The+Instruments+of+Beijing+Opera+by+Josh+Ingle

by: Josh Ingle


The musicians of the Beijing Opera orchestra are called the //Yuedui,// or the //Changmian//. These musicians play in intimate harmony with the stage performers. The focus of Beijing Opera is the stage performer's expression of character and emotion, thus the orchestral music almost always accompanies the song, speech, and dance acting of the actors. Rarely is the orchestral music featured independently. The Bejing Opera orchestra provides a fabric of punctuating and integrating sound that characterizes every performance, and expresses the musical interpretation of each play's emotional content.(225)

The basic orchestra consists of eight musicians: the conductor playing the drum and clapper, a large gong player, a small gong player and a cymbals player (these make up the percussive orchestra) Then you have the //Jinghu// player, a //erhu// player, a //yueqin// player (comprising the melodic orchestra) and often a //sanxian// player.Sometimes the Jinghu player and the erhu player will also play the horizontal bamboo flute, or //suona//. Sometimes an orchestra can have up to seventeen musicians, and play all of the mentioned instruments as well as the //ruan// and //pipa//. The musicians are seated just offstage at the downstage left corner. The conductor and the Jinghu player have an unobstructed view of the stage performers. The conductor sits in the middle of the percussive orchestra so they can keep time. The percussive orchestra sits farther back from the stage than the melodic orchestra, because of the intensly loud sounds created by their instruments.(241)

=The Functions of the Melodic Orchestra= The melodic orchestra only performs in conjunction with the percussive orchestra, and never performs independently.The melodic orchestra's primary duty is to accompany the the singers onstage.It plays instrumental collectives (guomen), action strings (xing-xian) and fixed melodies (qupai). The primary accompanist instrument would be the Jinghu. The Jinghu player always plays in close harmony with the stage performers. The Jinghu player must adapt his style of playing to the stage performer's style during each individual performance. Like any function of good art, if something has the freedom to change, it will. Every night the stage performer will perform his part a little differently, and it is up to the Jinghu player to adapt to the singer's style and follow his lead. Melodic accompaniment is not chordal, and not unison either. It is heterophonic, in that some portions are in unison, but every once in a while there is an artistic divergence that causes the melodies to skip over each other and intertwine in a beautiful rivalry that i feel can be used as a metaphysical convention to further illustrate a character's emotions, or confusion.(243)

=The Functions of the Percussive Orchestra= The Percussive orchestra plays in conjunction with the melodic orchestra. Numerous times during every play, the Percussive orchestra plays independently of the Melodic orchestra. The Percussive orchestra has three basic functions:The conductor alone marks rhythm and tempo, and the entire Percussive orchestra introduces and punctuates passages of singing, and instrumental music. Introductory Percussive passages are called //Kaitou//, or "openers".They indicate the meter of the proceeding passage, and conventionally establish the overall emotional state. In most instances, these openers serve to open the prelude instrumental collective, which introduces the sung melodic passage.(252)

=The Instruments=



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 * The Jinghu-** A bowed instrument. originally indigenous to the North and West of China. All of these bowed instruments are spike fiddles, and are played with a bamboo bow strung with horsehair. There are two carefully placed strings, one of which runs between the bamboo and the horsehair of the bow, generating it's haunting sound.(231)=====




 * __The Erhu-__** It consists of a drum-like mahogany sound box covered with a snake skin head, two steel strings stretched from the sound box along a narrow bridge, sound is generated by a horse hair bamboo bow. The erhu's musical tonal range spans about four octaves, and while the sound is very similar to a Western violin, it differs by being much more nasal in quality. Much Like the Jinghu, it could considered to be it's older and bigger brother.(231)




 * __The Yuequin__**- It is a traditional Chinese string instrument. It is a lute with a round, hollow wooden body which gives it the nickname //of moon guitar//. It has a short fretted neck and four (the Beijing opera Yueqin has only two) strings tuned in courses of two (each pair of strings is tuned to a single pitch), generally tuned to the interval of a perfect fifth. Occasionally, the body of the yueqin may be octagonal in shape. The Yueqin is considered a "plucked" instrument.(231)




 * __The Sanxian__**- A three stringed instrument, has no frets, and is plucked with wither a single plectrum held in the hand or with multiple plectra attached to the fingers. The body has a flattened oval shape, with a snakeskin head and long neck. The instrument is held horizantally when played and has the most piercing sound of all the plucked instruments.(232)


 * __The Suona__**- constructed of a red wood body, a metal mouthpiece, small double reed, and flared metal bell like the end of a trumpet.Fingering the seven front and rear finger holes and moving the trumpet shaped bell, alters the tonal quality and pitch quite well. It is capable of producing a wide variety of timbres.(232)


 * __The Ruan and the Pipa__**- The Ruan is very similar to the yueqin, it's fretted, and in Bejing Opera only employs two strings. It is played just like the yueqin, and is plucked with a single plectrum. The Pipa is often called a lute in english translation, it has a pear shaped body, four strings, held upright on the lap, and is plucked with finger plectras.(232)




 * __The Clapper Drum and Clapper-__** Both played by the conductor. the clapper drum is made of a solid piece of hardwood a little over ten inches in diameter and about three inches thick.a two inch diameter hole is bored through the center of the instrument under the convex top. Striking the skin directly above the hole produces a sharp, wonderful sound, whereas striking the wooden portions of the drum, produce a much softer, quieter sound. The Clapper consists of three pieces of hard red wood, about ten inches long, and taper into a convex curve. Two of these pieces are 3/16 of an inch thick, the other is double that. Complex to operate, one must place their thumb in the binding cord and rotate the pieces counter clockwise, causing the pieces to hit one another producing a sharp, clear sound.A faster rotation produces a louder sound.(233)


 * __The xiaoluo (small gong)__**- The small gong has a convex face composed of a flat circle in the center. It's a little over an inch in diameter and has sloping shoulders. It is held by balancing the rim on the fingers of the left hand. It creates a melodious, clear, proper tone when struck.(233)


 * __The Daluo (Large gong)-__** There are two types of Daluo: The Jingulo- about a foot in diameter, it has a convex face and is the primary gong of Beijing opera, and the Suluo- Which is larger in diameter and has a flatter face. Both of these types are held in the left hand by a rope and are struck by a padded stick to produce loud, sonorous, intense sounds.(233)


 * __Naobo (small cymbals)-__** about six inches in diameter. Composed of a flat outer ring and inner cup shaped portion with a small central hole through which a cloth handle is attached. When struck when the two cymbals are together, there is a dissonant pitch, but when the two cymbals are rubbed together continuously, a wave of rising and falling pitches is produced. These cymbals create a unique sound, and only add the momentous power of the Beijing opera Percussive orchestra.(233)

Every instrument has a characteristic pitch-range and-or timbre. Many of these are associated with aesthetic values also. The use of these instruments within the two sections of the Beijing Opera orchestra is based upon these characteristics and values.

media type="youtube" key="mN9iXlfxpxI" height="344" width="425" Enjoy a Beijing Opera orchestra as they play along with actress, Shengsu Li. Try and Identify the instruments I've discussed. This is actually very difficult considering that the instruments blend so well together to create an almost organic sound. Thanks!


 * __Sources__**

-arts cultural-china.com- for almost all of the instrument pictures.

-Google Images- For those really hard to find pictures.

-Wichmann, Elizabeth. __Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Bejing opera__.1991. pgs. 225-255