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Post by guzhenglover on May 28, 2007 3:40:54 GMT
Just an addition to the new thread I just posted re antique versus fake qins: there was one that I looked at and it's really cute, though its dimensions seem a bit odd. I don't mean really odd but just in the sense that it's as if the whole qin has been scaled/sized down a little bit (though the "shrinkage" is so small, only someone who's learnt to play the qin would've noticed. It's not like it was a baby-size qin or anything like that which I know don't exist). I was told that this qin was tailor-made for the maiden. how bizarre is that. I never thought there was a gender difference in qins that boys and girls used...? Is this yet another sign that it's completely fake? I played the qin and everything still seemed to make sense musically e.g. the hui positions, the strings, etc. Any opinion anyone?
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Post by Charlie Huang on May 28, 2007 9:23:39 GMT
The existance of a 'gender' qin is false. It is smaller because it is made for children learning qin a lá Yang Qing's "Xiao'er Xue Guqin" book.
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Post by guzhenglover on May 28, 2007 9:30:57 GMT
I didn't think "girl" qins existed, either. But I am curious that there are even qins specially made for children...  The particular qin that I looked at wasn't that much smaller in any case... |
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Post by Charlie Huang on May 28, 2007 9:42:13 GMT
You should get that Yang Qing book then. It has a DVD of a line of children playing qin.
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Post by guzhenglover on May 29, 2007 2:45:53 GMT
What's the Yang Qing book? That sounds so totally unfamiliar to me...Much as I liked the supposedly "girl" qin, I am not sure that I'd actually acquire it as the shrunken size and measurements of everything on it kind of worry me...would it worry you if you were to consider buying it, anyone?
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Post by guzhenglover on May 29, 2007 2:47:44 GMT
Oh I guess what I meant to ask you Charlie was, did they use to make qins esp. for children even in the past i.e. pre-Repulic dynasties? Or qins for "girls", for that matter?
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Post by Charlie Huang on May 29, 2007 9:21:44 GMT
I haven't got any idea if they did, though I'd assume it is as rare as the Sahara rain...
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Post by laoqinyou on May 29, 2007 17:22:29 GMT
I saw some small qin on tables in a side museum in the Gugong last year in Beijing.
They were part of an "Imperial Orchestra" exhibition. There wasn't anything about
them (the xiao qin) in particular though in terms of information. I suspect they were played in unison with open
strings as has been the case in Confucious temple ceremonies. I would guess they have little
or nothing to do with the small qin for sale on Ebay though (probably not but you never know).
laoqinyou
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Post by guzhenglover on May 30, 2007 3:21:52 GMT
Well it's good to hear that baby-sized qins hardly exist if at all, because I am not one for such qins anyway. Actually the one I saw really wasn't that much smaller than a normal qin i.e. one with normal measurements. It's just that the whole qin was scaled down proportionwise by a tiny little bit, so for that reason I wouldn't have thought it's a baby-sized qin or a small qin. Perhaps that's why the person who owns it called it a maiden's qin, since it really not that different to an ordinary qin in size except for a tiny shrinkage...Mind you, it's a really attractive looking qin and I can't quite decide between this and another qin that she currently has for sale (IF I decide to go ahead and buy one).
If I do go ahead and buy this one, do people think I should be concerned over the slightly smaller size of the qin? I mean, would it affect one's musicianship, progress on the qin, perhaps even people's perception of one's aesthetic taste? Maybe I am thinking too much here...
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The particular qin that I looked at wasn't that much smaller in any case...