 North
American Guqin Association |
Elegant Qin Gathering Invitation January 22, 2006
Dear Qin Friends: Join the North American Guqin Association (NAGA) on Sunday, January 22nd at 6:00 pm for our next yaji. Due to the inability of several members to attend on Saturday afternoon, this month's yaji will be on a Sunday at a former venue, the Union City Library. We will welcome in the Chinese New Year one week early with music. Last month Wang Fei gave an exceptional presentation on the poetess Cai Wenji. A report on the December yaji, including photographs and video clips, is available online at http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/masterclass/naga0512yajireport.htm. On the 22nd we will continue on the topic of guqin music and related poetry. Wang Fei will discuss the Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao and several of her works, including Fenghuang Tai Shang Yi Chui Xiao (凤凰台上忆吹箫), Memories of Playing a Xiao on the Phoenix Terrace. Other prominent poets who played the qin or referred to it in their poems will also be part of the presentation. We will continue the combination of taiji with qin music: this time it will be a taiji form using swords with qin music. We will also start a discussion on translating Chinese poems into English and how to balance language (Chinese and English) with music, especially guqin music, when creating text for singing. This should be a new and fun topic, and hopefully some English speakers, especially writers, translators, and singers will join in the discussion. Translating qin songs using the words of Chinese poems into English is a current NAGA project that Wang Fei, Christopher Evans, and Julian Joseph are working on. We will experiment with group playing and singing of qin songs, both in Chinese and in English, for Li Bai's poem Zi Ye Wu Ge (子夜吴歌), Midnight Song From Wu, and Bai Juyi's poem Chang Xiangci (长相思), Longing. We hope you can give us some feedback so we can improve these draft versions. Please print them out and bring them to the yaji if you are interested in playing or singing either song with the group. Both will be NAGA's own performance versions. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN GUQIN AND TABLE. Although conference tables may be available for use, there may be no spare guqins for playing. Qin players from near and far will attend. Yajis are an excellent opportunity to play the qin, chat about the qin, meet qin friends face to face instead of online, listen to qin music by different players, probably from different teachers or schools, play instruments made by various qin makers, and exchange information on the qin. The qin gathering is open to anyone interested in guqin music. Players of other instruments are especially welcome. If anyone is interested in attending or plans to play something, please sign up and submit your program by clicking http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/byajilist.html At the last yaji we had a very tight program so many items could not be performed. Letting us know in advance what you intend to play helps us to plan the event. Time: 6:00 pm, Sunday, January 22nd Place: If you have any questions, please contact Fred Pohlmann at 831-338-2488 or email him at pohlmann@guqin.org North American Guqin Association |
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