We beat the pottery drum of ten thousand years, played the bone yue (short flute) of eight thousand years， struck the stone chimes of four thousand years, and rang the pottery bell of four thousand years...The song Traces of the Gods was played by seven prehistoric musical instruments dating from 10,000 to 3,400 years ago. It was like the sound of nature and was exciting and unforgettable for the audience.
This is a scene of the “Chinese Prehistoric Ritual and Musical Instruments Symposium” held recently in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province.
“It is the first time that a symposium on Chinese prehistoric ritual and musical instruments has been held in China. 31 experts and scholars attend this conference, and 24 papers have been submitted, concerning two major fields: archaeology and music.” said Wang Dongli, the curator of Chaoyang Defu Museum, “The ten-thousand-year pottery drum, eight-thousand-year bone yue and stone xun (Chinese ocarina), four-thousand-year bone huang (a Chinese mouth harp) and stone chimes have been buried in the thick dust of history. Fortunately, our experts who specialize in this field can brush off the accumulated dust on these instruments and play them again.”
After the opening ceremony, six experts played a song called Traces of the Gods with seven ancient musical instruments, which was the culmination of this symposium. The seven musical instruments include the pottery drum from the Xiaohexi Culture dating from 10,000 to 8,500 years ago, bone yue (short flute) from the Jiahu Culture dating back to 9,000 to 7,800 years ago, bone yue (short flute) and stone xun from the Xinglongwa Culture dating from 8,200 to 7,400 years ago, and bone huang, stone chimes and pottery bell from the Lower Xiajiadian Culture dating back to 4,000 to 3,400 years ago.
“The song of Traces of the Gods awakens the sleeping mind of our ancient ancestors, brings history to life through music, and realizes the creative transformation and innovative development to make the past serve the present. This is also the unique feature of the symposium.” said Yu Dongbo, a wind instrument player for Nanjing Chinese Orchestra.
