Transcription and music for You Lan

This page was begun in the summer of 2020, after I had completed the first recording based on the transcription I had just completed of my revised reconstruction based on the 7th century (or earlier) tablature 碣石調幽蘭 Jieshi Diao You Lan. This new version is epitomized by the new translation of the title: "Towering Rock Melody Secluded Orchid" evokes the story of the conquering warlord Cao Cao climbing Towering Rock Mountain by the sea in what is today Hebei Province to view all around him. The title with the previous version, Secluded Orchide in Stone Tablet Mode, evoked the more standard story of Confucius, having failed to find a worthy lord to advise, encountering a secluded orchid in a field of weeds; I completed that version in 2005.

Another aspect of my new versions immediately to be noted are the opening two notes, discussed in detail here. And to understand the current interpretation more freely, viewers shoud take note of the section numbering system above the staves in the transcriptions (numbers below the staves beginning m.... refer to related2 note patterns elsewhere in the transcription). This will help those who would like to connect these transcriptions to the original score via this typed and punctuated version as well as those wishing to examine the present understanding of the melodic structure (further details).

The recording and transcription links on this page begin with those to both my new and old transcriptions and recordings. As I do more recordings of the new version these will also be linked here, as will links not just to my own interpretations but to those of other people who have worked on this amazing, as well as amazingly old, musical creation.

Recording of the new interpretation, 2020; new transcription
The recording linked here might change, or there may be more than one recording linked, so the times given below may not be precise.
1. 00.00
2. 01.49
3. 04.36
4. 07.24
  End: 09.01
Listen to the old version; 2005 pdf of old transcription
-the old version is also on YouTube and BiliBili.

Recordings and transcriptions by others ⁴
The pdfs here were all copied from 古琴曲集第一集 Guqin Quji 1 (1982) except the one of Wu Wenguang (2001). With a red pen I have used numbers to indicate the phrases marked off in the original by the characters "一句", and a star or asterisk (*) to indicated further phrases as I understand them, though not marked in the original (further comment).

By 管平湖 Guan Pinghu; 1950s transcription (pdf)
By 姚丙炎 Yao Bingyan transcription (pdf)
By 徐立孫 Xu Lisun transcription (pdf)
吳振平 Wu Zhenping transcription (pdf)
吳文光 Wu Wenguang transcription (pdf)
喻紹澤 Yu Shaoze ? Recording but no transcription.