Alan, it's beautiful music, and I can sense the intensity (and surely one sees it in the photo). i wondered how you approach/ed such instruments in the first place, if (presumably) you taught yourself or started to play them kinetically, intuitively, and shifted your growing musical and physical knowledge across/around the string instruments (and keyboards) I have seen you play. You worry about "the proper positions of fingers on the strings.."? i wonder why you indeed worried (surely not covid induced) - it interests really me how you hold up and sustain your tremendous continuum/commitment to play these difficult instruments....and get yourself into them and their particularities so emphatically!
Now, it was you who inspired me to look for such Chinese instruments, I wanted to include one in our DAP-Lab "Mourning for a dead moon" dance, performed in London in late December 2019, before Covid. One of our Chinese dancer/performers volunteered to play the qin, and off I went looking for one, during a trip to Berlin in November. I found a fabulous Turkish-German music instrument store in Kreuzberg, and after a few hours I left, feeling very excited, not really knowing what I had bought. The young man convinced me it was a qin, but back in London, my dancers explained I had bought an erhu ( 二胡; pinyin), a very elegant and beautiful instrument, just 2 strings.... Our dancer Helenna Ren played the erhu in two short scenes, we miked the instrument & processed the sound in Max/Msp in addition to the live playing. That concert, with live audience, seems ages ago now, unbelievably. regards, Johannes Birringer Dap-Lab ________________________________________ From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-boun...@lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> Sent: 10 April 2021 16:22 To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity Cc: Alan Sondheim Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Woven Qin Thank you! That means a lot to me, the qin is always difficult for me and oddly you have to let go of that difficulty in order to play it - Best, Alan On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 10:28 AM Simon Mclennan via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org>> wrote: This is a nice piece of qin music. I listened in a meditative mood of afternoon drizzle and cold English weather. The mood Was enhanced as my feet Toasted under a wooden blanket and my nodding head Started to nod even more. Thanks Alan! S Sent from my spyphone > On 10 Apr 2021, at 00:21, Alan Sondheim > <sondh...@panix.com<mailto:sondh...@panix.com>> wrote: > > > > Woven Qin > > http://www.alansondheim.org/woven.mp3 > http://www.alansondheim.org/woven.jpg > > My qin has a problem on the fourth highest string which is that > there is a ringing sound coming from it and I think I know now > that the ringing sound is from a very slight band in the string > about 2-3 cm from where it attaches to the lower bridge . I've > worked to try to get this straightened out but I will live with > it because it is too difficult and the tension is too delicate > to do anything but live with it . in the mean time I'm having > constant difficulties trying to find the proper positions of my > fingers on the strings . 7 strings and any number of positions > which I get it to some extent by the dots that represent the > harmonics . but on the other hand was happening is that I'm > forgetting the in between positions and the relative positioning > of each string in relationship to the others particularly at the > lower end of things. I've been working and working on this and > wondering if something is going in my mind yet again so that the > positioning isn't becoming tacit knowledge but instead is > something I have to constantly calculate and re calculate. you > have no idea how depressing this can be . it means I can't play > naturally my hands dancing on the strings but have to think have > to think every so often and slow up and rework the positioning > of my hands to be correct . sometimes I'll draw it a complete > blank period . sometimes I'll draw a complete blank . I don't > know what that means when that happens but I think it's > connected with covid with the epidemic. In any case here is some > music that I think turned out alright. I've placed the qin on > some softe cloth in order to somewhat subdue the upper harmonics > where the problem is lying with the fourth string or the third > depending on which end you're counting from. Thank you and have > a listen, this has been a struggle. > > __ > > > Did You Know ? Every hour grows up to be an hour and a half !! > > ___ > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour -- ===================================================== directory http://www.alansondheim.org tel 718-813-3285 email sondheim ut panix.com<http://panix.com>, sondheim ut gmail.com<http://gmail.com> ===================================================== _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
