandon; and from blithe naiveté to jaded grumblings.
Burnett Thompson, a noted jazz pianist and composer from Washington D.C., is just one of many who have professed a lifelong passion of the Bard's professions of love. However, his own appreciation rings with a unique note all of its own. Thompson has spent 15 years developing a song cycle inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets, setting these verses to music, blending jazz and Viennese song forms. Tomorrow, Thompson will perform his song cycle here in Shanghai, with a unique Chinese twist. Not only will the words will be sung in Chinese, but several of the songs will feature the erhu - a traditional Chinese bowed-instrument of two strings.
Thompson's interests took a turn towards China in 1999 when he was asked to help provide music to accompany the Chinese erhu virtuoso Ma Xiaohui, who would later provide the music for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Thompson describes the moment: "I got a call saying that they needed a pianist for tomorrow; someone who could handle extremely unusual music." Thompson would form a musical relationship with Ma Xiaohui including a performance at New York's world-famous Carnegie Hall. The encounter also sparked Thompson's interest in Chinese language and culture.
The decision to adapt Shakespeare's sonnets into the Chinese language proved to be a difficult one. Students of English prosody will remember that Shakespeare's rhythms are based on iambic pentameters (10 syllables or "beats" alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables), although the poet doesn't adhere to these rules. Thompson elaborated: "There is also the matter that the 10 beats are divided into two, and have a binary pulse. And sometimes this rhythm is inverted. It becomes a bit of a Rubic's cube." In order to render these words in a meaningful way in Chinese, Thompson relied on prominent Washington D.C. translator, Janet Tan.
When asked about difficulties in translation, Tan said that the rhythm was only one of three major difficulties in translation. The other two proved to be "how to show the beauty of Shakespeare's sonnets in the Chinese language" and "how to be faithful to the original meaning of the sonnets and preserve a sense of classical writing when the rendition is in modern Chinese lyrics for singing." Thompson recalled that this part of the process proved especially difficult, "before I started working with Janet, I showed the singer Coco Zhao a classic translation of the sonnets by Liang Shiqiu. Coco said he'd sing them, but he added that he wouldn't understand what he was singing about, and that the audience wouldn't either." Zhao said of the difficulty in translation: "Trying to fit all the syllables into one sentence, and melodically - it can be a bit hard. Also, the words in Chinese are not rhymed as in English, so sometimes there can be a bit of twisting. But no pain, no gain!"
In addition to Zhao, this Friday night Thompson will be joined by some of Shanghai's best local talent, erhu player Jin Ruowei, alto saxophonist Wilson Chen, bassist EJ Paker and drummer Chris Trzcinski. Thompson noted that he liked playing in Shanghai because "of the energy here." "The bench is not as deep here, so there is lots of room for new players to rise to the occasion and make things happen."
