The Magic Sound of Strings by Eduardo Garcia Acosta

“Close your eyes, listen, and let your imagination wander… That is about the only thing I would say about this project. It sounds easy enough. But it is a little more complicated than that.

How will it work? Well, first we have to do a lot of listening to one another. The next thing we tend to do instinctively is to imitate each other’s sounds and as we find our way we come to images of what the music is doing and how that compares with what our instruments can do for us. And then of course as the listening becomes deeper one realizes the sounds, all along, are and have been like a party falling down on us from the astonishment of birds.

The idea of bringing together Chinese and Mexican strings seemed, in the beginning, unimaginable; two distant cultures with two distinct musical traditions. But as we started sounding our instruments we realized there is a familiarity and difference at the same time. The magic sound of strings is such that it has enchanted our hearts and ears. We have found common ground in love songs, silvery dawns, birdsongs, broken hearts, tales of sailing, and the cheer joy of dancing. Pentatonic scales are used in different cultures around the world and that is true of China and Latin America… another commonality found.

This has proved to me once more the universality without borders that music is, for as many esthetic differences between the two musical cultures, it affords us once more the opportunity to love that, which moves us to coincide.

I am being reminded of the fact that now as in the past music has migrated –it is related to people migrating- from one place to another. Taking music to wherever one goes promotes respect.

China, América Latina
con sus cuerdas van unidas;
y vibraciones sentidas
son mancuerna que fascina.
La distancia se elimina
compartiendo los sonidos
dados bien, bien recibidos
de la Pipa a la jarana
y al requinto que se hermanan:
en sonoro verso, unidos

China and Latin America
are united through their strings
their heartfelt vibrations
are a fascinating team.
Distance lost its meaning
as these sounds are to be shared
good will giving and recceiving
the pipa,  jarana, fandango,
and requinto sing together
and in song they all convene.

- Eduardo