Xu Yuanbai

Xu Yuanbai

Xu Yuanbai (1893-1957) was born in Jiaojiang District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. He is a famous guqin musician in modern China and a master of Guqin art of Zhejiang School.

Her father Xu Yueqiu is a famous Lute Player and good at Guqin. Xu Yuanbai and his younger brother Wenjing have been influenced by them since childhood, and they both love literature, art and music. When he was 16 years old, he finished reading four books and five classics in a private school. In 1913, he was introduced by Mr. Li Jishen and went to Guangzhou to follow Dr. Sun Yat Sen and take part in the northern expedition. For a time, he traveled to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Shu and other places and served in the political and legal departments. It was not his ambition, but his hobby of folk music.

He is good at poetry, calligraphy, painting, landscape and orchid. You Jing guqin, who can compose music, once learned from master Dahu of Zhejiang School. Later, he visited famous teachers all over the world. On the basis of inheriting the characteristics of "micro, wonderful, round and smooth" Xiaojiu of Zhejiang School, he learned from various schools and formed his Guqin style which is simple, elegant, profound and good at cadence.

Art career

In 1912, he paid homage to the abbot of Hangzhou "zhaodantai" in Tianping mountain, Suzhou, master Daxiu, a master of the Zhejiang School in the late Qing Dynasty. He studied hard and practiced hard, and gained the skills of the Zhejiang School and made innovations. Later, he visited Wang binlu, the originator of Zhucheng school, Li zizhao, the founder of Jiuyi school, Yang Zongji, and Zhang Yichang, the guitarist of Guangling school. He also made friends with Cha Fuxi, Wu Tao and other guitarists, and had frequent contacts with yueyun in Beijing, Guangling in Yangzhou, Jinyu in Suzhou, and Meian in Nantong In order to create a unique style and carry forward the heart of the Qin, we should create a rich "secret" of Qin art.

Main achievements

Mr. Xu Yuanbai has worked hard in guqin music garden for 45 years and made a lot of achievements. His achievements in Guqin art mainly include the following five aspects. his theory comes from traditional piano study and experimental research. In 1953, Xu Yuanbai collected some of his old works and published them under the title of Tian Feng Qin Pu excerpt. In addition to Xi Ling Hua Yu, there are also some works on Qin, such as a brief introduction to the division of stringiness, a formula for the division of stringiness, and a comparison between the division of stringiness and the division of three parts. In the introduction of the method of taking notes, he proposed a new method of taking notes of Guqin: taking notes by chord degrees and segments. Xu Yuanbai believed that the three-way profit and loss method, which was highly praised in the past dynasties, was not the absolute method of sound selection. It was only set up for the cycle of twelve rhythms, not necessarily for the accuracy of seven rhythms. In his long-term research and performance practice, he constantly explored, looked for new sounds, and found the method of chord segmentation. Taking Sanxian as an example, if the chord length is divided into 90 equal parts, then Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu and Gaogong are at 90, 80, 72, 60, 54 and 45 respectively. Each segment is an integer. This is not only well founded in theory, but also proved to be correct in practice, which is of great help to the majority of beginners of Guqin. Xu Gong once said that excerpt only included part of his works, and there will be a continuation of zhidiaotang and Xuangong and expressing WANLAI with string sound. However, due to his premature death and the vicissitudes of life, these valuable works have been lost, which is a pity. Xu Yuanbai's Guqin playing style mainly comes from three elements: first, his family origin, influenced by Binhai fishing songs and folk silk and bamboo music; second, he inherits the teaching and instruction of Zhejiang Guqin master Dahu; third, because he has the quality of being open-minded and not rigidly bound to a certain school of ideas, he opposes the idea of family power, holds the piano to visit friends, and travels all over the junior high school, regardless of generation His unique performance features are bright and fresh, elegant and vigorous. He attaches great importance to the intonation, rhythm and expression of musical meaning. His performance is full of artistic vitality and moving artistic appeal. In his life, he once had two climaxes of playing Guqin. The first was in the 1930s, at the invitation of Shanghai EMI company, he made more than ten Guqin solo records, such as Yuqiao Q & A, Pingsha Luoyan, Xiaoxiang Shuiyun, Yangguan Sandie, gullet forgets machine, Pu'an mantra, etc.; the second was in the post liberation 1950s when the Central Music Research Institute conducted a general visit to the whole country, He recorded more than ten tapes, such as "Gaoshan", "Mozi Beisi", "weeping for Yan Hui". These three pieces were later included in the collection of guqin songs. In 2002, Hong Kong Longyin company published Xu Yuanbai's Guqin performance collection "the lingering charm of Zhejiang Guqin", which was spread all over the world. "Weeping for Yan Hui" (also known as "Si Xian Cao") is a short, wonderful and beautiful Qin song, which was transplanted from folk music by Xu Yuanbai. The song was first published in Jin Yu Qin magazine, which was published in 1937. Xu Yuanbai wrote in his acquaintance: "weeping for Yan Hui is an ancient tune, which is only spread in the seashore Xiao Guan. My father Yue Qiugong is good at playing Pipa and is familiar with it. When the deep quiet, slow twist light together, rhyme forever sound sad, hear too much. When Yuanbai was a young man, he finished reading at night and felt sleepy. When he heard this, his soul and dream were clear. Therefore, his rhythm was the most familiar. And to learn how to play man is to turn the music into the Qin. After years of playing, you can get the charm. " It can be seen that transplanting is not simply to play it out on the guqin, but a hard grinding project. First, we should be familiar with and love the transplanted music; second, we should grasp the composition and performance skills of Guqin; third, we should be willing to spend energy on trial and modification to make it perfect. Weeping for Yan Hui is a model of transplanting folk music into Qin music. Xu Yuanbai has created many Qin songs in his life, such as exhortation and sea water Phoenix, but they are lost. Today, there are only two songs, Xiling talking about rain and Fucha. "Talking about rain in Xiling" was written in 1945 when Xu Gong returned to Hangzhou from Sichuan after the victory of the Anti Japanese war. "He was created in the aftermath of the disaster. When it rained on the lake, he was sad and happy. He could not be proud of himself. Therefore, he wrote music in a changed voice to express his feelings." It not only inherits the traditional context, but also injects the blood of innovation. It is a modern music with both sound and emotion, grand bearing and full of fun, which can be compared with Guo Mian's Xiaoxiang Shuiyun in the Southern Song Dynasty. In addition, Xu Gong also arranged some famous Qin songs, such as "the gull forgets the machine", "the autumn river at night" and "jingguanyin". He attached great importance to the rhythm of the music, and thought: "if there is a board in the tune, it is like a horse with a horse without a board. If the horse has no board, it is easy, and if there is no board in the tune, it is galloping." Sincerity is insight. Xu Yuanbai has studied and practiced Guqin making for many years. In his life, he had more than 50 pianqin beds, most of which were collected by famous artists. There are many improvements in the shape and system, and the "Xu style" Qin was praised by the musicians at that time. In order to overcome the phenomenon of sound loss and finger obstruction caused by improper string height in the production of guqin, through continuous exploration and improvement, the law of "one paper on the left, one finger on the right" is summed up, which is regarded as the standard for the zither makers.

personal works

Before the Anti Japanese War, at the invitation of Shanghai EMI company, he produced records such as Xiaoxiang Shuiyun, Yuqiao Q & A, Gaoshan Shuishui, Pu'an mantra and Pingsha Luoyan, which were released at home and abroad. In the 1956 national folk music competition, his performance won the excellent award. In order to carry forward the art of guqin, he organized "Qingxi Guqin society" in Nanjing, established "Zhongzhou Guqin society" in Kaifeng, and established "Tian organ society" in Chongqing. He made, taught and studied Guqin. He made 50 pieces of Guqin and spread them all over the world. In the 35th year of the Republic of China, he returned to Hangzhou, reorganized the "half angle mountain house" under Leifeng Pagoda of West Lake, and organized the "West Lake monthly meeting" with Ma Yifu, Zhang Zongxiang, Xu Yingpu, etc., to discuss calligraphy and painting, piano and chess, gold and stone. In terms of playing skills, he inherits the natural and unrestrained characteristics of Zhejiang School of "micro, wonderful, round and smooth", and has become a unique style of simple and elegant, deep and implicit, fluent and vigorous, good at cadence, known as "the representative of modern Zhejiang School of zithers". he plays a lot of big and small Qin music, the most excellent of which are "Gaoshan", "Mozi Beisi", "Xiaoxiang", "Qiujiang" and so on. He also wrote some piano music, such as Xiling talking about rain, which has been recorded by the Research Institute of the Central Conservatory of music. Part of the music was arranged into staff by Mr. Xu Jian and published in the first volume of Guqin collection. He is also proficient in poetry, calligraphy and painting. He is the second master of calligraphy and painting. He learns from Dong Qichang's brushwork and uses it in his own way. He has a good look. He is good at painting landscapes, especially orchids. Both of them are open in large quantities, and they are full of ink, fresh and elegant. He once compiled the pipa tune "weeping for Yan Hui" handed down by his father as a qin tune, published it in Jinyu Qin journal, and wrote a volume of Tianfeng Qinpu. All his life, he contributed to the promotion and development of Guqin art and the cultivation of Guqin talents.

Main successors

Mr. Xu's successors include Xu Kuanghua, Yao Bingyan, Zheng Yunfei, Xu Xiaoying, ye Mingpei and others.

Chinese PinYin : Xu Yuan Bai