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Guqin maestro recalls rough start on way to illustrious career
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IN August 2008, the world’s attention zoomed in on Beijing for the Summer Olympics. During the opening ceremony at the National Stadium, the first note from a guqin symbolized China unveiling the beauty of its culture to the world.
Chen Leiji was the musician on stage in the Bird’s Nest playing the guqin that night. Now 47, he says it’s his destiny to pass on his skills and knowledge to the young generation.
In Shanghai for a lecture on guqin and Western music during the Shanghai Book Fair, which ended on Tuesday, Chen says though he started learning the seven-stringed plucked instrument at the age of 9, he didn’t show much interest in it at the time.
“My parents hoped playing it could calm me down,” he says with a chuckle.
For his part, he says he was more interested in Western music and he went abroad after graduating as a guqin major from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1989.
Despite working as a conductor with a number of orchestras including the European Union Youth Orchestra and Katowice Symphony Orchestra, Chen says his life always comes back to the guqin, an instrument dating back about 3,000 years.
He has staged more than 100 guqin recitals around Europe and released numerous albums before returning to China in 2003. Despite wide recognition as one of the world’s best guqin musicians, he has always wondered where his true path laid.
Finally, Chen says, he realized what he was meant to do when he was on stage plucking his guqin as much of the world watched the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics.
“I realized it is my destiny to be paired with the guqin forever and it is my mission to further develop and spread this ancient art,” Chen says. “A Chinese saying goes that a man knows the mandate of heaven at 50. It’s so true for me.”
Q: How did you start learning guqin?
A: I was a very naughty boy, perfectly matching my given name which means thunder and excitement. My parents expected to calm me down by having me learn how to play the guqin. My father was good friend with well-known guqin player Gong Yi, who took on the responsibility of teaching me.
Actually, I was more attracted to percussion instruments like gongs. I still remember when my father forced me to choose between practicing guqin and kneeling on a washing board, I chose the later.
Q: What motivated you to study Western music after graduating as a guqin major?
A: That was my own decision and purely my own interest. At that time, I was very attracted to the Western classics and desired to learn more. However, my experiences in the West didn’t separate me from the guqin, but connected me even tighter to the instrument.
It was by studying precise and rigorous Western classical music that it helped me realize and better appreciate the beauty of traditional Chinese music.
Q: How did the experience influence your guqin playing?
A: I think everything you learn is just like the food you eat. It is digested and turned into the nutrition you need. Everything influences you, but not necessarily in a particular way.
Q: In your opinion, what is the major difference and common ground between traditional Chinese music and Western classics?
A: I think the common ground between them is that they use similar techniques to deliver the same message. Rhythm, notes and melodies are the basic techniques used by both music types, while expressing true emotions is the same message that both types of music aim to deliver.
The biggest difference in my view lies in the rhythm and image. The most beautiful part of guqin music does not lie in the melody with notes, but where without. It is very similar to the white space in traditional Chinese painting. All those lines and color work for the white space, just like all those notes in guqin melodies work for the silent part.
Q: How did you come up with the guqin melody for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics?
A: It was out of a delicate touch after drinking. Guqin was selected as the instrument to ring the first melody for the opening ceremony very early, but it took us a year to finally come up with the final version.
It was very stressful work to come up with the best melody within the allotted time of 1 minute and 22 seconds. I had a little drink one day and just let my finger pluck the strings freely while recording. Unexpectedly, it was approved.
It is a very simple melody, but its delivers the beauty of guqin perfectly.
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