Gao Hong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and was the first to do a joint tour with Lin Shicheng in North America. Options are limited when considering that a fingered string between two open strings must be fingered on the 4th fret to avoid damping. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Resonator design, chordophone: bowl with wood soundboard, Vibrational length: tension bridge to ridge-nut, Pitches per string course: multiple (by pressure stopping against fretted fingerboard), 4-string biwa (gallery #1): Moreover, it always starts from the 1st string and stops on either the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th string depending if the arpeggio contains 2, 3, or 4 pitches, respectively. The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, Song of Pipa (). , one can make two or three notes for each fret and also in-between notes. Yamashika, born in the late Meiji period, continued the biwa hshi tradition until his death in 1996. 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. The strings are depressed not directly against the frets, but between them, and by controlling the amount of applied pressure the performer can achieve a range of pitches and pitch inflections. Each group can include either two open strings or one open and one fingered string. The interval between the pitches of the open string and first fret is a major second, while the interval between pitches on two adjacent frets is a minor second. As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. are crucial techniques to create the biwas subtle in-between notes that are unique for fretted instruments. Malm, William P. 1959. 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. 3 in. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [11] The style of singing accompanying biwa tends to be nasal, particularly when singing vowels, the consonant , and syllables beginning with "g", such as ga () and gi (). 89.4.123. The Met Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue For example, a piece like "The Warlord Takes off His Armour" is made up of many sections, some of them metered and some with free meter, and greater freedom in interpretation is possible in the free meter sections. [74], Modern pipa player, with the pipa held in near upright position. In the early 1950s, he founded the traditional instruments department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Exploiting the sound of the open strings increases the overall sounds volume. As part of, Mamoru Ohashi (Japanese, active Ogasa, Shizouka Prefecture 1953). [43] The collection was edited by Hua Qiuping (, 17841859) and published in 1819 in three volumes. We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. Tachibana sought to create a new narrative style that would appeal to a contemporary urban audience (de Ferranti p. 120) and that would be performed by sighted musicians. Other noted players of the early 20th century include Liu Tianhua, a student of Shen Zhaozhou of the Chongming school and who increased the number of frets on the pipa and changed to an equal-tempered tuning, and the blind player Abing from Wuxi. Heike-biwa is an accompaniment instrument specifically used to chant the Tale of Heike stories () in the traditional way dating from the medieval era. sanxian, (Chinese: "three strings") Wade Giles romanization san-hsien also called xianzi, any of a group of long-necked, fretless Chinese lutes. Painted panel of the sarcophagus of Y Hung, depicts one of the Persian or Sogdian figures playing pipa. 4. 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. Further, the frets and the nut are wide, which provides a surface, not a point, for a string to touch. The gogen-biwa (, lit. 1969. The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. Since the biwas pegs do not move smoothly, tuning the instrument to a different mode requires time. The stroking motion always starts from the 1st string, sequentially sweeping toward the others until it reaches the arpeggios last string. 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. [citation needed]. Wu Man is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. There is also evidence that other biwa instruments came from the Indian lute tradition. The biwa sounds as written, and it is tuned to an A-430Hz. The instrument is played with a large wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as Jin Ping Mei showed pipa performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home (where the characters in the novels may be proficient in the instrument) as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses.[24]. Updates? [34][57][58] Duan Anjie described the duel between the famous pipa player Kang Kunlun and the monk Duan Shanben () who was disguised as a girl, and told the story of Yang Zhi () who learned how to play the pipa secretly by listening to his aunt playing at night. Life in post-war Japan was difficult, and many musicians abandoned their music in favor of more sustainable livelihoods. Catalogue of the Crosby Brown . These two modern styles came to Tokyo with the local reformists who led the Meiji Restoration, and became the center of the contemporary music scene in the late 19th to early 20th century. Its tuning is C, G, c, g, g. Gaku-biwa, chikuzen-biwa, heike-biwa, ms-biwa, satsuma-biwa and their plectra. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa (, also known as Kuchean pipa ()),[20] a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei (). You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Biwa Description The biwa is a four stringed lute and it is approximately 106 cm long (42 inches). The traditional pieces however often have a standard metrical length of 68 measures or beat,[46] and these may be joined together to form the larger pieces dagu.[47]. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, and usually four strings. The biwa is a relative of Western lutes and guitars, as well as of the Chinese pipa. The Edo period proved to be one of the most prolific and artistically creative periods for the biwa in its long history in Japan. However, another variant of the biwa known as the ms-biwa or the kjin-biwa also found its way to Japan, first appearing in the Kyushu region. The short neck has four raised frets, each one specifically assigned to one of the left hand fingers. 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. [38] It has however been suggested that the long plectrum depicted in ancient paintings may have been used as a friction stick like a bow. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. They included Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi. Upon its arrival, the biwa was used in purely instrumental music in the court culture the instrument appears in various works of literature and art in the 10th -12th centuries, depicting nobles enjoying it in rituals as well as in their private lives. Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. For a long time, the biwa tradition was carried on by wandering blind monks who used the instrument to tell stories such as the Tale of Heike (). 5. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio. Not to be confused with the five-stringed variants of modern biwa, such as chikuzen-biwa. Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some, however, are preserved in Japan as part of togaku (Tang music) tradition. Since biwa pieces were generally performed for small groups, singers did not need to project their voices as opera singers did in Western music tradition. The body is often made of stretched snakeskin, and come in varying sizes. This type of instrument was introduced to Korea (the bipa ), to Japan (the biwa ), and to Vietnam (the tyba ). 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. The biwa is related to the Chinese pipa, an instrument that was introduced to Japan in the late 7th century. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute ", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. 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. Famous pieces such as "Ambushed from Ten Sides", "The Warlord Takes Off His Armour", and "Flute and Drum at Sunset" were first described in this collection. Instrument Information Origins. In addition, there are a number of techniques that produce sound effects rather than musical notes, for example, striking the board of the pipa for a percussive sound, or strings-twisting while playing that produces a cymbal-like effect. Over the centuries, several types of biwa were created, each having a certain size plectrum, a specialized purpose, a unique performance technique, and varying numbers of strings and frets. [16], While many styles of biwa flourished in the early 1900s (such as kindai-biwa between 1900 and the 1930s), the cycle of tutelage was broken yet again by the war. These works present a radical departure from the compositional languages usually employed for such an instrument. This music was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14th-15th centuries. The number of frets is considerably fewer than other fretted instruments. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called, which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. However, the biwas cultural significance is due to its evolution during the medieval era into a narrative musical instrument. The sole stroke motion used in this example is kakubachi, but it also includes examples of hazusu and tataku. Instruments are classified using 5 different categories depending on the manner in which the instrument creates the sound: Idiophones, Membranophones, Chordophones, Aerophones, & Electrophones. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. The Kyushu biwa traditions, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes. 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. Biwa hshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoku (, The Tale of the Heike),[further explanation needed] and continues to this day. The wen style is more lyrical and slower in tempo, with softer dynamic and subtler colour, and such pieces typically describe love, sorrow, and scenes of nature. New York, 1903, vol. In the 1920s and 1930s, the number of frets was increased to 24, based on the 12 tone equal temperament scale, with all the intervals being semitones. During the Qing dynasty, scores for pipa were collected in Thirteen Pieces for Strings. Example 4 shows the basic melody of Etenraku's section B and C, and its rhythmic accompaniment. [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. As a point of clarification, the highest and last pitch of the biwa's arpeggio is considered as its melodic pitch. It is an instrument in Japan, that is a two-stringed fiddle (violin). Bodmin, Cornwall, Great Britain: MPG Books, pp. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/500681, Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; James L. Amerman, The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. During the Qing dynasty, apart from those of the various schools previously mentioned, there was Chen Zijing (), a student of Ju Shilin and known as a noted player during the late Qing dynasty. The main part of the music is vocal and the biwa part mostly plays short interludes. In the present day, there are no direct means of studying the biwa in many biwa traditions. 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. Liu also studied with other musicians and has developed a style that combines elements from several different schools. Chikuzen-biwa is another major type of biwa that is widely played today. During the Song dynasty, many of the literati and poets wrote ci verses, a form of poetry meant to be sung and accompanied by instruments such as pipa. The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 681. Dunhuang, Mogao Caves. A rapid strum is called sao (), and strumming in the reverse direction is called fu (). The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. The tuning of the strings changes according to the pieces mode. 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. There are some types of traditional string instrument. Hornbostel-Sachs or Sachs-Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie in 1914. The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "p" () and "p" (). Players from the Wang and Pudong schools were the most active in performance and recording during the 20th century, less active was the Pinghu school whose players include Fan Boyan (). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In the 18th century, samurai in the Satsuma area (southern part of Kyushu island) adopted the blind monks biwa music into their musical practices. [69] The instrument is also played by musician Min Xiaofen in "I See Who You Are", a song from Bjrk's album Volta. [66] Some other notable pipa players in China include Yu Jia (), Wu Yu Xia (), Fang Jinlong () and Zhao Cong (). It had close association with Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts. It is an instrument in China, its mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. [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). An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961. Japanese Musical Instruments. 1. . In biwa, tuning is not fixed. Figure 4 introduces the biwas six traditional tunings. In all biwa styles, except for Gaku-biwa (, please refer to the section Types of Biwa), fingers are positioned between the frets, not on the frets. the fingers and thumb flick outward, unlike the guitar where the fingers and thumb normally pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. (80 30 3.4 cm), Classification: It is one of the most enduring work in Chinese theatre, and one that became a model for Ming dynasty drama as it was the favorite opera of the first Ming emperor. Each type has different and unique tones, techniques, and musical styles. In the beginning of the Taish period (19121926), the satsuma-biwa was modified into the nishiki-biwa, which became popular among female players at the time. In gagaku, it is known as the gaku-biwa (). [71][self-published source] In 2014, French zhongruan player and composer Djang San, created his own electric pipa and recorded an experimental album that puts the electric pipa at the center of music. [13] What the plectrum is made of also changes the texture, with ivory and plastic plectrums creating a more resilient texture to the wooden plectrum's twangy hum. Several types of biwa, each with its own social setting and repertoire, have evolved in Japan over the past 1300 years, the specimens pictured here being called most accurately the chikuzen biwa. The most eminent 20th century satsuma-biwa performer was Tsuruta Kinshi, who developed her own version of the instrument, which she called the tsuruta-biwa. The biwa is a stringed instrument used in Japan as a sort of story telling method. A. Biwa B. Koto C. Shakuhachi D. Shamisen 3. Most prominent among these are Minoru Miki, Thring Brm, YANG Jing, Terry Riley, Donald Reid Womack, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, and Carl Stone. 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. Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. The 14- or 16-fret pipa had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western tone and semitone, starting at the nut, the intervals were T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4, (some frets produced a 3/4 tone or "neutral tone"). The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a large evergreen shrub or tree, grown commercially for its orange fruit and for its leaves, which are used to make herbal tea.It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant.. The instrument has seen a great decline . The six fret type is tuned to B, E, B and b. The electric pipa was first developed in the late 20th century by adding electric guitarstyle magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplifier or PA system. The piece is in Hy-j mode (E Dorian) and the basic melody is centered on the pitches: E, B, and A, three of the four fundamental pitches of the Japanese modes. In the 13th century, the story "The Tale of Heike" ()was created and told by them. Its plectrum is much smaller than that of the satsuma-biwa, usually about 13cm (5.1in) in width, although its size, shape, and weight depends on the sex of the player. The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. When Yamashika died in 1996, the era of the biwa hshi tutelage died with him, but the music and genius of that era continues thanks to his recordings. Sandstone carving, showing the typical way a pipa was held when played with plectrum in the early period. The rhythm in biwa performances allows for a broad flexibility of pulse. de Ferranti, Hugh. 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 . Shamisen. Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API. This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. On the plectrum, figure of a golden phoenix with flowers in its beak, Although typically it is used to play short standardized phrases between lines of vocal text, it may be used for longer programmatic pieces depicting battles, storms, or other dramatic events. Further, the frets and the nut are wide, which provides a surface, not a point, for a string to touch. In the performers right hand the bachi (plectrum) is held, its upward-pointing tip used to pluck the strings near the string holder. In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed, giving way to the Meiji period and the Meiji Restoration, during which the samurai class was abolished, and the Todo lost their patronage. The biwa originated in the Middle East and was delivered to Japan via the Silk Road in the 8th century. The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. Most contemporary performers use the five string version. 1. The traditional Satsuma-biwa has 4 strings and 4 frets (Sei-ha and Kinshin-ryu schools), and newer styles have 5 strings and 5 frets (Nishiki and Tsuruta-ryu schools). The instrument itself resembles gaku-biwa but is slightly smaller, and is held horizontally. From the Dingjiazha Tomb No. 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. The heike-biwa, smaller than the ms-biwa, was used for similar purposes. ________. Of particular fame were the family of pipa players founded by Cao Poluomen () and who were active for many generations from the Northern Wei to Tang dynasty. They recorded the critically acclaimed CD "Eagle Seizing Swan" together. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. 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. [9] When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. to the present. Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. With the end of the wars, unsurprisingly, the biwa music became less popular, and the number of biwa musicians dropped significantly. The instrument is played with a large wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. The texture of biwa singing is often described as "sparse". These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Koto. However, the playing of the biwa nearly became extinct during the Meiji period following the introduction of Western music and instruments, until players such as Tsuruta Kinshi and others revitalized the genre with modern playing styles and collaborations with Western composers. the finger and thumb separate in one action), it is called fen (), the reverse motion is called zhi (). Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. 1800 Geography: Japan Culture: Japanese Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl and ivory Dimensions: 35 12 1/8 11 1/2 in. As part of, Metalwork by Goto Teijo, 9th generation Goto master, Japan (16031673). This 5-stringed lute with a powerful. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. For the left hand, as mentioned above under the Construction section, bending of the strings (oshikan, ) and delicate control of it to create a vibrato effect (yuri. )
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