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Silk Zither Dreams
A Musical Tour of Old China Representative program: Shanghai 2013 |
夢迴絲桐
縵遊神州 1 節目簡介 |
| "Playing qin" : holding it while contemplating nature 2 |
This program evokes China's natural and poetic beauty as experienced in the minds of Chinese literati of bygone days.3 All the music is played on a silk string guqin from scores published in the Ming dynasty, following principles of historically informed performance. Most of the melodies are selected because of their associations with specific places around China, but this should not be taken too literally: guqin music, like Chinese landscape painting, was usually more poetic than descriptive. Thus, by listening to the music and learning the associated stories one can gain a deeper appreciation of how the literati of that time viewed their natural and cultural environment.
This poetic approach is epitomized by the melody below called Water Immortal's Melody. The title is here associated with a place where Boya supposedly created it (Penglai or Mount Tai, both in Shandong) or a place where he is said to have played it (Wuhan/Hanyang in Hubei). More importantly, though, it conveys his learning to express himself on the qin by listening to the sounds of nature, then blending the silk strings of the guqin with all the other natural elements.4
This program could be performed as a series. For example, each performance could focus on a particular region, perhaps tailored to a specific performance venue. In this regard the regions with the most melodies seem to be the following:
Note that some areas are noticeably short or missing, such as Hebei province (including Beijing) and the southern provinces of Guangdong, Guizhou and Yunnan (see Other areas). These would have to be included as part of a program that includes multiple regions.
Other possibilities include programs focusing on qin songs, melodies associated with certin natural areas (e.g., mountains, lakes), with historical sites and/or with legends.
Sample melodies to consider
5
Instrumental melodies with partial lyrics or having related short songs
Qin songs
From this, as well as from Guqin in specific areas and places in China, it can be seen that there are a sufficient number of melodies that one could do a series of programs focusing on certain regions individually.
Likewise one could also make either a one hour single CD or a series of hour-long CDs under the present title.
1.
Silk string zither dreams: A Musical Tour of Old China (夢迴絲桐，縵遊神州
Menghui Sitong, Manyou Shenzhou)
Thus although the main title and subtitle of the Chinese and English are not literal translations, the combined translation conveys the same idea.
2.
"Playing qin"
The following footnote has a related comment.
3.
Evoking the world of the Chinese literati
It will be noted that some pieces can refer to more than one place. For example, Canon of Form and Emptiness is particularly appropriate to anywhere there is a statue of Guanyin, while Discussing the Dao at Kongtong Mountain could be appropriate to any of the places that claim to be the actual location where the conversation took place.
4.
"Playing qin" in nature
Note that he did not say that I should actually play my guqin at these places. And although a common motif in Chinese literati art shows people out in nature with a qin, rarely are they shown actually playing it. Aspects of this attitude can also be seen in the story about qin in nature told in the Qin Shi biography of Boya, as well as the attitude expressed under Qin Ideology in the inscription to the fan painting of a scholar in the countryside with his stringless qin: taking the qin into nature may facilitate the absorption of natural sounds, by the qin as well as the player. These can then come out when one returns home and plays in a quiet environment.
Modern players who say that one of the advantages of nylon metal strings is that they can be taken outdoors more easily may miss this point, that the music was thought of as part of the environment, not part of an effort to overcome it. The silk string sound can only blend with its environment; metal, by its nature, seems intended to overcome it.
In addition to gaining inspiration directly from nature, in the quiet studio one can also be inspired by looking at relevant paintings. In this regard it might be noted that traditional Chinese artists are not known to have done their paintings while actually out in nature.
Traveling to places connected to qin, and finding art that relates to qin melodies, can lead to interesting experiences. One example of this is related with the melody Mid Autumn Moon, which I once had occasion to play on a peak of the Huangshan Mountain range during Mid-Autumn evening. Some time later I found what seemed to me a relevant painting; looking at it helps me relive the experience.
My personal reaction in this type of experience has, so far, been that in such an environment my playing tends to become slower and more contemplative, with each note sufficient unto itself (being recorded often seems to have the opposite effect). However, I have also had this experience when simply playing on a good instrument in a very quiet studio, with no other sensory input. The resulting sound may seem even more abstract to the uninitiated listener (meaning just about everyone, since so few people actually know the ancient melodies), but to the 知音者 zhiyinzhe (one who knows music) the melody is in fact just as clearly there.
5.
Representative program: Shanghai, 24 February 2013 (selected from Sample melodies to consider)
The melodies here were arranged first by tuning, so that to change tuning during the program strings are only loosened, not tightened. Then within standard tuning they are arranged by mode.
Note that by taking out some melodies or including other relevant melodies one can easily change the length of this single program.
Melodies included here mostly connect to stories from the Zhou through Tang dynasties.
Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, often considered the cultural heartland of China, especially after the Tang dynasty
Southern China, specifically Hunan province (and perhaps occasionally Hubei)
Guqin in specific areas and places in China has information or links to further information about specific melodies that might be considered for a program that features melodies connected to specific places in China. Some of these are also listed below.
The Yellow Emperor and Guangchengzi meet in Ningxia
(North and Central Asia)
Inner Mongolia (North and Central Asia)
Li Ling in captivity in the Gansu/Mongol regions
(North and Central Asia)
Guo Chuwang sees the Xiao and Xiang rivers, Hunan
(Chu region)
Geese on sandbanks originally evoked exile by the Xiang River in
Changsha
(Chu region)
Boya and Ziqi meet near Wuhan, or perhaps Changzhou
(Chu region)
Miluo River, Hunan (Chu region)
A fisherman encounters an idyllic society in the Wuling Mountains, northwest Hunan (Chu region)
Recalling Emperor Shun's death in the Hunan/Guangdong border region
(Chu region)
A spring ritual in Shaoxing (Lower Jiangnan)
Fan Li floating on Taihu Lake, west of Suzhou (Lower Jiangnan)
Poets at leisure on Taihu Lake and the Songjiang River
(Lower Jiangnan)
A temple bell in Suzhou (Lower Jiangnan)
Mount Tai in Shandong and/or Wuhan in Hubei (Other areas)
Boya learns from nature in
Penglai and/or Mount Tai (Shandong); expressing this in Hanyang (Hubei; see above)
Ban Jieyu abandoned in her palace (Xi'an)
Xiang Yu loses the battle for empire at Gaixia and environs
(Anhui; Chu region)
Moon Atop a Plum Tree
(梅梢月;
Lin Bu appreciates plum blossoms from his home in Hangzhou
(Lower Jiangnan)
Wangzi Qiao ascends into immortality from the Songshan Mountain Range (more at Henan)
Confucius teaches at Qufu, Shandong (Other areas)
Sima Xiangru seduces Wenjun near Chengdu, Sichuan (Other areas)
The lyrics, attributed to Emperor Shun, were used for China's first national anthem
Published by Prince Gong of Hui (or Huifan), apparently now part of Henan province
Tao Yuanming at Jiujiang, Jiangxi (see Other areas)
Chuzhou (Ouyang Xiu's retreat in Anhui)
Xi'an and west (in North and Central Asia)
The lyrics by Li Bai describe places and events in Xiangyang, northern Hubei (see other areas).
At Handan (Hebei) Luofu resists the advances of a local official
(Other Areas)
A setting for qin of 王羲之 蘭亭序 Wang Xizhi's Lanting Preface (Shaoxing in Lower Jiangnan)
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
The Chinese title here can be broken down as follows:
"Menghui" literally means "dream-travel", suggesting wandering around then coming back.
"Sitong", literally "silk and tong wood", is a literary name for the qin, China's musical instrument par excellence.
"Manyou" literally means "Unembellished travel", "simple travel" "traveling in/with plain silk".
"Shenzhou" literally means "sacred area". According to 25211.70 神州, the earliest reference to Shenzhou is in the quote "中國名曰赤縣神州", attributed to 鄒衍 Zou Yan in the Shi Ji biography of
Mencius.
Nienhauser VII/180 translates this quote as, "The Central Region he called 'the Sacred Township of the Red Country'", adding in a footnote that Zou Yan's use of the word 州 zhou in Shenzhou emphasized his opinion that 中國 Zhongguo (today "China", but often translated as "Middle Kingdom") was a small part of a greater world.
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Photo taken by Lau Shing-Hon on Cheung Chau, Hong Kong, December 2010. I lived on Cheung Chau 1976 to 2001, beginning and completing a large amount of my reconstruction there.
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The evocation can be purely musical or it can be accompanied by projected film or images. Links here to suggested melodies show that related images and commentary can include photographs, paintings, poetry, calligraphy and more.
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Once when I was playing for some older guqin players I asked for advice on what I could do to improve my technique. One of them said simply, "Visit famous beauty spots in China". I cannot recall whether he added "relevant to guqin", but I do recall that others nodded their heads in apparent agreement.
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This version of Silk Zither Dreams had about 60 minutes of music (not including gaps between pieces; no intermission):
Xiang Yu loses the battle for empire at Gaixia and environs (Anhui)
A fisherman encounters an idyllic society in the Wuling Mountains, northwest Hunan (Chu region)
Boya learns from nature in
Penglai and/or Mount Tai (Shandong); expressing this in Hanyang (Hubei; see above)
Lin Bu appreciates plum blossoms from his home in Hangzhou (in Lower Jiangnan)
Confucius teaches at Qufu, Shandong (Other areas)
Recalling Emperor Shun's death in the Hunan/Guangdong border region (part of the old Chu region)
Poets at leisure on Taihu Lake and the Songjiang River (in Lower Jiangnan)
Wangzi Qiao ascends into immortality from the Songshan Mountain Range (more at Henan)
Li Ling in captivity in the Gansu/Mongol regions
(North and Central Asia)
(Return)
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