Abstracts

StubickeToplice
Croatia

13-17 April, 2011

at the invitation of

Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku

Naoko NAGAI,
Ochanomizu University, Japan
fwjc7278@mb.infoweb.ne.jp

A song not for singing? Historical scores for the qin (Chinese zither)

The qin, Chinese seven-stringed zither, is performed mostly in China and also in Korea and Japan, mainly as an instrumental music. The qinge, qin songs accompanied by the qin, is occasionally played but rather exceptionally. However, many qin pieces still have texts in the extant scores for the qin, qinpu.
The qin has been prized as an instrument of sage by the intellectuals in China and ideological writings about the qin repeatedly appeared throughout its long history.
The qinge has another symbolic meaning that has been ascribed to one of the ancient kings. Shun (2233-2188BC) is said to have played the qin singing a song named Nanfeng. The tradition of qinge is thus, derived from a very early period and associated with a reign of peace achieved with an ideal music.
Although the instrumental qin music developed its specific complex playing techniques, criticism against them arose as shown in an episode in Eastern Han dynasty (25--220AD).
Such techniques were sometimes restricted even among the qin players in later times. For example, in Ming dynasty (1367-1661), when many Qinpus were published, some editors of qinpu aimed to revive the qinge. As a source in Northern Sung dynasty (960- 1127AD) shows, the qinge actually declined and song melodies are also in some cases lost by the time.
The qin schools in Ming dynasty can be roughly classified into You-wen (with texts) and Wu-wen (without texts). Some editors of the former school added song melodies using remained texts or even created new texts to simplify the qin melodies to be just imitating songs. They needed song melodies with texts rather than instrumental complex melodies. They performed the qinge without singing, which might be explained by another ancient (pre-Qin) musical practices.