© The Society for Ming Studies 2010 DOI 10.1179/175975911X12962148497417 ming studies, No. 62, November, 2010, 1–24 Performing Matteo Ricci: The Map and the Music Ann Waltner and Qin Fang University of Minnesota, USA Linda Pearse Indiana University, USA ¡Sacabuche!, an early European music ensemble at Indiana University, under the direction of Linda Pearse, together with Huang Ruo, Ann Waltner, and Qin Fang, designed a multi-media program focusing on the sixteenth- century Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci, taking as the focal point Ricci’s 1602 map, which we call “Matteo Ricci: His Map and Music.” We used music, images, and text to create a layered performance, which we premiered in Beijing in December of 2010. This article describes the program and the logic behind some of the artistic decisions we made. keywords Matteo Ricci, Palestrina, Gabrieli, guzheng, sheng, ¡Sacabuche!, Huang Ruo An Italian Jesuit makes a map of the world (including the Americas) in Beijing in 1602, in Chinese. Thousands of copies are printed. In 1608 the emperor asks for a copy of the map; new blocks are carved and copies are printed on silk for the emperor. None of the silk copies survive, and only six of the paper copies do. One of the paper copies has recently been acquired by the James Ford Bell Trust for the library at the University of Minnesota. This map prompted this collaboration. Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), the author of the map, was a member of the first Jesuit mission to China. Ricci was a mathematician and a cartographer. He used his scientific skills to appeal to Chinese literati, hoping to lead them to an interest in Christianity. He acquired a high degree of literacy in Chinese; he wrote a number of works in Chinese in addition to the map. Huang Ruo’s “Fisherman’s Sonnet,” which opens this performance, pays homage to kun opera, which was popular in south China at the time Ricci was there. As a contemporary piece with resonances with the past, it alerts the listener to the fact that 62-1-MNG 01 Waltner et al.indd 1 62-1-MNG 01 Waltner et al.indd 1 2/14/2011 1:55:44 PM 2/14/2011 1:55:44 PM