For more information on the various settings of this poem see the Chart tracing Yangguan Sandie, as well as the prefaces to Yangguan Sandie in Zheyin Shizi Qinpu (ca. 1491) and Faming Qinpu (1530). The poem was included in Yuefu Shiji, Folio 80.

 
Original 1511 preface ⁴
This translation is quite tentative:

(??? I am not yet clear on several points here. It seems as though the author is commenting on phrases popularly added to Wang Wei's lyrics, saying that these were used for making related ensemble melodies. However, existing qin versions also created expanded lyrics this way, though none of the existing versions repeats the third phrase three times or uses any of the other three examples. Nevertheless, if this interpretation is correct, then perhaps this suggests that the present 1511 version, and/or its preface, was/were made prior to the other qin versions: at first only the Wang Wei lyrics themselves were repeated, and only later was other text added. See further comment.)  

1511 Music and lyrics ⁵
Thirteen sections (not numbered)
The tablature gives a largely syllablic setting of Wang Wei's 4-line poem, 7 characters per line (Romanized).

As with all qin tablature there is no direct indication of rhythm. Other than this the main problems of interpretation have to do with variations within each section of the pattern of the poem, as follows (each section has 4 phrases, but none is simply 7+7+7+7):

• "(7+2)", "(7+3)" and "(7+7)": the last two or three, or all seven, characters of that line have been repeated (written out, with tablature).
• "7+R": at the end of many of the other lines, especially the 4th line of each repetition, is the direction "再作 repeat"; however, there is no indication of how much to repeat or whether the paired words should be sung during the repeat.

This hopefully makes clear the following method for giving a structural outline of the 1511 version as indicated by the tablature:

My personal inclination on this is that when there is a repeat during the first two or three lines of a 4-line stanza to follow the example of written out repeats (7+2 and 7+3) and so repeat only the last two or three characters of that line (note the exception in Section 5), but when there is a repeat at the end of the last line to follow the example of Section 6 and repeat all seven characters (7+7). In both cases I usually change the rhythm somewhat during the repeat.

There is nothing in qin literature that discusses how to deal with these repetitions, and it is quite possible either that something different was intended, or that these specifics didn't really matter: qin tablature is not a written out composition, as in Western music of the Common Practice Period ("classical music"); instead it is a transcription of how someone played a melody. That person might in fact not have played the melody the same way each time. In theory one should sing during all the repeats but my inclination is not to do so (there was even at that time criticism of the idea that all qin songs had to be sung all the way through). As suggested by the comment with the 1511 preface, the Wang Wei lyrics came to be expanded in many different ways.

 
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. Yangguan Qu 陽關曲
See Yangguan Sandie
(Return)

2. Tuning and mode
Taigu Yiyin does not group pieces by tuning or mode. Some other early Yang Guan melodies used qiliang tuning (raised 2nd and 5th strings): 2 4 5 6 1 2 3 . However, the fact that the second string position is consistently played here at the 10th instead of the 11th hui clearly shows that ruibin is intended here.
(Return)

3. Illustration
Used with Yangguan Sandie
(Return)

4. Original preface

5. Original lyrics
A Romanized version of the original Wang Wei lyrics is as follows.

The last line is usually translated "Going west through Yang Guan". I have translated it "to Yang Guan" because the full title of the poem, 渭城曲：送元二出便安西 Weicheng Tune: Seeing Yuan Er off to Anxi, mentions a place (Anxi) on the way to Yangguan, and this is picked up in expanded forms of the poem used with other qin settings of the poem, e.g., in ca. 1491 and 1530, where the lyrics concern going to Yang Guan, not going west through it.
(Return)

Return to top