Tag: 蕤賓
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Spring Dawn at the Jade Tower
Like the two previous pieces, Tune of Utmost Joy and Three Repetitions at Yang Pass, Spring Dawn at the Jade Tower 玉樓春曉 is based on the RuiBin 蕤賓 tuning mode. The origin is from the MeiAn school of guqin playing 梅庵琴派, which is part of my teacher’s tradition. The tune employs numerous plucked unisons and…
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Tune of Utmost Joy
It seems ironic that this song—Tune of Utmost Joy 極樂吟—sounds the most melancholy as set in a minor key. It isn’t truly in a minor key, but the guqin is tuned to the RuiBin 蕤賓 mode, where the fifth string is tightened a half step. In the modern tuning tradition, this changes the instrument from…