The Durham Oriental Music Festival and Chinese Music

Abstract

The year 2016 marked the fortieth anniversary of a novel experiment in the modern cultural development of the United Kingdom, the first in a short series of unprecedented and subsequently unmatched festivals. More than forty years later it is still talked about by the citizens of Durham and by musicians worldwide. This was the Durham Oriental Music Festival (DOMF) and it was held three times, in 1976, 1979, and 1982. A collection of relevant papers covering the years 1972-88 was later compiled and deposited for safe keeping in Durham University Barker Research Library,1 and enhanced by the memories of some of those who were there the archive forms the basis of this chapter. We are grateful to all those who have assisted us in telling the tale.2 We have indicated our sources wherever possible and sought to corroborate details provided from the memory, but we apologise for any errors and omissions. We hope we have managed to convey a sense of the remarkable atmosphere that prevailed in Durham in those far-off days and to show how DOMF provided a stepping stone on the way to a better appreciation of Chinese music in the United Kingdom. This chapter draws upon and amplifies an article first published in Asian Musicology (volume 27), and we are grateful for permission to replicate parts of it here.