Jieshi Diao Youlan

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First section of Youlan, showing the name of the piece: <<Jie Shi Diao You Lan Di Wu >>  "Jieshi Diao Youlan No.5", the preface describing the piece's origins, and the tablature in longhand form. Youlan.jpg
First section of Youlan, showing the name of the piece: 《碣石調幽蘭第五》 "Jieshi Diao Youlan No.5", the preface describing the piece's origins, and the tablature in longhand form.

Jieshi Diao Youlan (Chinese :碣石調幽蘭; literally: "Solitary Orchid in the Stone Tablet Mode") or just "Solitary Orchid" ("Secluded Orchid" or "Elegant Orchid" in some translations) 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, [1] and is possibly the oldest surviving piece of written music in the Far East.

Chinese language family of languages

Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases not mutually intelligible, language varieties, forming the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the ethnic Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. About 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language.

<i>Guqin</i> Chinese stringed music instrument

The guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. 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 gentle man 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 zither also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string.

Contents

History

The manuscript was written during the early Tang Dynasty during the 7th century, [2] and it is now found in Kyoto, Japan. It is believed to be a copy of an earlier manuscript and contains a lot of written 'corrections', mistakes and vagueness. Because it is damaged in some places, there has been much study into how it is played.

Kyoto Designated city in Kansai, Japan

Kyoto, officially Kyoto City, is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture, located in the Kansai region of Japan. It is best known in Japanese history for being the former Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years, as well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area.

Japan Constitutional monarchy in East Asia

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

Notation

The manuscript of Youlan is written in a special old form of guqin notation, known as wenzi pu (lit. "written character notation").

Tonality

The melody is noted for its use of microtones, especially at the cadences at the end of each of its four sections when three tones between ti and do (and in the case of the third section, the halfway tone between ti and do is further divided) are used. This creates a mysterious effect that sounds modern to new listeners.

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Musical notation graphic writing of musical parameters

Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols.

Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols to indicate the pitches (melodies), rhythms or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabic or other languages – the medium of sheet music typically is paper, although the access to musical notation since the 1980s has included the presentation of musical notation on computer screens and the development of scorewriter computer programs that can notate a song or piece electronically, and, in some cases, "play back" the notated music using a synthesizer or virtual instruments.

Gregorian chant form of song

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.

Youlan may refer to:

Qinpu musical notation system for the guqin

Qinpu are tablature score collections for the Chinese musical instrument, the guqin.

Cheng Yu (musician) Chinese musician

Cheng Yu is a Chinese musician. She is internationally renowned as a performer of the pipa, a Chinese four-stringed lute, but also plays the guqin, a seven-stringed zither, and is a virtuoso, scholar and specialist of Chinese music.

Zha Fuxi Chinese Guqin player

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.

Zeng Chengwei Chinese musician

Zeng Chengwei (曾成偉) is a Chinese musician of the guqin, born in the Sichuan province of China. He is a fifth-generation transmitter of the Shu school of qin music, having studied with his maternal grandfather, Yu Shaoze. Zeng is also a well-known maker of the instrument.

Guan Pinghu Chinese musician

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 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.

The North American Guqin Association is a guqin society based in the State of California, in the United States, which serves guqin players on the West Coast of the United States. Of the three major qin societies of the West, this society was the world's largest English speaking online community for the guqin and has the most connections and scope of activities.

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.

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.

Guqin tunings

There are many different tunings for the guqin.

Guqin aesthetics

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.

The New York Qin Society is a guqin society based in New York, New York in America, serving guqin players on the East Coast of the United States. Of the three major qin societies in the West, this society is the most formally structured with a formal agreement of rules and a more learned society approach to selecting members.

Chinese musical notation

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 (Jiannpu) has been used, with resemblances to Western notations.

References

Please see: References section in the guqin article for a full list of references used in all qin related articles.

Notes

  1. Jieshi Diao Youlan
  2. Stephen Addiss; Kenneth J. DeWoskin; Mitchell Clark (1999). The resonance of the qin in East Asian art. China Institute Gallery. p. 53.