Qupai in Chinese Music

Qupai in Chinese Music
Author: Alan R Thrasher
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: Music
ISBN: 131738671X

Presenting the latest research in the area, this volume explores the fundamental concept of qupai 曲牌, melodic models upon which most traditional Chinese instrumental music (and some vocal music) is based. The greater part of the traditional instrumental repertoire has emerged from qupai models by way of well-established 'variation' techniques. These melodies and techniques are alive today and still performed in 'silk-bamboo' types of ensemble music, zheng 箏, pipa 琵琶 and other solo traditions, all opera types, narrative songs, and Buddhist and Daoist ritual music. With a view toward explaining qupai as a musical system, contributors explore the concept from multiple directions, notably its historic development, patterns of structural organization, compositional usage in Kunqu classical opera, influence on the growth of traditional ensemble and solo repertoires, and indeed on 19th-century European music as well. Related essays examine the use of shan'ge 山歌 folksongs as qupai models in one local opera tradition and the controversial relationship between qupai forms and the metrically-organized banqiang 板腔 forms of organization in Beijing opera. The final three essays are focused upon traditional suite forms in which qupai and non-qupai tunes are mixed, examples drawn from the Minnan nanguan 南管 repertoire, Jiangnan 'silk-bamboo' tradition and the ritual music of North China.This is the first Western-language study on the nature and background of the qupai tradition, and the methods by which model melodies have been varied in creation of repertoire. The volume is essential reading for East Asian music specialists and contributes to the fields of ethnomusicology, musicology, music theory, music composition, and Chinese music and performing arts.

"Silk and Bamboo" Music in Shanghai

Author: John Lawrence Witzleben
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1995
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780873384995

This is a study of one of China's most influential regional musical traditions, the Jiangnan sizhu - string and wind music - of Shanghai. The in-depth approach adopted reveals much about Chinese musical culture.

The Oxford Handbook of Music in China and the Chinese Diaspora

The Oxford Handbook of Music in China and the Chinese Diaspora
Author: Yu Hui
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 569
Release: 2023-10-06
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0190661984

In The Oxford Handbook of Music in China and the Chinese Diaspora, twenty-three scholars advance knowledge and understandings of Chinese music studies. Each contribution develops a theoretical model to illuminate new insights into a key musical genre or context. This handbook is categorized into three parts. In Part One, authors explore the extensive, remarkable, and polyvocal historical legacies of Chinese music. Ranging from archaeological findings to the creation of music history, chapters address enduring historical practices and emerging cultural expressions. Part Two focuses on evolving practice across a spectrum of key instrumental and vocal genres. Each chapter provides a portrait of musical change, tying musical transformations to the social dimensions underpinning that change. Part Three responds to the role that prominent issues, including sexuality, humanism, the amateur, and ethnicity, play in the broad field of Chinese music studies. Scholars present systematic orientations for researchers in the third decade of the twenty-first century. This volume incorporates extensive input from researchers based in China, Taiwan, and among Chinese communities across the world. Using a model of collaborative inquiry, The Oxford Handbook of Music in China and the Chinese Diaspora features diverse insider voices alongside authors positioned across the anglophone world.

Chinese Musical Instruments

Chinese Musical Instruments
Author: Alan Robert Thrasher
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2000
Genre: Music
ISBN:

The Chinese instrumentarium is unquestionably the largest and most diverse of any civilization, ancient or modern. Inscriptions on tortoise shells and cow bones from more than 3000 years ago recorded various instruments including drums, stone chimes, and panpipes. In this volume, Alan R. Thrasher discusses the evolution of Chinese musical instruments, detailing their construction, regional variations, and role in musical accompaniment.

Music, Mind, and Language in Chinese Poetry and Performance

Music, Mind, and Language in Chinese Poetry and Performance
Author: Casey Schoenberger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2024-02-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0198886241

"Poetry puts intent into words; singing lengthens words"--this is one of the earliest Chinese comments on artistic expression. Poetic language extends the reach of a sentiment beyond the individual, and musicality extends the reach of poetic language, not only across a room, but across geography and generations. The "extended mind thesis" (EMT) views minds as extending beyond individual nervous systems to include material and social environments. Music, Mind, and Language in Chinese Poetry and Performance: The Voice Extended offers a comprehensive overview of the interwoven histories of traditional Chinese poetry and performing arts. It employs cognitive and quantitative methods such as EMT, and a database of over six thousand traditional melodies, to describe cyclical, continuous interactions between social minds and material artifacts. From the ancient Canon of Poetry to the song-lyrics (ci) of the late medieval period and the dramatic arias of Kun and Beijing operas, Casey Schoenberger introduces the rhythms, melodies, pronunciation, and grammatical stylistics of the major Chinese verse and performance traditions. In doing so, he gleans insights from cognitive neuroscience, digital humanities, musicology, and linguistics to explain not only the trajectory of Chinese arts, but also bigger phenomena, like vernacularisation and improvisation.

Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China

Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China
Author: Alan Thrasher
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2008-03-31
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9047432770

According to a reader's report, this is "one of the finest studies on (any kind of) Chinese music to emerge in recent years." Based on extensive fieldwork and a thorough knowledge of the scholarly literature, the author examines the theoretical underpinnings of the 'silk and bamboo' instrumental ensemble traditions of the Chaozhou, Hakka and Cantonese peoples of South China. Stepping back far into history, the book opens with a penetrating examination of Confucian theory, the ancient corpus of behavioral doctrine which promoted music as a means of achieving social harmony and which, together with Daoist belief, exercised unusually strong influence over common-practice music and aesthetics. This is followed by a rigorous analysis of the music itself, focusing upon linear and modal structures and performance styles which reflect a fascinating mix of ancient ideologies and more recent influences.

Chen Yi

Chen Yi
Author: Leta E. Miller
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2020-12-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0252052420

Winner of the Leila Webster Memorial Music Award for the International Alliance for Women in Music of the 2022 Pauline Alderman Awards for Outstanding Scholarship on Women in Music Chen Yi is the most prominent woman among the renowned group of new wave composers who came to the US from mainland China in the early 1980s. Known for her creative output and a distinctive merging of Chinese and Western influences, Chen built a musical language that references a breathtaking range of sources and crisscrosses geographical and musical borders without eradicating them. Leta E. Miller and J. Michele Edwards provide an accessible guide to the composer's background and her more than 150 works. Extensive interviews with Chen complement in-depth analyses of selected pieces from Chen's solos for Western or Chinese instruments, chamber works, choral and vocal pieces, and compositions scored for wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, or full orchestra. The authors highlight Chen's compositional strategies, her artistic elaborations, and the voice that links her earliest and most recent music. A concluding discussion addresses questions related to Chen's music and issues such as gender, ethnicity and nationality, transnationalism, border crossing, diaspora, exoticism, and identity.

Chinese Kunqu Opera

Chinese Kunqu Opera
Author: Xiao Li
Publisher: LONG RIVER PRESS
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781592650620

Even before Beijing Opera there was Kunqu, an opera form with 600 years of history. This highly distinctive form of Chinese theatre art is comprised of various elements-music, singing, dancing, recitation, and movement. As China's oldest and most influential theatrical tradition, Kunqu combines poetic librettos from the cream of classic Chinese literature (The Peony Pavilion, The Story of the Lute, The Peach Blossom Fan, etc.) with soft and refined music. A vivid, fully-illustrated picture of the origins and development of this grand performing art.

Inscribing Jingju/Peking Opera

Inscribing Jingju/Peking Opera
Author: David Rolston
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 817
Release: 2021-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004463399

What was the most influential mass medium in China before the internet reaching both literate and illiterate audiences? The answer may surprise you...it’s Jingju (Peking opera). This book traces the tradition’s increasing textualization and the changes in authorship, copyright, performance rights, and textual fixation that accompanied those changes.

World Music

World Music
Author: Terry E. Miller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 617
Release: 2013-04-03
Genre: Music
ISBN: 113624171X

Authors Terry E. Miller and Andrew Shahriari take students around the world to experience the diversity of musical expression. World Music: A Global Journey, now in its third edition, is known for its breadth in surveying the world’s major cultures in a systematic study of world music within a strong pedagogical framework. As one prepares for any travel, each chapter starts with background preparation, reviewing the historical, cultural, and musical overview of the region. Visits to multiple ‘sites’ within a region provide in-depth studies of varied musical traditions. Music analysis begins with an experimental "first impression" of the music, followed by an "aural analysis" of the sound and prominent musical elements. Finally, students are invited to consider the cultural connections that give the music its meaning and life. Features of the Third Edition Over 3 hours of diverse musical examples. with a third audio CD of new musical examples Listening Guides analyze the various pieces of music with some presented in an interactive format online Biographical highlights of performers and ethnomusicologists updated and new ones added Numerous pedagogical aids, including "On Your Own Time" and "Explore More" sidebars, and "Questions to Consider" Popular music incorporated with the traditional Dynamic companion web site hosts new Interactive Listening Guides, plus many resources for student and instructor. Built to serve online courses. The CD set is available separately (ISBN 978-0-415-89402-9) or with its Value Pack and book (ISBN 978 0415- 80823-1). For eBook users, MP3 files for the accompanying audio files are available only with the Value Pack of eBook & MP3 files (ISBN 978-0-203-15298-0). Please find instructions on how to obtain the audio files in the contents section of the eBook.