A Gesture-based Typology of Sliding-tones in Guqin Music

Abstract

A good part of the expressive character of traditional Chinese guqin music can be accounted for in terms of sliding-tones, of which vibrato and portamento form major constituents. In this paper, a representative performance of a guqin piece formed the starting point for identifying an alphabet of basic movements on top of which it was possible to define different vibrato and portamento gesture types. The methodology is based on a pitch analysis of the musical audio and a subsequent segmentation and categorization of the pitch patterns which draws upon the player's knowledge of guqin playing. The typology focuses on the morphological aspects of pitch and control gestures, and it allows a description of sliding-tones in terms of concatenations of basic movements of the finger on the string. The close relationship between control gestures and pitch patterns justifies the use of the term “gesture” for both sonic and control patterns, although sonic gestures do not always completely overlap with control gestures. The present paper is a first attempt at an identification and classification of the gestures that make up guqin vibrato and portamento. The approach offers opportunities for future testing, using measurement tools and experimental techniques. The applications of this typology in education and sound synthesis are straightforward.

Notes

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The first author of this article is a guqin player educated at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Han is the major ethnic group throughout Chinese history, and most of Chinese culture has been strongly influenced by Han tradition.

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The 9-string qin from the tomb Marquis Yi.

This length is the effectual-string length in which the string vibrates and produces an open-string tone.

For this reason, guqin music was considered as “the literati's music”.

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. Hui marks are the 13 round marks on the top board at the side of the first string (Figure 2).

Jieshi Diao - YouLan .

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Issued from Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of Amsterdam, by Paul Boersma and David Weenink. See http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

The recording was made in 1995 and published in 1996 by HUGO Productions(HK) Ltd. Reference: Title: Guangling Qin Music (Vol. 7); Guqin solo: Lin, YouRen; CD index number: HRP7145-2.

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Flageolet tones are generated by touching (but not pressing) the string at a vibration node. A stopped string entails the pressing and thus shortening of the string.

For sound-examples, see http://www.ipem.ugent.be/2007/2007GestureBasedTypologyGuqin/AudioVisualMaterial

It is assumed that the particular logic of subsequent pitch contour shapes reflects the laws of bio-mechanical movement.

This is the convention used for all scatter plots in this paper.

Sound examples are provided at: http://www.ipem.ugent.be/2007/2007GestureBasedTypologyGuqin/AudioVisualMaterial