The range of guzheng

Biography of Li Si in Historical Records contains Li Si's admonition to Qin Shihuang, saying, "People beat the urn and knock, but the singer is actually Qin Zhisheng." Thus, as early as more than 200 years ago BC, Qin Zheng in Shaanxi was widely circulated in the court and among the people. Zheng is the earliest musical instrument of Qin people. Together with the percussion instrument of the Zheng, it forms the Qin Opera. Dance Song is the earliest genre of Zheng music in Shaanxi. Many experts have pointed out that Qin Opera is the earliest source of its formation, and in its long history of evolution into Qin Opera, Zheng has always been an accompaniment instrument. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Zheng was improved by referring to the shape of musical instruments, which not only had a wider range, but also had the characteristics of being natural and still sad. Since Sui and Tang Dynasties, Zheng has been a good accompaniment instrument for all kinds of music and dance, traditional Chinese opera and folk art. Until the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Zheng was still an indispensable instrument in piano (cavity) accompaniment.

Solo of national musical instruments, or repetition of national tunes with lyrics, or solo performance of prelude or ensemble. Others often accompany vocal music first, then play and sing by themselves, and finally change from playing without singing to pure instrumental music. In Shaanxi, Zheng used to be one of the accompaniment instruments, and its music score is the performance score and the music score of Shaanxi Zheng School.

In a word, the Shaanxi School was gradually formed in the process of playing folk music, and the singing of local operas is the soul of the development style and feelings of Zheng music.

Over the years, under the guidance of Gui Qin's academic thought, Shaanxi guzheng professionals have excavated, arranged, adapted and created a large number of Shaanxi guzheng songs based on local operas, Shaanxi opera, Qiang and large-scale instrumental music. In these Shaanxi Zheng music, the ancient artistic tradition of Yan music is preserved, and its melody is rich with "happy sound" and "bitter room". The unique artistic style of Shaanxi Zheng music is composed of modes, scales and rhythms. The techniques of Shaanxi Zheng music are based on long-term study, inheritance and reference of foreign Zheng music. According to the characteristics of Shaanxi local music style, they absorb the advantages of various schools of Zheng music techniques and form unique Shaanxi Zheng music performance techniques, such as pressing strings with left thumb, pressing strings with right thumb and shaking strings with right thumb.

Second, Henan Zheng School

Although the formation of Henan Guzheng school can be traced back to the beginning of this century, it is closely related to the attached music form-Henan major (also known as drum tune) and later Henan opera. Especially in major, it can be said that it almost summarizes most of Henan Zheng music. Major, also called drum tune, is a form of Quyi, which is characterized by the combination of Qupai. The accompaniment instruments of drum music include sanxian, Zheng and pipa, as well as handboards and octagonal drums. The combination of Zheng and drum is the foundation of Henan music school, and Zheng and drum coexist and develop together. If the Henan school of guzheng originated from the ditty of Ming and Qing Dynasties and the accompaniment of drum music later, its evolution, development and maturity are also accompanied by the accompaniment of drum music (later renamed as major music). Where mainstream music is widely popular, the art of Zheng music will flourish; Where there are many talents who can sing in major, famous guzheng players will emerge constantly. This is because the art of Zheng music has not yet formed an independent art form. Today, Henan Zheng music is still closely connected with folk music such as major tunes and operas, and Henan Opera, Quju Opera and Yuediao are accompanied by Zheng. It is these rich folk music soils that gave birth to the vigorous development of Henan Zheng School. Part of Henan Zheng music comes from Daqu's singing, signature music and banjo. It is formed by the continuous processing, refining and creation of Zheng people in the long-term ensemble accompaniment.

In the ensemble and accompaniment of the main tunes, artists creatively played the characteristics of their respective instruments. For example, Sanxian, as the main musical instrument, has bright and clear treble, which is often set off by cavity. Zheng Can, as a characteristic musical instrument, can best express its characteristics by pressing, trembling, kneading and sliding, especially in the alto, so it is often padded and polished in the alto. Bantouqu, which has been handed down to this day, still retains this feature.

In the performance, artistic techniques are gradually shaped in the artistic practice of artists from generation to generation, and they have their own musical instrument characteristics and certain independence in melody, so they can solo and ensemble. It is suitable for separating the performance techniques of Zheng into solo. For example, among more than 50 bantou songs, according to the melody characteristics, there are more than 20 solo songs of their respective instruments, which are suitable for Zheng to play. There are two different situations in the content and style of the Zheng music that is separated into pure instrumental music: all the Zheng solo pieces belonging to the Bantou music retain the basic characteristics of the Zheng in the original ensemble music; But in Paizi music, most of them are variants of the same name.

Henan Zheng music includes traditional Zheng music and innovative Zheng music. In traditional Zheng music, there are also singing songs and bantou songs. This kind of music is short and pithy, lively and has a strong local style.

The establishment of Henan School, in addition to the constant efforts of Henan Zheng people in past dynasties to revise the rich traditional repertoire, the creation of songs with strong local characteristics has also become the continuation and organic part of this school.

During the Han and Wei Dynasties, Ruan's Fu Zheng was a vivid work describing the Zheng art in Henan. "Daxing" and "Re-hair" emphasize the melody sound of the big finger, play the skill of the left hand, and embody the soul of Zheng music. There is such a poem "Pinch the Zheng" circulating from generation to generation in Henan Zheng people, which is a high summary of Henan Zheng:

The name refers to the four fingers hanging on the pile, shaking the hook and gently plucking the sleeve. It should be noted that there is no other way for the left hand, and it is leisurely to massage according to the trembling.

In the application of specific techniques, Henan Zheng music shows the importance of its big finger-"eight fingers and ten tones" more than other schools. On the other hand, in the use of shaking fingers, it is mostly a short shake with a duration of less than a quarter note. "Knocking backwards and hitting straight" is a unique fingering of Henan Zheng created by Mr. Cao Dongfu. In addition, in the use of the left hand, the treatment of sustain, small vibrato and big vibrato also has its own characteristics.

The uniqueness of Henan Zheng school is obviously closely related to dialects besides the above-mentioned characteristics of melody, mode and technique. In the process of blending with the sound cavity, the Zheng music art of Henan Zheng School first absorbed the sound changes in the sound cavity into the Zheng music, and then enriched the sound cavity and the Zheng music itself. This is the concrete embodiment of the function of "supplementing the sound with rhyme" and "having rhyme in the sound", and it is also the charm of Henan Zheng music that is both pungent and delicate, unrestrained and euphemistic.

Third, Shandong Zheng School

Shandong Zheng has been circulating for a long time. Qi Ce, the Warring States Policy, records that Linzi is rich and practical, and everyone plays, builds and plays the zither. Traditional guzheng performance includes solo, ensemble, piano accompaniment and Qupai performance, all of which have strict formats. Each song is divided into eight phrases, each with eight beats, and only the fifth sentence has four beats, so the whole song is sixty-eight beats, commonly known as "six-eight board". The grand banjo of Class 6-8 is the essence of Shandong Zheng music, which has a strong artistic quality. You can play alone or together in the order of boards. The troupe consists of four musical instruments: Zheng, Pipa, dulcimer and Xiqin. Zheng has always been in a prominent position, and there is a saying among the people that "there is no happiness without it". Many Shandong Zheng songs are from Shandong Qin books, similar to Henan Bantou songs, and there are also 68 songs such as Autumn Moon in Han Palace and Letters from Hongyan. But it is also different from Henan Zheng, which is also evolved from Shandong's singing and qupai, such as Fengxiang Song, Broken Bridge, Shuangyu, Shangtiao and so on. Shandong Zheng is similar to Henan Zheng in playing, both of which are frequently used with big fingers, but the sound made by Shandong Zheng is vigorous and powerful, and it is called "flower finger". Shandong Zheng's left hand rubs hard and soft on time, and its sound is sonorous and deep.

Fourth, the Mongolian Zheng school.

Mongolian Guzheng is a plucked instrument of Naxi nationality, also known as Yatuoga Guzheng, which is popular in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Liaoning Province, Jilin Province and Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County of Yunnan Province. "Six History of Rites and Music" once said: "The instrument of feasting and music is the guqin, with two slightly drooping ends, one column and thirteen strings", and Meng Gong's "Meng Da Bei Lu" in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "The first thing of Wang was also accompanied by female music, and most of them were played with fourteen-string Zheng." It shows that there were thirteen-string and fourteen-string guzheng in Mongolian folk and Mongolian army at that time. Mongolian Zheng has its unique method of tuning strings. Although it is also a pentatonic mode category, the piano codes are arranged in two lines with different lengths, forming four different tunes of Mongolian Guzheng: Chagan tune, Hages tune, Heile tune and Tigri tune. When playing, Mongolian Zheng is also different from other schools. The player crosses his legs on the floor, and the piano body is placed in front of the player's legs, or the first end of the piano is placed on the upper right of the player's right leg, and the end touches the ground to play the piano. The nails worn on the right hand are also different from those in other schools. They play the piano with bone nails instead of tortoise shells. The fingering of playing Zheng is basically the same as that of other schools of Han nationality, but the technique of holding the thumb and forefinger in the same direction at the same time is added to play octave and fifth chords to show strength, change emotions and highlight style characteristics.