 | This article has an unclear citation style.(August 2016) |
The notation of the guqin is a unique form of tablature for the Chinese musical instrument, with a history of over 1,500 years, still in use today.
| This article has an unclear citation style.(August 2016) |
The notation of the guqin is a unique form of tablature for the Chinese musical instrument, with a history of over 1,500 years, still in use today.
Written qin music did not directly tell what notes were played; instead, it was written in a tablature detailing tuning, finger positions, and stroke technique, thus comprising a step by step method and description of how to play a piece. Some tablatures do indicate notes using the gongche system, or indicate rhythm using dots. The earliest example of the modern shorthand tablature survives from around the twelfth century CE. An earlier form of music notation from the Tang era survives in just one manuscript, dated to the seventh century CE, called Jieshi Diao Youlan 《碣石調幽蘭》 (Solitary Orchid in Stone Tablet Mode). It is written in a longhand form called wenzi pu 〔文 字譜〕 (literally "written notation"), said to have been created by Yongmen Zhou (雍門周) during the Warring States period, which gives all the details using ordinary written Chinese characters. Later in the Tang dynasty Cao Rou (曹柔) and others simplified the notation, using only the important elements of the characters (like string number, plucking technique, hui number and which finger to stop the string) and combined them into one character notation. This meant that instead of having two lines of written text to describe a few notes, a single character could represent one note, or sometimes as many as nine. This notation form was called jianzi pu 〔減字譜〕 (literally "reduced notation") and it was a great advancement for recording qin pieces. It was so successful that from the Ming dynasty onwards, a great many qinpu 〔琴譜〕 (qin tablature collections) appeared, the most famous and useful being "Shenqi Mipu" (神奇秘譜, lit. The Mysterious and Marvellous Tablature) compiled by Zhu Quan, the 17th son of the founder of the Ming dynasty . In the 1960s, Zha Fuxi discovered more than 130 qinpu that contain well over 3360 pieces of written music. Sadly, many qinpu compiled before the Ming dynasty are now lost, and many pieces have remained unplayed for hundreds of years.
![First page / leaf of volume 3 of Shenqi Mipu. From right to left: Full title of tablature collection [(Qu Xian Shen Qi Mi Pu )] with volume number Xia Juan (lower or third) plus seals of the owner of this copy (if any), title of the volume Xia Wai Shen Pin , the tuning and method of tuning <Huang Zhong Diao > , name of the 'modal preface' [Diao Yi ] , the tablature (shorthand) of the modal preface, [next page] title of the piece, description of the piece's origins, and the tablature of said piece. Shenqi Mipu vol 3 pg 1.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Shenqi_Mipu_vol_3_pg_1.jpg/250px-Shenqi_Mipu_vol_3_pg_1.jpg)
Major changes in the tablature happened during the Qing period. Before, the recording of the note positions between hui were only approximations. For example, to play sol on the seventh string, the position the player must stop is between the 7th and 8th hui. The tablature of Ming times would only say "between 7 and 8" 「七八日(間)」 or for other positions "below 6" 「六下」 or even say "11" 「十一」 (when the correct position is slightly higher). During the Qing, this was replaced by the decimal system. The space between two hui were split into 10 'fen' 〔分〕, so the tablature can indicate the correct position of notes more accurately, so for the examples above, the correct positions are 7.6, 6.2 and 10.8 respectively. Some even went further to split one fen into a further 10 'li' 〔釐/厘〕, but since the distance is too minute to affect the pitch to a large degree, it was considered impractical to use. Some people argue that the old system is just as accurate as the new system when qin tuning theory is observed. Also, these old positions may actually conform to the rules of equally tempered music, with its pitches slightly flatter, such as in the case of 8 for 7.9 and 11 for 10.8. Another main property for this old system is that it requires the player to "feel for the note", just as one would do for any other fretless stringed instrument, be it erhu or violin, instead of relying solely on fixed positions (which pitches can change slightly depending on how the player tunes their qin).
Existing qinpu generally come from private collections or in public libraries throughout China, etc. Those that are available for public purchase are facsimile qinpu printed and bound in the traditional Chinese bookbinding process. More modern qinpu tend to be bound in the normal Western way on modern paper. The format uses qin notation with staff notation and/or jianpu notation.
A number of efforts have been made to further develop qin tablature. A book by Wang Guangqi (王光祈) uses Roman and Arabic numerals to express the information provided by qin tablature. The qin player, Gong Yi, developed a format using staff notation combined with some tablature marks . Others have tried to write a computer program that will do this. Chen Changlin, a Beijing-based computer scientist and qin player of the Min (Fujian) School, developed the first computer program to encode qin notation from ancient tablature sources.
The current practice for recording qin scores is to use jianzipu notation together with staff and/or cipher notation so the playing method is preserved and the rhythm, note value, etc. is also shown.
The guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted by the quote "a gentleman does not part with his qin or se without good reason," as well as being associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is sometimes referred to by the Chinese as "the father of Chinese music" or "the instrument of the sages". The guqin is not to be confused with the guzheng, another Chinese long stringed instrument also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string.
Youlan may refer to:
The se is an ancient plucked zither of Chinese origin. It varied in size and construction, but generally had 25–50 strings with moveable bridges and a range of up to five octaves. It was one of the most important stringed instruments in China, along with the qin. The se gradually faded out of use, having evolved into the similar zheng. Modern versions of the se often resemble the zheng, and attempts have been made to revive the instrument.
Qinpu are tablature score collections for the Chinese musical instrument, the guqin.
Zha Fuxi, also known as Zha Yiping (查夷平) was a leading player and scholar of the guqin. Born in Jiangxi, he started learning guqin in his childhood. In 1936, he co-founded the Jinyu Qin Society (今虞琴社) which later became one of the major national musical organizations for the guqin.
Jieshi Diao Youlan or just "Solitary Orchid" is the name of a piece of Chinese music or melody for the guqin which was composed during the 6th or 7th century, with the earliest preserved text dating from the 7th century, and is possibly the oldest surviving piece of written music in East Asia.
Guan Pinghu, was a leading player of the guqin (古琴), a Chinese 7-string bridgeless zither. Born in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Guan came from an artistic family, and started to learn the guqin from his father, Guan Nianci. After the death of his father when he was thirteen, Guan continued with his father’s friend Ye Shimeng and Zhang Xiangtao. He also studied with the leading players of three different schools; Yang Zongji (1865–1933), the leading player in Beijing, the Daoist Qin Heming, and the Buddhist monk Wucheng.
The London Youlan Qin Society is a London-based qin society serving guqin players in the UK. Of the three major qin societies of the West, this society was the most informal but still the most active in terms of regular events and yajis.
A qin school is a school of guqin players that play in a style that is different from other styles.
The history of the Guqin, an ancient Chinese musical instrument, is a long one that spans 3,000 years. Although similar, it should not be confused with another Chinese zither instrument, the guzheng, which has bridges.
The playing techniques of the guqin, sometimes called fingerings, are more numerous than those of any other Chinese or Western musical instrument.
The construction of the guqin Chinese zither is a complex process like any other musical instrument. However, there is much symbolism in the choice of materials, the shape or form of the instrument that are important things to consider when creating a qin.
There are many different tunings for the guqin.
The guqin is a Chinese musical instrument with a long history of being played since ancient times. When the guqin is played, a number of aesthetic elements are involved.
Zhang Ziqian, a famous seven-string zither qin player, was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, during the late Qing Dynasty. He began studying the guqin with a guqin master Sun Shaotao at the age of thirteen. In the 1930s, Zhang moved to Shanghai and worked as an accountant at a salt factory. In Shanghai, he met Zha Fuxi and Peng Zhiqing who were active qin players then. They frequently played the guqin together and Zhang's playing skills were greatly influenced by them. In 1936, Zhang, Zha, Peng and other masters founded Jin Yu Qin She, a qin society. In 1956, Zhang became a guqin performer by being appointed as a member of the state-run Shanghai Minzu Yuetuan ; and a guqin teacher at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1960.
Systems of musical notation have been in use in China for over two thousand years. Different systems have been used to record music for bells and for the Guqin stringed instrument. More recently a system of numbered notes (Jianpu) has been used, with resemblances to Western notations.
The Shu School of Qin Music (蜀派古琴) refers to the modern guqin regional performance style tradition and lineage begun in the mid-19th century by its founder, Zhang Kongshan. The "Shu" name derives from the main base of operations at the time, namely the Sichuan region of China. Today, the Shu School has many branches and lineages, most of which trace their foundation to Zhang Kongshan, though the term is equally applied to Sichuan-based players in general.
The Jinling Guqin Denomination is the Guqin genre of Chinese history. The Jinling Guqin denomination was started at the last Ming dynasty of Nanjing, China and developed during the Qing dynasty.
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