Introduction to Opera Singing

Chuanju opera singing

Chuanju opera consists of five voices: kunqu, gaoqiang, huqin, playing opera, and dengtiao. Among them, in addition to the lantern tune system originated from the local, the rest are imported from foreign countries. These five voices and five voices accompanied by gongs and drums, suona songs and music forms such as qin and flute scores. The music of Sichuan Opera is a combination of the best of both worlds, and she has absorbed the nutrients of all the major vocal systems of the national opera, and combined them with the local language, sound and music of Sichuan, resulting in a variety of forms, a rich repertoire of songs, a rigorous structure, and a very different style of local opera music.

1. Gaoqiang

Gaoqiang is one of the most important voices in Sichuan opera, which was introduced to Sichuan from overseas in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. After the introduction of Gaoqiang to Sichuan, combined with the Sichuan dialect, folk songs, labor calls, questioning rap and other forms, several processing and refining, and gradually formed a local characteristics of the vocal music.

Sichuan Opera High Cavity is the music of the song board, Sichuan Opera High Cavity song board is numerous and complex. Its structure can basically be summarized as follows: starting cavity, column, singing, and sweeping. The repertoire of Gaoqiang is large, the subject matter is wide, and it can be adapted to a variety of word formats. The most important feature of Gaoqiang is the dry singing without instrumental accompaniment, which is the so-called "one-singing, many-singing" form of singing, and it is sung by the helpers as a whole. The gongs and drums are composed in this way. Some of the songs are more than singing, some of them are basically all singing, and some of them are only in the first and last two lines of the song, the specific form is decided by the play.

Sichuan opera retains the excellent tradition of the southern and northern songs, which have both high and lyrical singing tunes.

2. Kun Opera

Kun Opera is a work of the literati, with elegant words, strict rules and regulations, and special attention is paid to the word "correctly" sung, coupled with twists and turns and slow rhythms, which is in decline nowadays. Chuan Kun originated from Sukun, Chuan Opera artists took advantage of the characteristics of the Kunqu song and dance, and often only selected some of the Kunqu song or sentence, inserted into other vocal cavity singing, forming a unique Chuan Kun artistic style.

The structure of Sichuan Kun Opera is basically the same as that of its parent, Sukun. The application of the "single branch" and "into the hall" two forms. Currently, there are not many plays performed in the form of a single cavity of the Kun Cavity, and more of them are dissolved in the high cavity, huqin, and play the theater in the cavity, or with other cavities **** and.

The main instrument of the Kun cavity is the flute. The accompaniment of gongs and drums is the same as the rest of the high, huqin, playing, and lamps, and the special monochrome color of the gongs and cymbals distinguishes the gongs and drums from the accompaniment of the other voices.

3. Huqin

Huqin is the collective name for Erhuang and Xi Pi. Because its main accompaniment is the "small huqin", it is collectively known as the huqin. The Yan Lan XiaoShi" Volume 5 records: "Shu Ling new qin cavity, ...... its instrument does not use the sheng flute, to huqin main, Yueqin should be, the work of the feet babbling like words," can be said to be the footnote to the Sichuan huqin cavity. Huqin cavity in the Qianlong period has been formed. The Erhuang includes three types of basic cadences, namely the positive tone (Erhuang), the negative tone (anti-Erhuang) and the old tone. Positive tone is good at showing deep, serious, euphemistic and light mood; anti-Erhuang is suitable to show cool, miserable, sad and angry emotions; old tune is mostly used for high, impassioned emotions. Xipi cavity and Erhuang cavity of the musical character of the opposite, with bright, dashing, exciting, concise, smooth character. Xipi and Erhuang are mostly used individually, but there are many plays that incorporate both voices at the same time.

4. Bouncing Opera

The Sichuan Opera Bouncing Opera is a kind of opera voice sung with the cover plate huqin as the main accompaniment. It originated from the Qinqiang of Shaanxi Province, and belongs to the clapper system, which is why it is also known as "Sichuan clapper". Although it originated from Qinqiang, it is combined with the local language of Sichuan, and influenced by Sichuan gongs and folk music, after a long period of evolution, no matter the tune, the singing method or the structure of the singing cavity are different from Qinqiang, forming its own unique . The artistic style has a strong Sichuan local color. Although the relationship between the two is not quite close, but from the tune structure, modal characteristics, as well as the entire singing flavor and other aspects of the analysis, can be found between their origins. Playing opera includes two types of tunes with completely different moods: one type is long in expressing joyful feelings called "sweet flat" (also known as "dessert", "sweet skin", "sweet cavity"), and the other type is called "bitter flat" (also known as "bitter product", "bitter skin"), which is good at expressing sad feelings. They have a relative independence, but their tuning, plate, structure are the same, and even in the same plate other singing, the skeleton of the tune are the same.

5. Light Opera

Light Opera is quite distinctive in Sichuan Opera, which originated from the Sichuan folk song and dance performances when welcoming the gods and races, and can also be said to be the product of the ancient Sichuan-Shuhu traditional lantern festival. The performances are small plays, and the songs are folk songs and village songs, reflecting the strong local flavor of life.

The sound of the opera is characterized by: short music, rhythmic, relaxed and lively, melodious, with a strong local flavor of Sichuan.

Dengtong vocal mainly consists of "fat tube tube", hair between the small song and "God song cavity" composition. The "fat tube tube" accompanying the lantern opera is a thicker than the erhu rod, tube body, the sound of a slightly "buzz" sound of the piano.