2008. Formation: Japanese. Telling stories and holding religious practices with biwa accompaniment became a profession for blind monks, and it was these wandering blind monks who carried on the tradition. As the biwa does not play in tempered tuning, pitches are approximated to the nearest note. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. In addition, there are a number of techniques that produce sound effects rather than musical notes, for example, striking the board of the pipa for a percussive sound, or strings-twisting while playing that produces a cymbal-like effect. 5.5 in. Dunhuang, Mogao Caves. [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. Since the biwas pegs do not move smoothly, tuning the instrument to a different mode requires time. Its pick or bachi () is the largest among all types of biwa it sometimes. [21] For example, masses of pipa-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Traditionally, the 2nd pitch either acts as a lower neighboring tone or a descending passing tone. The biwa developed into five different types in its long history: Gaku, Heike, Ms, Satsuma, and Chikuzen. [17][14] Starting about the 10th century, players began to hold the instrument "more upright", as the fingernail style became more important. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Seeing its relative convenience and portability, the monks combined these features with their large and heavy gaku-biwa to create the heike-biwa, which, as indicated by its namesake, was used primarily for recitations of The Tale of the Heike. 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). A number of Western pipa players have experimented with amplified pipa. Gao Hong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and was the first to do a joint tour with Lin Shicheng in North America. The Edo period proved to be one of the most prolific and artistically creative periods for the biwa in its long history in Japan. The body is often made of stretched snakeskin, and come in varying sizes. [51] The music collections from the 19th century also used the gongche notation which provides only a skeletal melody and approximate rhythms sometimes with the occasional playing instructions given (such as tremolo or string-bending), and how this basic framework can become fully fleshed out during a performance may only be learnt by the students from the master. With the end of the wars, unsurprisingly, the biwa music became less popular, and the number of biwa musicians dropped significantly. These parts can be seen in detail #1: peg box (hanju) with lobster tail-shaped finial (kairbi) [upper left]; four laterally mounted friction tuning pegs (tenju) [lower left]; neck (shikakubi) [right] with a tenon cut at each end (one fitting into a mortise cut into the peg box, the other into a mortise in the narrow end of the resonator) and five high frets (j); and a resonator made of a shallow, teardrop-shaped hollowed out wood shell (k) covered with a flat, thinly-shaven wood soundboard (fukuban) to which is glued a string holder tension bridge (fukuju) just above its rounded end [center]. The open strings are shown in the first measures, and the pitches assigned the left-hand fingered notes in the following four measures. [9] When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. Pieces in the Wu style are generally more rhythmic and faster, and often depict scenes of battles and are played in a vigorous fashion employing a variety of techniques and sound effects. Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted, Credit Line:
The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. The 5-string specimen is larger (the vibrating length of its strings is 30.3 inches) and heavier than the 4-string specimen and also has some delicate decorative detail added that is carved out of mother-of-pearl (detail #8 and #9). The satsuma-biwa (), a biwa with four strings and four frets, was popularized during the Edo period in Satsuma Province (present-day Kagoshima) by Shimazu Tadayoshi. By the late 1940s, the biwa, a thoroughly Japanese tradition, was nearly completely abandoned for Western instruments; however, thanks to collaborative efforts by Japanese musicians, interest in the biwa is being revived. (80 30 3.4 cm), Classification:
[21] During this time, Persian and Kuchan performers and teachers were in demand in the capital, Chang'an (which had a large Persian community). Bodmin, Cornwall, Great Britain: MPG Books, pp. In Satsuma-biwa classical pieces, the thickest string (the first) is in principle. greatest depth of resonator 3 (Winter, 19771978). [53] The introduction of pipa from Central Asia also brought with it virtuoso performers from that region, for example Sujiva (, Sujipo) from the Kingdom of Kucha during the Northern Zhou dynasty, Kang Kunlun () from Kangju, and Pei Luoer () from Shule. (80 30 3.4 cm), The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, "Musical Instruments in the Metropolitan Museum": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 35, no. [44] The first volume contains 13 pieces from the Northern school, the second and third volumes contain 54 pieces from the Southern school. This is the original form of biwa that came to Japan in the 8. century. The 14- or 16-fret pipa had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western tone and semitone, starting at the nut, the intervals were T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4, (some frets produced a 3/4 tone or "neutral tone"). 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. And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. Rubbing the strings: The plectrum is used to rub an open string. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Over 100 years after its development, the H-S system is still in use in most museums and in large inventory projects. Songs are not always metered, although more modern collaborations are metered. 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. Kindai-biwa still retains a significant number of professional and amateur practitioners, but the zato, heike, and moso-biwa styles have all but died out. The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. 2.2 in. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. Samurai ethics and battles were selected as the main themes for this style, called Satsuma-biwa (), and more dynamic techniques were developed. [14][15][16], The pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia, Gandhara, and/or India. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. [8][9] Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called pipa, though written differently (; pp or ; pb) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people (a general term for non-Han people living to the north and west of ancient China). The biwa sounds as written, and it is tuned to an A-430Hz. [39] The plectrum has now been largely replaced by the fingernails of the right hand. 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. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. The same piece of music can therefore differ significantly when performed by students of different schools, with striking differences in interpretation, phrasing, tempo, dynamics, playing techniques, and ornamentations. Chikuzen was an historic northern province on Kyushu, the southern-most main island of Japan. 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. [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). Through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. The traditional Satsuma-biwa has 4 strings and 4 frets (Sei-ha and Kinshin-ryu schools), and newer styles have 5 strings and 5 frets (Nishiki and Tsuruta-ryu schools). The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Although no longer as popular as it once was, several chikuzen biwa schools have survived to the present day in Japan and to a lesser extent in Japanese communities abroad (such as in Hawaii). 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. Biwa Four frets Figure 1 NAKAMURA Kahoru Biwa's back is flat Biwa's plectrum Figure 2 Although shaped like a Western lute, the Biwa 's back is flat and it has a shallower body. This next instrument seems to have some spiritual meaning behind it. These styles emphasized biwa-uta () vocalisation with biwa accompaniment and formed the foundation for edo-uta () styles of playing, such as shinnai and kota.[2]. Taiko Related Articles on Traditional Japanese Instruments 1. This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. Corrections? She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Yamashika, born in the late Meiji period, continued the biwa hshi tradition until his death in 1996. Its boxwood plectrum is much wider than others, often reaching widths of 25cm (9.8in) or more. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called sawari () which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. The transmission parameter (product of propagation speed and Q value of the longitudinal wave along the wood grain . This instrument was also used many times as an accompanying instrument in larger ensembles. [12] The plectrum is also critical to creating the sawari sound, which is particularly utilized with satsuma-biwa. In the performers right hand the bachi (plectrum) is held, its upward-pointing tip used to pluck the strings near the string holder. Example 4 shows the basic melody of Etenraku's section B and C, and its rhythmic accompaniment. Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. This singing style is complemented by the biwa, which biwa players use to produce short glissandi throughout the performance. The pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang dynasty, and was a principal musical instrument in the imperial court. Biwa 6. Clara H. Rose (d. 1914) Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Asia, Gallery 27. The biwa is related to the Chinese pipa, an instrument that was introduced to Japan in the late 7th century. Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production. Not to be confused with the five-stringed variants of modern biwa, such as chikuzen-biwa. 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 In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (, ) and has been grown for over . 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. The biwa has a shallow, rounded back and silk strings (usually four or five) attached to slender lateral pegs. The main part of the music is vocal and the biwa part mostly plays short interludes. Mural from Kizil, estimated Five Dynasties to Yuan dynasty, 10th to 13th century. This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. II, p. 30. 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. [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. The frets of the satsuma-biwa are raised 4 centimetres (1.6in) from the neck allowing notes to be bent several steps higher, each one producing the instrument's characteristic sawari, or buzzing drone. 1. Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection . [10][11] This may have given rise to the Qin pipa, an instrument with a straight neck and a round sound box, and evolved into ruan, an instrument named after Ruan Xian, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and known for playing similar instrument. Influenced by the shamisen, its music is rather soft, attracting more female players. 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 rhythm in biwa performances allows for a broad flexibility of pulse. 36 in. The fourth and fifth strings, if 5-stringed, are tuned to the same note. Most ms biwas have tear-shaped bodies, but this rustic fish-shaped example was probably used by a wandering Buddhist monk. Pei Luoer was known for pioneering finger-playing techniques,[25] while Sujiva was noted for the "Seven modes and seven tones", a musical modal theory from India. Classification (Sachs-Von Hornbostel revised by MIMO) 321.312 chordophone--spike box lute or spike guitar: the resonator is built up from wood, the body of the instrument is in the form of a box through which the handle/neck passes Players hold the instrument vertically. Pipa has been played solo, or as part of a large ensemble or small group since the early times. [31] Celebrated performers of the Tang dynasty included three generations of the Cao familyCao Bao (), Cao Shancai () and Cao Gang (),[59][60] whose performances were noted in literary works. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han dynasty during the Jin dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century. Thick strings clatter like splattering rain, Wei Zhongle (; 19031997) played many instruments, including the guqin. In modern biwa, particularly in Satsuma-biwa, one sometimes strikes the soundboard sharply to get percussive effects. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. 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. NAKAMURA Kahoru, the biwa player with whom we worked, mentioned that for a concert including pieces in two different modes, she tunes two biwas before the concert. Another. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, Accession Number:
A Sound Classification Musical instruments can be classified by the Western orchestral system into brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds; but the S-H system allows non-western instruments to be classified as well.