10/28/2017 丁酉秋古琴雅集

On Saturday, October 28, 2017,  2pm to 6pm at Vestal NY, Peiyou organized a 2nd Guqin Yaji for the fall season in the year of Ding You 丁酉.

與會者 Participants:

來自紐約市,新澤西的朋友 

Friends from NYC/NJ area -- Yixuan, Bin and Guillaume, Ralph and Pen, Yunxin Xing 邢云馨.

來自北紐約州的朋友 

Friends from Albany area -- Renjie, Michael B and Yu-li.

來自賓漢頓的朋友

Friends from Binghamton area -- Brenda Shunwen Wu, Huimin Jiang (who is a visiting scholar from Beijing, introduced by Prof. John Chaffee at Binghamton University), mom and dad (parents-in-law of Peiyou)

來自波士頓地區的朋友

Friends from Boston area -- Michael J and Yubin Liang (who is an Acupuncture practitioner).

雅集節目 Yaji Program:

 演出者表演項目之投影片 Slides that went along with each performer 

Great photographs of the yaji from the photographer, Yixuan. Yaji started with everyone introducing themselves. Then the program followed. 

執扇仕女圖, artist 季康

龜仙人與琴仙人

培幼試逸軒的琴, 問道:你這調很特別, Yixuan 回: 因為還沒調音... :)

Yunxin's instagram has a short clip of my playing of Zhuang Zho Dreaming himself as a butterfly. 莊周夢蝶. flip over to the third one to listen to it. Thanks Yunxin. 

云馨的手機有錄到一小段我彈的莊周夢蝶, 可至她的instagram 翻到第三張聽看.謝謝云馨,

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba2Hc-BnHev/

逸軒演奏華胥引

培幼解說莊周夢蝶

李彬演奏"南風暢"並唱了"南風歌"

人傑演奏蕭古曲 妝台秋思

Ralph 演奏平沙落雁

人傑與培幼演奏謝俊仁先生創作的"落梅" 此曲只有在有雅集或表演時咱倆才得機會練習.

從上次在Cambridge NY表演的經驗, 這次有把自己的心放慢聆聽蕭聲, 再下指, 此次演奏個人覺得有比上次好些

中場休息 Intermission for food

食物的準備感覺還是有很大的挑戰性. 婆婆準備了兩道菜 (for vegetarian)及水果跟飲料,  我跟老公準備了home made (for vegetarian) and store made pizza. 涼拌豆腐(最獲好評). 米飯, 雞肉, 水餃 (沒買到好吃的, 這次水餃失敗). 烏龍茶, 檸檬汁, 以及甜湯還有一些nuts. 

Yu-li 帶來了一瓶甜酒, 可就連法國人都打不開, 費了好些功夫終於被老公打開, 大家笑說, Better be a good wine. 呵呵...

廚房感覺像戰場, 感謝婆婆, Yu-li, 老公的幫忙以及大家的自動自發. :)

接下來第二部分的雅集節目很另類的精采. 

云馨解說關於她的最近創作. 

Yunxin's website: http://www.xingyunxin.com/
Dionysius 酒神
For sound recording of Yunxin's talk at the yaji, please listen from : https://youtu.be/VrDMTWbSuVg (云馨的解說之錄音檔)

Bin 李彬and Guillaume's 季堯孟I Am Also Here for Two Performers. This performance for me is very thoughtful, although there is almost no sound but several long silent moments. Like Laozi 大音希聲, The greatest sound is the silent sound. And the silent moment is actually very provocative.

錄音檔Sound recording of Bin and Huilliume's  I Am Also Here at the yaji, please listen from https://youtu.be/mdxpfd8hunk

Bin Li's website: http://www.bindavidli.com/i-am-also-here.html

Michael's 蔣賢 Yang Style Taichi demonstration.

Renjie's 人傑 Chen Style Taichi demonstration.

請欣賞人傑的楊氏太極48式
Please watch Renjie's Yang Style 48 form demonstration : https://youtu.be/wnTvyrdousY

Group photo.  Unfortunately Shunwen and Huiming left before this picture was taken. The total was 17 people.  It was exactly the number of people like the last spring yaji. 

 Some photos from my camera:

After Taichi demonstrations, everyone back into the house, Michael and Renjie explained a little bit the difference between Yang Style and Chen Style Taichi. According to Renjie, Yang style in appearance does not seem as powerful as Chen style, but the fajin 發勁 (exerting strength) is actually very powerful. 

Then Yunxin asked Peiyou to teach some knowledge about qin playing. So Peiyou explained the basic concept of qin sound, hui dots, right hand, and left hand fingerings, yin and nao, chuo and zhu.  

The Yaji ended with Peiyou's qin playing of "Song of a Pleasant Night" 

培幼最後以一曲良宵引,結束又一次愉悅的雅集.

My father-in-law was very impressed with the yaji. He thinks it is like back to the French Salon time that so many different artists gathered together and every one demonstrate, talk about their arts and exchange different thoughts... He thinks it is really great.

我公公對這次雅集印象深刻。 他認為這就像回到法國沙龍時代，許多不同的藝術家聚集在一起，每一個人都展示，談論他們的藝術，交換不同的想法...他認為這真的很棒。

感謝 Thanks:

This might be the last yaji that we will host at our home. Due to the location is pretty remote to many of my qin friends. But still many showed there interests and loyalty in participating. I am really feeling honored and touched. It was another great gathering. Thank you all for coming.

Thanks to Ralph again for picking up friends from NYC/NJ area. Thanks to Renjie again for the great technical support of sound amplifier and projector.
Thanks to Yixuan, the photographer for taking all the great photos.

Thanks to Prof. John Chaffee for introducing Huimin to us.  

Let's continue practicing the qin and maintain the qin philosophies and culture in our life as best as we can. 

We will have another elegant gathering, but when and where, is not so important now. When the time is right, it'll happen again.

琴音與琴道, 不會也不應因任何起起落落,改變我們對他們在我們生命中的存在價值與追求之初衷. 與琴友共勉之

Participated The Southern Tier Chinese School Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Saturday 10/7/2017 6:30 pm Peiyou participated the Southern Tier Chinese School (STCS) Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration event 南紐約中文學校中秋晚會, located at 哥白尼太空科學教育中心 Kopernik Observatory & Science Center, at the border of NY and Penn state, on a mountain.

STCS prepared drinks, pizza and handmade moon cakes for everyone.

This event was mainly for local Chinese parents and children to gather to celebrate one of the important Chinese traditional days, the mid-autumn full moon festival day. Program includes kids singing, Tibetan dance, kid's violin solo, and some professional performance, such as Beijing opera 拾玉鐲, traditional short play of martial arts repertoire  三岔口, and a bamboo flute solo, performed by artists from Binghamton SUNY Confucius Institute, and my guqin playing and poetry recitation, etc.

After the music program, there's moon observation through telescopes at the open field. I was pretty excited to see the full moon through a telescope, that was my first life time experience, very impressed. After seeing the moon, we followed mom and dad's car and drove down the mountain. When we get closer to BU, there was fire works going on, but not sure from where exactly, and for what event. Yet, it seemed drawing a nice ending for my first weekend of October.

中文學校校長孫明霞致詞 MingXia Sun, Principal, STCS

天文台負責人致詞

藏族舞蹈 次仁拉索 Tibetan dance performed by 邊陽洲 Yangzhou Bian

Children's singing of 靜夜思

Peiyou introduced a little bit the difference between the Guqin and the Guzheng, then performed Wild Geese Landing on a Sandy Shore 

培幼介紹了一點古琴與古箏的不同之後演奏平沙落雁. 

Dizi solo: Morning, by Yuxiao Chen 笛子獨奏: 早晨, 演奏者:陳雨瀟 from CI.

Beijing opera traditional short play of martial arts repertoire  三岔口. 

Performed by 何子琛 Zichen He, and 王櫸 Ju Wang from CI.

Looking at the moon through a telescope.

Meet Zhao Ze Post-Rock Band from China

十月五日一早, 便與先生驅車下新澤西, 先是去了露西家, 隨後再往weehawken的方向去, 途中交通壅擠,特別是往進曼哈頓城的方向. 原本一個小時的車程開了兩個小時. 快到Weehawken 時收到海亮來電, 他們已到紐約, 但因成員當中有人身體不適, 因而出旅館門也晚了些. 當我們開到唐先生家附近時已看到沼澤成員在哈德遜河邊看景色, 我把車開過去先跟他們打了招呼, 於是再往唐先生家. 時已過六點半, 大夥都已到了, 實感抱歉. 沒多久沼澤一行六人便也來到了唐先生家. 雅集正式開始. 

On 10/5/2017, 7pm at Weehawken NJ, Zhao Ze post-rock band from China meet New York Qin Society. 

People who attend the yaji: 

NYQS members: Ralph, Mingmei 葉明媚, Peiyou 張培幼 and John 唐世璋.

Guests: Bin Li 李彬, Yihan Chen 陳逸涵, Xiao fan 蕭凡

Zhao Ze team 沼澤樂團: Hoyliang 海亮 (Guqin, Xiao)

Littledream 細輝 (Guitar) 

Roy 阿來 (Bass, Melodica) 

Seasean 海遜 (Drums, Glokenspiel)

George from Trail Records

and a young Chinese friend who helped Zhao Ze a lot while they were in the US.  

Including spouses, total was 15 people.

Zhao Ze team leader Hoyliang handing their vinyl record, Azure Star (all in white color) to John, as a gift of first meet. 沼澤隊長海亮先生交給唐世璋先生一張他們的黑膠唱片, 滄浪星 (事實上是全白色的)作為初次見面禮.

Hoyliang sign on the record cover, all the band members also signed. 

海亮在贈送的唱片封面簽名. 其他成員也都簽了名. 

Everyone introduced themselves. Hoyliang and John exchanged some thoughts of composing qin music. John demonstrated a piece of qin melody that he reconstructed to blues. 大家自我介紹. 唐先生跟海亮交流了一些對於古琴創作音樂的看法. 

Having Turkish food after everyone shared some talk. 交流過後的用餐.

Music parts:

John first sang and played Shui Diao Ge Tou 水調歌頭 (Prelude to Water Ripple ) from 1687 松聲操. Then he asked Hoyliang if he can play something. Hoyliang first politely rejected but then he decided to play something. Here's some clips of Hoyliang's qin playing on silk string (before 1'25" in the video):

Mingmei played her composed qin piece and  流水 Flowing Water. 

Peiyou played 莊周夢蝶 Zhuang Zho Dreaming Himself as a Butterfly. When John heard Peiyou announced the name of the piece, he quickly took this scroll of painting of Zhuang Zho Meng Die out  from somewhere, and hung it on the wall to accompany Peiyou's qin playing.  

Thanks Bin took this photo. 

莊周夢蝶是今年初始打譜, 根據陳長林先生的演奏學習. 才剛打完整首, 因此仍屬背譜階段, 彈得很不成熟, 還需琢磨. 

After music, everyone had moon cakes (brought by Fan) and tea, then went out to the river side to see the night view of Manhattan. We were hoping to see full moon, but it was raining.

Peiyou also received the gift of 滄浪星 the white vinyl record from Zhao Ze.

The meeting was officially ended at 10:30pm

Many thanks to John and Suzanne's warm hospitality.

The next day, 10/6/2017 8pm, John, Suzanne, Peiyou and Stephen went to Manhattan to see Zhao Ze's concert. 

沼澤樂團: 一個貝斯手阿來, 一個吉他手細輝, 一個鼓手(海亮的弟弟海遜), 一個古琴/蕭手(隊長海亮). 海亮在已有其他弦樂器的經驗下自學古琴. 所有的曲目都是他的創作. 他結合中國古詩的意境於音樂. 海亮認為用電古琴可把許多細微的聲音放大, 會發現很多可能性. 海亮受其父影響. 他的父親是民間樂師, 吹簫與笛. 從小聽其父所吹的中樂民歌長大.

附註:蘇軾 水調歌頭 英譯 

明月幾時有？把酒問青天。不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年？

我欲乘風歸去，又恐瓊樓玉宇，高處不勝寒。起舞弄清影，何似在人間？

轉朱閣，低綺戶，照無眠。不應有恨，何事長向別時圓？

人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺，此事古難全。但願人長久，千里共嬋娟。

English translation of Prelude to Water Ripple （Song）Su Shi (Su Dongpo)

How rare the moon, so round and clear!

With cup in hand, I ask of the blue sky,
"I do not know in the celestial sphere
What name this festive night goes by?"
I want to fly home, riding the air,
But fear the ethereal cold up there,
The jade and crystal mansions are so high!
Dancing to my shadow,
I feel no longer the mortal tie.
She rounds the vermilion tower,
Stoops to silk-pad doors,
Shines on those who sleepless lie.
Why does she, bearing us no grudge,
Shine upon our parting, reunion deny?
But rare is perfect happiness--
The moon does wax, the moon does wane,
And so men meet and say goodbye.
I only pray our life be long,
And our souls together heavenward fly!
（by Lin Yutang 林語堂）