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Posts tagged ‘guqin’

Jun 10

"Playing the pipa behind the back" - A pipa player from the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang

The pipa: How a barbarian lute became a national symbol

‘Playing the pipa behind the back’ is a special kind of Chinese gongfu that expresses flying in heaven at Dunhuang. [See image of pipa player from Mogao caves at Dunhuang]

The road to industrialization with Chinese characteristics was taken by Mao Zedong after imitating the Soviets for 8 years, when he threw away the crutch and stood independently.  The most unique aspect of that was the reverse method of strengthening agriculture in order to speed up heavy industry:  this an example of ‘playing the pipa behind the back’ studied from life.    Read more

Jun 9

Wu Fei playing guzheng

The guzheng

The guzheng is a 21-stringed zither that has been played in China – in one form or another – for about two thousand years. Aside from having 21 strings (compared to the guqin‘s 7 strings), the guzheng’s other major difference from the guqin is that there are bridges: This means that the left hand can change pitches by bending the strings up and down, whereas the guqin changes pitches by a horizontal motion like a slide guitar. Read more

Jun 8

Wu Fei playing guzheng

Chinese instruments and the creation of a national music

Modern Chinese instruments are a lot like modern China: a disparate patchwork of various Parts forcibly cobbled into a Whole that, to hear some tell it, Always Was and Ever Shall Be. Read more

Jun 8

Tuning the qin and drinking tea by Zhou Fang

The guqin

The guqin, also just called the qin and sometimes “the scholar’s lute” in English, is perhaps the most Chinese of all instruments. Read more

Jun 6

"Listening to the Qin," attributed to the northern Song emperor Huizong (r.1101-1126).

The guqin and earth’s greatest hits

In 1977 NASA sent Voyager I into deep space to explore the great beyond. The spacecraft contained a 12-inch copper disc titled “Sounds of the Earth”, featuring “greetings from the People of Earth in 60 languages, and natural sounds such as ocean surf, thunder [and] chirping birds.”

Representing China among the 50 musical examples from around the world was a piece for the seven-stringed zither, the guqin. Called “Flowing Waters” (流水), the piece was performed by the late guqin master Guan Pinghu. Read more