Tradition and Modernity of Theater Music

Chinese opera music is reproduced and developed in the soil of the hundred gardens of Chinese folk music, which, like classical songs, folk songs, operatic music, folk instrumental music and other musical disciplines, ****same as the creation of the splendid and colorful Chinese folk music. Compared with the former, its connotation and extension, form and content, style and color, concentratedly embodies the highest level of Chinese folk music, and is the collector of all kinds of music in China! Looking at the folk music and arts of the world, there are folk songs, operas, dances and folk instrumental music, but there is no opera art which integrates songs, dances and music and takes singing, reciting, acting and playing as the basic means of expression. Therefore, Chinese opera is a unique artistic phenomenon in the world, especially the music of opera, forming a very different modification, style and color from the world, especially European music.

Chinese opera says that there are four or five hundred types of operas, and there are more than thirty types of operas of ethnic minorities alone, it is a huge art group, if we analyze a little bit, it is not difficult to see that: the biggest difference between various types of operas is the difference in music style. If we compare Chinese opera music with European opera music, what it embodies is not the personal music style of composers such as Mozart, Rossini, Johann Strauss, Soprano, etc., but each of them represents a province or city, a region or an ethnic group. In other words, it is rooted in the soil of different places, and developed according to the characteristics of the music language of different places, with a strong local color (in addition to Beijing Opera). In other words, it is rooted in the soil of different places and developed according to the characteristics of different local musical languages, with a strong local color (in China, except for Beijing Opera, other types of operas are collectively called "local operas"). Therefore, Chinese opera music is characterized by group style, local style and national style. Music is an important element that distinguishes each type of opera from the others, and the same script can be arranged as Peking Opera, Yue Opera or Yu Opera. But only the music is not interchangeable. In the concept of opera as a comprehensive art, both in terms of choreography, performance, costumes, choreography, and other means of expression such as hand, eye, body, method, and footwork, it can be said that music is the lifeblood of the difference between the types of opera and the identification mark. There is a folk saying: watching theater is not called "watching", but called "listening" theater, because of this.

The traditional Chinese opera matured in the Song and Yuan dynasties. As we all know, the Song and Yuan operas have a score, a word or a song, the frame is not moving, the playwright or according to the sound of the lyrics, or according to the word line, thus giving rise to a thousand variations of the opera. Over the centuries, there have been numerous classical plays such as "Dou'e Grievance", "The Story of the Western Chamber", "The Story of the Pipa", "Peach Blossom Fan", and so on, which have produced the top ten classical comedies and top ten classical tragedies in China that are highly regarded by the modern people, but it is regrettable that only the written scripts are left behind and not the music. However, despite this, we can still see a little footprint and hint of music in some scattered ancient books such as the Song Dynasty's "Songs of the White Stone Taoist," the early Yuan Dynasty's "The Story of the Forest," the Ming Dynasty's "The Remainder of the Sound of Taigu," and the Qing Dynasty's "Jiu Gong Dacheng North-South Lyrics Palace Spectrum" and "Shattered Gold Lyrics Spectrum," among other materials.

Since the formation of the four major voices of Kun Opera, Gao Opera, Clapper Opera, and (Pihuang Opera), they have borrowed from each other, absorbed each other, and through the vicissitudes of hundreds of years, the music of Chinese opera represented by Peking Opera, Kun Opera, Yu Opera, Yue Opera, Yellow Plum Opera, Qin Opera, Sichuan Opera, and Cantonese Opera of Guangdong Province has been formed so far, especially Peking Opera, which has been called the National Opera, and it is known to absorb the musical factors of many types of operas from the East, West, South, North and South. It is well known that its music was formed by absorbing the musical factors of many styles from the east, west, south and north. For example, Xipi originated from Shaanxi Qinqiang, Erhuang originated from Yihuangqiang in Jiangxi or Hubei, and there are other tunes such as Sipingtong, Gaobazi, and Nangangbang, which are all borrowed from other types of opera. It is said that most of the instrumental music and tunes of the Peking Opera literary scene originated from the Kunqu Opera, and most of the percussion music of the martial scene originated from the Bang Bang Opera ....... From the point of view of the formation and development of Peking Opera music, the reason why it can become a national opera is mainly because it is good at accepting and incorporating, as the saying goes, "the sea is full of rivers, and there is a big". Can we say that multi-faceted, multi-level absorption is an important reason for the development of traditional Peking Opera?

Traditional opera music, since it is a "hundred rivers in the sea, there is a big", but their singing and instrumental music and so on is actually created by what people specifically? In the past, the writing of opera history was actor-centered, and as for the genesis of the genre, it was seldom elaborated from the perspective of creation. Forgive my ignorance, Mei, Shang, Cheng, Xun, the four great dancers, so far, I have not seen a monograph from the melody, rhythm, tone, tone area, accompaniment, and other factors to say clear between the characteristics of the schools, what are the differences. Opera history, such as Wei Liangfu, only know that he put the original simpler Kunshan cavity, from the song arrangement, melodic processing, rhythmic arrangements, spitting words, instrumental accompaniment and other aspects of the reform, so that the Kunqu opera has become a large type of drama, but I do not know how he was from the original Kunshan cavity material into a new period of time the new cavity? Another example is the formation of the Mei School of singing and accompaniment, we only know that it is by the qin master Mei Yutian, Xu Lanyuan, Wang Shaoqing and Mei master **** with his cavity fixed plate, but their specific creative process, people have no way of knowing. It can be seen that: traditional opera music composition, most of the actors as the center, after the piano master (or flute master), drum masters and other people repeated consultations, embellishments, in the absence of a strict sheet music record formed, and then is the "oral teaching" way to the second generation, the third generation of disciples, and so far the opera world is still used in such a way that most of the method, I know of many Peking opera singers, but I am not aware of any such method. As far as I know, the scores of many Peking Opera cantatas are still recorded by Mr. Liu Tianhua, a master of national music, from the records and passed down to the world. So the process of creating traditional music will probably always remain a mystery.

The expressive element of opera music is composed of two major parts: the (vocal) performers and the (instrumental) musicians. From a long-term point of view, I think that the solo, duet, chorus and other forms used by the actors to play their roles in the opera will not change much in the future, and the gongs and drums will not change too much, but the instrumental accompaniment of the orchestra will be the one that will change more. Practice has proved that each type of opera in the early stage has a basic backbone of instrumental compilation, such as: Beijing Opera three big pieces (Beijing Hu, Yueqin, Beijing Erhu); Hebei Opera three big pieces (Panhu, Bangdian, Sheng); Guangdong Cantonese Opera three frame head (Gaohu, Yangqin, Qinqin); Yueju Opera three big pieces (the main HU, vice HU, Pipa), etc., the musicians of the main musical instruments and the drummers*** with the master of the whole play accompaniment. Under this basic combination of cultural and martial arts field, according to the needs of the plot and singing, later gradually added suona, sheng, pipa, three strings, zhongruan, danyuan, erhu, zhonghu, dahu (cello), beisi and other musical instruments, ranging from more than 10 people to more than 20 people, to form a medium-sized compilation of the orchestra. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, there were the Peking Operas "Wild Boar Forest" and "Wangjiang Pavilion"; the Yueju Operas "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Rouge"; the Huangmei Opera "The Pairing of the Heavenly Immortals"; and the Cantonese Opera "Zhaojun Goes Out of the Frontiers", among others. As a result, the scale of small and medium-sized national orchestral music is formed by four parts: wind, plucked, percussion and stringed. In the author's opinion, from the classification of "Introduction to Chinese Folk Music", from folk songs, operas, songs and dances and traditional folk instrumental music (such as Jiangnan silk and bamboo, Hebei blowing song, Xi'an drum music, Guangdong music, etc.) to court music, temple music, etc., do not have the conditions and scale of the orchestral music, the only one is the orchestra of the opera, no matter in the configuration of the instrument's function, the staffing, and the contrast of the mood, it has the form of the folk orchestral music. Only the opera orchestra, in terms of instrumentation, staffing, and emotional contrast, has the form of national orchestral music. As early as in May 1987, the author of the first academic seminar of the Chinese National Orchestral Music Society had made a speech with the title of "On the Important Basis for the Development of Modern Chinese National Orchestra--Chinese Opera Music", and my argument was: "Opera bands are the precursors of Chinese national orchestral music. ".

The late fifties to the early sixties, I think it is an important period of transition from traditional opera music to modern opera music. From the repertoire performed in the National Opera Observation and Tuning Show in 1964, it was common to use a full orchestra to accompany the opera. During this period, I had watched the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe's performance of "The Wise Capture of the Habitual Bandit Za Shan Diao" and the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre's "Yang Men Women Generals" at Beijing's Tianqiao Theatre, which were accompanied by a much fuller and heavier soundtrack than those of the fifties. Immediately after the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, such as "Shajiabang", "The Tale of the Red Lanterns", "Wisdom Takes Weihu Mountain", "Harbor", "Ode to the Dragon River", "Cuckoo Mountain" and other "revolutionary model operas", which coincidentally discarded the original folk music accompaniment with a change to Western orchestral accompaniment, the accompaniment of this period of the opera, whether from the musical expression During this period, opera accompaniment reached an unprecedented high level in terms of musical expression, timbre, sound area, and acoustic momentum. In addition, new explorations and attempts were made in composition, the obvious sign of which was that the role of composers was strengthened, and the factor of the actors and musicians in creating the music was weakened. In terms of musical structure, from the traditional opera of a single plate to a set of singing plate innovation, in the pre-scene song and background music creation, but also from the past set of traditional music to the creation of a separate chapter of instrumental music. For example, the prelude of "Taking Tiger Mountain", the tenth scene of "The Tale of Red Lanterns", the interlude of "Ambush and Annihilation", the interlude of "Ode to the Dragon River", the interlude of "Song of the Harvest", the seventh scene of "Cuckoo Mountain", the dance music of "Flying across the Valley of the Clouds" and so on, all of which have left a deep impression on the people, and these factors and means of expression of the creation of modern music have undoubtedly provided us with invaluable creative experience. Later, the symphony "Shajiabang" and "Wisdom Takes Tiger Mountain" appeared as three-dimensional and symphonic large-scale musical works. Let's not talk about the political gains and losses of the "model operas" that appeared during the Cultural Revolution period, but we should admit that in terms of creation and performance standards, they all reached China's first-class level and reached the peak of an era. Can we think of it this way: these opera works, which appeared from the early 1960s to the late Cultural Revolution, should belong to modern opera music. It is from the traditional actors, piano player, drummer **** with the "music design" mode of creation has been transformed into a composer, actors and orchestra for the second creation, the establishment of a trinity of modern creation mode.