Mid-Autumn Festival Playlist - Huai Huang - Zide Qin She

This Mid-Autumn Festival, I plan to introduce three songs. I will write the introductions seriously. Mid-Autumn Trio, Part 1 | "Huai Huang" "Huai Huang" signifies deep autumn and a distant journey. Zide Qin She uses the guzheng and dizi to first paint a close-up autumn scene. The guzheng's plucked strings are crisp and granular, while occasional slides prevent the sound from merely resting on the strings, like wind rustling through branches, leaving behind fragmented yet lingering echoes. The dizi's breath weaves through, and as the melody drifts further, the scene before you gains depth. Nearby are the shadows of pagoda trees, in the distance the autumn wind, and within it, a person. Then, as orchestral instruments gradually join, the space originally belonging to just two instruments is slowly pushed open. The strings lay out the breadth of heaven and earth, while the winds and low voices support the distance, making a solitary journey suddenly no longer just "solitary." Thus, heaven and earth become vast, and the person, in contrast, appears even smaller. This is perhaps what makes "Huai Huang" most moving: it doesn't directly speak of "homesickness," but first lets you see autumn. Yet, the farther you go, the more easily each scene before your eyes becomes a reflection of home. The guzheng depicts the near view, the dizi the distant wind, and the orchestra the world. And the person standing within this world finally hears their own homesickness. To the wanderer far from home, do you miss home?