Reflections of Antiquity
拊絲懷古 -- 古琴與箜篌音樂演奏節目表

Program for the Concert
February 11, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School


秋風辭 Qiu Feng Ci (Ode to Autumn Wind) (qin song 古琴彈唱)
秋風 Qiu Feng (Autumn Winds) (qin solo 古琴獨奏)
張培幼 Chang Peiyou, qin

陽關三疊 Yangguan San Die (Parting at Yangguan) (qin song 古琴彈唱)
王妙蓮 Marilyn Wong-Gleysteen, qin

三唐曲 Three Tang Melodies        Stephen Dydo
王昭君 Wang Zhaojun (Wang Zhaojun's Lament)
秦王破陣樂 Qinwang Pozhen Yue (The King of Qin Destroys the Formations)
清海波 Qinghai Bo (The Waves of Kokonor)
Tomoko Sugawara, konghou 箜篌獨奏

幽 蘭 You Lan (Elegant Orchid)(qin solo 古琴獨奏)
袁中平 Yuan Jung-Ping, qin

INTERMISSION

道可道 Dao Ke Dao (The Dao that Can Be Named) (qin song 古琴彈唱)
鵲橋仙 Queqiao Xian (Immortal of the Magpie Bridge) (qin song 古琴彈唱)
烏夜啼 Wu Yeti (Evening Cry of the Raven) (qin solo 古琴獨奏)
葉明媚 Yip Mingmei, qin

柛品蕤賓 Shenpin Ruibin Yi (Celestial Prelude in Ruibin Mode)
瀟湘水雲 Xiao Xiang Shuiyun (Mist over the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)
戴德 Stephen Dydo, qin 古琴獨奏

馬哥孛羅時期之古琴音樂 Qin Music from the Time of Marco Polo
禹會塗山 Yu Hui Tushan (Emperor Yu's Gathering at Mount Tu)
樵歌 Qiao Ge (The Woodcutter's Song)
唐世璋 John Thompson, qin 古琴獨奏



Program Notes

秋風辭 Qiu Feng Ci (Ode to Autumn Wind)
This dapu (reconstruction) is from Hewen Zhuyin Qinpu 和文注音琴譜which was edited sometime before 1676 by Monk Dong-gao (Xing-yue), Jiang Xing-chou (1639-1695) 東皋禪師, 俗名蔣興疇, 字心越 from Jiang-su province. He moved to Japan in 1676 and was recognized as the father of the revival of qin study in Japan. The lyrics are by Liu Che (Han Dynasty Emperor Wudi 漢武帝, 156 - 87 BC). Han Wudi wrote this poem while he was taking a pavilion boat with his officers to have an inspection tour on the Yellow River. He was having a ceremony of the motherland and, while eating and drinking with his officers, he sighed with deep feeling of how the happy times go by fast, and wrote this poem.

秋風起兮白雲飛 草木黄落兮雁南歸
蘭有秀兮菊有芳 携佳人兮不能忘
泛樓船兮濟汾河 横中流兮揚素波
簫鼓鳴兮發棹歌 歡樂極兮哀情多
少壮幾時兮奈老何

Autumn winds rise, white clouds fly,
Grass, trees turn yellow and fall, geese return south.
The orchids are radiant, the chrysanthemums, fragrant;
Thinking of the graceful lady, I cannot forget her.
Sailing in a pavilion boat, we cross the Fen River,
Cutting across the current, white ripples scatter.
Fife and drums play, the oarsman's song accompany;
As joys reach their end, sorrows multiply.
Fleeting is the strength of youth ---
helpless before old age!
(Translation by Peiyou Chang)

秋風Qiu Feng (Autumn Winds)
This dapu (reconstruction) is from Xi Lu Tang Qin Tong 西麓堂琴統 which was edited in 1549, Ming dynasty by Wang Zhi 汪芝. According to the explanation of Qu Feng in Xi Lu Tang Qin Tong, the piece was composed by Western Jin (AD 265 – 316) captain Zhang Han (Ji-Yin)張翰字季鷹 from Jiang-su Province. Zhang composed this piece when he knew that the Jin sovereign was going to change and he decided to resign. He saw the autumn winds start to blow, then sighed: If man's life is to match his hopes, what can riches and honor do? Thereupon, he grabbed a qin and made this melody. 張季鷹知晉祚將移遂有去志 見秋風起 嘆曰 人生適志耳 富貴何為 遂援琴而為此曲

This piece has total of 10 sections. Each section has a title:
1.飄揚遠舉 Fluttering (wind), distant rising
2.君門萬里 Ten thousand miles, the monarchy gate
3.對月高歌 Inviting the moon, singing high
4.終夜興嘆 Grieving all night
5.登山臨水 Reach mountain, near water
6.松風竹雨 Wind in pines, rain in Bamboos
7.鏗金戛玉 Drumming metal , knocking jade
8.猿啼曉月 Monkey Weeping, dawn moon
9.心曠神怡 Heart free, mind joyful
10.洞庭揚波 Dong Ting Lake, ripples scattered
–Peiyou Chang

陽關三疊 Yangguan San Die (Parting at Yangguan)
Yangguan is one of the most famous Chinese melodies, often played on other instruments. As a qin melody it occurs in 29 handbooks from 1491 to 1961. There are two basic versions: the long and the short, the latter usually called Yangguan Sandie, with the short one performed today.  Although the earliest short version, in Faming Qinpu (1539), is very similar to the version  more commonly played, it uses a different tuning. Modern versions all use ruibin (raised fifth string) tuning, but early tablature may use either ruibin or qiliang (raised second and fifth strings).  Raising the fifth string places the melody in a "minor" mode and accentuates the sadness of parting.

Yangguan Sandie is played today largely  as derived from Qinxue Rumen (1864). This version performed here by  Marilyn Wong Gleysteen was taught her by Yuan Jungping, who studied with Suzhou master Wu Zhaoji.   Master Wu added the opening harmonic phrase. This not only establishes the feeling of the mode, but also balances perfectly with the sentiment of the ending , which offers a closure in harmonics. This was the first piece that Wu relearned after the terrors of the Cultural Revolution placed a silence on his strings. Wu never sang the piece, while Yuan Jungping’s sung version has become a staple in his repertory.

The music is in three sections. From the earliest known versions further lyrics had been added to the original Tang dynasty poem by Wang Wei,"Seeing Yuan'er off to Anxi." This made his 7-character quatrain  the refrain, thrice repeated.  It is found italicized in our notes; the additional lyrics were added sometime during the Qing period. In the 1864 handbook the lyrics are not written alongside the tablature,  but are placed at the end of the tablature. This is perhaps one reason it is rarely sung today.
---- Translation by MW Gleysteen with notes extracted and adapted from www.silkqin.com/02qnpu/12fmqp/fm23ygsd.htm , John Thompson's website article on the 1539 version  

三唐曲 Three Tang Melodies
王昭君 Wang Zhaojun (Wang Zhaojun's Lament)
秦王破陣樂 Qinwang Pozhen Yue (The King of Qin Destroys the Formations)
清海波 Qinghai Bo (The Waves of Kokonor)

This set is part of a project which uses combinations of ornamentation methods to produce concert realizations of pieces originally written down in the Tang dynasty, and existing in early Japanese manuscripts. Two of these are arrangements of pieces in a book for the wuxian, or five-stringed pipa, transcribed by Rembrandt Wolpert; these are 王昭君 Wang Zhaojun and 秦王破陣樂 Qinwang Pozhen Yue. The third is from the Tōgaku repertoire (Japanese court music imported from China during the Tang dynasty), 青海波 Qinghai Bo (“Waves of Kokonor”). These pieces have been realized for performance on a replica of the konghou (Japanese kugo), an angular harp played in the Tang which fell into disuse shortly afterward. In the course of creating a piece for contemporary concert performance, reference has been made to the original source material, the Tōgaku realizations of other pieces (which have been used as a guide to ornamentation), and speculation as to a possible konghou technique.

Regarding the pieces themselves let me state very briefly the following: Wang Zhaojun is a reference to a concubine of the Western Han emperor who is famous as one of the four beauties of Chinese history. She was given to a Hun prince as part of a peace treaty. Today, references to her mainly are fraught with the melancholy of her leaving her native land. However, she must have been a strong woman, and was instrumental in maintaining peaceful Sino-Hun relations. Qinwang Pozhen Yue is a war dance of the Tang celebrating the military victory not by the first emperor of the Qin dynasty but rather by the King of Qin who later became the Tang emperor Taizong. It was part of the Tang banquet music. Qinghai Bo, or “Waves of the Blue Sea”, may have been a folk tune from the Turkic-speaking Xinjiang area, reflecting the Tang’s embracing of foreign influences. The great Tang poet Li Bo (701-762) would, when drinking, have his page play this melody while he danced.

In realizing these pieces for konghou, a technique was synthesized for performance not only from the versions we have for other instruments, but also from the suggestions of our virtuosic harpist tonight, Tomoko Sugawara.
–Stephen Dydo

幽 蘭 You Lan (Elegant Orchid)
You Lan is the oldest piece of qin music; it is also almost certainly the oldest notated music of any complexity in the world. The manuscript, preserved in the Japan National Museum, dates to approximately the middle of the 7th century. However, in its preface, it refers to a transmittal about a century earlier. It uses a unique notation; unlike later qin notation, which uses a shorthand for the finger movements, You Lan is written almost like a recipe, with sentence-by-sentence instructions on how to play each note.

Interpreting the manuscript for performance is a daunting task. Not only are many of the gestures unknown in later qin works, the melodic and modal structure, like that of other Tang music, is quite different from that of classical qin music. And even taking into account its early origins, it is an unusual piece. Yuan Jung-ping has made an extremely detailed study of the original manuscript, and has created a performance entirely his own. By careful analysis of each symbol, he has developed a unique understanding of the tuning and the modality of the piece.
–Stephen Dydo

道可道 Dao Ke Dao (The Dao that Can Be Named)
Lyrics: Daode Jing, first chapter
Translation: Giafu Feng
Music: Mingmei Yip

The 2500 year old Daode Jing, also transliterated as Tao Te Ching, is the most famous Chinese philosophical text.

The Dao that can be told is not the eternal dao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousnad things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystry.

鵲橋仙 Queqiao Xian (Immortal of the Magpie Bridge)
Lyrics: Qin Guan (1049-1100)
Music/translation: Mingmei Yip
This is the Song dynasty (960-1276) poet Qin Guan’s most famous love song. It expresses the pain and suffering of two separated lovers.

Delicate clouds scamper above on the seventh evening of the seventh month
Falling stars carry my bitterness,
Secretly traversing the remote Milky Way.
Meeting but once amidst the autumn wind and the dews drops
Surpasses endless encounters on earth.

Love is tender as water
Our wedding day is a distant dream
Dejected, I watch the magpies return.

If love between two people is to last,
Must they see each other day and night?
If love between two people is to last,
Must they see each other day and night?

烏夜啼 Wu Yeti (Evening Cry of the Raven)
(from Shengqi Mipu, Wonderous Esoteric Qin Manual 1425)
In ancient China, the raven’s cry was considered an auspiciouos sign. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), the Duke Liu Yiqing’s life was under threat because the King was jealous of him. The evening as he was about to flee the country, he heard the raven’s cries. His concubine considered this a good sign and predicted that he would go free. She was later proved to be right.
This is a virtuouso piece which fully explores the performer’s finger dexterity.
–Mingmei Yip

柛品蕤賓 Shenpin Ruibin Yi (Celestial Prelude in Ruibin Mode)
The pieces in the collection Shenqi Mipu, or “Secret and Mysterious Scores”, are arranged in three main groups, according to their familiarity to the compiler. Within these groups they are further arranged according to the tuning and mode in which they are written. Typically each group begins with a short introductory piece which not only establishes the mode but also introduces characteristic motivic devices used in the mode. The short group of three pieces in the ruibin mode begins with this prelude.

瀟湘水雲 Xiao Xiang Shuiyun (Mist over the Xiao and Xiang Rivers)
The third piece in the ruibin mode group is Mist over the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. It is attributed to the Southern Song Dynasty (1128-1276 AD) qin player and poet Guo Chuwang. Typical of pieces in the ruibin tuning, it contains elements of reminiscence, longing, and dark melancholy.

The introduction to the piece in Shenqi Mipu has been translated by John Thompson:

“This piece was written by Mr. Chuwang, Guo Mian. Mr. Guo is from Yongjia, and whenever he wanted to look at the Jiuyi mountains they were blocked by clouds above the Xiao and Xiang rivers, so he used (writing music about this) to express his loyalty to his country. However, this piece about water and clouds (also) has the suggestion of making one's own enjoyment; the flavor of cloud shapes reflected in sparkling water; and a desire to have wind and rain fall on the head, to wear a grass rain cape by the side of a river, and to use a boat on the Five Lakes (to hide from the world).”

This contains two types of references: One is to the Daoist ideal of retreat from the world, to unite with the power of nature. The other, somewhat less clear, is a nostalgic yearning for a time when China was not ruled by foreigners.

The version played tonight comes from the Wuzhi Zhai Qinpu, transmitted from Wu Zhaoji to Yuan Jung-ping. It is longer than the version in Shenqi Mipu, with each section more elaborated except for the very last one, with its unusual modulation to the fa of the mode; this is simpler, so I have taken some material from the earlier version to highlight this unusual event.
– Stephen Dydo

Qin Music from the Time of Marco Polo 
Emperor Yu's Gathering at Mount Tu
The Woodcutter's Song 

These two melodies are from the Chinese music section of a program entitled Music from the Time of Marco Polo. In the full program John Thompson plays qin music Marco Polo could have heard in Hangzhou around the time he claims to have been there, some time after the Mongol conquest of 1276 CE. An early Western music group plays music Polo could have heard back in Italy around 1300. John discussed the historical background of the qin music during the afternoon seminar.

Both of these melodies have been attributed to the famous 13th century qin master Mao Minzhong, though their stories are conflicting. Mao lived in Hangzhou at the end of the Song dynasty, and thus saw the Mongol soldiers enter the city in 1276. According to one story he fled the Mongols and spent the rest of his life as a mountain recluse; he expressed his disdain for the Mongols and the Yuan government by composing Song of the Woodcutter. Another story, though, says that he accepted an invitation to go to the capital and play the qin for Kublai Khan. For this he composed the melody Emperor Yu's Gather at Mount Tu, which expresses the glories of China's ancient past. Both melodies became very popular, with the many handbooks that include them having considerable variation. The versions published in the Handbook of Spiritual and Marvelous Mysteries (1425) are thought to be the oldest, and John Thompson plays them according to the tablature in that handbook.

Emperor Yu's Gathering at Mount Tu
1. Imperial tour around the country
2. Crossing the (Yangzi) river
3. The yellow dragon carries the boat
4. The commission accords with the Way of Heaven
5. Royal stop at Mount Tu
6. Jade and cloth (as money) from the myriad territories
7. The princes arrive to request orders
8. Encouraging promotions and demotions
9. All the princes tremble with fright
10. Repairing the principles of government
11. Rulers and officials congratulate each other
12. Etiquette is clarified and problems are stopped
13. The jingling sound of jade ornaments
14. Assembled carriages turn around

The Woodcutter's Song
1. Happy to flee society
2. Looking down, aloof from worldly matters
3. Nestling in the distant cloudy mountain peaks
4. Entering the forest carrying an axe
5. Enjoying the Dao through books
6. Shaking out one's clothing on the high ridges
7. A long howl echoes in the valley
8. Praising the (helpful) winds of Mr. Zheng
9. A long howl out into the open air
10. Old age from being near an old pine tree
11. Dancing drunkenly down the mountain.
– John Thompson

講座節目內容簡介 Program for the Colloquium

新聞槁 Press Release

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