puan zhou

[Si]

how would you rate puan zhou - PZ - incatations of pu an

in terms of difficulty compared to YGSD?

thinking of starting it

[Charlie Huang]

I think it is a level 4 piece. It is fairly simple coz it mainly is composed of repeats of several sections. The only difficulty you may come across is memorising the piece because it seems like going round and round in circles!

[Si]

ok - just woundered if any special techniques - cos my teacher is off back to taiwan till new year so i will have another pause in my lessons so want something to do that will not have me feeling lost.

i actually love that Melody of King Wen - sounds a bit easy but its like level 6

[Charlie Huang]

Not much special techniques. The only thing that might concern you is doing slides on the guizhi, plus trying to daiqi on it.

[Si]

Is the guizhi that kneeling posotion with the ring finger?

Oh no......not another part of my fingers to be ripped to shredds and turned into tough hide!

[Charlie Huang]

If it hurts, you're pressing using the wrong point. It should be the side of the joint of the bent ring finger, not dead center or where the nail enters the flesh (that bit hurts).

[Si]

For learning PAZ which book would you recommned me to use. I have:-

LXT thin green book
GY thick green book
Gunqin Qu Ji

My main concern is ease of understanding the fingering notation. Probably best that it does not have all the not-needed extras , like and, then etc cos it adds extra confusion.

[Charlie Huang]

Does your LXT book have the notation missing? If it is first edition, it does.

I learnt my PAZ from GQQJ.

[guzhenglover]

I've read about how some people have been so very moved by PAZ when they listen to it or play it. Oddly, I am yet to come across a rendition that actually moves me (I haven't learnt to play it yet). Is this just me?

[Si]

Oh for me I find its one of my favs. I want to learn it but seems that my teacher thinks that there is not alot to learn from the piece, and i would be better starting Yi Gu Ren next as it has alot of useful techniques to try.

But I thought I would still like to start learning alone.

Oh damn mine is the old edition - do you think that the new LXT edition is the best then?

[Charlie Huang]

Dunno. I actually penned in the missing tab from GQQJ and it is more or less the same but for a few minor edits.

[SCWGuqin]

"I am yet to come across a rendition that actually moves me"

I think you have to be on the Buddhist groove.

[guzhenglover]

Well I am indeed quite Buddhism-inclined...I think PAZ will be fun to learn to play, but it remains to be seen whether the music will be emotionally moving.

[Si]

Well it moves me enough to want to play it - its deffo in my "top 5 gu qin greatest hits album" Hey CCC why dont you start a POLL of favourite tunes - i think nobody ever uses the poll function here on this forum.

Anyone here ever seen on cd this piece that is supposed to be connected to PAZ in some way - SHITAN ZHANG (STANZAS OF SIDDAM)(is that supposed to by SADDAM!!!! ;D)

I have never seen it!

[Charlie Huang]

Shitan Zhang; Shitan is suppose to be Lord Buddha I think. Anyways, it is the earliest piece out of PAZ and it. You can find them both on WZZQP and they both are long and have lyrics. I'm thinking of learning the lyrics because I want to see if they invoke anything special to the piece.

[SCWGuqin]

"it remains to be seen whether the music will be emotionally moving."

Hahaha...what does that have to do with Buddhist self-perfection? All qin music is gongfu...

[Si]

Forgive my ignorance but what is WZZQP? _ _ _qin pu?

Im hoping it the name of a CD though!

[SCWGuqin]

Wuzhizhai Qinpu (1722). The "Five Knowledges-Study" Qinpu, associated with the Guangling school of that time. I don't know how popular it was historically, but ever since Wu Jinglue it's gotten its share of attention. Apparently the author/master/compiler was a genius of some kind who really developed the pieces.

[Si]

But does any one know if it has been recorded on CD?

[Charlie Huang]

I don't think so. Almost all PAZ recorded today tend to be the Beijing Qinhui one.

[SCWGuqin]

Cheng Gongliang has recorded the Xia Yifeng version at least twice, but that's all the diversity of score I'm aware of. Fan Libin has done a longer recording interspersed with cool/weird-sounding Buddhist chant including Sanskrit nonsense syllables. (i.e. nonsense to the Chinese, not in Sanskrit) Actually Fan Libin's other work illuminates the possibility of approaching PAZ not just as qin music, but as Buddhist music, integrated into other forms of the latter.

[Charlie Huang]

Obv it was meant to be a piece of music to aid learning of Sanskrit. I'd like to learn singing to it. Will actually be interesting to see the effects of chanting have on the piece, will it enhance it?

[Si]

So there is no CD version of Shitan Zhang?

Is it just another style of PAZ - sounding similar?

[Charlie Huang]

Sometimes, people use the title STZ even though they are playing PAZ. You have to be aware of that.

As far as I know, they are two musically different pieces which follow a similar pattern (the same? I'm not sure). Julian Joseph has done some reserach into this.

members.aol.com/CHMusic1/PUANZHOU.htm

Note: you may need to adjust the encoding manually to read the Hanji.

[Si]

cos in JJ's famous sylabus he has PAZ as grade 4 and Shitan at grade 5.

And if this "Shitan" piece seems a bit confising with no mention on any of the dozens of cds I have , why add it to this sylabus.