"Shiliu Ban" (十六板), from the collection "Xiansuo Beikao" 《弦索备考》

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• published: 18 May 2015
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"Shiliu Ban" (十六板, Sixteen Sections), a piece from "Xiansuo Beikao" (弦索备考, String Music Reference; also called "Xiansuo Shisan Tao" (弦索十三套, "13 Suites for Strings"), an important collection of Chinese instrumental music published in Beijing in 1814, during the Qing Dynasty. This recording is from a 3-CD set released in China in 2009. The performers are probably as follows: ● Xue Ke (薛克), huqin ● Tan Longjian (谈龙建), sanxian ● Zhang Qiang (张强), pipa ● Lin Ling (林玲), guzheng There are probably at least three additional instruments in this recording (xiao, dizi, and sheng), but the names of the players are unknown. The collection's compiler, a nobleman, scholar, and musician of Mongolian ethnicity named Rong Zhai, (荣斋) stated his aim in carefully notating the thirteen pieces in the collection (for several of which he prepared separate parts for four different instruments) as preserving a style of music that by his time was already considered old-fashioned and in danger of disappearing. In fact, aside from this music's continued use in a few traditions of northern Chinese shuochang (narrative singing), it did die out, though the collection was eventually republished in staff notation in the late 20th century. The music is only gradually coming back into public view, with infrequent performances taking place primarily in mainland China and Taiwan. The "xiansuo" (弦索) in the collection's title means "string," and the instrumental music tradition documented therein was indeed one focused on string instruments. The xiansuo tradition's decline led to a common assumption that the music of northern China was based primarily on winds and percussion, while that of southern China was based on string instruments and bamboo flute. The former popularity of this string ensemble music in northern China shows that this was not necessarily the case. This piece is essentially a set of variations on the melody "Ba Ban" (八板; also called "Liu Ban" 六板). There are considerable heterophonic differences between the four parts published in the collection: huqin (sihu, a vertical fiddle with four strings in double courses), xianzi (sanxian, a fretless snakeskin banjo with three strings), pipa (a pear-shaped lute with four strings), and guzheng (long zither with bridges). For more about the "Xiansuo Beikao" collection, see the following 2-part Chinese-language documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB_AD_... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0TNvf... The photo, entitled "Musiciens Chinois. Légation a Pékin. Chine," taken by the French photographer Paul Champion in 1865 or 1866, depicts an instrumental ensemble in northern China (probably Beijing) which may well be performing xiansuo music.