Dance of the Golden Snake

Introduction

Nie Er's 1934 arrangement of the folk tune Daobaban, recorded by Pathé in Shanghai that June.

Dance of the Golden Snake is Nie Er's 1934 arrangement of the folk tune Daobaban for Chinese instrumental ensemble. In the spring of that year the Pathé record company advertised for players for a Chinese music band, with Nie Er as examiner, and at first it found only four. With so few hands, Nie Er played the sanxian himself and experimented with striking all three strings at once to drive the rhythm. The music historian Liang Maochun dates the recording to 29 June 1934, issued as Pathé disc 34610. The piece is in the zhi mode and duple time, and its second section uses the melodic device known as the snail's peak to drive the music to its climax. In 2008 it was played at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.