VIDEO: Musician Jeffrey Beecher Performs Music Inspired by the Cave Temples of Dunhuang

[Music plays: Prelude from Four Short Pieces for Double Bass]

Jeffrey Beecher:  For me, one of the most amazing things in standing inside Replica Cave 275 is to imagine the weary traveler who’s walked hundreds and hundreds of miles coming into this incredibly small but very personal, introspective space.

Besides their physical fatigue, the emotional fatigue, the multiple emotions that they’re probably feeling of reward, of satisfaction—and to imagine that this place provides gives them that real serene opportunity to contemplate those things, as opposed to, say, in the 21st century where we take a long road trip, and we pull off and see fast food, and we have the opportunity to check our smart phones and look at our social media accounts. To have that introspection, I think, is such an incredible thing to think about. To imagine thousands of years ago people doing just that in this setting is something that amazes me so much.

So, for me, as a musician, there’s a piece that I love to play that I think has that introspective nature. It’s a Prelude to Four Short Pieces by a composer named David Anderson.

[Music continues to the end]