Kakubachi: This is the performance of arpeggio with a downward motion of the plectrum, and it is always loud. During the Qing dynasty, apart from those of the various schools previously mentioned, there was Chen Zijing (), a student of Ju Shilin and known as a noted player during the late Qing dynasty. Brian Grimm placed the contact mic pickup on the face of the pipa and wedged under the bridge so he is able to plug into pedalboards, live computer performance rigs, and direct input (DI) to an audio interface for studio tracking. In previous centuries, the predominant biwa musicians would have been blind monks (, biwa hshi), who used the biwa as musical accompaniment when reading scriptural texts. [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). 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. Its classification is a type of a Chordophone. 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). This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The strings are numbered from the lowest (first string) to the highest (fourth string). [12][13] Yet another term used in ancient text was Qinhanzi (), perhaps similar to Qin pipa with a straight neck and a round body, but modern opinions differ on its precise form. All rights reserved. 2. greatest width of resonator The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. Songs are not always metered, although more modern collaborations are metered. Interest in the biwa was revived during the Edo period (16001868), when Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan and established the Tokugawa shogunate. 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). We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. 'five-stringed biwa'), a Tang variant of biwa, can be seen in paintings of court orchestras and was used in the context of gagaku; however, it was removed with the reforms and standardization made to the court orchestra during the late 10th century. [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. [22] Some delicately carved pipas with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the Shosoin Museum in Japan. The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, and is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China. Though formerly popular, little was written about the performance and practice of the biwa from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. It is one of the more popular Chinese folk music, often paired with singing. [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. In the 1920s and 1930s, the number of frets was increased to 24, based on the 12 tone equal temperament scale, with all the intervals being semitones. 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). Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. By the Kamakura period (11851333), the heike-biwa had emerged as a more popular instrument, a cross between both the gaku-biwa and ms-biwa, retaining the rounded shape of the gaku-biwa and played with a large plectrum like the ms-biwa. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Shamisen 5. . We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. Among the major variants are the gakubiwa (used in court music), the msbiwa (used by Buddhist monks for the chanting of sutras), the heikebiwa (used to chant stories from the Heike monogatori), the chikuzenbiwa (used for an amalgam of narrative types), and the satsumabiwa (used for samurai narratives). Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. Most ms biwas have tear-shaped bodies, but this rustic fish-shaped example was probably used by a wandering Buddhist monk. A number of Western pipa players have experimented with amplified pipa. Its plectrum is the same as that used for the satsuma-biwa. All rights reserved. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [14], Biwa usage in Japan has declined greatly since the Heian period. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. Notes played on the biwa usually begin slow and thin and progress through gradual accelerations, increasing and decreasing tempo throughout the performance. Koizumi, Fumio. [49] In Nanguan music, the pipa is still held in the near-horizontal position or guitar-fashion in the ancient manner instead of the vertical position normally used for solo playing in the present day. Nation: Japan. Other early known players of pipa include General Xie Shang from the Jin dynasty who was described to have performed it with his leg raised. The chikuzen-biwa (), a biwa with four strings and four frets or five strings and five frets, was popularised in the Meiji period by Tachibana Satosada. 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. However, another variant of the biwa known as the ms-biwa or the kjin-biwa also found its way to Japan, first appearing in the Kyushu region. As one of the modern types of biwa that flourished in the late 19, centuries, Satsuma-biwa is widely played today in various settings, including popular media. The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. Several schools of biwa playing evolved from the ms tradition, one of which, founded in the 1890s by Tachibana Chij and others and called the Asahi-kai, was based on the style of the Chikuzen region of Kyushu. [24], In the subsequent periods, the number of frets gradually increased,[26] from around 10 to 14 or 16 during the Qing dynasty, then to 19, 24, 29, and 30 in the 20th century. The higo-biwa is closely related to the heike-biwa and, similarly, relies on an oral narrative tradition focusing on wars and legends. The instrument's rounded rectangular resonator has a snakeskin front and back, and the curved-back pegbox at the end of the neck has lateral, or side, tuning pegs that adjust three silk or nylon strings. The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. Both were pupils of Wang Yuting (18721951), and both were active in establishing and promoting Guoyue ("national music"), which is a combination of traditional regional music and Western musical practices. Wei Zhongle (; 19031997) played many instruments, including the guqin. [36][37] The Ming collection of supernatural tales Fengshen Yanyi tells the story of Pipa Jing, a pipa spirit, but ghost stories involving pipa existed as early as the Jin dynasty, for example in the 4th century collection of tales Soushen Ji. Ye Xuran (), a student of Lin Shicheng and Wei Zhongle, was the Pipa Professor at the first Musical Conservatory of China, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Traditionally, the 2nd pitch either acts as a lower neighboring tone or a descending passing tone. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. It is similar in shape to the chikuzen-biwa, but with a much more narrow body. Modern biwa used for contemporary compositions often have five or more frets, and some have a doubled fourth string. 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. Description. 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. This is due to the fact that the space between the strings on the first three frets is so short that a fingered 1st fret on the 3rd string, for example, would damp the following 4th string, as shown on Figure 7. As a result, younger musicians turned to other instruments and interest in biwa music decreased. [2][29] Wang Zhaojun in particular is frequently referenced with pipa in later literary works and lyrics, for example Ma Zhiyuan's play Autumn in the Palace of Han (), especially since the Song dynasty (although her story is often conflated with other women including Liu Xijun),[30][29] as well as in music pieces such as Zhaojun's Lament (, also the title of a poem), and in paintings where she is often depicted holding a pipa. length [20], Garfias, Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku Tradition 16, Garfias, Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku Tradition 18, Ferranti, Relations between Music and Text in "Higo Biwa", The "Nagashi" Pattern as a Text-MusicSystem 150, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Biwa&oldid=1097578427, This page was last edited on 11 July 2022, at 14:28. The tuning of the strings changes according to the pieces mode. Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio. As well as being one of the leading pipa players of his generation, Li held many academic positions and also carried out research on pipa scales and temperament. 1. The four fret type is tuned to E, B, E and A, and the five fret type is tuned to B, e, f and f. There were originally two major schools of pipa during the Qing dynastythe Northern (Zhili, ) and Southern (Zhejiang, ) schoolsand from these emerged the five main schools associated with the solo tradition. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/500681, Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; James L. Amerman, 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. Yo-sen has 2 tones regarded as auxiliary tones. The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Beginning in the late 1960s, these musicians and composers began to incorporate Japanese music and Japanese instruments into their compositions; for example, one composer, Tru Takemitsu, collaborated with Western composers and compositions to include the distinctly Asian biwa. The Kyushu biwa traditions, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes. Since the biwas pegs do not move smoothly, tuning the instrument to a different mode requires time. Shamisen. 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. [10] In solo performances, a biwa performer sings monophonically, with melismatic emphasis throughout the performance. Detail #2 shows the backside of the instrument; detail #3 is a side view revealing both the shallowness of the bowl-shaped resonator and the height of the frets that are glued onto the neck. Liu Dehai (19372020), also born in Shanghai, was a student of Lin Shicheng and in 1961 graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Players from the Wang and Pudong schools were the most active in performance and recording during the 20th century, less active was the Pinghu school whose players include Fan Boyan (). The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, Accession Number: The biwa ( Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. The instrument is also held vertically while playing. [13] What the plectrum is made of also changes the texture, with ivory and plastic plectrums creating a more resilient texture to the wooden plectrum's twangy hum. 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. Shakuhachi 2. 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 ) are crucial techniques to create the biwas subtle in-between notes that are unique for fretted instruments. The stroking motion always starts from the 1st string, sequentially sweeping toward the others until it reaches the arpeggios last string. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. 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 rapid strum is called sao (), and strumming in the reverse direction is called fu (). And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. 2.2 in. The strings are struck with a hand-held wooden plectrum. Chikuzen-biwa is another major type of biwa that is widely played today. Through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. It is one of the most enduring work in Chinese theatre, and one that became a model for Ming dynasty drama as it was the favorite opera of the first Ming emperor. 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). 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. This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. When Yamashika died in 1996, the era of the biwa hshi tutelage died with him, but the music and genius of that era continues thanks to his recordings. 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. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. Popularly used by female biwa players such as Uehara Mari. 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. 3 in. There are three small soundholes on the soundboard: two visible ones (hangetsu) partially covered with moon-shaped caps made of ivory and a hidden one (ingetsu) beneath the string holder. The biwa is a plucked lute chordophone of Japan. This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. 36 in. Its pick or bachi () is the largest among all types of biwa it sometimes. greatest depth of resonator, multiple (by pressure stopping against fretted fingerboard). 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 performance it was held sideways and played with a plectrum. Typically, the lower strings of the arpeggio are open, as indicated with the '0' in Example 4, while the last string hit may either be open or fingered (numbers 1 to 4 refers to the left hand's fingers from the index to the 4th finger, respectively). In Satsuma-biwa classical pieces, the thickest string (the first) is in principle used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. This is a type of biwa that wandering blind monks played for religious practice as well as in narrative musical performances during the medieval era, widely seen in the Kyushu area. 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. These tunings are relative, the actual pitches a given biwa is tuned to being determined by the vocal range of the singer/player. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. Even the biwa hshi transitioned to other instruments such as the shamisen (a three-stringed lute).[15]. These players had considerable influence on the development of pipa playing in China. Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection . 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. The fourth and fifth strings, if 5-stringed, are tuned to the same note. 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. The biwa, considered one of Japan's principal traditional instruments, has both influenced and been influenced by other traditional instruments and compositions throughout its long history; as such, a number of different musical styles played with the biwa exist. The biwa has a shallow, rounded back and silk strings (usually four or five) attached to slender lateral pegs. They recognized that studies in music theory and music composition in Japan almost entirely consisted in Western theory and instruction. The biwa is a stringed instrument used in Japan as a sort of story telling method. The biwa's twangy plucks were most commonly accompanied by a single voice during court performances, but its popularity spread the instrument made its way into religious sermons and oral history . Biwa. The performer sings while playing the biwa, and the instrumental part is modular in structure in that there are dozens of named or numbered phrases that the player must internalize and that are used as the building blocks of the instrument part that supports the vocal part. This may be due to the fact that the word pipa was used in ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones of the period from the Qin to the Tang dynasty, including the long-necked spiked lute and the short-necked lute, as well as the differing accounts given in these ancient texts. Liu also studied with other musicians and has developed a style that combines elements from several different schools. 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. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. [32][33][34] A famous poem by Bai Juyi, "Pipa xing" (), contains a description of a pipa performance during a chance encounter with a female pipa player on the Yangtze River:[35]. Kaeshibachi: The performance of arpeggio with an up-ward motion of the plectrum, and it is always soft. Different sized plectrums produced different textures; for example, the plectrum used on a ms-biwa was much larger than that used on a gaku-biwa, producing a harsher, more vigorous sound. The rhythm in biwa performances allows for a broad flexibility of pulse. Example 4 also shows the biwa's standard one-measure motive. Also, thanks to the possibility of relying on a level of virtuosity never before attempted in this specific repertory, the composer has sought the renewal of the acoustic and aesthetic profile of the biwa, bringing out the huge potential in the sound material: attacks and resonance, tempo (conceived not only in the chronometrical but also deliberately empathetical sense), chords, balance and dialogue (with the occasional use of two biwas in Nuove Musiche per Biwa), dynamics and colour.[4]. Koto. 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. It is an instrument in Japan, that is a two-stringed fiddle (violin). 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. Biwa playing has a long history on Kyushu, and for centuries the art was practiced within the institution of ms, blind Buddhist priests who performed sacred and secular texts for agrarian and other rituals. In the beginning of the Taish period (19121926), the satsuma-biwa was modified into the nishiki-biwa, which became popular among female players at the time. 5.5 in. The 4-string chikuzen biwa (gallery #1) is constructed in several parts and needs to be assembled and strung before being played. greatest depth of resonator If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Even though the system has been criticized and revised over the years, it is the most widely accepted system of musical instrument classification used by organologists and . The texture of biwa singing is often described as "sparse". Ms Biwa () Japanese. Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. [2], Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by Fu Xuan, Ode to Pipa,[1][28] associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier, Wang Zhaojun and other princesses who were married to nomad rulers of the Wusun and Xiongnu peoples in what is now Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. 2008. It was originally used by traveling biwa minstrels, and its small size lent it to indoor play and improved portability. The biwa originated in the Middle East and was delivered to Japan via the Silk Road in the 8th century. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called sawari () which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. Kakisukashi: This is a three or four-note arpeggio with two strings in unison. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. The instrument itself resembles gaku-biwa but is slightly smaller, and is held horizontally. 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, The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. Once assembled, four wound silk strings of varying thicknesses are at one of their ends tied to the string holder bridge (detail #4) and the other to the tuning pegs. Typically, the lowest notes of the arpeggios are open strings, while the highest ones can either be fingered pitches or an open string. greatest width of resonator 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). The Traditional Music of Japan. 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. length Not to be confused with the five-stringed variants of modern biwa, such as chikuzen-biwa. Players hold the instrument vertically. 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. biwa, Japanese short-necked lute, distinguished by its graceful, pear-shaped body. 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): An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961. Further, the frets and the nut are wide, which provides a surface, not a point, for a string to touch. The biwa is a four stringed lute and it is approximately 106 cm long (42 inches). Of particular fame were the family of pipa players founded by Cao Poluomen () and who were active for many generations from the Northern Wei to Tang dynasty. Typically 60 centimetres (24in) to 106 centimetres (42in) in length, the instrument is constructed of a water drop-shaped body with a short neck, typically with four (though sometimes five) strings. [1] An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961. This 5-stringed lute with a powerful. It is a big percussion instrument of Japanese that plays integral part of many Japanese Matsuri (festival). Example 4 shows the basic melody of Etenraku's section B and C, and its rhythmic accompaniment. [9] When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. Northern Wei dynasty (386534 AD). In Japan, the biwa is generally played with a bachi instead of the fingers, and is often used to play gagaku. An apsara (feitian) playing pipa, using fingers with the pipa held in near upright position. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. 5. Reflecting its history as an instrument for samurai, its music is often described as dynamic and heroic. 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). [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. By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. (92.7 20 12.7 cm), Classification: 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).