During the Qing dynasty, scores for pipa were collected in Thirteen Pieces for Strings. The sanxian (Mandarin for 'three strings') is a type off fretless plucked Chinese lutes. The biwa arrived in Japan in the 7th century, having evolved from the Chinese bent-neck pipa (; quxiang pipa),[1] while the pipa itself was derived from similar instruments in West Asia.
About: Biwa The biwa's twangy plucks were most commonly accompanied by a single voice during court performances, but its popularity spread the instrument made its way into religious sermons and oral history . CLASSIFICATION DIAGRAM OF WOOD A fundamental structure of string instruments in the Asia and Western is a box-sound hole structure [4,5] as seen in the harpsichord, guitar, violin, and biwa . Biwa playing has a long history on Kyushu, and for centuries the art was practiced within the institution of ms, blind Buddhist priests who performed sacred and secular texts for agrarian and other rituals. The surface of the frets is constantly shaved down by the strings, and one of the most important points in the maintenance of the biwa is to keep the surfaces as flat as possible to get goodsawari, The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. [citation needed]. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called sawari () which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. During the 1950s, the use of metal strings in place of the traditional silk ones also resulted in a change in the sound of the pipa which became brighter and stronger. In 2015, pipa player Jiaju Shen () released a mini album composed and produced by Li Zong (),[73] with E-pa music that has a strong Chinese flavor within a modern Western pop music mould. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. There are 4-string and 5-string biwas, both with 5 frets, and the soundboard is made from soft paulownia wood. Male players typically play biwa that are slightly wider and/or longer than those used by women or children. The instrument is tuned to match the key of the singer. These styles emphasized biwa-uta () vocalisation with biwa accompaniment and formed the foundation for edo-uta () styles of playing, such as shinnai and kota.[2]. The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. After almost dying out post-World War II, the tradition was revived in part due to interest shown in the instrument by the internationally known contemporary composer Tru Takemitsu, who wrote instrumental compositions for the instrument. He premiered the oldest Dunhuang Pipa Manuscript (the first interpretation made by Ye Dong) in Shanghai in the early 1980s. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. In the late 20th century, largely through the efforts of Wu Man (in USA), Min Xiao-Fen (in USA), composer Yang Jing (in Europe) and other performers, Chinese and Western contemporary composers began to create new works for the pipa (both solo and in combination with chamber ensembles and orchestra). Finally, it is not customary to finger more than one pitch within a harmonic structure, so if a fingered pitch were to be included among the grace-notes, then the last pitch would need to be an open string. The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. The number of frets is considerably fewer than other fretted instruments. This article is about the Chinese instrument. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi (, The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. An apsara (feitian) playing pipa, using fingers with the pipa held in near upright position. used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. 5, period of the Northern Wei (384-441 A.D.), A Song dynasty fresco depicts a female pipa player among a group of musicians, Group of female musician from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960 AD), A mural from a Yuan dynasty tomb found in Hengshan County, Shaanxi, showing a man playing the pipa, A group of Qing dynasty musicians from Fuzhou. This may be due to the fact that the word pipa was used in ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones of the period from the Qin to the Tang dynasty, including the long-necked spiked lute and the short-necked lute, as well as the differing accounts given in these ancient texts. [39] The plectrum has now been largely replaced by the fingernails of the right hand.
Hornbostel-Sachs Instrument Classification System.pdf [22] Some delicately carved pipas with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the Shosoin Museum in Japan. [51] The music collections from the 19th century also used the gongche notation which provides only a skeletal melody and approximate rhythms sometimes with the occasional playing instructions given (such as tremolo or string-bending), and how this basic framework can become fully fleshed out during a performance may only be learnt by the students from the master. In modern biwa, particularly in Satsuma-biwa, one sometimes strikes the soundboard sharply to get percussive effects. Most contemporary performers use the five string version. Typically, the lower strings of the arpeggio are open, as indicated with the '0' in Example 4, while the last string hit may either be open or fingered (numbers 1 to 4 refers to the left hand's fingers from the index to the 4th finger, respectively). Dunhuang, Mogao Caves. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. Fine strings murmur like whispered words, [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. [8][9] Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called pipa, though written differently (; pp or ; pb) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people (a general term for non-Han people living to the north and west of ancient China). The instrument itself resembles gaku-biwa but is slightly smaller, and is held horizontally. [23], During the Song dynasty, pipa fell from favour at the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of neo-Confucian nativism as pipa had foreign associations. [68] The Shanghai progressive/folk-rock band Cold Fairyland, which was formed in 2001, also use pipa (played by Lin Di), sometimes multi-tracking it in their recordings. It helps illustrate the neglible amount of resonance the biwa produces, because already after 1 second most of its sound energy is below the threshold of hearing. (92.7 20 12.7 cm), The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889.
Archlute - Wikipedia greatest width of resonator [17][18] The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the Han dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. Hazusu: This is a sequence of two pitches, where the first one is attacked, and leades to a second one which is not attacked. There are some types of traditional string instrument. [12] The plectrum is also critical to creating the sawari sound, which is particularly utilized with satsuma-biwa. Plucking in the opposite direction to tan and tiao are called mo () and gou () respectively. Typically, the second pitch is fingered on the same string one or two frets lower than the first one, and the note is attacked and then lifted off into the second fret position. The number of frets is considerably fewer than other fretted instruments. Chikuzen Biwa. In the performers right hand the bachi (plectrum) is held, its upward-pointing tip used to pluck the strings near the string holder. The four and five-stringed pipas were especially popular during the Tang dynasty, and these instruments were introduced into Japan during the Tang dynasty as well as into other regions such as Korea and Vietnam. The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item, Title:
Popular Japanese three-stringed lute. Lingering, filling the palace hall, spring snow flew. New York, 1903, vol. In the 20th century, two of the most prominent pipa players were Sun Yude (; 19041981) and Li Tingsong (; 19061976). The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. [49] In Nanguan music, the pipa is still held in the near-horizontal position or guitar-fashion in the ancient manner instead of the vertical position normally used for solo playing in the present day. A. Biwa B. Koto C. Shakuhachi D. Shamisen 3. Like the heike-biwa, it is played held on its side, similar to a guitar, with the player sitting cross-legged. These works present a radical departure from the compositional languages usually employed for such an instrument. [54][55] (The heptatonic scale was used for a time afterwards in the imperial court due to Sujiva's influence until it was later abandoned). We speculate that being half-way in the section, the purpose of this clash may be to avoid a too strong feeling of cadence on the 'tonic E,' since there is one more phrase to come before completing this section. Nation: Japan. This is a type of biwa that wandering blind monks played for religious practice as well as in narrative musical performances during the medieval era, widely seen in the Kyushu area. The origin of the Japanese biwa as a generic type of instrument dates back to around the year 700 CE when the pipa was first introduced to Japan from China as part of ensembles gifted to the Japanese Emperor. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. [40] Through time, the neck was raised and by the Qing dynasty the instrument was mostly played upright. As one of the modern types of biwa that flourished in the late 19, centuries, Satsuma-biwa is widely played today in various settings, including popular media. [1] An example tuning of the four string version is B, e, f and b, and the five string instrument can be tuned to C, G, C, d and g. For the five string version, the first and third strings are tuned the same note, the second string three steps down, the fifth string an octave higher than the second string, and the fourth string a step down from the fifth. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese n t b in Southeast Asia. [62] From the Ming dynasty, famous pipa players include Zhong Xiuzhi (), Zhang Xiong (, known for his playing of "Eagle Seizing Swan"), the blind Li Jinlou (), and Tang Yingzeng () who was known to have played a piece that may be an early version of "Ambushed from Ten Sides".[63]. These, according to the Han dynasty text by Liu Xi, refer to the way the instrument is played "p" is to strike outward with the right hand, and "p" is to pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The body is narrower and smaller than the other types of biwa. 1984. A pipa player playing with the pipa behind his back. [1] An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961. Considering that the metronome marking of this music rarely exceeds the quarter-note at 54, and that the biwa plays mostly on the 1st beat of each measure, it is the authors impression that hazusu and/or tataku may help the biwa player keep time by providing material/action that cuts the duration of a measure in two, even if it cannot be heard. Further, the frets and the nut are wide, which provides a surface, not a point, for a string to touch. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. This seeming shortcoming is compensated for by the frets height and the low tension of the strings. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Outside influence, internal pressures, and socio-political turmoil redefined biwa patronage and the image of the biwa; for example, the nin War of the Muromachi period (13381573) and the subsequent Warring States period (15th17th centuries) disrupted the cycle of tutelage for heikyoku[citation needed][a] performers. [43] The collection was edited by Hua Qiuping (, 17841859) and published in 1819 in three volumes. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. The Traditional Music of Japan. Lin Shicheng (; 19222006), born in Shanghai, began learning music under his father and was taught by Shen Haochu (; 18991953), a leading player in the Pudong school style of pipa playing. [6][7] According to Liu Xi's Eastern Han dynasty Dictionary of Names, the word pipa may have an onomatopoeic origin (the word being similar to the sounds the instrument makes),[6] although modern scholarship suggests a possible derivation from the Persian word "barbat", the two theories however are not necessarily mutually exclusive. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. de Ferranti, Hugh. All rights reserved. [61][33], During the Song dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin (). Wei Zhongle (; 19031997) played many instruments, including the guqin. The biwa ( Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. Wood, leather, Dimensions:
As the biwa does not play in tempered tuning, pitches are approximated to the nearest note. Telling stories and holding religious practices with biwa accompaniment became a profession for blind monks, and it was these wandering blind monks who carried on the tradition.
Hornbostel-Sachs - Wikipedia Generally speaking, biwa have four strings, though modern satsuma- and chikuzen-biwa may have five strings. Biwa performers also vary the volume of their voice between barely audible to very loud. This music was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14th-15th centuries. At first the chikuzen biwa, like the one pictured in gallery #1, had four strings and five frets, but by the 1910s Tachibana and his sons had developed a five-string model (gallery #2) that, since the 1920s, has been the most common form of the instrument. Traditionally, the 2nd pitch either acts as a lower neighboring tone or a descending passing tone. to the present. Each school is associated with one or more collections of pipa music and named after its place of origin: These schools of the solo tradition emerged by students learning playing the pipa from a master, and each school has its own style, performance aesthetics, notation system, and may differ in their playing techniques. Ueda Junko and Tanaka Yukio, two of Tsuruta's students, continue the tradition of the modern satsuma-biwa. Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted, Credit Line:
If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. Koto. Pei Luoer was known for pioneering finger-playing techniques,[25] while Sujiva was noted for the "Seven modes and seven tones", a musical modal theory from India. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. In previous centuries, the predominant biwa musicians would have been blind monks (, biwa hshi), who used the biwa as musical accompaniment when reading scriptural texts. The biwa is a pear-shaped instrument with four or five strings. Region: East Asia. Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The biwa is a four stringed lute and it is approximately 106 cm long (42 inches). The Kyushu biwa traditions, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes. Each group can include either two open strings or one open and one fingered string. Omissions? By the middle of the Meiji period, improvements had been made to the instruments and easily understandable songs were composed in quantity. [18], As biwa music declined in post-Pacific War Japan, many Japanese composers and musicians found ways to revitalize interest in it. Sheng. Beginning in the late 1960s to the late 1980s, composers and historians from all over the world visited Yamashika and recorded many of his songs; before this time, the biwa hshi tradition had been a completely oral tradition. The pear-shaped biwa lute has enchanted listeners in Japan for centuries. In both cases, the sound of the non-struck pitches is not hearable when performed with the orchestra, but the gesture itself might help the biwa player keep time. Carlo Forlivesi's compositions Boethius () and Nuove Musiche per Biwa () were both written for performance on the satsuma-biwa designed by Tsuruta and Tanaka. [citation needed], In 2014, an industrial designer residing in the United States Xi Zheng () designed and crafted an electric pipa "E-pa" in New York. [10] In solo performances, a biwa performer sings monophonically, with melismatic emphasis throughout the performance. Although this instrument is quite large and a very substantial plectrum is used to excite its strings, its sound is surprisingly soft and meant more for intimate settings rather than concert halls. The peg box is angled about 90 degrees from the neck, and the back of the body is flat, unlike the western lute. Biwa Four frets Figure 1 NAKAMURA Kahoru Biwa's back is flat Biwa's plectrum Figure 2 Although shaped like a Western lute, the Biwa 's back is flat and it has a shallower body. 1800 Geography: Japan Culture: Japanese Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl and ivory Dimensions: 35 12 1/8 11 1/2 in. The Edo period proved to be one of the most prolific and artistically creative periods for the biwa in its long history in Japan. By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. L 31 1/2 W. 11 13/16 D. 1 5/16 in.
The rich legacy of the biwa | The Japan Times Shamisen players and other musicians found it financially beneficial to switch to the biwa, bringing new styles of biwa music with them. Once assembled, four wound silk strings of varying thicknesses are at one of their ends tied to the string holder bridge (detail #4) and the other to the tuning pegs. The instrument itself also varies in size, depending on the player. After having arrived in Japan via the Silk Road for purely instrumental music, the biwa evolved over time into a narrative musical instrument. [citation needed]. Idiophones African Thumb Pianos 1.
PDF Music - DepEd Tambayan During the 1910s a five-string model was developed that, since the 1920s, has been the most common form of the instrument (gallery #2). The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, and is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China. In the narrative traditions where the pipa is used as an accompaniment to narrative singing, there are the Suzhou tanci (), Sichuan qingyin (), and Northern quyi () genres. Among ethnomusicologists, it is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments. 2000. The design and construction of the 5-string Chikuzen biwa pictured in gallery #2 is basically the same as for the 4-string model described above except accommodations need to be made to the pegbox (detail #7) and bridge (detail #8) for the additional string. The biwa is a plucked lute chordophone of Japan. Further important collections were published in the 20th century. Title: Satsuma Biwa () Date: ca. 5-string: biwa (gallery #2): Like pearls, big and small, falling on a platter of jade. Like with the shamisen, a distinctive raspy tone quality called sawari is associated with the chikuzen biwa. Another often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. Over 100 years after its development, the H-S system is still in use in most museums and in large inventory projects. General tones and pitches can fluctuate up or down entire steps or microtones. The sole stroke motion used in this example is kakubachi, but it also includes examples of hazusu and tataku. As one of the modern types of biwa that flourished in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Satsuma-biwa is widely played today in various settings, including popular media. Several schools of biwa playing evolved from the ms tradition, one of which, founded in the 1890s by Tachibana Chij and others and called the Asahi-kai, was based on the style of the Chikuzen region of Kyushu.
Sanxian ("Three strings") or Xianzi (Spike lute) - University of Edinburgh Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded. They recognized that studies in music theory and music composition in Japan almost entirely consisted in Western theory and instruction. Detail #2 shows the backside of the instrument; detail #3 is a side view revealing both the shallowness of the bowl-shaped resonator and the height of the frets that are glued onto the neck. In Satsuma-biwa classical pieces, the thickest string (the first) is in principle used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. His well-received compositions, such as November Steps, which incorporated biwa heikyoku with Western orchestral performance, revitalized interest in the biwa and sparked a series of collaborative efforts by other musician in genres ranging from J-Pop and enka to shin-hougaku and gendaigaku. Modern biwa music is based on that medieval narrative biwa music. The short neck of the Tang pipa also became more elongated. The flowers fluttered, and from Heaven the phoenix trilled, [42] During the Qing dynasty there originally two major schools of pipathe Northern and Southern schools, and music scores for these two traditions were collected and published in the first mass-produced edition of solo pieces for pipa, now commonly known as the Hua Collection (). Most ms biwas have tear-shaped bodies, but this rustic fish-shaped example was probably used by a wandering Buddhist monk. The full vibrating lengths of the strings, the distance between their bend over the nut and the knots that secure their lower ends to the string holder, are all 27.7 inches. This biwa often has five strings (although it is essentially a 4-string instrument as the 5th string is a doubled 4th that are always played together) and five or more frets, and the construction of the tuning head and frets vary slightly.