Traditional Musical Features of China Opera

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the rise of lyrics, rap music and opera music declared the end of the history centered on song and dance music from ancient times to Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the national vocal music singing art with rap and opera performance as the mainstream began to shine with unique light in the music world. After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the whole country was in a relatively stable state. With the development of economy, some handicraft and commercial cities have appeared in China. Bianjing (now Kaifeng), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was a political center and a commercial city. In addition, Chengdu, Lin 'an (now Hangzhou), Guangzhou and Quanzhou are also cities with large population and developed commerce. In A.D. 1 127, the Song Dynasty was forced by the Northern Jin Dynasty and moved its capital to Lin 'an. From then on, before the unification of the Yuan Dynasty in A.D. 1279, it was called the Southern Song Dynasty. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the economy continued to develop, and businesses in Lin 'an and other places became increasingly prosperous. This social situation provides conditions for the development of music. Jiao Fang was also established in the Northern Song Dynasty. According to records, the teaching workshop was originally divided into four parts, the contents of which are unknown, which may refer to the seating part, the French music part, the drum flute part (harp part) and the Qiuci part; Later, it was divided into 13 parts according to the artist's status, including cymbals, drums, clapper colors, flute colors, pipa colors, dance colors, song board colors, zaju colors and military colors. And the scale is far less than that of the Tang Dynasty. After the Southern Song Dynasty moved its capital to Lin 'an, teaching workshops were sometimes set up and sometimes abolished, and the imperial court temporarily recruited artists to perform in the market when something happened. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the collection and arrangement of folk music has been transferred from official artists to folk artists. Whether in Bianjing or Lin 'an, folk artists have automatically formed their own groups, and have a fixed performance place, which is called "Wazi" or "Wazi". On the one hand, it shows that there is such a demand in the city that only government artists can't cope with it; On the other hand, it also shows that the achievements and contents of folk music art and the attainments and quantity of folk artists are enough to meet this demand. Living among the masses, folk artists can naturally directly reflect people's lives and absorb the music created by the people in time. They are very active, unlike government artists who are subject to various restrictions. In order to make a living or have hobbies, folk artists should carry out music activities as often as possible, and teach skills through mentoring or kinship, so as to maintain and improve their creative and performing abilities. Song and dance dramas, large and small, appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, which were popular in cities and villages and absorbed folk songs anytime and anywhere. In this way, the excavation, arrangement and dissemination of folk songs have increased many opportunities.