Professor Li Xiangting interview - Master Guqin Musician & Tai-chi Artist - 2000

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Master Guqin Musician & Tai-chi Artist
00:33 - Li’ Xiangting introduction and history
02:00 - How long have you been playing the Guqin?
03:07 - Is it unusual to improvise on the Guqin?
05:31 - Nature as Inspiration
06:52 - The musical instruments Li’ Xiangting can play
07:28 - Personal experience of the Chinese Cultural revolution & oppression.
08:00 - Completely denied to play the Guqin during the Cultural revolution.
10:00 - After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, people returned to creative expression
12:07 - Let’s collaborate in China!
13:42 - For 3,000 years the musical art of Guqin has been passed down from teacher to teacher
15:00 - History of Guqin music, instrument, and art form
16:47 - Harmonics of Guqin
19:00 - Global influence and mixing old culture with new
Professor Li Xiangting is acknowledged as one of the most important guqin players of his generation and a distinguished Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. The guqin, a seven-stringed zither-like instrument producing over a hundred harmonics, dates back well over 3,000 years to the origins of Chinese music. By the middle of the twentieth century the guqin had become relatively unknown, with fewer than three hundred living guqin musicians. Since then, and due in large part to Li Xiangting’s teaching and performing, the ancient art of seven-stringed guqin playing has re-emerged.
He began his qin studies in 1957 as a student of the qin master Zha Fuxi and was accepted as a student at the Central Conservatory in 1958, studying under the qin master Wu Jing-lue. Both Zha Fuxi and Wu Jinglue are considered to be two of the greatest qin players of their generation. Upon graduating in 1963 Professor Li began teaching at the Conservatory, eventually taking over the position of Wu Jing-lue. He is also Vice President of the Beijing Qin Research Association and advisor and consultant to the North American Guqin Association. Professor Li began improvising on the guqin in the late 1980s, and says his improvisation can be traced back to his xiao (vertical bamboo flute) playing. Finding that few xiao pieces could express his emotions sufficiently, he began revealing his heart through improvised songs. After mastering hundreds of ancient pieces on the guqin, involving hundreds of difficult skills, Li Xiangting felt confident to improvise on that instrument as well. Improvisational guqin music, once an important part of guqin playing, died out over a thousand years ago. Professor Li has rescued this lost art.
#Xiangting #Guqin #Taichi #grandmaster #taoofpeace
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