Laurence E.R. Picken #
16 July 1909 - 16 March 2007
Laurence Ernest Rowland Picken was an extraordinary human being, biologist and musicologist. You may read obituaries at The Independent and TimesOnline.
Among the several contributions to the field of ethnomusicology, there is A Twelfth-Century Secular Chinese Song in Zither Tablature, published in Asia Major, Vol. 16, pp.102-120, which analyzes and transcripts Jiang Kui’s Gu Yuan.
There is an interview with Mr. Picken available at Univeristy of Cambridge website, splitted in three parts. The first one is the most interesting for qin lovers, as Mr. Picken explains his experiences in Chongqing and Chengdu with Joseph Needham, Robert H. van Gulik, Zha Fuxi, Pai Te Sha, …