Music without Boundaries
Each time a medal was presented to a winner at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the award music was played. The music was written by Tan Dun, a world-famous composer.
Born in 1957 in central Hunan, China, Tan Dun grew up near the LiuyangRiver. When he was very young, Tan showed an interest in music. He loves the sounds of the rushing water and the blowing wind because, to him, the best music comes from nature. Since he had no musical instruments then, he made music with common objects like stones and paper.
In 1978, Tan entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Eight years later, he went on to study in the USA. There he got to know great musicians from around the world. As a composer, perhaps he is best known for winning an Oscar for his music in the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
As he likes the sounds of nature, Tan uses them a lot in his music. His amazing piece of music Water does not use any musical instruments. Instead, Tan makes over 50 sounds from water by controlling the speed of water flow. “They're the sounds of nature, and they create different pictures in different minds,” Tan said.
Tan has helped build a bridge between the East and the West. He has successfully brought Chinese and Western music together. The music for the Beijing Olympics uses traditional Chinese music and the sounds of an ancient Chinese bell, though it is in a Western style.
“My music is to dream without boundaries,” Tan once said. In his work, the past and the present, common objects and musical instruments, traditional Chinese music and modern Western music all mix together to make a new type—music without boundaries.