HISTORY

 

This is art drawing about pipa information in "Tan Dynasty". 

Another big change (fusion) occurred to the pipa during the first half of the last century: the traditional pipa with silk strings and pentatonic tuning has developed into the modern pipa with steel strings and chromatic tuning (by increasing the number of frets). The modern instrument is half-pear-shaped, with a short, bent neck, and has 30 frets which extend down the neck and onto the soundboard, giving a wide range and a complete chromatic scale. The usual tuning is A - E - D - A (La - Mi - Re - La). Since early last century, steel strings began to be used by some musicians while most still kept using silk strings. Since the 1950s, the making of the pipa has become standardized in measure and the strings are made of steel wrapped with nylon. Thus using the real nail becomes almost impossible. Instead, a little plectrum (or fake nail) is attached to each finger of the right hand. The plectrums are usually made of turtle shell or special plastics.

Notation for the pipa combines symbols for pitch (Kung-ch'e system) with abbreviated characters for special finger techniques. Today, a simplified version of music scores are commonly used in which numbers representing pitches and symbols representing finger techniques are used. Meanwhile, the standard Western music score has been used increasingly because it has advantages in ensemble pieces and in particular for pipa concertos . 

 

There was a huge repertoire of pipa music in Chinese history, particularly during the Tang dynasty. But most of the pieces were lost. Fortunately, there are precious pipa pieces handed down from one generation to another by individual artists and scholars. Some pieces have been preserved in Japan and other musical scores were discovered along the Silk Road in Gansu Province, China, around 1900. These musical notations, known as the Dunhuang scores from the Tang Dynasty (7-9th century) triggered great concern and interest within China as well as abroad. However, they remained a mystery until the early 1980s, when the scholar, Prof. Ye Dong from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, successfully "decoded" 25 of the pieces. The beauty and elegance of these pieces has thus first been revealed to the public after having slept for a thousand years.

Pipa music has been loved by Chinese people through the centuries. During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1645-1911) dynasties, various pipa schools with different styles flourished in the South, centered in Wuxi, Suzhou and Shanghai, and the North, centered in Beijing. The development of finger techniques for both hands achieved a high standard by the masters from each school. The present day pipa techniques are mostly the fusion of those different schools. Now the pipa is one of most popular instruments in China. Many of the compositions that make up the traditional repertoire, which were handed down from generation to generation through individual artists and scholars, date back hundreds of years, while others are part of a body of compositions that are dynamic and growing. In more recent times, composers have explored the possibilities for the pipa and other Chinese and Western instruments, even with orchestra. Nowadays, there are a number of celebrated pipa concerti.

The playing technique consists of the right hand fingers plucking the strings and the left hand fingers touching the strings in a variety of ways to create melodies, ornaments and special effects. The fingers that pluck the strings move outwards, just the opposite to guitar techniques. The frets

are pretty high, which allows the string to be pushed, twisted, and pressed. There are over 60 different techniques that have been developed through the centuries. 

The pipa's technique is characterized by spectacular finger dexterity and virtuosic programmatic effects. Rolls, slaps, pizzicato, harmonics, and noises are often combined into extensive tone-poems vividly describing famous battles or other exciting scenes, such as the Ambush (see the demo video #2 below). This type is called "wu qu" (martial style). This example describes the decisive battle fought in the second century BC between Chu (Xiang Yu) and Han (Liu Bang). The instrument is also capable of more lyric effects, in the category of "wen qu" (civil styles) such as the famous tunes "Fei Hua Dian Cui" (Swirling snow decorates the evergreen, see the demo video #1 below) or Sai Shang qu (Songs from the other side of the border). The former uses a scene in nature as metophor to describe human feeling. The latter is said to represent the sorrowful song of a Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) noblewoman, who was compelled for political reasons to marry a barbarian prince. This story appears in several versions connected with the origin of the pipa. There are also a lot of written texts and famous poems about the pipa music played by virtuoso performers in history. For instance, the following comments can be found in the texts from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) describing the intensity of the Ambush played by artists of that time : "... as if thousands of warriors and horses are roaring on the battle field, as if the earth is torn and the sky is falling". In his poem, the Pipa Song, Bai Juyi, one of the leading poets in the Tang Dynasty, described vividly the pipa music performed by an artist: "... The thicker strings rattled like splatters of sudden rain, the thinner ones hummed like a hushed whisper. Together they shaped strands of melody, like larger and smaller pearls falling on a jade plate."