Music

I play Guqin on a daily basis, which is a seven-string Chinese zither that has a history of about 3000 years. Traditionally, people play it outdoors in a mountain setting, a garden or a small pavilion (similar to the idea of “chamber music” for a small group of audiences in the western world). This quiet instrument has no more than 4 octaves, and a serene moonlit night is often considered an appropriate time for performance. You will also see it pretty much often in the Chinese ink brush paintings…

I guess it is true that every string instrument player is interested in music theory, as this is a tradition dating back to Pythagoras who used strings to support his idea that the planets move according to numbers and thus resonate to produce a symphony of music. Traditionally, Guqin employs a distinct and intricate system of musical temperament, diverging from the globally accepted equal temperament and aligning more closely with just intonation, thereby avoiding disharmony. As an intuitionist, I also agree that any musical scales describe a community/relation of tones and therefore the pitches in music are relative, not absolute. Recently, I have developed a computer program for Guqin to calculate the finger positions of each tone, given the musical modes or scales that the composers might need for writing pieces. This endeavor parallels adding frets to a guitar! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you are interested in using it for composition.

Unlike science, my passion for music does not embed a reason. Here’s a quote from L. Wittgenstein that captures this sentiment: “Once I have exhausted the justification, I have reached bedrock, and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: This is simply what I do.”

Some recorded pieces

• 流水 (Flowing Water)

• 神人暢 (Rhapsody on a Celestial)
  • This work was recorded in the countryside of France using an instrument manufactured in Ming Dynasty (~1500 AD) with silk strings.

• 欸乃 (Melody of the Fisherman’s Song)

• 離騷 (The Lament)
  • This piece was composed in late Tang Dynasty based on a poem with the same title authored by Qu Yuan (~300 BC). In short, I interpret this poem as his shamanistic imaginary journeys to escape from societal politics.

• 白雪 (White Snow)

• 酒狂 (Drunken Ecstasy)
  • Not sure about the translation of such name, but I like it. Sometimes we make jokes that from a player’s music, you will know what alcohol he/she drank.

• 忘憂 (Escape from Oneself)

• 關山月 (Moon over a Mountain Pass)

• Jingle Bell
  • Recorded in December 2021.
• 普庵咒 (Mantra of Pu’an)
  • A flavour of east Asian buddhism.