Painting with Sounds - Guqin

1st Slide.

Guqin music has been used in a number of famous movies. If you Have seen these movies, you probably heard guqin music.

Although these movies are fiction, 諸葛亮 for example, in the movie Red cliff and Confucius,from the movie Confucius were real historical people who could play the guqin. So we know the guqin has a very ancient history.

Guqin, literally means "ancient zither." or the zither of antiquity. It has 7 string, therefore also called seven-stringed zither. Or it can be simply called the qin. Guqin is the oldest string instrument that has existed in Chinese history for almost 3000 years.  The qin that we play now is not much different from what the people were playing 2000 years ago.

The qin is often confused with the Chinese 古箏 and the Japanese Koto. 琴 and 箏 are two different instruments, both have a long history, but Qin is even older than zheng. JP koto belongs to the Zheng family.

The major differences are the qin has one stable bridge at the head. While the Zheng has a number of Moveable bridges/ Qin has 7 strings. While zheng has 13-21 strings/ Qin has a softer and lower tone, while zheng has a  brighter and louder tone/ Zheng players wear long artificial nails for plucking, qin player don't wear such nails, they just use their hands.

Although the qin only has 7 strings, it has a Wide range of sound including 4 octaves 

In the mean time, I am showing you this painting from Tang dynasty artist Zhou Fang, Drinking tea tuning qin. You can see this Tang lady is going to play the qin and before she start to play, she is tuning her qin. 

When playing the guqin, the first thing qin players do is checking the tuning and make sure all the strings are in tune. 

This piece I am going to play is a very elegant short piece called 良宵引, Song of a Pleasant Night.

[Qin playing]

As you can hear the Qin produces a soft and highly refined music with charming tones. The Taoist master Laozi once said 大音希聲＂ the greatest sound is almost no sound.  And maybe that is why for 2000 years, qin players play qin to meditate, to cultivate their mind and soul, and hope to reach to the highest level of pure and peaceful spirit.

Recently, there are two important world events happen in the modern history of the Guqin.

1, In 2003, guqin music was proclaimed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

2, Earlier In 1977, NASA sent the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft into outer space. They are carrying a Golden Record, containing music from around the world. Among those music, there is one guqin piece, "Flowing Water" (流水) performed by Master Guan Pinghu, one of the best qin players of the 20th century.

Qin is mainly used as a solo instrument. It is seldom seen in an orchestra but rather is played alone or with a small group of people who understand and appreciate its music. It is closely engaged with the Chinese literary class and Chinese painting, poetry, and the philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism.

This painting is from the Song dynasty artist 劉松年, it is called Listening to the Qin. It shows a qin scholar playing a qin on a special qin table, just like I have here a table specially made for playing the qin. While a friend bends toward him, you can see he appreciates the music. And their servant you can see is also listening to the music.  

The 20th century famous Dutch Sinologist, Robert Van Gulik, who was also a qin player, once said that a “painting with sounds” might be a good way to describe the essential quality of the guqin. It is so true. Therefore today I chose some ancient Chinese paintings to represent each piece I am going to play and hope you will enjoy the painting with sounds. 

The next piece I am going to play is called 泛滄浪 Boating on Azure Waves. It is an ancient qin piece from a 15th century qin music book. The Composer of this piece was said to be 郭楚望from the Song dynasty,  the11th century. This piece is presenting an image of riding on a boat on a big river, . You want to be within the universe looking at the misty clouds over the river, thinking how small human beings are against the big nature. 

The painting I chose to go with this qin piece is the only surviving painting from the Jing dynasty artist Wu Yuan Zhi in the 12th century, now in the Taipei Palace museum collection.

[qin playing] 

Now I would like to talk a little bit more about the qin notation. The qin has its unique notation system which allowed qin music to survive so many thousands of years. This picture is the earliest surviving qin manuscript from Tang Dynasty 7-8th century, called  Jie Shi Diao Yo Lan (elegant orchid in Jie Shi Mode). It is written in Chinese characters for qin players to remember how to play each song. For example, the first sentence of You Lan is telling the player to recline the left middle finger on the slightly left side of the 10th dot and press down the 2nd string. The 2nd sentence is telling the player to use the right middle and index finger to double “qian” (pluck) the 1st and 2nd string. And so on.

It was just like writing a story saying where and what the finger should play. It does not tell the rhythm and tempo. The tuning mode was indicated in front of a group of qin pieces which have the same tuning mode. So once you know the tuning and you know where to position your fingers, the rest is up to the creativity of the qin players to present whatever feeling they want to present.

The previous picture was the earliest surviving piece of that notation style, however that notation style was invented almost 200** years earlier than that piece (elegant orchid ) Yolan we saw. That notation style is called Wen-Zi-Pu, (literate notation). At least 200 years later there was the invention of Jian-Zi-Pu (abbreviated Chinese notation), that is what this picture is showing. They simplified the Chinese characters to a symbol system that has been used until now.

**

日人林謙三說烏絲欄指法譜是由隋唐人所寫, 說荻生俎徠曾明書烏絲欄為唐恆武(781年)以前筆跡, 與幽蘭譜的筆跡年代一致. 可證兩者同為一物. 古譜都說制譜始於雍門周(戰國人約320BC), 到隋唐時的趙耶利(died in 639) 修正. 集字成譜. 然後才有曹柔做減字譜. 也有說唐陳拙作減字, 明的楊倫說有楊氏減字法應是指宋的楊祖雲的減字法. 可曹柔到底是哪個年代的人未考, 汪孟舒先生認為曹柔應該在唐陳拙之前.So the qin writing system of notation, probably has been existed even about 1000 years earlier than the Yolan manuscript. And the abbreviated notation system could be developed around Sui and Tang dynasty. In another word, the guqin literate notation has been using for more than 1000 years then the abbreviated Chinese notation developed.

On the right side of this picture, I point out one symbol to show how it is constructed. Basically it has a upper half and a lower half. The upper half has left finger indication and the dot position indication. The lower half has the right hand indication and the string number. For example, this symbol says left ring finger on the 10th dot, and the right middle pluck inward the 2nd string. Again this style of notation system does not tell the rhythm and tempo.   

These are two of the modern ways of qin notation that some people are using now. They are Using the Jian-Zi Pu combine with Numeral notation or  western staff notation on top of the Jian-zi pu to address the needs for rhythm and tempo in the notation.

Mountain and water are the most favorite subjects in Chinese paintings, they are also nature scenery that ancient Chinese people like to worship and enjoy to be with.  

The next piece I am going to play is石上流泉 Spring Water Flowing over Pebbles. Spring water is a moving motion, while pebbles are quietly sitting there. However they don't hinder each other, rather they get along in harmony. That is one of the concept of yin and yang that the whole is greater than parts.

This painting is “Playing the Qin in a Secluded Valley” painted in 1548 by Wen  Zhengming, now is in the collection of the Cleveland museum of art. You can see the stream next to the qin player and his listener.

[qin playing]

To listen qin music, Qin listener like to hear the ringing of each qin sound and they also like to imagine the scene depicted by the music.  

 the next piece I am going to play, is the beautiful qin piece, "3 Variations on the Plum Blossom" – perhaps you can hear the Evening moon over the mountains and the plum blossom dancing in the wind.

And the painting here is called Plum blossoms by moonlight. 

[qin playing]

 

Qin music has three basic sound formats:

1st San Yin which is open string sound, which is referred to as the earth tone

2nd An Yin which is the press down string sound, and it is referred to as the human tone

3rd Fan Yin which is the harmonic sound, which is referred to as the Heaven tone. The harmonic is when the left hand lightly touches the strings while the right hand plucks the string. 

   

The next piece I am going to play uses a lot of Fan yin, harmonics, the heaven tone. 

It is called 神人暢 literally means Harmony between god and human but it can also mean Harmony between Spirit and mind.

Now let's look at the construction of the guqin and its different styles.  

The guqin is basically constructed with two pieces of wood; a top board and a bottom board.  The top rounded board of qin symbolizes heaven (天圓) and the bottom flat board of qin symbolizes earth. (地方) The top board is often made with paulownia wood 桐木 and the bottom board is often made from Catalpa wood梓木. In this picture, on the top left we can see a qin is opened and The top board is hollowed out,The bottom board has 2 sound holes.  On the top right of this picture, it shows the qin accessories, the goose feet and tuning pegs and the pegs with fringes.

Below are some of the different qin styles. Each style has a name.  For example on the 1st right is called Hun Tun Shi, the Simple natural style. Banana leaf style, the Confucian Style which is the most common style. Like the one I am playing today is the Confucian style.  On the left is one of the oldest surviving qin from 7-8th century, collected in Beijing Palace museum.  and the style is called 靈機式 some also call it神農式 which is the name of the god of aquiculture, same as my other qin there that I brought today. You can see this antique qin has inscriptions on the bottom board

This picture is showing the different names of each parts on the guqin.  

This painting is called finished playing Qin. So I know that I am going to play my last piece today. The last piece I am going to play is Drunken Ecstasy,  

 The Drunken Ecstasy is said to be composed by Ruan Ji, one of the famous Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), a time with a lot of turmoil.  Ruan Ji was a talented poet, a musician, a very sensitive and righthearted man. It is said that Ruan Ji kept himself drunk all the time in order to  avoid many political dangers. Did he really want to be drunk all the time, we don't know but His pretending drunk allow him to be able to live the life he wanted.

Clip of Mei Hua San Nong.