ABOUT
Presented within the oldest continuous Chinese settlement outside of Asia, The Ninth Tone speculates on the legacy of Chinese Music outside of China since the 1800s. First conceived by Leung in 2022,this iterative project uses intonation, materiality, memory, and echo in a hauntological reimagining of Chinese Australian music.
This project problematises simplistic dominant cultural understandings of ‘east meets west’ that ignore significant historic lineages. Chinese culture and music has been present in Australia for almost 200 years, and cross-cultural collaboration is almost as old. Tracing archives, artefacts and familial histories from the Gold Rush to the present day, The Ninth Tone offers an alternative answer to the question of what Chinese Australian music is and can be.
Over the hour-long performance, fragments of musical histories fill the space; a chorus of musical echo are transmitted through a multiple radio systems; hidden frequencies of Chinese opera percussion are revealed through precise amplification; Chinese stringed instruments are retuned to be resonate with historic places of significance; and gramophone records from the late 1800’s are coaxed back into resounding.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. This project is supported by the City of Melbourne and the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund.
Past Performances
Supporters
The Ninth Tone would not have been possible without the support of the following people and organisations.
Creative Australia
APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund
City of Melbourne
