Introduction to the Basic Knowledge of Huangmei Opera

Huangmei Opera was originally named? Huangmei tea picking tune? , originated in the early Tang Dynasty, and was formed in Huaining, Anhui Province or Huangmei, Hubei Province in the late18th century, adjacent to Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces.

I. Singing

Huangmei Opera can be divided into two categories and a small category, namely, main melody, coloratura and Yin Si.

1. Main melody:

Zheng Qiang, also known as, is a common aria in Huangmei Opera, including Pingci, Erxian, Sanxian and Fireworks. These cavities are divided into male cavities and female cavities. The male tone is Gong (1-5) and the female tone is Hui (5-2).

Pingci

The use rate of the whole play is the highest, and it is a board with three eyes, so it is also called? Adagio? 、? Tablet? . The tune is solemn, graceful and generous, changeable and adaptable. Good at narration, can be used alone or in combination with other cavities. The basic structure of a tune consists of four phrases: the beginning, the next sentence, the last sentence and the end. The third and fourth sentences are the backbone. No matter how many words are sung, you can sing them repeatedly in three or four melodies, or slightly modify them until the end of the last sentence. Besides, what else? Mai Qiang? 、? Single crying interface? 、? Double crying interface? 、? Cut the board? 、? Flip? 、? Loose board? 、? Word for word? And other complementary phrases form a flat part-of-speech cavity.

Erhang

It is not an independent cavity and must be attached to Pingci or other tunes. There is no beginning sentence and ending sentence, only two phrases characterized by lack of board, so it is also called? Counting cards 、? Second rate? . The two lines are also divided into male and female vocals, all in adagio rhythm, and the notation is 1/2 beats. It is often compared to Adagio or Allegro with three lines to express the excitement of dramatic characters or for narration.

triplex row

It is a double-line compression type, with fast rhythm and poor melody. Speed is one of the fastest vocals in Huangmei Opera, belonging to Allegro, 1/4 beats, also known as? Count the boards quickly, okay? . People are often used when they are emotional, and they are often used with Class Two and Class Eight. There are male and female voices. The male voice is Gongdiao and the female voice is Zhengdiao.

Eight boards and fireworks

No eyes. The notation is 1/4. There is no big difference in the structure of singing, the method of switching through the door and the mode of male and female voices. Eight boards are slower and fireworks are faster. The traditional singing method takes eight beats per sentence, hence the name? Eight boards? . At its speed? Slow eight boards? 、? Fast eight boards? Point, and then say soon? Firefighters? 、? Running water? Yes The second half of the last sentence of traditional singing has a supporting role, say? Complex sentence? , this is no longer used. Eight boards and fireworks are often combined with flat characters, two lines and three lines to form a rhythm contrast to express the resentment, fear and impatience of characters.

2. coloratura

Is it traditional? Coloratura play? The floorboard of singing. Couples watching lanterns, playing pig grass, pumping water from the blue bridge, mending the back, playing cards, selling groceries, Saint Amethyst, seeing beautiful women, and asking for a scholar's salary all have their own special tunes, with gongs and drums in the middle. Except for a few plays that use a rotating palace tune, usually several tunes keep the same palace tune to form a simple couplet. These vocals are relatively independent, so they still retain the characteristics of folk songs and minor tunes and have not developed into a rigid cavity. Its modes are Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu, but the mode of Zheng is used the most, followed by Yu and Gong, and Shang and Jiao again.

Between the level tone and coloratura, there is a coloratura, which was originally the aria of the local flower drum and was used to collect colors from the audience in the early days, so it is also called? Hua Gutiao? 、? Color cavity? . It is used for coloratura. For example, lovers look at the lights, and the bitter daughter-in-law is not as good as self-sighing, sending Ling Luo and so on. All of them are combined with the coloratura minor of the musical form, and they also have their own additional phrases such as counting the board, opposing the board, striding and cutting the board, which have evolved into the banqiang tune and were used in the original play. Aria is composed of four phrases: opening, inheriting, turning and combining, including key signature style, one-to-one style and 2/4 notation.

3. Yin Si accent This is a minor and belongs to a special tune. This special tune has broken the boundaries of use since the founding of the People's Republic of China, so some people have also included this kind of singing in the main cavity category.

Xianqiang

Also known as Daoqiang and Daoqing, it was originally a special tune for Shinto appearance, with a smooth melody and a single-segment structure composed of four phrases. At first, it was a tone-seeking style, and later it gradually changed into a tone-seeking style close to the color cavity. This special tune developed to the banqiang, adding additional phrases such as banban, banban, marching chamber and chopping block.

Vaginal cavity

Also known as? Fuxing cavity? . In old plays, it is often used to sing when ghosts appear or characters are seriously ill. The tune is Shang Diao, the upper and lower sentence structure, and the notation is 2/4. The melody is deep and beautiful, bitter and sad, and the sound is prolonged. In the process of development, several additional phrases such as board and cross-cavity have been added. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has been widely used in lyric places, and has developed and created opposite panels, double lines and three lines.

Two. language

Huangmei Opera language is based on Anqing dialect and belongs to Jianghuai dialect of northern dialect family. Its characteristics are as follows: the lyrics structure of the whole drama is mostly seven words and cross-sentences. Seven-character sentences are mostly two, two and three structures, and cross sentences are mostly three, three and four structures. Sometimes seven-character and cross sentences can be used as the framework according to needs, and the number of words can be compressed or expanded, while the tunes mostly use overlapping sentences. The lyrics of coloratura opera are flexible and changeable, ranging from three to seven words, often mixed with various meaningless spoken words. The number of sentences is not necessarily even. Sometimes odd sentences are even when the last sentence is repeated. Singing methods are all sung in Anqing Mandarin, which is close to Mandarin. The vowels of the whole play are read and sung in Mandarin, and the short plays are sung in Anqing local dialect, and the vocals are still sung in Mandarin.

Three. Adjuvant

Huangmei Opera was originally accompanied by percussion instruments. What was it called? Strike three and sing seven? . During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, he tried to explain his accent with Jinghu. Later, I tried erhu accompaniment, but failed to promote it. It was not until the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China that it was gradually decided to take Gao Hu as the main accompaniment instrument, and gradually established a mixed band with folk instruments as the mainstay and western instruments as the supplement to enhance the musical expression.

Accompaniment gongs and drums were originally only big gongs, small gongs and flat drums, which were called? Strike three and sing seven? That is, three people play percussion instruments and participate in vocalization, and seven people sing. Later, the drummer also played bamboo root festival and cymbals, and three accompanists sat inside and outside the entrance door and in the middle of the grass platform (drummer) respectively. After 1930s, influenced by Huiban and Peking Opera, it gradually entered the stage. Traditional gongs and drums are simple to practice, and there are one, two, three, four, five, six and nine hammers commonly used, and thirteen and a half hammers and four hammers are not sticky (also known as? Grandpa? ), toad jumps, phoenix nods, three arrows, pushing the bus, etc. Accompanying the characters are gongs and drums, thirteen hammers and a half, seven-character gongs and gongs. After the founding of New China, they gradually absorbed the skills of Peking Opera and created some new gongs to meet the needs of performance and accompaniment.

At first, Huangmei Opera was not accompanied, and War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression only absorbed the tunes from Beijing Opera, such as Three Guns, Gate, Gate and Death Paradise, because he performed on the same stage as Hui Diao and Beijing Opera. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, artists absorbed some folk percussion and Taoist music, such as Youchun and Pipa Ci, which gradually enriched the accompaniment music of Huangmei Opera.

Huangmei Opera has two systems, namely, the big cavity system, the colorful cavity system and the flat cavity system. The coloratura system is born out of folk songs and belongs to Qupai style. The system of Pingci originated from Gao Qiang, Tanci, Luohanzhuang, Daoqing, Chuiqiang, Hui Diao and Peking Opera, and belongs to Banqiang. These two cavity systems are rooted in the cavity soil in Anqing area. On the basis of learning from Kunqu Opera, Peking Opera and Huizhou Opera, the performance form of Huangmei Opera has gradually formed its own style.

What if the language of Huangmei Opera is to create artistic images, render artistic situations and convey subtlety? Fun and education? The artistic function of can be summarized from the following aspects:

1. What is the language of Huangmei Opera? Folk songs? The inner rhythmic beauty of the body.

Huangmei Opera is developed on the basis of lyric opera. Its predecessor was folk songs, and Xiao Dan and clowns sang on the stage. In this process, it absorbed the cultural nourishment of various times, places and humanities and developed into today's Huangmei Opera. What are its main types? The aesthetic characteristics of soul songs remain unchanged. Therefore, the language of Huangmei Opera and the musical beauty it relies on complement each other, thus forming the inherent rhythmic beauty of Huangmei Opera script language.

Secondly, the language of Huangmei Opera is close and far from love.

Huangmei Opera has a rustic language and is true in every sentence. But if you think about it carefully, you will find that it is actually rich in connotation and extremely flexible, and it has just the right effect in rendering drama situations, expressing contradictions and conflicts, and highlighting the characters in this situation.

Because the language and lyrics of Huangmei Opera absorb the advantages of ancient poems, ancient sayings, folk sayings and folk songs at the same time, abandon the disadvantages of being too elegant to be understood and difficult to enter the play, and play the characteristics of being close to emotions and clear words, thus becoming a script literature that appeals to both refined and popular tastes, combines literature and wild fields, and has strong feelings but light words.

Thirdly, the language of Huangmei Opera tends to be optimistic and exaggerated.

The language of Huangmei Opera is like a playful coat, covering most traditional plays, thus forming a unique style. These languages are basically created orally by the working people and the lower classes. In Huangmei Opera, they are refined by artists, making them more personalized, combined with the drama situation, and causing the audience to laugh. Therefore, Huangmei Opera can give people a feeling of joy and vitality.

Fourthly, the language of Huangmei Opera is full of philosophical experience of the real society at that time.

Because many traditional plays of Huangmei Opera are directly derived from local folk literature telling true stories at that time, its language and lyrics are inevitably permeated with the philosophy of life and experience of that era, and the description and expression of people living in the lower classes are particularly delicate, original and full.

Fifth, some unique usages in Huangmei Opera language.

The language and lyrics of Huangmei Opera have some special uses. First, according to the change of mode, add padding words and filler words, such as? Mm-hmm. What, huh? Something like that At first glance, this kind of pad word is inconspicuous, but if it is removed, it will be boring to sing only the truth. Interlaced words reflect the charm of folk songs. Without them, it means that good flowers are unearthed, without roots or bottoms. In Huangmei Opera, the form of chorus dance is very common. Xiao Dan, a clown, or guessing riddles, or playing with flowers, or reporting place names, or telling ancient stories are both lively and interesting, and the lyrics it requires generally have the same meter in form.

In addition, guess the name of the medicine with two-part allegorical saying, "Use one, two, three? Ten? Numbers to string lyrics have a lively lyrical effect.

The language of Huangmei Opera can be summarized in four words: relaxed, simple, humorous and elegant. Light refers to its simplicity; Humor refers to its natural style and taste, humor and banter; Elegant demeanor refers to constantly absorbing the nourishment of folk oral literature creation and enriching yourself, which is often fresh and unique.