Colorful Plumed Garment Dances were created during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty and had come to an end with the ending of it; therefore, it can be regarded as a representative of the vicissitudes of the Tang Dynasty when you come to learn Chinese in China.
As to the origin of the Colorful Plumed Garment Dances, there had been many different versions to be introduced to people dreaming of coming to study Chinese in China, one regard it to be created by the emperor Tangxuan, another understanding regard it to have had been another name for the Buddhist religious music of Brahman, and the third version is a in a balanced statement which regards the music were created by the emperor with references from the Brahmanical music.
Viewing from the entire art of the Tang Dynasty, the scholars who are interested in Chinese music and would like to study Mandarin in China may find out many traces of elements in the Tang art form which were the absorption or the references from the art of the Western Regions. It is also predictable that the Colorful Plumed Garment Dances were also created on the basis of the absorption of the music of the western regions.
While, it is noteworthy for friends longing to learn Chinese in China that there is another different version in the Chinese opera about this origin of the Colorful Plumed Garment Dances: the emperor of the Tang were invited into the palace of the moon, where he had enjoyed the dances of the fairies, he secretly memorized the movements as well as the melodies, and he took them down when he woke up the next day. And it is also understandable and amazing for music lovers who’d been to study Chinese in China that the emperor also commanded the subordinates to train the maids in the imperial palaces to dance in that way.
Actually, the Colorful Plumed Garment Dances had been performed before Yang Guifei were called into the palace, however, it is agreed by foreigners who’d been to study Mandarin n China that the Yang Guifei‘s version of the dances are considered to be the most famous one, and the saying that the Colorful Plumed Garment Dances are concerned with the fairies in the heaven is probably due to the fact that the contents and the plots of the dances are relevant to the moon fairies.
The musicians and artists expecting to learn Chinese in China must be eager to know the melodies of the dances, well, its tunes were of the religious music of the Taoism, which was composed by the Tang people and contains elements of Taoist thinking.
To the astonishment of everyone preparing to study Chinese in China, the Taoist fairy-like dances had adopted and integrated the Buddhist music Brahman Song, which is a well manifesto of the generosity manner of the art in the Tang Dynasty.
The Colorful Plumed Garment Dances, as have had been expected by friends before coming to study Mandarin in China, are performed by women, the actresses wear moon white or light colored gauzes, green plumed garments, as well as all types of ornaments made with pearls and jade, which make the dancers a beautiful and elegant as the fairies.
It is worth noticing when you study Mandarin in China that before the formal performances, there would always be a piece of free-style music, namely the all types of the musical instruments make their own sounds in sequence, or start a short piece of melodious and lingering music in solo or assemble.
During the intermediate phase, the gorgeously-embellished dancers started to enter into the stage in small paces, the melodies are slow, smooth and graceful, and it must seem fantastic for the people when they learn Chinese in China that the dancers’ postures are soft and elegant, the fragile flips makes the dressings moved like floating clouds, just resembling a fairy descending on the clouds. Then, it can be heard when you study Chinese in China while enjoying the performance that with the acceleration of the paces, the drastic fast paces makes the pendants jingling, all of a sudden, you could be able to hear the trimmed choruses as well as expressive spoken part which make the whole performance quite appealing.