Prior to Ellen Fullman’s concert in Hong Kong I downloaded some of her music. I enjoyed listening to the done-like tones of her long string instrument, and it made me look forward to her live performance. I wondered how the long string instrument will sound like live, and also how Ellen Fullman will perform on it.
For the Hong Kong concert, Ellen Fullman paired with Theresa Wong playing the cello. The long string instrument was set up diagonally across the whole stage. It consisted of two bunches of strings strung between two vertical wooden elements, one with resonating hollow boxes. Theresa Wong sat in the backdrop. Playing the long string instrument was carried out by Ellen Fullman standing in the middle between the two string bunches by touching the strings with both hands while walking slowly back and forth. The sound consisted of slow resonating drones. The cello and long string instrument sounds overlapped and melted into each other, creating an almost indistinguishable sonic sculpture. Indeed rather than a composition, I would call the performance a sound sculpture. I felt the aim was to create one big sound body. I enjoyed the performance equally as I enjoyed listening to her recorded performances before.
However now some criticism. I did not understand why both the long string instrument and the cello were amplified, and played back to the audience from two speakers placed right and left behind the audience. As a result, the sound became flattened, and I felt like I am listening to a reproduction rather than the original. Both the long string instrument and the cello are acoustic instruments, and the sounds did not seem to use any modulation or effects, the electronic circuit was only used for amplification. A great pity.
This made me think about what I perceive as an obsession of Chinese people with amplification. Bigger, louder, stronger seems to always signify a more desired state in Chinese culture. Even the street musicians playing violin and erhu use an amplifier, and I hate them for that. I wonder if the local philharmonic orchestra amplifies their instruments as well. I can see the analogy in Chinese cuisine, where tons of monosodium glutamate are poured into each and every dish that comes to the table in order to amplify its taste. I don’t know if the Ellen Fullman concert was a manifestation of this cultural trait, or just a coincidence. The concert made me miss the concert halls and theatres in Europe, designed hundreds years ago for classical music performances, without amplification, and still beautiful today.
The concert did not really satisfy my curiosity about how the long string instrument really sounds. I enjoyed the concert with Ellen Fullman’s presence, and she managed to create a unique atmosphere in the space, but sound-wise it was not qualitatively different (if not inferior) to listening to a CD. The concert did set off my imagination and now I wish I could see Ellen Fullman perform in a large concert hall space, unplugged.