Harmony and Power

March 30–31, 2018 Bard College

bard college conservatory of music us-china music institute

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018, 7:30 PM | CHAPEL OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS

ELEGANT GATHERING 雅集 Introduction of the Scholars

HARMONY AND POWER: conference

LECTURE / CONCERT

GUQIN: AN ANCIENT CHINESE INSTRUMENT AND ITS REVIVAL Zhao Jiazhen, guqin, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing Li Lingchen, guqin and clarinet, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing Variation on Themes of Plum Blossoms 梅花三弄 Anonymous (Tang Dynasty) Zhao Jiazhen, guqin

The Role of Music in the Cultivation of the Literati in Ancient China

There once was a government official uniquely gifted with the flute. He used his talents to compose a piece about the beauty of plum blossoms. He played it for the emperor, who was so impressed he declared the work the official theme for all plum blossoms. Years later an unknown musician transcribed the theme song for plum blossoms for guqin, using its unique characteristics to turn the theme into a rondo.

Four centuries ago the first Western musical instrument, a clavichord, was brought to China by an

View of the XiaoXiang Confluence 潇湘水云 Guo ChuWang (Song Dynasty) Zhao Jiazhen, guqin

Italian missionary and presented to the emperor. This gift started the tradition of classical music performance in China, which has continued steadily: China is fast becoming a classical music powerhouse. But the tradition was not reciprocated. We at Bard College hope to rectify this situation and deepen the development of Chinese music in the West.

In partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the US-China Music Institute has launched the Chinese Music Development Initiative to promote the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China, and to support musical exchange between the United States and China.

This weekend we present our first scholarly conference to offer multidisciplinary perspectives on the ancient musical traditions of China and their significance to the world today. To be considered

fit to govern, officials in ancient China needed to be cultivated in the arts, especially music. An

international group of scholars and musicians has come together on the Bard campus to explore this extraordinary cultural phenomenon, and its reverberations in contemporary China, from the perspectives of performance, history, literature, musicology, art history, and philosophy.

Jindong Cai

Director, US-China Music Institute Professor of Music and Arts

Bard College Conservatory of Music

Guo ChuWang was a famous guqin player in Hangzhou at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (mid-13th century). This piece was written during the time that China was ruled by Genghis Khan and the Mongolians. Guo wrote it to express his consternation at seeing a once-great nation fall and at his inability to effect change. He was influenced by the uncontrollable nature of water, and the metaphor he took for his feelings was the image of two great rivers colliding into one.

Flowing Water 流水 Anonymous (Zhou Dynasty [Spring/Autumn and Warring States period]) Li Lingchen, guqin

Once upon a time a woodcutter was working up in the mountains and stumbled upon a guqin player practicing. The woodcutter expressed his feelings about the piece. It was the first time the guqin player had met someone who felt the same way he did about the music. The guqin player then played “Flowing Water” and they once again discovered they had the same feelings for the music. The woodcutter became the musician’s inspiration. They continued to meet and share music with each other. On the day the woodcutter died, the guqin player smashed his instrument and never played again because he no longer had his muse.

A Murderous Rhapsody 广陵散 Anonymous (Later Eastern Han Dynasty) Li Lingchen, guqin

A king ordered a blacksmith to make 40,000 arrows in seven days—an impossible task that no one could achieve. The blacksmith was killed for his failure. His son, Nie Zheng, wanted retaliation against the king, so he devised a plan. He mutilated his face to the point that not even his own

mother recognized him; he became Nobody for his revenge. He then learned guqin and eventually he was invited to play for the king. When he did, he hid a blade in the guqin and during his perfor-

mance he attempted to assassinate the king. His revenge failed, but his story lives on in this piece.

Prelude for Qin and Chinese Flute 琴箫引 Zhao ShiJun (1984), adapted by Li Lingchen (2010) Zhao Jiazhen, guqin; Li Lingchen, clarinet This piece was inspired by the Yi people, an ethnic minority group in the Yunnan region of China.

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THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 3

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2018 | LÁSZLÓ Z. BITÓ ’60 CONSERVATORY BUILDING

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 8 PM | OLIN HALL

CONFERENCE SESSIONS

CONCERT

9:30 am – 1:00 pm Introductory Remarks Jindong Cai, Director, US-China Music Institute, Bard College Conservatory of Music Session 1 Beautifying the Emotions: Music and the Moral Psyche in Early Chinese Thought Erica Brindley, Penn State (Asian Studies, History, Philosophy) Comments: Susan Blake, Bard College (Philosophy) Session 2 Music to the Ears of Confucius: Bell Chimes from the Chinese Bronze Age Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California, Los Angeles (Art History, Archeology) Comments: Patricia Karetzky, Bard College (Art History) Coffee break Session 3 From Musical Instruments to Human Voice: The Representation of Music in the Rhapsody Ye Yang, University of California, Riverside (Comparative Literature) Comments: Ying Li-Hua, Bard College (Asian Studies) Lunch break 2:00 – 4:30 pm Session 4 The Role of Guqin as a Link between Ancient and Contemporary China François Picard, Paris-Sorbonne University (Ethnomusicology) Comments: Robert Culp, Bard College (Historical Studies) Session 5 An Artist and His Patrons: Qin Player Yang Jijing and the Cultural Elite in Early 16th-Century Suzhou Yang Yuanzheng, University of Hong Kong (Music) Comments: Jindong Cai, Bard College (Music and Arts) Discussion and closing remarks

NOT EAST, NOT WEST: CHINESE INSTRUMENTS IN MODERN TIMES Zhao Jiazhen, guqin; Chu Yue, piano; Frank Corliss, piano; Du Zhusong, wind instruments Han Mei, guzheng; Li Lingchen, guqin Parting at Yangguan 阳关三叠 Traditional Du Zhusong, xiao; Zhao Jiazhen, guqin

Yangguan is a mountain pass associated with sad parting in Chinese literature, as it was the last stop for Chinese travelers leaving for the Western Regions on the Silk Road. Famous Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei wrote: Seeing Yuaner off on a mission to Anxi The morning rain of Weicheng dampens the light dust, The guest house is green with the color of fresh willows.

Let’s finish another cup of wine, my dear sir, Out west past the Yangguan, old friends there’ll be none.

Inspired by this poem, “Parting at Yangguan” (or “Three Variations of Yangguan”) is one of China’s best-known musical pieces. The song, like the pass for which it is named, became associated with leave-taking. Thought to have existed as early as the Tang Dynasty, the earliest surviving score dates to the Ming Dynasty. The phrase “three variations” indicates that the poem is to be repeated, either in part or in whole, three times, each time with some changes.

Parting at Yangguan 阳关三叠 Traditional, adapted for piano by Li YingHai (1978) Chu Yue, piano In this special arrangement, the piano sometimes plays the guqin part, or it adapts the traditional form to the expressive qualities of piano.

Po 破 Du Zhusong (2004; arr. 2018) Du Zhusong, suona; Han Mei, guzheng

Suona is the most common double-reed Chinese woodwind. The suona originated in Arabia and has been widely used in China since the 16th century. The guzheng is a Chinese plucked string instrument created more than 2,500 years ago. It is the most commonly played instrument in China. This piece was composed by Du Zhusong and has been revised and arranged especially for this concert.

Jingzhe 惊蛰 Han Mei (2018) Han Mei, guzheng; Du Zhusong, xun

The xun is a clay-vessel flute and the guzheng is a long zither. Both instruments are indigenous to the Chinese Han culture. This composition is inspired by Jingzhe (惊蛰), a solar point that signifies the awakening of the earth in early spring.

Warrior Winds, Zen Shadows 侠风禅影 Bai Haoyu (2016) Li Lingchen, guqin; Frank Corliss, piano

This piece was written for guqin player Zhao Jiazhen to highlight her accomplished playing. On the one hand, she expresses lofty sentiments and characters like a warrior, but she also displays a quality of peaceful elegance, as in Zen. Originally scored for guqin and Chinese orchestra, the composer has created a new arrangement for guqin and piano.

Jam Finale Zhao Jiazhen, Li Lingchen, Han Mei, Du Zhusong, Chu Yue 4 HARMONY AND POWER

THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 5

PRESENTATION SUMMARIES Beautifying the Emotions: Music and the Moral Psyche in Early Chinese Thought Erica Brindley, Penn State (Asian Studies, History, Philosophy) Many thinkers in early China, especially Confucians, valued music over just about any other cultural form and would go to great lengths to theorize about its special role in shaping the moral individual. In a recently unearthed bamboo-strip text called Xing zi ming chu (Human Nature Emerges from Heaven’s Command), we encounter an extended discussion on the paramount importance of music in moral self-cultivation. This talk explores the intricate claims made about music and the emotions in this text and places such claims into a larger context of Confucian thinking about music. I will show how the Xing zi ming chu serves as an early example of musical apologetics, one that depicts music as the most effective cultural tool for psychological practice and improvement.

Music to the Ears of Confucius: Bell Chimes from the Chinese Bronze Age Lothar von Falkenhausen, UCLA (Art History, Archeology) Archaeological finds have brought to light numerous chimed sets of bronze bells from the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–256 BCE). Many of these instruments can still be played, emitting approximately, if not exactly, the same tones that were heard by listeners at the time; and those from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (died c. 433 BCE) bear inscriptions naming their notes, thereby enabling a comprehensive reconstruction of the underlying musical theory. Even though no original musical pieces survive from this early time, a great deal may be said about the religious and philosophical role of music in the elite culture of the Zhou period, and about bells as repositories of the most advanced scientific thinking of the era. The elite ritual music of the first millennium BCE thus furnishes important precedents to both the musical ethos and musical practices of later periods in Chinese history.

The Role of Guqin as a Link between Ancient and Contemporary China François Picard, Paris-Sorbonne University (Ethnomusicology) The guqin or “ancient zither” was a symbol of the well-educated man, the literati, the Confucian way of life. But it is also an instrument, a tool to create and play sounds that are perceived as music, motion, emotion. The guqin—showcased in contemporary compositions by composers from Shanghai and Paris—will be analyzed as a symbol of antiquity, as an instrument charged with technique and repertoire, and as a provider of new sounds.

An Artist and His Patrons: Qin Player Yang Jijing and the Cultural Elite in Early 16th-Century Suzhou Yang Yuanzheng, University of Hong Kong (Music) When talking about the dynamic relationship between the qin and the Chinese literati, art historian James Watt argues that the literati’s embrace of the qin was genuine enough in the medieval period, and the intellectual and qin player were one. By the 16th century “it was no longer enough to be a musician; one had to lay claim to literatus status before the artistic achievement could be recognized.” It became “a matter of having to associate with ‘lofty people’ in order to gain any recognition at all—and, for that matter, a living.” We reexamine this conjunction through the prism of Yang Jijing (d. 1530 CE), a professional qin player, doyen of the cultural elite, and resident of Suzhou, the largest and most prosperous city of Ming Dynasty China. In 1528, retired scholar-official Wen Zhengming dedicated his painting Jiaoshi mingqin tu (Playing the Qin amidst Banana Plants and Rocks) to Yang Jijing. An unusual scroll in many respects, it quotes a lengthy fu poem, Rhapsody on Qin, by ancient literatus and qin player Ji Kang (223–62 CE), with Yang Jijing depicted below the text. Yet who was Yang Jijing? What had he done to deserve such an elegant gift? Through analysis of this painting and three other portraits of Yang Jijing that survive, we explore the period’s qin players and how they earned a living in an increasingly commercial world.

From Musical Instruments to Human Voice: The Representation of Music in the Rhapsody Ye Yang, UC Riverside (Comparative Literature) Music enjoyed a place of great importance in ancient Chinese culture and in Confucian thinking.

How was it represented in the rhapsody (fu), a literary genre predominant in the Han Dynasty, and continuing in popularity into the subsequent Age of Division (220–581 CE)? This presentation discusses a group of rhapsodies composed from the late Eastern Han through the Western Jin dynasties, and argues that in their depiction of various musical instruments and the human voice (“whistling”), the authors shifted the emphasis of the role of music toward that of emotional self-expression, especially sorrow, away from the moral and ethical function of music, as defined in pre-Qin Confucian texts.

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THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 7

PARTICIPANTS

Hess series in Chicago, and Louvre Music Series in Paris. Chu also performs with a variety of renowned chamber ensembles and artists, including the Parker Quartet, Far Cry, Eighth Blackbird, Zuill Bailey, Kim Kashkashian, Itzhak Perlman, and Peter Wiley, among many others.

Susan Blake (Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bard College) received her PhD from Indiana University. Her areas of interest include epistemology, philosophy of perception, Chinese philosophy, philosophy of language, history of analytic philosophy, and ethics. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards from Indiana University, where she served as assistant director of the Institute for Korean Studies, and the American Philosophical Association, as well as a Taiwan Ministry of Education grant for language study and a Fulbright Fellowship. Publications include “Agency, Non-Action, and Desire in the Laozi,” and “Mengzi and Its Philosophical Commitments: A Response to Van Norden’s Mengzi,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy; and book reviews in Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy and Journal of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy.

Presentation topics have included “Names and Standards in Early Chinese Philosophy,” “Skepticism, Knowledge, and Disputation in the Zhuangzi,” and “A Problem of the Senses in Chinese Thought.”

Frank Corliss (Associate Director, Bard College Conservatory of Music; Director, Bard Conservatory Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship) was for many years the director of music at the Walnut Hill School and a staff pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. He makes frequent appearances in the Boston Symphony Prelude Concert series and performs throughout the United States as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist. In addition to his duties at BSO and Walnut Hill, Corliss has worked as a musical assistant for Yo-Yo Ma and has assisted Ma in the musical preparation of many new works for performance and recording, including concertos by Elliott Carter, Richard Danielpour, Tan Dun, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Christopher Rouse, and John Williams. Corliss can be heard on Ma’s Grammywinning Sony disc Soul of the Tango, as well as the Koch International disc of music by Elliott Carter for chorus and piano with the John Oliver Chorale.

Erica Brindley (Professor of Asian Studies, History, and Philosophy, Penn State) is an intellectual and cultural historian of early China (500 BCE to 200 CE). She works on philosophical and religious texts, cultural norms, and political cultures of the pre-imperial period and Qin-Han empires. She is also interested in the history of identity and cross-cultural interactions between the sinitic cultures of the North and their southern neighbors along the East Asian coast. Most recently, she has been focusing on the Yue (Viet) ethnicity in the early history of China’s southern frontier. This project has led to an interest in the history of South China and its relationships with Southeast Asia, as well as the maritime history of the South China Sea. She enjoys introducing students to the wide world of Asian history and philosophy, including identity and frontier history, ideas of ethnicity and gender, and the nature of science, religion, and the body as reflected in premodern Asian writings.

Robert J. Culp (Associate Professor of History, Bard College) holds an MA in Asian studies from University of Michigan and a PhD in history from Cornell University. He is the author of Articulating Citizenship: Civic Education and Student Politics in Southeastern China, 1912–1940 and coeditor of two volumes. He is currently completing a book on intellectuals’ cultural activities in China’s publishing industry during the 20th century entitled The Power of Print in Modern China: Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism.

Jindong Cai (Director, US-China Music Institute; Professor of Music and Arts, Bard College Conservatory of Music) is an orchestra conductor with a distinguished career. Cai is a Beijing native with strong ties to his homeland and a leading advocate of music from across Asia. He has close relationships with many Chinese composers and has premiered or performed new works by Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, Ye Xiaogang, and Wang Xilin, among others. He has conducted most of the top orchestras in China, as well as orchestras across North America. In 2013, Cai launched “The Beethoven Project,” in which the Stanford Symphony Orchestra performed all nine Beethoven symphonies and all five piano concerti—featuring Van Cliburn Gold Medal–winning pianist Jon Nakamatsu—in one season. Cai is also the founder of the Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival. With his wife, Sheila Melvin, Cai has coauthored several New York Times articles on the performing arts in China and the book Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese. In 2015, Penguin published their book Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic.

Chu Yue won his first piano performance competition in his hometown of Tianjin, China, at the age of eight. At 10, he conducted the youth orchestra and chorus in the closing ceremonies of the International Table Tennis Championships. An alumnus of the New England Conservatory, Curtis Institute of Music, and Yale University School of Music, Chu has been inspired by his teachers and mentors, including Jonathan Biss, Wha-Kyung Byun, Hung-Kuan Chen, Peter Frankl, Richard Goode, Seymour Lipkin, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Russell Sherman, among others. He won first prize in the 2011 Heida Hermanns International Piano Competition and the 2012 Wideman International Piano Competition. He subsequently performed with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared in concerts at the Philips Collection in Washington, D.C., Dame Myra

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Du Zhusong, a master of Chinese wind instruments, is a professor at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, director of the bawu and hulusi branches of the Chinese Folk Instruments Association, and director of the Zhejiang section of the Chinese Musicians’ Association. Du began to learn dizi, the Chinese bamboo flute, with his father and took lessons with dizi master Zhao Dongting. In 1992, Du was awarded first place in the National Souna Invitational Tournament. In 1993, he graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music as the first student to double major in performance and composition. Du is a nationally recognized concert artist in China and has toured more than 20 countries. In 2006, he was invited to perform at the United Nations in New York, and performed at Stanford, Columbia, and Princeton universities. Du is also a composer, conductor, and guitar performer. He attended a conducting master class in Hong Kong led by maestro Yan Huichang and studied guitar at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Han Mei (Associate Professor, School of Music, Middle Tennessee State University; Director, Center for Chinese Music and Culture) is an internationally acclaimed concert artist on the guzheng. Presenting music deeply rooted in Chinese culture, she has appeared with leading artists around the world in a multitude of musical genres. Han studied with zheng masters Gao Zicheng and Zhang Yan. She has played concerts in Asia, North America, Europe, Australia, and Africa as a featured soloist for over 10 years with the Zhanyou Ensemble, as well as with composer Randy Raine-Reusch, her Chinese string band Red Chamber, and the Mei Han Art Ensemble. She premiered the first original guzheng concerto composed by a non-Chinese composer (John Sharpley) with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing (2003). She has recorded eight solo and chamber music albums including Classical and Contemporary Chinese Music, Outside the Wall, Distant Wind with Raine-Reusch, and Road to Kashgar with the Orchid Ensemble. Her albums Redgrass and Gathering with Red Chamber feature string band music from the Chinese imperial court to bluegrass, backed by mandolin master John Reischman and the Jaybirds.

THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 9

Patricia Karetzky (Oskar Munsterberg Lecturer in Art History, Bard College; Adjunct Professor, Lehman College, City College of New York) received her BA from New York University, MA from Hunter College, and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Karetzky has dual interests in contemporary and medieval Chinese art. She was assistant editor, coeditor, and editor of the Journal of Chinese Religions from 1991 to 1998 and has published numerous books and articles on medieval Chinese religious art and articles on contemporary art in such journals as Yishu, Journal of Contemporary Art, and Paradoxa. She has also curated many exhibitions and written catalogues on Chinese contemporary art.

Li Lingchen has studied and performed professionally on multiple instruments. He enrolled in Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music Middle School at age 12 and attended high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan at age 15. In 2016 he graduated with honors from the Central Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in guqin performance. In 2012 he won the young professionals’ group at the HuaYin Bei International Traditional Instruments Competition in San Jose, California. In 2015 he won the young professionals’ group at the Chinese Traditional Music Instruments Competition in Seoul, South Korea. Li is studying for his master’s degree in guqin performance at the Central Conservatory of Music. He regularly performs as a solo artist around China.

François Picard (Professor of Analytical Ethnomusicology, Paris-Sorbonne University) is a research member of IReMus. Having studied drama, flute, saxophone, and electroacoustic composition, he went to Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1986 to study sheng, xiao, qin, and guanzi, as well as the history and theory of music. Focusing on Buddhist music, his PhD was defended under the supervision of Iannis Xenakis. He is a member of several scientific associations and committees, and participates in research groups in musicology, sinology, drama studies, religious anthropology, and interdisciplinary research. He is former head of the Patrimoines et Langages Musicaux research team. He has published three books: La Musique chinoise (1991 and 2003); Lexique des musiques d’Asie orientale (2006); L’Incantation du patriarche Pu’an (2012), more than 30 CDs, and contributed to “Qupai” in Chinese Music: Melodic Models in Form and Practice (2016). He has been artistic director for productions from China, Taiwan, and Tibet. His musical group, Fleur de prunus, collaborates with Baroque Nomade.

Ye Yang (Associate Professor of Chinese/Civilizations/Comparative Literature, UC Riverside) received his PhD in comparative literature from Harvard University.While Ye’s scholarly interests spread across a spectrum of Chinese and Western literature and culture, they are focused primarily on premodern Chinese and Western literature, especially poetry and poetics. He has taught such courses as Masterworks of World Literature from Antiquity through the Enlightenment, Classical and Modern Chinese Poetry and Prose, Introduction to Chinese Civilization, Chinese Cinema, and graduate seminars on Chinese and Western Literary Theory, and Theories of Translation. He has published extensively in both Chinese and English, including two books, Chinese Poetic Closure (1996) and Vignettes from the Late Ming (1999). He also translated the two-volume work A Concise History of Chinese Literature (2011).

Ying Li-Hua (Associate Professor of Chinese, Bard College) teaches a wide range of courses on Chinese language, literature, and culture. Among her publications are “Negotiating with the Past: The Art of Calligraphy in Post-Mao China,” “Vital Margins: Frontier Poetics and Landscape of Ethnic Identity,” and Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature. She also served for many years as executive director of the American Society of Shufa Calligraphy Education, promoting the teaching of Chinese calligraphy in the United States.

Zhao Jiazhen (Professor of Guqin, Traditional Music Department, Central Conservatory of Music) studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, graduating in 1984. Zhao has performed with the Chinese Symphony Orchestra, Film Orchestra of China, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Symphony Orchestra of Belgium, and National Orchestra of Taipei City. In 2001 and 2002 she performed in the “World Renowned Musicians and Instruments Concert” at Zhong Shan Hall inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, featuring three priceless guqins from the Tang Dynasty and five Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari violins. Zhao has performed in films such as The History of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber, Swordsman, Fire on Yuanming Yuan, and Wu Ze Tian. She has also produced more than 10 albums of guqin music. At the 10th annual Independent Music Awards, her album Qin: Masterpieces of Chinese Qin from the Tang Dynasty to Today won best album in the World Traditional Music category.

Lothar von Falkenhausen (Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History, UCLA) heads the East Asian Laboratory at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. He was educated at Bonn University, Peking University, Kyoto University, and Harvard University, and received his PhD in anthropology from Harvard in 1988. His research concerns the archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, focusing on large interdisciplinary and historical issues on which archaeological materials can provide significant new information. He has published copiously on musical instruments, including Chinese bronzes and their inscriptions; Chinese ritual; regional cultures; trans-Asiatic contacts; the history of archaeology in East Asia; and method and theory in East Asian archaeology. He is author of Suspended Music: Chime Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China (1993). His Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence (2006) received the Society for American Archaeology Book Award. In 2012, President Barack Obama appointed him to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, Department of State, where he continues to serve under the current administration.

Yang Yuanzheng (Associate Professor of Music, University of Hong Kong) conducts research extending from the 7th century CE to the present day, and focuses on issues of national and cultural identity in both Chinese and Japanese music. He has published in Acta Musicologica, T’oung Pao, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Early China, Journal of the Musicological Society of Japan, and Studien zur Musikarchäologie, among others. His book-length contribution on the renaissance of Jiang Kui’s lyric oeuvre, Plum-Blossom on the Far Side of the Stream, is forthcoming. Yang’s research has been recognized with such awards as Rulan Chao Pian Prize and Li Ka Shing Prize. Invited by the Smithsonian Institution, Yang is currently completing an archaeological report on Chinese musical instruments housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 10 HARMONY AND POWER

THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 11

An Ancient Chinese Instrument is Making a Comeback

by Sheila Melvin New York Times, April 11, 2012 Back in China’s Spring and Autumn Period, between the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C., a musician named Boya was alone in a forest plucking on a guqin, a seven-stringed zither, when a passing woodcutter named Ziqi stopped to listen. As Boya strummed the sound of clouds, Ziqi saw them billowing; when Boya conjured a waterfall, Ziqi saw it cascading.

Such was the sympathy between musician and audience that Ziqi could imagine whatever thought was in Boya’s heart from the sound of his guqin. After many years, when the woodcutter finally died, Boya knew that never again would someone so intuitively comprehend his music. So he picked up his instrument and smashed it, never to play again.

Although Boya is long gone, his musical successors have had ample occasion to share his angst.

For much of the 20th century, the contemplative guqin—the favored instrument of Confucius—has lacked an understanding audience and been eclipsed by showier musical instruments, including Western imports like piano and violin. But, after decades in the shadows of China’s musical life, the guqin is making a comeback, riding a wave of renewed interest in the nation’s traditional culture and the government’s efforts to promote this.

“Many people are saying we should restore traditional Chinese culture,” said Zhao Jiazhen, a guqin master whose audience has included President Barack Obama. “Qin is the vector of this culture. It was played by many emperors and ancient poets. If you think about Chinese culture, you have to consider the qin.” (“Gu” means ancient, and the instrument is sometimes simply called “qin.”)

Indeed, the guqin was the quintessential musical instrument of traditional China’s educated elite.

For millennia, any gentleman worth his salt was expected to be proficient at it, along with chess, calligraphy and painting. The guqin was believed to be the instrument best able to link man and cosmos, to harmonize heaven and earth; some even claimed it could summon ghosts, cure disease, make birds dance and fish fly.

The paulownia tree, from whose wood the instrument is crafted, was believed to be special, thriving in remote areas, standing still as a spirit, and absorbing the luminescence of sun and moon.

So deeply embedded is the guqin in Chinese culture that to study it is to embrace an all-encompassing moral philosophy known as “the way of the qin,” essentially a lifestyle of moderation, self-cultivation and decorum. A sincere follower of the way of the qin does not seek fame but, like Boya, prefers a select audience of fragrant pines, craggy peaks, swirling mists and the occasional discerning human.

Indeed, a true guqin devotee does not have to play the instrument at all. He can simply possess it and appreciate its “soundless music.”

Proper playing of the guqin is a metaphor for good governance — “if the large strings are too tight, the small strings will break” — and emperors were often portrayed holding a guqin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, guqin collecting has reached fever pitch in recent years. In 2010, a guqin owned by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty sold for 137 million renminbi, about $22 million, by most accounts the highest price ever paid for a musical instrument.

Gaining popularity even faster than the guqin is its more populist cousin, the 21-string—the number of strings can range from 18 to 26—zither known as the guzheng. Guzheng are more affordable than guqin and easier to play, with a movable bridge under each of its strings. A guzheng performer

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wears picks on the right hand and presses or slides the fingers of the left hand to create vibrato or ornament the pitch. The guzheng is louder, better suited to public performance and ensemble playing, and unburdened by heavy philosophical baggage. Millions of children are learning it.

“More people study guzheng than any other traditional instrument,” said Yuan Sha, a renowned guzheng player (who also performed for Mr. Obama). “It’s rapidly catching up to the piano, and I think it will surpass it. Our economy and culture are developing quickly, and the government is emphasizing Chinese culture.”

Ms. Yuan, with her husband, Wang Guangming, manages an extensive network of 160 guzheng studios in 10 provinces.

“My most important work is teaching,” she said. “I want to make a bigger contribution, by promoting and spreading the guzheng.”

The guzheng studios overseen by Ms. Yuan and Mr. Wang are so successful that they are now offering instruction in erhu (two-stringed fiddle) and pipa (Chinese lute), and branching into other areas of traditional culture like Kunju opera and calligraphy. They also have plans to establish an executive training center in Beijing aimed at white-collar workers and government officials who want to study guqin or guzheng.

“The leaders are very focused on this,” Mr. Wang said. “Cadres all want to study our national culture.”

Ms. Zhao, the guqin master, also has opened several studios, including a beautiful facility in Beijing’s oldest Tibetan temple, the White Dagoba, which was built during the reign of Kublai Khan. She is also involved in the “Qin Restaurant,” where patrons can first take music lessons in private rooms and then adjourn to a public space where they order food on iPads while seated at low tables on tatami mats. The popularity of both guqin and guzheng has led to a revival of the ancient tradition of the yaji, or “elegant gathering” at which culture lovers come together to perform or appreciate traditional music. Because a yaji resembles a literary salon, a new term has even been coined: “yalon.”

While promoters of traditional culture are delighted with the renaissance in guqin and guzheng studies, they also acknowledge that there are problems. For the guqin, a shortage of instruments has led to waiting lists, and it takes at least two years to make one.

Considerable debate exists concerning the technique used to play the guzheng and technical “improvements” that have been made to the instrument over the course of the 20th century.

“When I was at university, in the 1990s, the pieces we played had nothing to do with Chinese music,” Ms. Yuan said. “They were all from piano. The technique came from piano, too. Back then we thought, the harder the better; the more Western, the better.”

That kind of thinking is no longer dominant.

“I like symphonic music,” Ms. Zhao said. “I started as a violinist. But foreign music from its sound wants to shock you, while guqin gives you the feeling that you can change yourself. The music of our ancient China is great. It is not at all inferior to Beethoven or Tchaikovsky.”

THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 13

The US-China Music Institute would like to extend a special thank you to: The Mona Foundation Corina Larkin and Nigel Dawn Shanghai No. 1 National Musical Instruments Factory The Conservatory gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these recent donors: James Akenberg and Larry Simmons Christy Andrade Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Jane Evelyn Atwood ’70 Vern Bergelin Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Inc. Bettina Baruch Foundation Dr. László Z. Bitó ’60 and Olivia Cariño Robert and Susan Blacker Frances Brent Alfred M. Buff and Lenore Nemeth Thomas Burger and Andree Robert Marianne Burhans Camphill Ghent, Inc. The Cosmopolitan Club Ellen Curtis Daniel Shapiro Charitable Fund of the NPT Joan K. Davidson Arnold J. Davis ’44 Rosemary Deen Paula Deitz Kathy and Gonzalo de Las Heras Maria and James Demis Asher B. Edelman and Michelle Vrebalovich Joan S. Faber Falconwood Foundation Mildred and Arnold Feinsilber Allen C. Fischer and Renate Belville Raymond Foye The Fred Stein Family Foundation Nina Friedman Foundation to Promote Open Society Friends of Beattie-Powers Place Friends of Chamber Music of Reading Luc Gagnon Luis Garcia-Renart Peter and Charlene Gay GE Foundation Lauren Gerken Christopher H. Gibbs Robert Goldfarb ’59 Frances Goodwin Bruce Gordon Katherine Gould-Martin and Robert L. Martin Jan and Lester Greenberg Barbara Grossman ’73 and Michael Gross Marcie Gunnell Marka Gustavsson and John Halle

14 HARMONY AND POWER

Vicki Haak and Spero Chumas Louis and Caroline Haber Morris Halle Johanna Hecht and Raymond Sokolov Cathey Heron Donald S. and Margery Hetzel Alan Hilliker and Vivien Liu Jeremy Hirsch ’15 Susan B. Hirschhorn and Arthur Klebanoff Stacy Hoppen Robert Hoven Elena and Fred Howard Andrew Humphrey IBM Matching Grants Program Morimi and Midori Iwama George Jahn John Cage Trust Zoe Johnson ’16 Belinda and Stephen Kaye Gayle Kelmenson Susan and Roger Kennedy David and Janet E. Kettler Erica Kiesewetter April Kinser Richard Kortright and Claudia Rosti Fred Kusko Gary and Edna Lachmund Alison L. and John C. Lankenau Victoria and Douglas Larson Glenda Fowler Law and Alfred Law Lifetime Learning Institute at Bard Helen and William Little Y. S. Liu Jacques and Catherine Luiggi Harvey Marek Don Marrazzo Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation Irma Yvonne Mayer Wendy and Peter McCabe ’70 Ann McChord Vincent McGee Andrew McKee Kenneth and Andrea Miron Karen Moeller and Charles Talleur The Mona Foundation Shawn Moore ’11 Kenneth Morgan Matthew Morris ’12 Martin L. and Lucy Miller Murray

Suzanne Neusner Harold Oaklander Elizabeth J. and Sevgin Oktay Robert Opatrny Larry Osgood Marilyn and Peter Oswald Richard Pargament ’65 Pepsico Foundation David Pesetsky and Janis Melvold Platte Clove Community Nora Post D. Miles Price Frank and Mary Puskar Lillian Pyne-Corbin Tricia and Foster Reed Stanley ’65 and Elaine Reichel Frances Reilly Cathy and Fred Reinis Donald and Susan Rothfeld Max Rutten and Valerie Keller Myrna Sameth Saugerties Pro Musica, Inc. Emma Schmiedecke ’14 Susan Sie Zachary Snow Thomas B. Souders Gabriella and Harvey Sperry Kenneth Stahl and Shirley Ripullone Janet Stetson ’81 and Danny Shanahan Serena Stewart Janos Sutyak ’15 Joan Swift Laura Swift Sanford Sylvan Nathalie Theberge Thendara Foundation Felicitas S. Thorne Dawn Upshaw Dr. H. Tucker and Martha Upshaw Suzanne Vroman Estate of Prof. William Weaver Susan Weber Jonathan Wechsler Melissa Wegner ’08 Ann Wentworth Barbara Jean Weyant Wheelock Whitney III Eric Wong

US-China Music Institute

Bard College Conservatory of Music

The mission of the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is to promote the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China, and to support musical exchange between the United States and China.

In partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China), the institute has launched the Chinese Music Development Initiative, consisting of several components: the first bachelor’s degree program for Chinese instruments at a U.S. music conservatory, an annual Chinese music festival, a program of scholarly conferences, and the Bard Youth Chinese Orchestra Summer Academy for high school–age students. uschinamusic.bard.edu

Recognized as one of the finest conservatories in the United States, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, founded in 2005, is guided by the principle that young musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential.

The mission of the conservatory is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music. bard.edu/conservatory

Jindong Cai, Director Kathryn Wright, Administrator Lindsey Wang, Project Manager advisory council Chen Yi Martha Liao Tan Dun Ye Xiaogang

Shirley Young Yu Long Zhang Xian Zhou Long

Robert Martin, Director Frank Corliss, Associate Director advisory board Belinda Kaye, Chair Gonzalo de Las Heras Gregory Drilling ’16 Alan D. Hilliker Susan B. Hirschhorn Stephen Kaye Y. S. Liu Don M. Randel Maximiliaan Rutten

Melissa Wegner ’08 Eric Wong Shirley Young

PLAY YOUR PART CONSIDER A GIFT TO THE BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

In September 2008, the Conservatory received a $2.5 million challenge grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create an endowment for the Conservatory’s unique double-degree program. Before we can use these funds, we must match the grant on a three-to-one basis by December 31, 2018, with new endowment gifts and grants.

Contributions in any amount will help us meet the challenge and support the artistic and educational programs of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Gifts by check to the Conservatory should be mailed to: Bard College Conservatory of Music, PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 Donations to the Bard College Conservatory of Music are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

For more information: bard.edu/conservatory/giving | 845-758-7866 Photo: Karl Rabe

THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN THE CULTIVATION OF THE LITERATI IN ANCIENT CHINA 15

Bard College Conservatory of Music 16 HARMONY AND POWER