25^th July, 2010

This, the 45^th meeting of the London Youlan Qin Society, was held at the home of was held at the home of Cheng Yu in Pinner, London. We were delighted that qin master Dai Xiaolian of the Guangling School, based in Shanghai, was able to join us.

Introduction

This yaji as usual, was informal. Cheng Yu welcomed Dai Xiaolian to our meeting and expressed her thanks to AMC for arranging for her to be the guqin teacher at this year's summer school.

Talk by Dai Xiaolian

If one says that I belong to the Guangling School, it’s true that when I was young I learned the Guangling style from Zhang Ziqian, but later, when I went to the Shanghai Conservatory, we were not allowed to be too one-sided and limit ourselves to one style; we had to learn pieces from various schools and seek out the best aspects of each school.

But if one asks what the Guangling School was from the point of view of tradition, then I feel today that it had a style that was perhaps linked to its basic concepts, for example its better works are instrumental and it excludes vocal works. This is related to its ideology and has been handed down in the Guangling School right up to the present. However the real differences between schools are limited. Transport today is convenient and people can exchange their ideas, ways of teaching, and traditions. So today I feel that the most important distinctions are in personal styles. For example, Li Xiangting has said that his playing style has strong, Northern, bold and uninhibited elements.

I feel that we can divide styles into two types, Northern and Southern. The Southern style gives more attention to detail and is smoother, while the Northern style is more unconstrained, even perhaps rougher.

Recently, during my time at the conservatory, I have been trying to break away from traditional pieces and create more contemporary, creative works using our capabilities as a specialist music school. I feel that the traditional pairing of guqin and xiao – ever since ancient times guqin and xiao have been played together, and generally the same pieces – is reaching a dead end and is not enough to satisfy modern tastes. Peoples’ tastes today are perhaps too three-dimensional, because they have heard a great many Western works. So now, in place of the traditional way of having guqin and xiao play in parallel with each other, I am looking for guqin and xiao duets. Over the last two or three years we’ve held symposia exploring combinations of the guqin with other instruments, for example duets for guqin and pipa have been composed, there are pieces for guqin and erhu, and duets for two guqin have been written. Today I am continually pushing these forms forward.
In reality this is a way for people to co-operate. At a traditional yaji one person would play Ping Sha Luo Yan and the next would play Meihua San Nong, and at the next yaji they’d play the same set of pieces again. I feel that it would be good to have something different and bring people the opportunity and spirit of cooperation.

There is modern recognition too of electronic effects. Last year I went to France twice and took part in the debut performances of modern works. The guqin was used not only with other Chinese instruments, but also with Western instruments, including the cello and violin, clarinet and oboe. Performing modern works is very challenging, but no matter what the result, how well I play or how people value it, I will carry on playing them.

For me the crucial thing is to resolve the problem of the different sounds of the guqin and other instruments. The guqin is very quiet but other instruments, such as the pipa, are louder and brighter, so that a guqin would need a microphone.
But the most difficult thing is to find a composer who is willing to help.

On this visit people have asked whether I use silk strings or steel-nylon strings. Generally, if I’m playing in public I use steel-nylon strings because they are more stable. Silk strings often get are out of tune before you finish playing a piece, and that spoils the feeling of the piece, but sometimes I use silk strings at home. It depends on the piece – some sound better on silk and others on steel-nylon.

One of my students had a poor guqin that sounded really bad with steel-nylon strings, so I suggested putting silk strings on it. The moment he played it with the silk strings he said it was a treasure and the sound had immediately become much better. Perhaps you can try for yourselves.

People will often say they want a perfect guqin. Everyone wants to buy a guqin that has everything. But for specialists like me, what we want is guqin that are evenly balanced. What is ‘evenly balanced’? A guqin has three kinds of timbre: open notes, stopped notes (including glissandi) and harmonics. If they are balanced and the guqin has a good feel, then that guqin is not at all bad. Some guqin sound good when you play stopped notes, but sound wooden when you play open strings. That kind of guqin is no good.

If you truly want to play at your best, you should have two or even three and choose the one that best suits the piece you’re playing. If you’re going to play Ping Sha Luo Yan, use a guqin with silk strings; if you are going to play Guangling San or Xiao Xiang Shui Yun I suggest you use one with steel-nylon strings, which have a bigger sound; silk strings can easily go out of tune with such fast pieces. Apart from that I have no suggestions. Perhaps you should discuss it. What I have done is tell you about my experiences.

The more a guqin is played the better it will become. Some guqin makers say that the instruments they make won’t sound good until a hundred years have passed. Who can wait that long? I would never buy a guqin that would take 100 years to develop a good sound.

Loudness is another aspect. If you are playing for 100 people you might need to use a microphone, but it is best if you don’t have to. Some people tell me they have wonderful guqin, but they are quiet. But how can you use a quiet guqin to play for 100 people unless you use a microphone? It doesn’t matter how good a guqin sounds, a microphone will bring an electronic feel to it, so we should avoid microphones as far as possible. Listening to the unamplified music sounds better.
However sometimes there’s no choice. If you want to play with violins or cellos you have to use electronic sound. I can quite like it in these circumstances. When I was in France this time they had good microphones, and that solved a lot of problems.

Music

The following music was played:

Qiu Shui 秋水 (Autumn Waters), played by Charlie Huang
Gu Guan Yu Shen 孤馆遇神 (Meeting Ghosts in a Deserted House), played by Julian Joseph
Bi Jian Liu Quan 碧涧流泉 (A Spring Flowing in a Green Valley), played by Dai Xiaolian
Guangling San 广陵散, played by Dai Xiaolian
Zui Weng Yin 醉翁引 (The Drunken Old Man), played by Marnix Wells
Guan Shan Yue 关山月 (Moon over the Mountain Pass), played by Cheng Yu (qin) and Dennis Lee (xiao)
Er Quan Ying Yue 二泉映月 (The Moon Reflected in Erquan Pool), played by Dennis Lee (xiao)
Changmen Yuan 长门怨 (Lament at Changmen Palace), played by Cheng Yu

All pieces played on a qin made by Ni Siyun


Dai Xiaolian gave a short talk about the Yushan School of qin music.	Dai Xiaolian playing Bi Jian Liu Quan	Charlie Huang playing Qiu Shui

25th July, 2010

Introduction

Talk by Dai Xiaolian

Music

25^th July, 2010