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Xilutang Qintong
Qin Anthology of the Hall in the Western Foothills 1 Compiled by Wang Zhi2 |
西麓堂琴統
1525 (not 1549) Is this Wang Zhi himself?3 |
Xilutang Qintong has 170 melodies,4 18 with lyrics.5 Tablature for 105 of the titles occurs here for the first time. For further information see:
There are also further details about all the Xilutang Qintong melodies that I have reconstructed (made recordings and trancriptions):6
However, I have not worked out their rhythms to my satisfaction.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Qin System from the Hall in the Western Foothills
(西麓堂琴統 Xilutang Qintong
35587.845 西麓 Western foothills; various nicknames. The book was compiled by 汪芝 Wang Zhi of 歙縣 She county in Anhui province. "Qintong" seems to refer to the musical analysis placed at the front of the book. However, little effort seems to have been made to connect the actual melodies in the handbook with this theoretical system.
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2.
汪芝 Wang Zhi
See further details
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3.
Illustration from Xilutang Qintong
See QQJC III/58 and compare the image at the top of
this page.
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4.
170 melodies
See further details on their sources.
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5.
Lyrics in Xilutang Qintong
To my knowledge, in all other handbooks if a melody has lyrics it has them throughout. Here, although the same
pairing method is used, there are also melodies with lyrics in only one or two sections as well as melodies with lyrics at the beginning of each section. Melodies in the three categories are as follows:
Melodies with lyrics in only one or two sections (I have not yet learned #s 5 & 9 though I did learn earlier versions of 8 & 9)
Melodies with lyrics at the start of each section (I play #1 and #2)
Melodies with lyrics throughout (I play #5 and earlier versions of the others)
In addition, Xilutang Qintong has at least two further melodies to which lyrics could easily be added from an existing poem:
Other handbooks tend not to have instrumental melodies with lyrics in only some sections. For the structures of melodies that are actual qin songs see here.
6.
Melodies learned from Xilutang Qintong
The melodies listed above are all the earliest published versions of those titles. This is because, in general I have focused my dapu on the earliest version of any particular melody. Thus, except for #2
Gong Yi and several melodies that I reconstructed from Fengxuan Xuanpin before I realized the 1549 date usually given for Xilutang Qintong was wrong and that it was in fact published in 1525, i.e., before Fengxuan Xuanpin.
This dapu conference focused on Folios 6, 7 and 8 (the first 24 pieces) in Xilutang Qintong. Huangshan (Wiki) was a particularly appropriate place because the compiler of that handbook, Wang Zhi, was said to be a native of that region. The organizers subsequently posted photographs from the event. As of this writing these can still be seen here:
Because of that event, earlier in 2013 I particularly worked on melodies from these three Folios 6, 7 and 8 that i had not already reconstructed. Here is an account.
Earlier published versions of nine of these 24 melodies had already appeared in Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425); I had reconstructed and recorded all of those nine as part of my Shen Qi Mi Pu Project. Of the remaining 15, all but Shang Yi, which is related to the Shenpin Shang Yi in Shen Qi Mi Pu, have their earliest known version here in Xilutang Qintong. I had completed transcriptions and recordings of six of these 15 from Xilutang Qintong itself when, in anticipation of the conference, I began a project of also reconstructing the other nine of these 15. For the sake of historically informed performance I think it is very important that people work independently on their own versions of a particular melody, then afterwards discuss why they selected the note values they did. My plan was to be prepared to discuss all 15 of these melodies. A few months before the conference I submitted three of these new reconstructions to the organizers; unfortunately, I was not able to attend the conference itself: we had just moved from Singapore back to the New York area. After we got settled back in our home I went on to complete my reconstructions of all 15 melodies. In May 2014 I put together a home-made CD that includes these 15.
It is my understanding that the organizers of the Xilutang Qintong conference intend to publish a CD of the reconstructions made at that conference. I look forward very much to hearing it, and it is my hope that my own efforts will become part of a further discussion of the parameters within which ancient melodies are and might be interpreted (see comment on different attitudes towards the process of "dapu
Quite a few of these were reconstructed rather quickly in preparation for the conference. Thus, at present, the rendering here of these pieces often tends to be more rhythmic than those melodies I have played for a long time before recording (further comment).
Perhaps most difficult of these for me was the 1525 Feng Lei. My main sources, such as Zha Fuxi's Guide, said that Xilutang Qintong was produced in 1549, making it later than
Fengxuan Xuanpin (1539). So originally I reconstructed the 1539 version, Feng Lei Yin, thinking it was the earliest; it was only while preparing for the conference that I discovered Xilutang Qintong must have been published in 1525, not 1549, and so its version, called Feng Lei, was in fact the earliest, at least the earliest in publication. However, this earliest version proved particularly difficult, perhaps because my version of the 1539 Fenglei Yin was so imbedded in my mind that I had great difficulty imagining the melody in such a different form. However, in April 2014 I did complete my reconstruction of the 1525 Feng Lei.
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By "learned" I mean completed my dapu (reconstruction), including working out my interpretation of the notes and note values, writing this out as above.
Appendix
2013《西麓堂琴統》全國打譜研討會
Xilutang Qintong Dapu Conference
Huangshan, December 2013
西麓堂琴統 卷六至八 Xilutang Qintong Folios Six to Eight
A CD of the melodies reconstructed and played by 唐世璋 John Thompson
01.40
01. 調絃品
Tiaoxian Pin
(#1. String Tuning Melody)
01.01
02. 宮意
Gong Yi
(#2. Defining Gong Mode)
01.54
03. 修禊吟
Xiuxi Yin
(#3. Purification Ceremony Intonation)
06.22
04. 陽春
Yang Chun
(#4. Sunny Spring)
04.37
05. 康衢謠
Kangqu Yao
(#5. Ballad of the Highroad)
02.55
06. 沖和吟
Chonghe Yin
(#6. Intonation on Balanced Vital Force)
11.26
07. 谷口引
Gukou Yin
(#7. Gukou Allure)
04.55
08. 圯橋進履
Yi Qiao Jin Lü
(#8. Going for Shoes under the Bridge)
03.06
09. 達觀吟
Da Guan Yin
(#10.
Intonation on Being Free of Worldly Emotions)
04.03
10. 流觴
Liu Shang
(#12. Floating Wine-Cups)
07.54
11. 幽蘭
You Lan
(#15. Secluded Orchid)
01.10
12. 商意
Shang Yi
(#16. Shang Modal Prelude)
02.09
13. 飛電吟
Feidian Yin
(#20.
Intonation on Lightning Flashes)
06.09
14. 風雷
Feng Lei
(#21. Wind and Thunder)
09.35
15. 春江
Chun Jiang
(#23. Spring River)
68.46 Total for 15 tracks (without breaks)
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