sound recording with low voice singing on nylong string qin playing

鹿鳴 解題

理性元雅: 此詩小雅 周王乞言於嘉賓 被之絃徽為燕享通用之樂歌也
今之鹿鳴佳宴 鄉飲酒禮 皆作為聲歌 而絲銅少傳 夫以大典禮而雅樂不傳 非一大缺典乎?
余特編之譜 祈雅音之不廢

理性元雅是明代琴譜 1618 年 張庭玉編 若跟據上述解題 張就古詩"鹿鳴"編了"鹿鳴操"是為回復雅音

另在[琴操] (傳為東漢蔡邕所著)一書中記載
鹿鳴是詩經小雅篇裡的一首詩
周大臣所作 因有感於君王之道衰與志傾 留心聲歌酒色 內顧后妃
設旨酒佳餚 不能厚養賢者
小人在位 周道陵遲 必定是如此而來的
於是彈琴諷諫
鹿鳴這首詩便是諷諫之詩
是說野鹿得美甘之食
尚知相互呼喚來食
可在位之人確不能

My playing with singing
This piece is really difficult to sing. I hope this will inspire someone to explore more about singing this piece. :)

English translation of this poem [Deer Call]:
by James Legge

With pleased sounds the deer call to one another,
Eating the celery of the fields.
I have here admirable guests;
The lutes are struck, and the organ is blown [for them]; --
The organ is blown till its tongues are all moving.
The baskets of offerings [also] are presented to them.
The men love me,
And will show me the perfect path.

With pleased sounds the deer call to one another,
Eating the southernwood of the fields.
I have here admirable guests,
Whose virtuous fame is grandly brilliant.
They show the people not to be mean;
The officers have in them a pattern and model.
I have good wine,
Which my admirable guests drink, enjoying themselves.

With pleased sounds the deer call to one another,
Eating the *salsola of the fields.
I have here admirable guests,
For whom are struck the lutes, large and small.
The lutes, large and small, are struck,
And our harmonious joy is long-continued.
I have good wine,
To feast and make glad the hearts of my admirable guests.

*芩 is described by Maou merely as 'a grass.' It is a marshy plant, with leaves like the bamboo, a creeper. ... Williams, says, -- 'perhaps a kind of salsola.' (James Legge, The Chinese Classics, The She King)

James Legge translated 瑟 (se) and 琴(qin) as lutes, large and small.

The earliest survived guqin piece of [Lù Máng] (Deer Call) is in the Ming dynasty qin book [LĬ Xiǹg Yuán Yă] edited by Zhang Tińg-yù in 1618. According to the footnotes of Zhang, there is this ancient poem but no music, therefore he composed this qin piece [lu mang cao] for the sake of keeping ancient elegant sound.

According to the book [Qin Cao] (possibily compiled by East Han dynasty Cài Yong), it says that this poem was made as a satirical admonition to Zhou (1045 -256 BCE) King. Zhou ministers worried that the monarch is declining due to the king pays too much attention on banquet events, and those empresses and concubines. Therefore, someone composed this ancient poem, deer call, made a qin piece to sing along with and presenting the regrets that when wild deer see delicious food, they call to one another, but the behavior of the incumbent is not even as good as wild animals.

Nowadays people like to play this qin peice to welcome visiting friends and guests.