Soundtrack To Red Heroine by Devil Music Ensemble

katya-oddio on 02/16/18 at 04:15AM

Notes from performance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts:

Show Info for February 20, 2010

The Devil Music Ensemble performs their new original score live to the silent martial arts film Red Heroine (1929, directed by Wen Yimin). The DME premiered this score at the Films at the Gate Kung Fu Film Festival outdoors in Chinatown Boston in the fall of 2008. This film is the only surviving extant Chinese “Kung Fu” film from the silent era. Red Heroine is a prime example of the terrifically popular Chinese swordplay genre (wuxia pian), often based on published novels or serials, and an early cinema export, which was banned after the Cultural Revolution. The score that the DME has composed pulls from the traditions of Chinese classical and folk music, as well as soundtracks from classic Kung Fu cinema, and is the only modern score made expressly for this film. This is a very rare performance that showcases the combination of the ancient tradition of martial arts, early 20th century Asian film, and 21st century music.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/B16374