The "Lao Ba Zhang" CDs?

[guzhenglover]

Dear all

Not sure if someone's asked this question previously. Anyway does anyone know how to go about ordering the complete set of 8 guqin CDs, commonly known as the "Lao Ba Zhang" (literally, the old eight)? Just to be more specific, these guqin CDs are a selection of representative recordings from some 86 guqin players collected in 1956 I think by CHA Fuxi and his team from the Ministry of Culutre, the Chinese Association of Musicians and the Musical Research Centre of the Chinese Institute for the Research of Fine Arts (well these are rough translations). I guess you'd only know what I am talking about if you know the specifics I've just entered into.

If you do know this guqin anthology, would you also happen to know how one would be able to buy/order it? If so, please let us know. I think these CDs represent some of the absolute gems in guqin performance.

Thanks in advance!

[Charlie Huang]

I think I know what you mean. CCN sells it.

[Si]

The ones i have seen are called the guqin anthology. The are on CCN and there are 8. But each disc has about 4-8 tracks on it so it can't feature all 86 artists.

Are we on the same tracks?

[guzhenglover]

Thanks for the info guys. But I don't know what CCN stands for - can you please tell me?

I think we are indeed talking about the same anthology, syburn. And I realise that the discs don't contain all 86 artists. From what I know, these are the artists featured on the discs:

Disc One: GUAN Ping Hu;
Disc Two: WU Jinglue;
Disc Three: CHA Fuxi, ZHAN Chengqiu, ZHANG Ziqian and LIU Jingshao;
Disc Four: GUAN Ping Hu;
Disc Five: YAO Bingyan and PU Xuezhai; Disc Six: LE Ying, YANG Baoyuan, XIA Yifeng and CHENG Wujia;
Disc Seven: WU Zhaoji, GU Meigeng, XU Lisun and ZHAN Chengqiu;
Disc Eight: YANG Xinglun, SHEN Chaonong, LONG Qinfang, HO Zuowu, YU Shaoze, GUAN Zhonghang and WEI Zhongle.

So do you guys have these CDs? Would you know how to order these online/whom I could get these CDs from?

Thanx!

[davidmdahl]

That's Chinese Culture Net. Check the following link:

www.chineseculture.net/musicmall/cds/html/guqin/8qincd.html

If you have trouble with this link, try the following:

www.chineseculture.net/guqin/instruments/qincds.htm

Best wishes,

David

[Si]

Please - one of the benifits of living in Singapore is you have good access to chinese music - maybe better than china!

So get down to KARL HENG (bras basar complex) or another place and buy or order them. I have seen these cds in Karl Heng before and they are about 10 sing for one (its more expensive than China but still cheap).

I have heard the quality of these cds is not good - but you will be able to test in the KH shop!!

[Si]

syburn said:

Please - one of the benifits of living in Singapore is you have good access to chinese music - maybe better than china!

So get down to KARL HENG (bras basar complex) or another place and buy or order them. I have seen these cds in Karl Heng before and they are about 10 sing for one (its more expensive than China but still cheap).

I have heard the quality of these cds is not good - but you will be able to test in the KH shop!!

JEEEEZZZ - i just followed the link to the chinese culture net site and they are asking about 10 USD per cd - totally overpriced , its 12 yuan here in the local guqin shops!!!

[SCWGuqin]

The price is worth it. This isn't just everyday qin playing.

Also, the quality is fine. About as good as the remastered 1950s recordings get. I've compared these CDs to the Guan/Wu releases by ROI, and the sound quality lags only slightly.

One point of annoyance is that the CDs aren't filled all the way up. The GPH CDs, in particular, have only about 30-40 minutes of music.

[guzhenglover]

syburn said:

Please - one of the benifits of living in Singapore is you have good access to chinese music - maybe better than china!

So get down to KARL HENG (bras basar complex) or another place and buy or order them. I have seen these cds in Karl Heng before and they are about 10 sing for one (its more expensive than China but still cheap).

I have heard the quality of these cds is not good - but you will be able to test in the KH shop!!

Hi syburn - have just contacted Karl Heng and apparently each of the "Lao Ba Zhang" CDs costs $18. So how long ago was it when you got yours? Should I try another store (not that I know where another store is)?

[guzhenglover]

Hi David, are the websites you gave me links to Carol's music shop? I just wanted to know if the prices are in U.S. dollars so that I could see how much some products cost in terms of the local currency here.

[Si]

oh maybe i was a bit wrong - but the cds look very cheap (not like hugo and ROI), so they should be very cheap.

[davidmdahl]

guzhenglover said:

Hi David, are the websites you gave me links to Carol's music shop? I just wanted to know if the prices are in U.S. dollars so that I could see how much some products cost in terms of the local currency here.

No, Carol's website is www.chinesezither.net. Chinese Culture Net is at www.chineseculture.net. Both are USA-based companies and the prices quoted are in US dollars.

I would prefer to order from Carol, but I don't think that she deals in CDs for guqin.

Alternately, you could check with Cadenza or Eason in Singapore to see if they can supply the guqin set.

Best wishes,

David

[Si]

or just walk down to the bras basar complex and by them in sing dollars - also test them first before you buy

[guzhenglover]

Hi David and syburn - have just bought my own copies of "The 8"! I saw these in a shop and they are as cheap as syburn suggested. Yeah!

[Si]

Just seem "the 8" but repackaged into 2 attractive box like editions. 45 rmb each. cant be bad!

[Si]

Just bought the new edition of the 8.

Packaging is lovely. Has english booklet inside.

What made me buy them though, was the fact that there seems to be a lot of tune titles I have never seen before.

Hope they sound good - ok off to listen to this oft talked about deer sound tune......

[Charlie Huang]

"New edition?"

Pics?

[guzhenglover]

I've enjoyed listening to each and every track of the Old 8. The quality of the recording is surprisingly satisfactory I thought. Personally I don't like what appears to be scratching or metallic sounds, but I guess this can't be helped - or can it? - as I am guessing that this is just how masters play the guqin. (I know what some of you may say - that I shouldn't take these renditions as gospel - but before I am any good at guqin playing, I really should "show respect for the master", right?)

[SCWGuqin]

Scratching or metallic sounds? The former has an explanation; I don't know what you mean by the latter. Silk strings are rougher, causing more of an audible scratch during slides.

[Si]

this is the new 2 part 4cd bowed set that i just got at my local guqin shop..........

[Charlie Huang]

OMG, that look beautiful! Any chance we can see some of the notes so I can compare?

[SCWGuqin]

Looks identical to the 1st 4 of the old 8.

[Si]

they are identical but re-packed

yes the old 8 cds looked crap in my opinion - i can scan some of the booklet that comes inside the box if thats what you want


PS dont they have like 100s of tapes of other qin players - i wonder why they dont release those too?

[SCWGuqin]

1. One frustrating things about the Old 8 is that some of them are barely half-filled. I think one of the GPH CDs has like 30 minutes of music.

2. They have VAST amounts of unpublished recordings at institutes and archives in China. I've actually seen a catalog of sorts, and they include dozens of unreleased performances by heavyweights (like GPH) as well as the complete repertoires of more "elusive" players like Xia Yifeng and Long Qinfang. By the hundreds.

[Si]

hmmm - i bet it would not be to hard to gather a swat team to infultrate the "whatever university" and get those recordings out so that the whole world can enjoy them.

Who's in!