The playing of
guqin, a traditional Chinese musical
instrument, seems to be dying out and to protect and preserve its
cultural heritage relevant departments have applied for a special
heritage listing with the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization UNESCO.
"As we are intoxicated with contemporary western music and applaud
renowned foreign musicians, do we think of guqin, the
traditional Chinese musical instrument faced with extinction?"
inquired Wu Zhao, a researcher with the Music Institute of the
Chinese Art Academy.
To
salvage and preserve this cultural heritage, relevant departments
have actively applied for listing guqin, a seven-stringed
zither, as "a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of
humanity." Now UNESCO has confirmed its qualification, so it is
expected to become the second masterpiece of oral and intangible
heritage in China, following Kunqu. Though this will not
immediately reverse the declining trend of guqin, it will
comfort guqin art lovers.
Guqin art dates back 2,000 to 3,000 years. The Book of
Songs, the earliest collection of Chinese poems, including 305
poems of the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BC), recorded that a "man of
honor will not desert qin and se (two stringed musical instruments
which play in great harmony) without reason." It was thought an
essential artistic accomplishment of the literati of the past
dynasties was to be able to play guqin. With social
development and culture change, guqin seemed on the verge of
extinction but today, as people's understanding of traditional art
improves, guqin is played more than ever and some
conservatories have even opened guqin classes.
However, too much innovation can prevent the faithful inheritance
of traditional music. Now only a few over 60 can play guqin
according to its original flavor. If no effective measure is taken
in salvaging and preserving guqin, this original art is
likely to die out with their passing.
In
1977, when the US spaceship Voyager was launched in search of
intelligent creatures outside the solar system, a gold CD, which is
expected to run for 100 million years was placed on board. Two
pieces of music thought to "represent the artistic level of humans
on earth" were included, one is the work of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, the other the Chinese guqin music, "Flowing
Water."
"No other musical instrument can compete with guqin in
representing traditional Chinese culture," said Cheng Gongliang, a
guqin expert.
In
May 1986, he held 13 one-man concerts in Germany and performed nine
guqin scores including "Pingsha Luoyan" (Wild Geese Descend
to Sandy Shores), "Yi Guren" (Thinking of An Old Friend) and
"Xiaoxiang Shuiyun" (Mist and Cloud over the Xiang River). The
beautiful oriental music greatly interested German audiences.
Leading media of Frankfurt praised the music as the "sound of
nature" flowing from the fingers of Cheng.
Wang Zhichu, deputy director of the Music Institute of the Chinese
Art Academy, said that there are 150 guqin score books
handed down, containing 3,000 guqin scores. However, only 10
percent of them can now be played, for the others haven't been
studied and transformed into numbered musical notations. The
transformation work is an important part of protecting and
salvaging guqin; it is very difficult and needs assistance
from various sectors.
Experts urge to better protect the elderly guqin players and
encourage them to teach more students. Sound and video-recording
technology will be employed to preserve the guqin art. While
collecting the primary guqin scores, experts and students
will also do some innovation work. In addition, a special fund will
be set up.
(China.org.cn translated by Li Jinhui, April 2, 2003)