8/28/2025
3:15 - 4:45 pm
At Binghamton University Ethnomusicology class.
What is the Guqin (or simply the qin )
- A seven-string fretless zither played in China for over 2000 years.
- Favored by Confucian scholars (儒) & Daoist practitioners (道)
- Traditionally for self-cultivation, meditation, and harmony with nature (天人合一).
Key Features
● Strings and Hui Dots – 7 strings; 13 hui dots for harmonics
● Size: ~120 cm × 20 cm (string length 110- 112 cm)
● Soundboard: Paulownia wood; lacquered; top & bottom = Yin & Yang
● Sound Types
散音 (Sǎn Yīn) – Open string
泛音 (Fàn Yīn) – Harmonics
按音 (Àn Yīn) – Pressed/ sliding tones
● Tuning: Pentatonic & modal tunings (two demonstrated today)
● Fingering Notation 指法譜
Cultural Concepts
● 琴歌 Qín Gē – Guqin with singing; poetic & expressive
● Daoist ideal: Silence (大音希聲), simplicity, harmony with nature
● Confucian value: Balance, discipline, moral growth
● Antique Qins – Preserving Historic Instruments and Their Beauty (like lacquer cracks 斷
紋 and inscriptions 題銘)
Music Performance
1. 石上流泉 – Flowing Spring over Stone (1864) 5'
2. 神人暢 – Harmony between Divine & Human (1525) 4'
3. 竹枝詞 – Guqin with singing: Song of Bamboo Branches (Tang / 1771) 3'
4. 瀟湘水雲 – Misty Clouds over the Xiao & Xiang River (1722) 12'
