Guqin master releases Tang Dynasty music

Guqin master Li Xiangting is releasing a 10-CD set of newly recorded Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) music, using an instrument from that period. The set includes both impromptu and classic arias including the Plum Blossom Melody and Lisao (The Lament). Many have been released for the first time. Li, also a professor with the Central Conservatory of Music, has been playing guqin, a plucked seven-string musical instrument, for 50 years. The instrument he used for the album was made in the year 756 for a throne-ascending ceremony. Three books by Li on the art of guqin have been published by China Renmin University Press.