A Proposal For Fingering Arrangement In Modern Guqin Music

Since old times,qin players have always kept on improving music scores.This continuous process has undergone different stages throughout history.From Tang dynasty until late Qing dynasty,music scores were written under the form of tablatures,thus only transcribing exact fingering but not directly the pitch.Through this non-linear and multiform evolution,the 1850s marked the beginning of a progressive switch of transcription from fingering to pitch.From that period,especially after 1956,guqin performance has been integrated into the modern education system of conservatories.Since then,major evolutions have taken place.Among them is the expansion of performing forms,from mainly solo of all kinds of music ensembles.Thus,emerged new challenges linked with the intrinsic features of the instrument,as well as its different tone colors and their respective tessituras.In this spirit,this paper gives an historical perspective of the birth of fingering arrangement(chapter 1).Then it identifies the underlying difficulties of such exercise(chapter 2).Last,it proposes a method of undertaking fingering arrangement(chapter 3).This empirical method works in three additive and iterative steps while monitoring the part of musical re-creation inherent to it.Such process remains an attempt to tackle this issue from both a transverse and practical angle.Sure enough,it cannot be comprehensive and brings only some food for thoughts in complement and not in substitution of practice.