Chinese instruments and perception,
Part 2: the Guqin and Yangqin
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By Michael Timpson  | Published Jan 2008

Following last month’s article on the guzheng, we continue in this segment with a discussion of Chinese music’s two other important zithers: the guqin and yangqin. Although these two instruments share the character “qin” (a suffi x applied to many Chinese string instruments) they, in fact, represent two very different spectrums of Chinese music.

Guqin, commonly known as qin, is one of the most ancient Chinese instruments; in fact, it is one of the earliest known zithers in the world. Its age (nearly 3,000 years old) bears the roots of Chinese music itself. Like the guzheng, the qin is also a long-zither, with silk strings stretched over a sounding board. Unlike the guzheng, the qin is much smaller and only has seven strings that are not raised by bridges. This compact construction therefore emanates a much softer volume. Whereas the zheng has an amplitude akin to the western Harp, the qin’s volume is much more soft and intimate, similar to the western acoustic silk-string classical guitar.

The performance practice of the qin is so intimate that it does not even require an audience, which represents the RITUAL at the heart of all Chinese traditions. Most ancient Chinese music has the element of RITUAL that philosophically looks inward to the individual; this is in great contrast to the west, where musical traditions focus on public performance. Although western church music, such as hymns and, especially, Gregorian chant, do serve an original purpose of praise and worship, these western musical forms focus mostly on group or community participation, and it is always toward a higher being. Although qin music focuses on the individual, it is also not about personal ego, nor self-centricity; instead, the RITUAL is an inclusion into personal growth and development. Like a form of therapy, the spirit of this kind of music making is similar to yoga, tai’chi, or prayer.

All playing techniques and musical GESTURE that are so signifi cant in the zheng are even more subtle and perfected with the Qin. There is no “fl ash” or superfi ciality in Qin performance; every small nuance counts and has tremendous deep impact in the most introverted ways. The bridgeless strings are plucked by the right hand and are slid upon by the fi ngers of the left hand to give total control over the pitch, timbre, and GESTURE. Sometimes, a GESTURE is so minuscule that only knowledgeable performers, musicians and scholars can notice it; whereas, the untrained ear may only sense and feel it subconsciously.

The qin is the predecessor of the zheng, and these two instruments and their elemental musical styles would greatly infl uence cultures to the east, as they traveled over centuries through Korea and Japan. Both Korean and Japanese musical traditions bear great homage to Chinese music, and have instruments of similar in design to these zithers (such as the Korean kamungo and kayagum and the Japanese koto.) However, the story does not end here. The qin and zheng and vital musical sensibilities continued traveling to South and Southeast Asia and along the silk-road to the Middle East. About 2000 years ago, in Iran, a zither was also constructed in a boxed form called a dulcimer, which was played with hammers. This instrument, called the Satur, continued voyaging through Eastern, Central and Celtic Europe to form various incarnations of the hammered dulcimer. Its greatest impact on the west was as the primary inspiration and mechanism for the piano. However, the communications fl owed not only west, but also returned east through Persia into forming the most recent of Chinese instruments, the yangqin.

The fi xed housing of the hammered dulcimer makes the yangqin less capable of the typical Chinese musical techniques of bending, sliding, and vibrato. Instead, the instrument has its own unique GESTURES. One outstanding feature is its ability to mimic spatial location, as a seasoned yangqin performer can make the instrument sound close-up or in the distance, like a ventriloquism act. The yangqin also has the ability to make the instrument sound very dry or extremely wet, like in an echo chamber fi lled with sound, continuously ringing (like a piano with the sustain pedal continuously held down.) Due to its more contemporary design and its entrance into Chinese music as late as the 19th-Century (when western music was already infl uential), the typical yangqin performance practice includes arpeggiated chords and counterpoint. Although this style of playing more commonly associated with western instruments, the yangqin has become most common accompanimental instruments in Chinese music.