Visualizing Sound
A Lecture and Demonstration on the Notation System and Music of the Chinese Qin
Friday evening 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm, 2/15/2019
at Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Marquand Chapel
Many thanks to Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Miss Seymour invited me to join her. It was my honor to participate this wonderful event. Working with Miss Seymour has been a really pleasant experience.
The only photo of me and Kelsey from our camera.
I had tried the nylon string WP qin and the silk string Zhang Yong beginner qin and finally decided to use the silk string beginner qin, after the sound test.
This event has 4 parts:
1, Brief Introduction of the qin, and its notation, by Kelsey Seymour.
2, Demonstration in detail how the qin notation works, by Peiyou Chang
3, Discussion some of the questions raised by a notation that represents action, by Kelsey, and Peiyou gave some insight into how she uses this notation in her own practice as a performer.
4, Qin music performed by Peiyou of three famous pieces.
And we had the last 10 minutes for audience to ask questions.
Very nice printed music program notes
The three pieces I played: 幽蘭, 平沙落雁, 梅花三弄
Miss Seymour is a very prominent scholar.
Many thanks to everyone who made this event successfully, including the sound technique expert.
The ISM Marquand Chapel was a very nice and tranquil place for this event. The audience was very lovely, as well. I love all the questions they asked, and the nice response from them, only wish I could have answered better.
Here I try to record the questions I can remember...
On what occasion is the qin played?
There is a question that I think I did not answer well, a gentleman was asking: when you study a piece, how long will melody come to you?
What is the gender ratio now of qin players? Are there more female qin players now?
How to recognize a pair of hands of a qin player?
Why is there a preference for aged qins?
How to tune the qin?
What kind of string is this?
The qin table looks old, is it an old qin table?
Does learning piano help for learning the guqin?
How did people learn the qin from a teacher in the old day?
There is a senior gentlemen came up to talk to me after the event. He said that he learned the qin back in the 60's in Taiwan but he did not continue and this event brought his memory back. I asked him if he remember who the qin teacher was, he couldn't remember.
I love to meet people this way. There is always some special minds to encounter.
Visualizing Sound: A Lecture and Demonstration on the Notation System and Music of the Chinese Qin
Video from Yale ISM Youtube channel
