Music for a Sunday Afternoon
Plum Blossoms & Flowing Water
Sunday, September 13           
3:00–4:30 pm
Marvin Auditorium 

Listen to the purest musical sounds in the world played on the pipa, qin and xiao. Wang Jianxin and Li Fengyun, musicians from the Tianjin Conservatory in Beijing, perform enchanting melodies of their native land.

Selections from Melodies from China will include:   

1. Qin and Xiao Duet, Mei Hua San Nong (Three Variations of the Plum Blossom)

It was a Di piece since Jin Dynasty (265-420). Yan Shigu (581-645) of Tang Dynasty arranged it to the Qin. The plum blossom is the purest in the world and the sound of Qin is the purest in the world. So the musical idea was to use the purest sound to describe the purest object. To delve deeper into its meaning, the plum tree blossoms in the winter, being unafraid of cold weather, so its nature of disdaining the cold and snow was always praised by poets, artists and Qin players from ancient times until today. Many take the plum blossom as a symbol to praise the spirit of softness and unyielding character. In this piece, the overtone theme repeats three times as shown in the title. The Qin is an ancient string instrument from the zither family.  The Xiao is vertical end-blown flute, usually made of bamboo.2. Qin Solo, Liu Shui (Flowing Water)

Ancient music. It is a piece in style of vivid expression like freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting. This version was developed by the Sichuan school master Zhang Kongshan (in mid-19th century) with his seventy-two “Gun Fu”. Gun Fu are techniques of Qin playing. “Gun” is playing several strings from high to low pitches, and “Fu” is playing several strings from low to high. The piece uses seventy-two Gun Fu to describe the power of the streaming water. This work depicts the images of the movement of water in their minute droplet form as they form trickles and streams until they finally reach the sea. The spiritual imagery of the wise having their spirit in one accord with the water also run in parallel.

 3. Xiao Solo, Thinking Her Lover in Autumn

Traditional tune. The music elaborately reveals the inhibited inner feelings of a young maid when she was facing the mirror.

4. Pipa Solo, Xi Yang Xiao Gu (A vertical bamboo flute and drum played at sunset)

Another name of this work is Moonlit River in Spring. Its soft and simple melodies, smooth and diversified rhythms, when rendered with meticulous care and flawless artistry, make its performance remindful of a fascinating view in a spring evening at moonlit waterside; the typical picturesque region of rivers and lakes south of the Yangtze River shown at its best. The piece is also a musical translation of a scroll of quiet and elegant landscape in Chinese traditional painting. The Pipa is similar to a lute, having four strings that are plucked. Wan JianxinDr. Wang, currently Professor of Music, has been at Tianjin Conservatory of Music since 1987. He received his bachelor from Tianjin Conservatory of Music in 1985. After two years, he received his Master’s degree in Chinese instruments performance and teaching at Tianjin Conservatory. He was a prizewinner in the International Jiangnan Sizhu Music Competition in Shanghai, China in 1987. Wang holds a doctoral degree in History of Chinese Music from Academy of Chinese Arts at Beijng in 2001 where he studied with Prof. Wu Zhao. Dr. Wang can play Di, Xiao, Xun, Sheng and Hulusi. From 1987 to now, he performed many solo recitals and with various contemporary music organizations and ensembles, and held master classes about Chinese traditional music given in Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine, Portugal, Poland, Japan, Korea, the United States and Hong Kong. As a professor, he has some courses in the Conservatory: History of Chinese Music, Esthetics, Ethnomusicology and Performance of Chinese Wind Instruments. He wrote more than one hundred articles and thesis include “Comparison Shakuhachi in China and in Japan”, “Origin and Development of Study of Chinese Qin”, “Analysis of Mozi Bei Si (Qin’s masterpiece)” and “Yang Yinliu and His Qin’s Study” etc. Now he is the head of librarians and the director of Center for Information Technology in Tianjin Conservatory of Music.  Li FengyunLi holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Pipa and Qin Performance from Tianjin Conservatory of Music. She studied with Chen Zhong, Li Xiangting, Zhang Ziqian and Xu Jian.A5

She is currently the Professor of Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Chairperson of Tianjin Qin Association, the members of Chinese Musicians Association. She entered the affiliated middle school of Tianjin Conservatory of Music in 1976 and graduated from the Conservatory in 1985, she became faculty member in the same year. Li was awarded second prize of National Guangdong Music Competition and International Jiangnan Sizhu Music Competition in 1987 and a first-prize winner of the Hangzhou Qin Invitation Competition in 1992. 

From 1990, she held her Qin recital in Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, the United States and Russia. She attended the ’90 and ’95 International Symposium on the Art of the Chinese Ancient Qin in Chengdu. In 1994, she also participated in the Beijing International Symposium of Chinese Famous Qin and Qin’s Music. Her performance of masterpieces was recorded in the event. Her albums under HUGO label “Guangling Qin Music Vol. 4”, “Duets with Qin and Xiao”, “Mei Shao Yue Qin’s Muisc” was released in 1996, 2001 and in 2007. Her theses include “Interpretation of Song of Woodcutter”, “The Reasons for the Decline of the Chinese Qin Music” and “Study of the Mysterious Codex” etc.