My performances or lecture/demonstrations (illustrated or narrated performance) introducing the qin generally include melodies from several of the categories listed below. However, solo performances, whether illustrated or narrated, can also focus on just one of these categories.

The traditional environments for playing qin were alone, for a friend, or at a gathering where participants would also appreciate (or do) calligraphy, painting or other activities popular amongst literati. Modern technology allows such multi-media events to be done as performances. At a basic level, a display of appropriate art work can enhance the environment for introducing the qin.

In addition I am very interested in programs which expand the normal setting of qin. So far this has included Qin and Dance (see: Silk Stone Moving) and Qin with Early Western music (e.g., Music from the Time of Marco Polo). Other possibilities include qin with film,¹ qin with storytelling,² qin and shakuhachi,³ and qin and komungo.⁴

Art	Areas e.g. Chu	Birds	Buddhist	Confucian	Daoist	Drink	Early Music	Evening	Japan
Marco Polo	Matteo Ricci	Mountains	Novels /Opera	Orchids	Passions	Poetry /Song	Seasons	Women	Other

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

¹ Qin and Film
Qin music can be very effective used for a film score. My first effort, providing music for the Hong Kong film House of the Lute (欲火焚琴), brought up for me interesting questions about intercultural clichés.

I don't know of any film since then to take advantage of the unique and evocative sounds of a qin with silk strings. Typical is the best known recent use of qin in film, in the opening sequence in Hero, which shows a replica of one of the predecessors of the qin (see picture); the actual music is Tan Dun's composition for a modern metal string qin. Perhaps even more typical is Smiling Pround Wanderer (笑傲江湖 Xiaoao Jianghu). The qin is essential to the story, there is some reference to its philosophy, and a qin does appear on screen at important moments, but the music is orchestral and totally devoid of any connection to qin music or qin aesthetic.
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² Qin and Storytelling
There is no record of the qin being used by traditional Chinese story tellers (about whom see further). However, the stories associated with a number of qin melodies were also in the repertoire of story tellers (see also qin in popular culture). In fact, qin music can interestingly supplement a story-teller whether or not the story has an historic or otherwise direct connecton to the qin. Perhaps related to this would be the use of projected images such as can be found on this website.
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³ Qin and shakuhachi (古琴與日本尺八)
See The Guqin in Japan. The qin was brought to Japan over 1,000 years ago, together with the 箏 zheng. However, whereas the zheng became localized as the koto, inheriting some characterisitics of qin aesthetic, the qin itself remained foreign, played mostly by Sinophiles. As a result, and because of its association with meditation, some people say the shakuhachi end blown flute is the Japanese counterpart of the qin. On the other hand its connection to Buddhism is much stronger than that of the qin, which is more associated with Confucian and Daoist self-cultivation.
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⁴ Qin and komungo (古琴與韓國玄琴)
See The Guqin in Korea. In Korea the guqin was rarely played. Instead, according to tradition, in early days Koreans invented a new instrument in imitation of the qin, called it a "black crane zither" (shorted to "black zither", i.e., komungo), then created repertoire for it. Korean literati are said to have played this music, but never developed a method for writing it down, hence the early repertoire was lost. As a result the repertoire played by the Korean Confucian scholars apparently came to consist of solo komungo music extracted from the Korean court music repertoire.
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