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. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. There are more than seven types of biwa, characterised by number of strings, sounds it could produce, the type of plectrum, and their use. 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. 38.5 in. February 20, 2008. Shanghai-born Liu Guilian graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and became the director of the Shanghai Pipa Society, and a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and Chinese National Orchestral Society, before immigrating to Canada. The archlute ( Spanish: archilad, Italian: arciliuto, German: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the performance of solo music, and the Renaissance tenor lute, which lacked the bass range of the In the early 1950s, he founded the traditional instruments department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Japanese and foreign musicians alike have begun embracing traditional Japanese instruments, particularly the biwa, in their compositions. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called sawari () which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. [41] Three Ming dynasty pieces were discovered in the High River Flows East (, Gaohe Jiangdong) collection dating from 1528 which are very similar to those performed today, such as "The Moon on High" (, Yue-er Gao). The excerpt is performed by the ensemble Reigakusha. Liu Dehai (19372020), also born in Shanghai, was a student of Lin Shicheng and in 1961 graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Region: East Asia. [1][2] Modern researchers such as Laurence Picken, Shigeo Kishibe, and John Myers suggested a non-Chinese origin. The open strings are shown in the first measures, and the pitches assigned the left-hand fingered notes in the following four measures. The pipa is held in a vertical or near-vertical position during performance, although in the early periods the instrument was held in the horizontal position or near-horizontal with the neck pointing slightly downwards, or upside down. The instrument has seen a great decline . This instrument was also used many times as an accompanying instrument in larger ensembles. 1. Instead, biwa singers tend to sing with a flexible pitch without distinguishing soprano, alto, tenor, or bass roles. [29], There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. Seeing its relative convenience and portability, the monks combined these features with their large and heavy gaku-biwa to create the heike-biwa, which, as indicated by its namesake, was used primarily for recitations of The Tale of the Heike. The body is often made of stretched snakeskin, and come in varying sizes. [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. [36][37] The Ming collection of supernatural tales Fengshen Yanyi tells the story of Pipa Jing, a pipa spirit, but ghost stories involving pipa existed as early as the Jin dynasty, for example in the 4th century collection of tales Soushen Ji. Traditional Chinese narrative prefers the story of the Han Chinese Princess Liu Xijun sent to marry a barbarian Wusun king during the Han dynasty, with the pipa being invented so she could play music on horseback to soothe her longings. Instrument Information Origins. In this case, the left hand fourth finger taps the string so that the un-attacked pitch or pitches can be somewhat heard. Dunhuang, Mogao Caves. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), sighted musicians created new styles of secular biwa narrative singing inspired by Kyushu ms traditions and introduced them to Tokyo. [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 (). Through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. Popularly used by female biwa players such as Uehara Mari. later versions were played by the blind Japanese lute priests of the Heian period and it was also played as background music for story-telling Influenced by the recitations of blind priests, the music of the heike biwa reflects the mood of the text. From these styles also emerged the two principal survivors of the biwa tradition: satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa. The da and xiao categories refer to the size of the piece xiao pieces are small pieces normally containing only one section, while da pieces are large and usually contain multiple sections. 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]. [1] Each type has different and unique tones, techniques, and musical styles. 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. 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. 'five-stringed biwa'), a Tang variant of biwa, can be seen in paintings of court orchestras and was used in the context of gagaku; however, it was removed with the reforms and standardization made to the court orchestra during the late 10th century. The biwa became known as an instrument commonly played at the Japanese Imperial court, where biwa players, known as biwa hshi, found employment and patronage. What is known is that three main streams of biwa practice emerged during this time: zato (the lowest level of the state-controlled guild of blind biwa players), shifu (samurai style), and chofu (urban style). Biwa music is based on a pentatonic scale (sometimes referred to as a five-tone or five-note scale), meaning that each octave contains five notes. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu (, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. [74], Modern pipa player, with the pipa held in near upright position. to divide instruments into eight categories determined by materials. 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. The nut is a rounded edge at the 90-degree bend where the neck meets the peg box, and the broad flat surface just below the bend has a very shallow trough carved into it perpendicular to the course of the strings (see detail #5). 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. The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. Jiaju Shen from The Either also plays an Electric 5 String Pipa/Guitar hybrid that has the Hardware from an Electric Guitar combined with the Pipa, built by an instrument maker named Tim Sway called "Electric Pipa 2.0". 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 (). Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. For other uses, see, Illustrations from the 15th century Korean work, Xiansuo Shisan Tao (, later incorporated into Complete String Music ), Note that some people claimed Pei Xingnu to be the female player described in the poem, History of lute-family instruments Short-necked lutes, "The pipa: How a barbarian lute became a national symbol", "Avaye Shayda - Kishibe's diffusionism theory on the Iranian Barbat and Chino-Japanese Pi' Pa', "Chapter 1: A General history of the Pipa", "Bracket with two musicians 100s, Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century-320)", The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics, "Pipa - A Chinese lute or guitar, its brief history, photos and music samples", A report on Chinese research into the Dunhuang music manuscripts, "Chapter 3 Musical structure in the Hua Collection", "Comparison of Three Chinese Traditional Pipa Music Schools with the Aid of Sound Analysis", "Lui Pui-yuen, master of Chinese music, returns to perform once again", "Incubus - Mike Einziger Guitar Gear Rig and Equipment", "[search page, albums featuring Yang Jing]", "La scne musicale alternative pkinoise vue par Jean Sbastien Hry (Djang San)", "BC GRIMM Experimental Acoustic-Electric Music EPK", "Experimental Electric Pipa - , by Zhang Si'an (Djang San )", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pipa&oldid=1138787889, Articles with dead external links from January 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Articles with MusicBrainz instrument identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Flute and Drum at Sunset / Flowery Moonlit River in Spring, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 16:35. 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. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Non-traditional themes may be used in these new compositions and some may reflect the political landscape and demands at the time of composition, for example "Dance of the Yi People" which is based on traditional melodies of the Yi people, may be seen as part of the drive for national unity, while "Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland" extols the virtue of those who served as model of exemplary behaviour in the People's commune.[48]. 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. [56], Texts from Tang dynasty mentioned many renowned pipa players such as He Huaizhi (), Lei Haiqing (), Li Guaner (), and Pei Xingnu (). 11.7 in. Typically, the duration of each group subdivides the measure into two equal durations. [19], Other musicians, such as Yamashika Yoshiyuki, considered by most ethnomusicologists to be the last of the biwa hshi, preserved scores of songs that were almost lost forever. There are some confusions and disagreements about the origin of pipa. These works present a radical departure from the compositional languages usually employed for such an instrument. [67] It is very much the same as the modern pipa in construction save for being a bit wider to allow for the extra string and the reintroduction of the soundholes at the front. Japanese lute with 4-5 strings and frets. A rapid strum is called sao (), and strumming in the reverse direction is called fu (). The strings are made of wound silk. Another often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. The instrument is plucked with a pick made out of animal horn. Its tuning is A, c, e, a or A, c-sharp, e, a. [12][13] Yet another term used in ancient text was Qinhanzi (), perhaps similar to Qin pipa with a straight neck and a round body, but modern opinions differ on its precise form. length The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, Song of Pipa (). Its purpose is to show in context how the biwa uses its various patterns to color some melodic tones. [39] The plectrum has now been largely replaced by the fingernails of the right hand. 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. used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. The biwa is a four stringed lute and it is approximately 106 cm long (42 inches). Because of its traditional association with silk strings, the pipa is classified as a silk instrument in the Chinese bayin (eight-tone) classification system, a system devised by scholars of the Zhou court (1046-256 B.C.) This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. 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 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 biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710-794). Since the biwas pegs do not move smoothly, tuning the instrument to a different mode requires time. Ueda Junko and Tanaka Yukio, two of Tsuruta's students, continue the tradition of the modern satsuma-biwa. Biwa. NGDMI v.1: 234-237. Wood, leather, Dimensions:
Tataku: This is similar to hazusu, except that this time, two non-struck pitches follow the struck one. The strings on a biwa range in thickness, with the first string being thickest and the fourth string being thinnest; on chikuzen-biwa, the second string is the thickest, with the fourth and fifth strings being the same thickness on chikuzen- and satsuma-biwa. Players hold the instrument vertically. Brian Grimm placed the contact mic pickup on the face of the pipa and wedged under the bridge so he is able to plug into pedalboards, live computer performance rigs, and direct input (DI) to an audio interface for studio tracking. As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Its plectrum is small and thin, often rounded, and made from a hard material such as boxwood or ivory. In the early 20th century, twenty-five pieces were found amongst 10th-century manuscripts in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, most of these pieces however may have originated from the Tang dynasty. Though its origins are unclear, this thinner variant of the biwa was used in ceremonies and religious rites. The 5 String Pipa is tuned like a Standard Pipa with the addition of an Extra Bass String tuned to an E2 (Same as the Guitar) which broadens the range (Tuning is E2, A2, D3, E3, A3). [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. [3] From roughly the Meiji period (18681912) until the Pacific War, the satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa were popular across Japan, and, at the beginning of the Shwa period (19251989), the nishiki-biwa was created and gained popularity. Like the heike-biwa, it is played held on its side, similar to a guitar, with the player sitting cross-legged. It is assumed that the performance traditions died out by the 10th or 11th century (William P. Malm). The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument. In performance it was held sideways and played with a plectrum. [66] Some other notable pipa players in China include Yu Jia (), Wu Yu Xia (), Fang Jinlong () and Zhao Cong (). On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 681. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi (). 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. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Each group can include either two open strings or one open and one fingered string. These players had considerable influence on the development of pipa playing in China. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used. The earliest-known piece in the collection may be "Eagle Seizing a Crane" () which was mentioned in a Yuan dynasty text. Typically, the lowest notes of the arpeggios are open strings, while the highest ones can either be fingered pitches or an open string. The instrument itself also varies in size, depending on the player. 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. Most contemporary performers use the five string version. The heike-biwa, smaller than the ms-biwa, was used for similar purposes. The strings are tuned in fourths, and the melody is played almost exclusively on the highest pitched string. The frets of the satsuma-biwa are raised 4 centimetres (1.6in) from the neck allowing notes to be bent several steps higher, each one producing the instrument's characteristic sawari, or buzzing drone. General tones and pitches can fluctuate up or down entire steps or microtones. The strings are sounded with a large, thick, fan-shaped plectrum called a bachi (detail #6), traditionally made of wood (the practice bachi pictured here is made from resin). Traditionally they are lashed with heavier rope, though some modern instruments are tightened with large screws. The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "p" () and "p" (). Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio. It is one of the more popular Chinese folk music, often paired with singing. 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. The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. It was in the late 20th century that this instrument started to be re-discovered and re-evaluated in various musical settings, such as soundtrack for movies and ensemble and orchestra music, culminating in Toru Takemitsus signature piece November Steps, which premiered in New York City in 1967. This next instrument seems to have some spiritual meaning behind it. 89.4.2088. 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. , one can make two or three notes for each fret and also in-between notes. 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. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. These cookies do not store any personal information. The pipa pieces in the common repertoire can be categorized as wen (, civil) or wu (, martial), and da (, large or suite) or xiao (, small). This 5-stringed lute with a powerful. Different sized plectrums produced different textures; for example, the plectrum used on a ms-biwa was much larger than that used on a gaku-biwa, producing a harsher, more vigorous sound. 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. Gao Hong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and was the first to do a joint tour with Lin Shicheng in North America. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Ms Biwa (), Dimensions:
2. [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. The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. By the Song dynasty, the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument. The instrument was invented in China in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, during the Jin dynasty. Shakuhachi One of the most popular traditional Japanese wind instruments is the shakuhachi. Nation: Japan. [citation needed]. Australian dark rock band The Eternal use the pipa in their song "Blood" as played by singer/guitarist Mark Kelson on their album Kartika. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi (, The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Example 4 shows that the biwa's melodic pitch doubles the basic melodic tone on the downbeat of almost every measure, except in measure 4 where the melodic tone 'E' is supported with a 'D' in the biwa's part. 13 in. The short neck of the Tang pipa also became more elongated. There is also evidence that other biwa instruments came from the Indian lute tradition. Another new style called Chikuzen-biwa () was created in the 19th century in northern Kyushu Island, based off of the blind monks biwa music, and adopting shamisen, Satsuma-biwa, and other contemporary musical styles. 4. Its size and construction influences the sound of the instrument as the curved body is often struck percussively with the plectrum during play. Another excerpt of figurative descriptions of a pipa music may be found in a eulogy for a pipa player, Lament for Shancai by Li Shen:[33]. 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. She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. [3][4][5], The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han dynasty around the 2nd century AD. 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. Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. The instrument initially used for this practice was the four-stringed chikuzen biwa (gallery #1), which was produced and sold cheaply--a fact attested to by the numbers of such instruments taken overseas by working-class emigrants. (de Ferranti, p. 122) [The instrument pictured in gallery #1 is very likely one of those many biwas taken overseas--it was purchased in a Honolulu shop specializing in Japanese antiques many of which were brought to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century.] 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. Other prominent students of Lin Shicheng at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing include Liu Guilian (, born 1961), Gao Hong and Wu Man. Kakisukashi: This is a three or four-note arpeggio with two strings in unison. 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. Koto. Classification (Sachs-Von Hornbostel revised by MIMO) 321.312 chordophone--spike box lute or spike guitar: the resonator is built up from wood, the body of the instrument is in the form of a box through which the handle/neck passes They recorded the critically acclaimed CD "Eagle Seizing Swan" together. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Kishibe, Shigeo. greatest width of resonator [19] Pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han dynasty - the instrument length of three feet five inches represents the three realms (heaven, earth, and man) and the five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons.[7]. greatest width of resonator During the war time in early 20th century, biwa music was easily adapted to the nationalism of Imperial Japan, and many songs that emphasized the virtue of loyalty and sacrifice for the country were created and widely played. The biwa ( Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling.
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