Qin analysis

Traditional analysis can be philosophical or cosmological as well as musical.² As for musical analysis, this requires musical examples and historical data, and for collection, preservation and descriptions of this we are most greatly indebted to the guqin work of 1956 led by Zha Fuxi. Regarding the photo at right, Zha Fuxi, Pu Xuezhai and Guan Pinghu were all qin players. Li Yuanqing was then Director of the Music Research Institute, while Yang Yinliu was probably the most important historian of Chinese music in general.

Articles in this section include,

Dapu: Bringing Old Music to Life (中文)
- see also Bell Yung on Dapu
Historically Informed Qin Performance (中文)
- Requiring silk strings
Qin Tunings, Some Theoretical Concepts
- shows old and new finger position indications; for practical details see Tuning a Qin
Problems with Just Intonation Tuning?
Modality in Early Ming Qin Tablature
Rhythm in Early Ming Qin Tablature (focus: Huaxu Yin)
Rivers in Spring and Autumn (music structures of four related melodies)
Changing ornamentation in guqin play throughout history
- Mostly concerns arguments about changes over time in the relative importance of the left and right hands
Guqin improvisation
- Ranging from personal interpretation to free improvisation
"作 Zuo": Was qin music "composed" or "created"?
- To what extent can one call qin melodies "compositions" in the general Western sense?

There is also further modal and/or structural analysis with some individual melodies, including,

Mode and Structure in Towering Rock Melody Secluded Orchid (碣石調幽蘭的調式 Jieshidiao You Lan)
Outlining the complex structure of the world's oldest complete melody
Structure of Song of Chu (Chu Ge)

In addition a number of melody introductions include note count charts to help analyze the mode. These include:

Hidden Virtue and Autumn River Night Anchorage (Yin De and Qiu Jiang Ye Bo)
Bonding with Seagulls (Meng Ou)
Rhapsody on a Celestial (Shenren Chang)
Wei River Intonation (Weibin Yin)
Wild Geese on the Frontier (Saishang Hong; Zhi mode: modality can be quite complex)

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Li Yuanqing, Zha Fuxi, Pu Xuezhai, Yang Yinliu and Guan Pinghu (中文)
This photo, dated 1954, was copied from Zha Fuxi: Qinxue Wencui.

Yang Yinliu playing qin
楊蔭瀏 Yang Yinliu (1899–1984; Wiki; see also stevenjones.blog)
Yang Yinliu was a noted music historian. The following is an article by him about the qin (I do not know who translated it):

楊蔭瀏 Ernest Y.L. Yang. 2009. 《琴譜》 The chin music.
《楊蔭瀏全集》，中國藝術研究院音樂研究所編：第11冊：181–236。南京：江蘇文藝出版社。
"In Chinese and English, with transcriptions of qin music as played by 王燕卿 Wang Yanqing" (1867-1921; Meian School)

As a side note, Yang Yinliu's name was listed in a 1930s Chinese Protestant Church hymnal as "Ernest Yang". Thanks to Woo Shingkwan for sending me a pdf copy of two relevant pages, as well as the above reference. He was apparently 聖公會 an Anglican (see the Chinese Wiki). His arrangement of Yangguan Sandie as a church hymn is mentioned here.

李元慶 Li Yuanqing was apparently an administrator.
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2. Differing types of analysis
Attitudes towards the qin can vary depending on the background. This is discussed in detail in an extended essay (in Chinese) by 劉承華 Liu Chenghua called 文人琴與藝人琴關係的歷史考察 (An historical examination of the relationship between scholars' qin and artists' qin).

It is interesting to consider such writings in terms of what today may be called "ecocriticism". One might say that most traditional Chinese analysis of guqin could qualify as ecocriticism. Instead of analyzing music in terms of its concrete musical structure, it discusses the music and its apparent structure in terms of how this fits into (and might also have effect on) the natural and social environment (as well as the organized efforts of people to bring order to those environments).

Note also that traditional introductions to qin might also be referred to as "ecocommentary". A good example of this is the story of Boya learning guqin from nature, as told in the introduction to an ancient version of the melody Shui Xian Cao (see also this related modern example).
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