Memory An Old Friend (忆故人, Yi Gu Ren, 古琴) is fairly a recent composition during the early part of the last century. However, the theme it conveys is an ancient one, that of the sadness of missing a friend who was sent away in exile. The piece from the “Shen Qi Mi Pu” 【神竒秘谱】 (1425) collection called “ Shan Zhong Si You Ren”《山中思友人》 (‘Thinking of a friend in the mountains’) .
For the Xiao( 箫) version of Memory An Old Friend (忆故人) you can enjoy it here: Memory An Old Friend (忆故人, Yi Gu Ren, Xiao, 箫)
Length: 8’42”
Play with HTML 5 Player, no flash required, no software required.
If you browser does not support HTML 5, you may use flash player below. Your browser must support Flash.
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Download MP3 of Memory An Old Friend (忆故人, Yi Gu Ren, 古琴)
Memory An Old Friend (忆故人, Yi Gu Ren, 古琴) MP3 download link (right click, save link as)：Memory An Old Friend (忆故人, Yi Gu Ren, 古琴)MP3
古琴曲《忆故人》又名《山中思故人》、《空山忆故人》，曲谱最早载于清咸丰年间流传于蜀地的《荻灰馆琴谱》。据原谱解题，此曲「传为蔡中郎（东汉蔡邕）作」。曲调委婉深情，表现了空山月下徘徊沉吟，思念故人之情。
全曲共六段。开头和结尾都用清澈透明的泛音和跌宕灵巧的散板。中间主体部分是对同一旋律的变奏，变化微妙而又相互有机统一。
第一段以清亮飘逸的泛音开头，造成空山幽谷一片宁静的气氛，泛音停止后，思绪随着起伏跌宕的音调而展开。
第二段，音乐开始上板。缓慢而规整的节奏，缠绵悱恻的曲调，绵延不断的琴音，使人感到情真意切。
第三、四段，旋律移向高音区，并由单音旋律转而采用空弦，低音作和音衬托。在旋律层层推进后，又连续下行，表现了思绪翻滚，心潮起落，使思念故人之情达到高潮。二、三、四段都以固定终止型结束，有辗转反侧，「剪不断，理还乱」之感。
第五段再现第二段曲调，情绪渐趋平静。
第六段低音区跌宕的节奏和尾声半部分激动的泛音曲调，又掀起一次感情的波澜，有欲伏先扬之妙。
Listen more Guqin tunes? Back to Guqin (古琴) page.
Or back to our Chinese Classical Music Media Library main page.
Charles Xu says
Thinking of a friend in the mountains ? Who is in the mountains you or your friend ?
simon says
It should be interpreted as ”when I was in the mountains, I was missing my friend who was in exile”.