[38] It has however been suggested that the long plectrum depicted in ancient paintings may have been used as a friction stick like a bow. The left hand techniques are important for the expressiveness of pipa music. The method of holding the plectrum is different when performing kaeshibachi or kakubachi, and consequently composers need to allow a few seconds for the repositioning of the hand when using the two techniques in sequence. [17] Even higo-biwa players, who were quite popular in the early 20th century, may no longer have a direct means of studying oral composition, as the bearers of the tradition have either died or are no longer able to play. [21] For example, masses of pipa-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. It was those blind monks who fell outside of governmental protection who, during the 17. century, creatively modified the biwa to introduce a shamisen flavor, such as making frets higher to play in-between notes. Pipa is also an important component of regional chamber ensemble traditions such as Jiangnan sizhu, Teochew string music and Nanguan ensemble. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Hornbostel-Sachs or Sachs-Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie in 1914. [10] In solo performances, a biwa performer sings monophonically, with melismatic emphasis throughout the performance. Resonator design, chordophone: bowl with wood soundboard, Vibrational length: tension bridge to ridge-nut, Pitches per string course: multiple (by pressure stopping against fretted fingerboard), 4-string biwa (gallery #1): 77-103. 5, period of the Northern Wei (384-441 A.D.), A Song dynasty fresco depicts a female pipa player among a group of musicians, Group of female musician from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960 AD), A mural from a Yuan dynasty tomb found in Hengshan County, Shaanxi, showing a man playing the pipa, A group of Qing dynasty musicians from Fuzhou. to the present. The pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang dynasty, and was a principal musical instrument in the imperial court. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi. Omissions? The archlute ( Spanish: archilad, Italian: arciliuto, German: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the performance of solo music, and the Renaissance tenor lute, which lacked the bass range of the Its classification is a type of a Chordophone. All rights reserved. Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. Written by Nobuko Fukatsu The pipa pieces in the common repertoire can be categorized as wen (, civil) or wu (, martial), and da (, large or suite) or xiao (, small). Instrument Information Origins. The six fret type is tuned to B, E, B and b. 38.5 in. Chikuzen Biwa. Wu Man is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. The first and second strings are generally tuned to the same note, with the 4th (or doubled 4th) string is tuned one octave higher. [68] The Shanghai progressive/folk-rock band Cold Fairyland, which was formed in 2001, also use pipa (played by Lin Di), sometimes multi-tracking it in their recordings. Several types of biwa, each with its own social setting and repertoire, have evolved in Japan over the past 1300 years, the specimens pictured here being called most accurately the chikuzen biwa. His well-received compositions, such as November Steps, which incorporated biwa heikyoku with Western orchestral performance, revitalized interest in the biwa and sparked a series of collaborative efforts by other musician in genres ranging from J-Pop and enka to shin-hougaku and gendaigaku. In spite of its popularity, the nin War and subsequent Warring States Period disrupted biwa teaching and decreased the number of proficient users. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710794). Famous pieces such as "Ambushed from Ten Sides", "The Warlord Takes Off His Armour", and "Flute and Drum at Sunset" were first described in this collection. There is little space between the strings on the first three frets, causing obstruction when attacking an upper string whose immediate lower string is fingered in one of the first three frets. Male players typically play biwa that are slightly wider and/or longer than those used by women or children. [34][57][58] Duan Anjie described the duel between the famous pipa player Kang Kunlun and the monk Duan Shanben () who was disguised as a girl, and told the story of Yang Zhi () who learned how to play the pipa secretly by listening to his aunt playing at night. The 5 String Pipa is tuned like a Standard Pipa with the addition of an Extra Bass String tuned to an E2 (Same as the Guitar) which broadens the range (Tuning is E2, A2, D3, E3, A3). [23], During the Song dynasty, pipa fell from favour at the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of neo-Confucian nativism as pipa had foreign associations. The nishiki-biwa (), a modern biwa with five strings and five frets, was popularised by the 20th-century biwa player and composer Suit Kinj (, 19111973). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Biwa (Japanese instrument) - MIT Global Shakespeares Biwa (Japanese instrument) The Biwa is a Japanese teardrop lute, similar to the lute and the oud, with a short neck and frets. [18], As biwa music declined in post-Pacific War Japan, many Japanese composers and musicians found ways to revitalize interest in it. biwa, Japanese short-necked lute, distinguished by its graceful, pear-shaped body. These two modern styles came to Tokyo with the local reformists who led the Meiji Restoration, and became the center of the contemporary music scene in the late 19th to early 20th century. [61][33], During the Song dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin (). From the Dingjiazha Tomb No. The biwa's Chinese predecessor was the pipa (), which arrived in Japan in two forms;[further explanation needed] following its introduction to Japan, varieties of the biwa quadrupled. Biwa players no longer enjoyed special privileges and were forced to support themselves. Typically, the second pitch is fingered on the same string one or two frets lower than the first one, and the note is attacked and then lifted off into the second fret position. The horizontal playing position became the vertical (or near-vertical) position by the Qing dynasty, although in some regional genres such as nanguan the pipa is still held guitar fashion. Komoda Haruko. There are a number of different traditions with different styles of playing pipa in various regions of China, some of which then developed into schools. Another new style called Chikuzen-biwa () was created in the 19th century in northern Kyushu Island, based off of the blind monks biwa music, and adopting shamisen, Satsuma-biwa, and other contemporary musical styles. The origin of the Japanese biwa as a generic type of instrument dates back to around the year 700 CE when the pipa was first introduced to Japan from China as part of ensembles gifted to the Japanese Emperor. Life in post-war Japan was difficult, and many musicians abandoned their music in favor of more sustainable livelihoods. The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. The biwa arrived in Japan in the 7th century, having evolved from the Chinese bent-neck pipa (; quxiang pipa),[1] while the pipa itself was derived from similar instruments in West Asia. For the left hand, as mentioned above under the Construction section, bending of the strings (oshikan, ) and delicate control of it to create a vibrato effect (yuri. ) Sandstone carving, showing the typical way a pipa was held when played with plectrum in the early period. In the late 20th century, largely through the efforts of Wu Man (in USA), Min Xiao-Fen (in USA), composer Yang Jing (in Europe) and other performers, Chinese and Western contemporary composers began to create new works for the pipa (both solo and in combination with chamber ensembles and orchestra). The biwa has a shallow, rounded back and silk strings (usually four or five) attached to slender lateral pegs. Its tuning is A, E, A, B, for traditional biwa, G, G, c, g, or G, G, d, g for contemporary compositions, among other tunings, but these are only examples as the instrument is tuned to match the key of the player's voice. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. Region: East Asia. Koto. The Koto came from the Chinese zither "Gu Zheng" during the Nara period in Japan. It had close association with Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts. With the rounded edge of the resonator resting in the players lap and the peg box end of the instrument tilted to the left at about a 45-degree angle from vertical, the biwas soundboard faces forward. The heike-biwa, smaller than the ms-biwa, was used for similar purposes. used to strike the hard soundboard sharply to create percussive effects, adding a more dynamic flavor to the music. In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (, ) and has been grown for over . Chikuzen biwa music is narrative music much beholding to narrative shamisen music. Finally, it is not customary to finger more than one pitch within a harmonic structure, so if a fingered pitch were to be included among the grace-notes, then the last pitch would need to be an open string. Traditionally, the duration of each pitch subdivides the measure into two equal durations. Its pick or bachi () is the largest among all types of biwa it sometimes used to strike the hard soundboard sharply to create percussive effects, adding a more dynamic flavor to the music. [11] The style of singing accompanying biwa tends to be nasal, particularly when singing vowels, the consonant , and syllables beginning with "g", such as ga () and gi (). It is similar in shape to the chikuzen-biwa, but with a much more narrow body. Other prominent students of Lin Shicheng at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing include Liu Guilian (, born 1961), Gao Hong and Wu Man. Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item, Title: Chikuzen was an historic northern province on Kyushu, the southern-most main island of Japan. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu (, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. https://japanese-music.com/profile/nobuko-fukatsu/. [45] Other collections from the Qing dynasty were compiled by Li Fangyuan () and Ju Shilin (), each representing different schools, and many of the pieces currently popular were described in these Qing collections. A number of Western pipa players have experimented with amplified pipa. [29], There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It is an arpeggio that is always starting from the first string (the lowest) and swepping upwards to either the second, third or fourth string. Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API. There are some types of traditional string instrument. Several types of biwa, each with its own social setting and repertoire, have evolved in Japan over the past 1300 years, the specimens pictured here being called most accurately the chikuzen biwa. Thought to be of Persian origin, the biwa was brought to Japan in the 8th century via Central Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. In 2015, pipa player Jiaju Shen () released a mini album composed and produced by Li Zong (),[73] with E-pa music that has a strong Chinese flavor within a modern Western pop music mould. This music called heikyoku () was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14-15th centuries. Like with the shamisen, a distinctive raspy tone quality called sawari is associated with the chikuzen biwa. During the war time in early 20th century, biwa music was easily adapted to the nationalism of Imperial Japan, and many songs that emphasized the virtue of loyalty and sacrifice for the country were created and widely played. [69] The instrument is also played by musician Min Xiaofen in "I See Who You Are", a song from Bjrk's album Volta. Over the centuries, several types of biwa were created, each having a certain size plectrum, a specialized purpose, a unique performance technique, and varying numbers of strings and frets. [62] From the Ming dynasty, famous pipa players include Zhong Xiuzhi (), Zhang Xiong (, known for his playing of "Eagle Seizing Swan"), the blind Li Jinlou (), and Tang Yingzeng () who was known to have played a piece that may be an early version of "Ambushed from Ten Sides".[63]. Upon its arrival, the biwa was used in purely instrumental music in the court culture the instrument appears in various works of literature and art in the 10th -12th centuries, depicting nobles enjoying it in rituals as well as in their private lives. The short neck has four raised frets, each one specifically assigned to one of the left hand fingers. Its boxwood plectrum is much wider than others, often reaching widths of 25cm (9.8in) or more. These works present a radical departure from the compositional languages usually employed for such an instrument. Kaeshibachi: The performance of arpeggio with an up-ward motion of the plectrum, and it is always soft. An example tuning of the four string version is B, e, f and b, and the five string instrument can be tuned to C, G, C, d and g. For the five string version, the first and third strings are tuned the same note, the second string three steps down, the fifth string an octave higher than the second string, and the fourth string a step down from the fifth. During the Song dynasty, many of the literati and poets wrote ci verses, a form of poetry meant to be sung and accompanied by instruments such as pipa. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years. The fourth/fifth string G is an octave higher than the second string G. Again, note this is relative tuning; it could be AEAE, GDGD, etc, depending on the players range of voice. Its classification is a type of an Aerophone. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/502655, Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; Clara H. Rose (d. 1914), The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. One of the biwa's most famous uses is for reciting The Tale of the Heike, a war chronicle from the Kamakura period (11851333). The short neck of the Tang pipa also became more elongated. The biwa is a plucked lute chordophone of Japan. It is however possible to produce the tremolo with just one or more fingers. The stroking motion always starts from the 1st string, sequentially sweeping toward the others until it reaches the arpeggios last string. The wen style is more lyrical and slower in tempo, with softer dynamic and subtler colour, and such pieces typically describe love, sorrow, and scenes of nature. Traditional Chinese narrative prefers the story of the Han Chinese Princess Liu Xijun sent to marry a barbarian Wusun king during the Han dynasty, with the pipa being invented so she could play music on horseback to soothe her longings. Different schools however can have sections added or removed, and may differ in the number of sections with free meter. Because of this tradition as a narrative music, the biwa is mostly played solo and is less commonly played with other types of instruments, except in gagaku () or the court orchestra where it is used in its original instrumental role, and in modern instrumental repertoire. [21] The pipa underwent a number of changes over the centuries. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This is the original form of biwa that came to Japan in the 8. century. Its plectrum varies in both size and materials. These tunings are relative, the actual pitches a given biwa is tuned to being determined by the vocal range of the singer/player. Thick strings clatter like splattering rain, After having arrived in Japan via the Silk Road for purely instrumental music, the biwa evolved over time into a narrative musical instrument. [54][55] (The heptatonic scale was used for a time afterwards in the imperial court due to Sujiva's influence until it was later abandoned). Biwa music is based on a pentatonic scale (sometimes referred to as a five-tone or five-note scale), meaning that each octave contains five notes. As a point of clarification, the highest and last pitch of the biwa's arpeggio is considered as its melodic pitch. [12] The plectrum is also critical to creating the sawari sound, which is particularly utilized with satsuma-biwa. The instrument is played with a large wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. In the narrative traditions where the pipa is used as an accompaniment to narrative singing, there are the Suzhou tanci (), Sichuan qingyin (), and Northern quyi () genres. Kishibe, Shigeo. The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. The surface of the frets is constantly shaved down by the strings, and one of the most important points in the maintenance of the biwa is to keep the surfaces as flat as possible to get goodsawari. used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710-794). Most ms biwas have tear-shaped bodies, but this rustic fish-shaped example was probably used by a wandering Buddhist monk. This is the original form of biwa that came to Japan in the 8th century. The pipa, pp, or p'i-p'a (Chinese: ) is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Mural from Kizil, estimated Five Dynasties to Yuan dynasty, 10th to 13th century. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. He premiered the oldest Dunhuang Pipa Manuscript (the first interpretation made by Ye Dong) in Shanghai in the early 1980s. Rubbing the strings: The plectrum is used to rub an open string. Each group can include either two open strings or one open and one fingered string. Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection - Chikuzen Biwa. It produces distinctive ichikotsuch () and hyj (). Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some, however, are preserved in Japan as part of togaku (Tang music) tradition.
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