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| Jinghu, or Peking Opera fiddle with a high sound. | Unlike the opera in the West, music for Peking opera is not created specially by a composer. Singing follows sets of commonly used tunes. Words are written to fit tunes. The music score is recorded with Chinese characters rather than special symbols.
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| This is the most important musical instrument in Peking Opera. |
Music in Peking Opera comes mainly in variations of two set tunes: xi pi and er huang. Words come mostly in five-word or seven-word sentences. Xi pi is lively, vigorous and quick and is used to express an excited mood such as happiness, anger or agitation. Er huang is gentle, steady and deep and is used to express a subdued mood such as loss in deep thought, sorrow and melancholy. These two tunes have given rise to a dozen or so strains, depending on tempo, sentence length and theatrical requirements.
In addition, Peking Opera has assimilated tunes from other operas. These include the southern bang zi, a gentle melody rooted in Henan that is used mostly by dan and xiao
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| Peking Opera orchestra composed of chinese and foreign artists. | sheng roles; the si ping tune used to accompany sentences of any irregular lengths; the high-pitched gao bo zi tune that has evolved from qin qiang Opera melody and is used to express an excited mood; the gentle kunqu melody used to express subtle feelings; and chui qiang, a flute-accompanied tune.
A Peking Opera orchestra is divided into two parts. One is called wen chang whose mai
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| The moon-shaped mandolin, one of the main music instruments used to accompany singing in Peking Opera. | n function is to accompany singing. Playing orchestral music, it is dominated by a stringed instrument called jinghu (or Peking Opera fiddle) and is supplemented by plucked instruments such as yueqin (moon-shaped mandolin) and pipa (four-stringed lute). Its head is the jinghu player. Each well-known singing actor usually has his personal jinghu player, who does not show up until the actor he serves comes onto the stage.
The other part is called wu chang whose mainly function is to accompany acting, recitation, dancing and acrobatic fighting. Playing percussion music, it uses drums, wooden clappers, gongs and cymbals. The dnlmmer heads the wu chane team of musicians and is also the conductor of the entire orchestra, although he generally is not as well known as the fiddle player. The wu chang team produces music that accompanies scene changes and creates different stage atmospheres.
Peking Opera performance is often acc
ompanied by "a deafening sound of gongs and cymbals.'" People unfamiliar with Peking Opera think it too noisy. The origin of loud music can be traced to a time when theatrical companies used gongs and cymbals to attract audiences for its shows put on makeshift stages, in the midst of the bustle of the markets and streets. But in some Peking Operas, kunqu opera music, which is less loud, is used.
An important part of Peking Opera performance is singing, which is closely connected with music. In a theater, audiences focus their interest on performers on the stage, on their color costumes and acting, but the wen chang and wu chang teams of musicians flanking the stage control the rhythm - key to success or failure of a performance. The orchestra, aside from controlling the rhythm, provides the music itself. In traditional opera theory, a good performance is said to "depend on front stage (acting and singing) by 30 percent and on back stage (music) by 70 percent."
Amateur Peking Opera performers usually learn three principal instruments used by a wen chang team of musicians -jinghu (Peking Opera fiddle), erhu (two-stringed Chinese fiddle) and yueqin (moon- shaped mandolin). If amateurs know how to beat gongs and drums to control rhythm, they are fit to put up formal shows. |
