Musical Practices / Forms

Musical Practices

Shanghai music club setting [4]:

sit around a table: yangqin at one end, percussion intrsuments at the other
erhu and pipa often are to the left and right

music performed from memory, with individuals freely adding in their own embellishments
dizi player or club leader names the piece
percussionist sets tempo by playing two pulses
- if no percussion, pipa player dampens strings to produce these pulses
percussionist or pipa player controls tempo, though another musician (often dizi) may alter it through head motions
erhu, pipa, yangqin, and dizi or xiao: core ensemble (size flexible)

Musical Form & Style

Core Repertory: ba da qu "eight great pieces" [5]

Man Liuban 慢六板 ("Slow Six Beat")
Zhonghua Liuban 中花六板 ("Middle Flower Six Beat")
Sanliu 三六 ("Three-Six")
Man Sanliu 慢三六 ("Slow Three-Six")
Huanle Ge 歡樂歌 ("Song of Happiness")
Sihe Ruyi 四合如意 ("All Things Harmonious")
Xingjie 行街 ("Along the Street")
Yunqing 雲慶 ("Cloud Celebration")

Basic root melodies (qupai 曲牌 -- labeled tune) that these pieces are based on—often initially associated with kunqu (opera tradition)

Stylistic Features

Metric Structure & Tempo [5]

governed by percussionist playing ban, three strips of hardwood struck together
time intervals also called "ban" (marked with x in notation)
Lao Liuban ("Old Six Beat") : has six ban in the first phrase

Irregular Phrase Subdivisions

irregular phrase lengths and subdivisions
- based on qupai which were originally songs set to poetry—phrase structure of poetry determined phrase lengths & rhythmic subdivisions
Lao Liuban [6]:
- 3+2+3 in first phrase of 8 ban, which then changes to 4+4

3. Modal Structure

Mostly pentatonic without half steps (do re mi sol la)
three very common modes (diao), emphasizing distinctive root & secondary tones
- different modes traditionally emphasized in different regions

Improvisation & Ornamentation

jia hua 加花 ("adding flowers") and rang lu 让路 ("giving way") [7]

"ni fan, wojian; wo fan, nijian," or "when you play elaborately, I play simply; when I play elaborately, you play simply."
wanted lines and melodies to flow freely and naturally—grow from within

Devices

Repetition

ex: Internal repetition in Lao Liuban [7]

Elaboration

different ornamentations & fill-in interpretations create ensemble heterophonic texture
tonal and rhythmic liberties:

Expanding by Augmenting Time

addition of secondary beats and increased ornamentation
percussionist hits ban clappers on beat one (x) but also subdivided beat (o)

examples of improvisation/ornamention

transcription of ornamentation in a performance [8]

How to Learn [9]

many play several instruments—study each with a different teacher
teachers may notate their own version of a piece for students
cipher notation (jianpu) most commonly used, amount of detail varies
- numerals: scale degrees
- key: 1 = D
- dot above or below indicates higher or lower octave
- numeral by itself = quarter note; single line under = 8th note; double line under = 16th note
- hyphen = sustain

gap still between what is written and what is heard (timbre and ornamentation)--still an aural tradition
students may imitate a teacher's style at first, before developing a personal style
"if you play it like me, it's wrong" (personal conversation with Yi Nam Lau)

[4] J. Lawrence Witzleben, "Jiangnan Sizhu Music Clubs in Shanghai: Context, Concept and Identity," Ethnomusicology, 31(2) (1987), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.2307/851891

[5] Alan R. Thrasher, "The Melodic Structure of Jiangnan Sizhu," Ethnomusicology, 29(2) (1985), 237–263. https://doi.org/10.2307/852140.

[6] John Roeder, "Fluctuant Grouping in a Silk-and-Bamboo Melody," Analytical Approaches to World Music, 1(2) (2011), 176–203.

[7] Thrasher, "Melodic Structure," 241-248

[8] Kim Chow-Morris, 'Going with the Flow: Embracing the “Tao” of China’s “Jiangnan Sizhu.”' Asian Music, 41(2) (2010), 77. https://doi.org/10.1353/amu.0.0056

[9] Witzelben, "Jiangnan Sizhu," 243-251.

Youtube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3XBQeBzrNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=Qt521bqvHEl-V7Pa&v=7TcVJViSksY&feature=youtu.be

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