On Sunday May 15th, 3pm EDT, we had a guest, Mr. Dan Reid from Montreal, QC, Canada performing the qin, then the following members presented their dapu works:
Program
Introduction – Peiyou Chang ( 0:11 )
The term Dapu was mentioned as early as 1623. (according to Mr. 嚴曉星 古琴打谱一詞的歷史考察). Dapu is like an activity of music archaeology or second time creation. If you want to know more about the explanation of this term, you can check out John Thomson’s website. There are also several articles about dapu from several masters, such as Prof. Bell Yung in English which Xu Jian has translated into Chinese. Yao Gong Bai, Chen Gong Liang, Dai Xiao Lian and Yan Xiao Xing, also have articles all in Chinese.
1, Guest Dan Reid – Qin playing of Jingji Yin 靜極吟 from XLTQT 西麓堂琴統 (1525) started with his own improvisation. ( 1:44 )
2, Juni Yeung 楊雪亭 – Songxia Guantao 松下觀濤, how it entered the Standards of the Guqin project from a dapu request, into a lesson for dapu, to a story of continual learning.( 8:46 )
3, Jim Binkley 畢克禮 – 列子御風 Liezi Yufeng from SQMP 神奇秘譜 (1425) ( 38:15 )
Please listen to Jim’s playing from his youtube (https://youtu.be/LoIounJ3Hxo)
Sorry Jim can’t appear today as he is sick. This piece was a dapu Jim did several years ago. Ironically he tried to dapu it many years before and failed as he could not find a rhythmic approach. Later on he feels he was more successful.
What is interesting about this piece is the many contrasts within it that seem to give a programmatic approach to Liezi and the story of his riding the wind. “Ups and downs“. There is also a good deal of tonal variation that seems to include some just intonation 純律 notes
here and there including an exceptional 打圓 with two contrasting harmonics – one that is just 純律 and one is pythagorean 五度相生律 (close but not the same).
Peiyou asked 2 Questions:
1, When you encounter unknown fingerings, what do you do to decide how to play?
2, Some hui positions are very strange, what is your judgment if it is a printing problem or not?
Jim’s answer:
1. fingerings … 1. ask an expert (John) and see what he says. I have asked Chen Changlin before. 2. compare as many qinpu fingering dictionaries as I can e.g,, Guan Pinghu’s book. I have a book in Qinfu that purports to explain some SQMP fingerings. Or taiguyiyin … or a comparable early book. For SQMP I also have John’s work and WWG’s as well so looking at what they did may be helpful. Don’t be afraid to look at other people’s explanations.
2. re hui positions. We have the problem of Ming inaccuracy for huiwei positions. So we tend to interpret things like ba xia (should be shang) as 7.9 or whatever. “Assume it is pythagorean”. Maybe it ain’t though. e.g, as I mentioned 11.8 or 12 … However we also can refer to music in the rest of the piece and that may lead us to clues of a useful nature. Typos are always possible and certainly exist. For music clues – we have “yun” 韻 and so that may help us with both structure and note value (one of the two matching positions might be a typo and if so maybe we can figure it out). So phrase endings are crucial.
We also know that early Ming and likely late Song have many non-pythagorean notes because of the extreme reaction to that later in time.
a short story: at one point I decided to learn hemingjiugao from SQMP. I was stumped by the main theme actually because there is a “fingering” that says more or less “the note is between hui 9 and hui 10). Oh good. So I asked CCL and he gave me a standard answer – there is only one accepted pythagorean note between 10/11 (so he was claiming it was a pythagorean minor third actually). Later on said note was actually edited out “because it is so wrong”. Sigh. But I agree it is a minor 3rd. I just don’t think anyone plays it as a pythagorean note in real life. (just).
4, Peiyou Chang 張培幼 – 採真遊 Caizhen You from XLTQT 西麓堂琴統 (1525) ( 1:03:22 )
You can also listen to her playing on silk strings.
5, Shuishan Yu 于水山 – Li Sao 離騷 from SQMP 神奇秘譜 (1425) ( 1:28:18 )
You can also listen Shuishan’s playing of Li Sao on his YT.
6, John Thompson 唐世璋 – Guangling San 廣陵散 from SQMP 神奇秘譜 (1425) ( 2:06:10 )
John Thompson’s discussion of dapu might also be considered a promotion for the June meeting about Guangling San. For this he hopes attendees will first listen to or watch some available recordings of the complete melody from 1425. His own complete GLS recording is online together with a transcription. Linked next to this “video w/transcription” are “links to recordings by five others”, here:
http://www.silkqin.com/02qnpu/07sqmp/sq02gls.htm#music
John first reconstructed the melody in 1974-75 following Guan Pinghu’s version. Then for his CD (2000) he made major revisions. At the meeting he will discuss why he chose that piece for his first reconstruction and what he considers some of the more significant changes. He will demonstrate with examples from the early sections of the melody.
7, Mingmei Yip 葉明媚 – Commenter ( 2:40:40 )
Mingmei gave a great informative comments about dapu and why the ancient qin tablatures are incomplete (昔人不傳之秘).
Meeting ended around 6:10pm
Attendance
Alan Yip, Esmie(Ana Herrero), John Thompson, Juni Yeung, Lawrence Kaster, Andre Lioy, Mandy Szostek, Marilyn Wong Gleysteen, Peiyou Chang, Mingmei Yip, Matthew Flannery, Yi Hu, Lisa Raphals, James Binkley, Ralph Knag, Andre Riberiro, Dan Reid, Lu Yi Zheng, Shushan Yu, Yanchen Zhang, Andreia Alves, Jeffrey Levenberg, Charles Tsua, Kaytlyn Mittag, Lingyun
Feedback
I was relishing it. It was deep into the scholarship…. I bet this is one of the only meetings in the world where this is happening right now on this level. I do feel so joyous to listen because- the fact that it’s in English…. (talk about a protected and occult transmission, as Mingmei spoke of…) I don’t take it for granted!! It’s so fun too- – Thanks, Love Mandy
This Yaji was absolutely unbelievable!!! So much to learn. Thank you so much for making it possible! – A.S Lioy
Coisas que eu aprendi hoje no Yaji da NYQS sobre “Recriação Musical de Tablaturas para Qin” e as razões porque as tablaturas são complicadas e incompletas (visto não terem indicações rítmicas e notas precisas).
1) 琴不妄傳 :: o qin não deve ser transmitido levianamente, sobretudo para pessoas indignas.
2) 昔人不傳之秘 :: a música do qin é secreta, e por isso não é passada facilmente para ninguém.
3) 琴多谱外聲 : há muitas e muitas mais notas fora das tablaturas.
Disso presume-se que apenas aqueles dignos ou os “já prontos de coração” são capazes de encontrar as lacunas nas tablaturas e preenchê-las com o seu espírito. – André Ribeiro 林柏儒 from Brazil (André’s notes in English)
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