Echo Ho

Guqin

The oldest traditional Chinese string instrument, Guqin, is made from two pieces of wood with 5 strings, although modern versions of it include 7 strings on its body. The instrument is acoustically low in tone, with its open strings tuned in the bass register. It has a range of around 4 octaves. Traditionally, the Guqin’s strings were made from very thin pieces of silk twisted together. After the 50’s however, nylon strings are now used on the instrument giving it a fairly different sound aesthetic. The dots on the Guqin shows the position of harmonics on the instrument. In total there are 91 possible harmonic sounds that can be made on it. It is seen as the “father of Chinese music” by the Chinese and is tied to Confucianism and other modes of spiritual practice and philosophical thought. A culturally important and ancient instrument that has not only been a tool of music, but a catalyst in the conception of prehistorical concepts such as Qi and Tao.

Slowqin

Echo ho, a Phd candidate researcher at the Tangible Music Lab, is an experimental performer and composer. Her main body of work has involved reinventing the Guqin into a more modern context, driven by an interest in exploring gesture-based composition. Named the Slow Qin in ode to it’s predecessor it is made from transparent plexiglass, fitted with a piezo pick up under its bridge and boasts ‘7 switches, 4 pushbuttons, 8 potentiometers, a light sensor, 2 pressure sensors, and a long slide potentiometer’ to allow for gesture based composition and provide ease in ‘wireless connection to computer software.’ Primarily using the software Supercollider which intelligently facilitates ‘real time data and sound sampling and processing,’ Echo has hybridised the instrument in a way that enables many possibilities within improvisation.

A cross cultural challenge

The Slowqin is so contemporarily engaging as its very nature brings together the ancient and the modern, paving the way for Echo’s cross cultural work that interweaves Chinese traditions, Western experimental music and the Guqin’s representation of a practical philosophy. Grounded in Confucianism and Taoism, the Guqin is historically seen as a medium to cultivate ones mind and an interface between man and nature. Tied to these philosophies the instrument has rarely been explored outside of its meditative qualities and ancient scores. Treated as a ritualistic object, it is believed to have been created by anceient shamans. While the historical imperative of the Guqin remains important, it can be said that these old values may impede the progression of the Guqin as an instrument in its own right.

I feel that ‘Crossroad Bridge Chronicles’, an installation and karaoke performed by Echo and Karin Harrasser serves as a metaphor for this. Inherently a science fiction and ethnographic performance, it tells a story of two woman who travel to Chinese cities in 2020. One of them is possessed by the idea of playing the Qin, going back to old traditions and becoming more in tune with nature, while the other is an ethnographer fascinated by the magic of modern megacities. Two personalities. Two states of mind. Yet both have a justified outlook on what they wish to safeguard and explore, respectively.

Performing with the Guquin and Slowquin

Ancient Guqin tablature is known to have been accompanied by images of animals that poetically evoke the type of gesture needed to play the instrument successfully.

Top: a flowing spring illustrates juan: three fingers pluck inward as one    Bottom: a crane dancing in a breeze illustrates pi: inward thumb pluck

Echoes work with the Slowqin takes this a step further by using the Supercollider application to open up her articulate artistic gestures to a world of self reflective improvisation, continuously rethinking the Guqin’s possibilities. This is evidenced in her work on her performance and installation ‘Still Noise’ for ‘Guqin, SlowQin, and electronics
to be performed in public space’. Featuring modular structured improvisation and an electronic ensemble, an elaborate sonic landscape is created where performers react to one another by triggering sounds in response to a graphical notation on a sheet of manuscript paper, all of which increase the immersivity of the sonic environment .

Related works that also delve into the gesture based nature of the Guqin include the ‘Physical Gesture acquisition system for Guqin Performance,’ developed by Jingyin He. It involved a ‘wearable sensor system for the Guqin player’s hand, enabling Guqin playing technique to become meaningful physical gesture control that interacts with a computer.’ Another individual, Eng Tat Khoo used an interactive system of lasers and physical sensors to allow performers to use full body gestures to play notes on a VST Guqin.

Conclusion

I feel that the Guqin, an instrument rich in historical context, has been given even more context in todays society via Echo’s philosophical and sociopolitical work with the Slowqin. Her historically informed performances bring light to many modes of traditional thought that must be challenged in order to reap the benefits of the old and the new. The ideologies attached to the Guqin and of Echo ho have helped me reconnect with the concept of physicality within art and how motion is exceedingly important in expressing oneself. I see the Slowqin as a device that naturally allows one to tap into their creative stream more intuitively, providing inspiration for an open-ended design process, conjoining the mechanical body and digital brain. I view both the Guqin and the Slowqin as not only an instrument but a vehicle of thought.

Personal notes

PLEXIGLAS® is the brand name of the transparent plastic acrylic, just like Perspex. … Acrylic has a very high light transmission and with 92% this is much higher than glass. In addition, it is 25 times stronger than glass and only half as heavy. Acrylic is also easy to work with and will not shatter, which glass does.

Particularly fascinated by the concept of image based gesture notation, I wonder if a similar tablature can be made, or exists for a more well known instrument like the piano perhaps…

References

Behance. “Slow Qin.” Behance, www.behance.net/gallery/13587311/Slow-Qin. Accessed 17 May 2021.

“Guqin Aesthetics.” Wikipedia, 24 July 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqin_aesthetics#Philosophy_of_the_qin.

Ho, Echo, et al. The SlowQin: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Reinventing the Guqin.

“Qin Playing Technique.” Www.silkqin.com, www.silkqin.com/07play/fngrng.htm. Accessed 17 May 2021.

“Zo-on Slows.” Goechospace, goechospace.com/echospace/performance/crossroad-bridges-chronicle. Accessed 17 May 2021.