Gaoqiang and Sichuan Opera Music

Author: Lu Yingkun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-07-01
Features: This book is a revised and published version based on the doctoral dissertation of Professor Lu Yingkun. It is currently the first monograph in China that comprehensively explores the Gaoqiang opera. Gaoqiang, along with Kunqiang, Bayinqiang, and Pihuqiang, is one of the four major vocal styles of Chinese opera, with a history spanning over six hundred years and having once flourished across much of China. Sichuan Gaoqiang is the most typical and artistically refined local branch within the Gaoqiang system. This book edits, focusing on the main morphological characteristics of Sichuan Gaoqiang from aspects such as the combination of "helping, clapping, and singing," musical forms, and melodic organization. Gaoqiang has numerous branches across different regions, each with unique characteristics. The second part compares Sichuan Gaoqiang with other Gaoqiang styles in various regions, providing an overview of the overall landscape of Gaoqiang. The other four vocal styles of Sichuan opera—Kunqiang, Huqinqiang, Dantixiang, and Dengdiao—are considered national-level vocal styles. The Kunqiang, Pihuqiang, Bayinqiang, and "minor play" song styles in Sichuan can be seen as epitomes of these four major vocal styles in the region. The third part introduces these four vocal styles of Sichuan opera and contrasts them with the Gaoqiang system. The first three parts explore the current forms of Gaoqiang and Sichuan opera music. The fourth part shifts to the history of Gaoqiang and Sichuan opera music, tracing its evolutionary trajectory from the Northern and Southern Qu styles of the Song and Yuan dynasties. Gaoqiang is defined as "unaccompanied singing combined with chorus in a freely sung Northern and Southern Qu style, incorporating local folk tunes and popular melodies." It summarizes the morphological characteristics of Gaoqiang tunes, such as "non-blocked structure," "flexible assembly of musical motifs," and "non-specialized tunes and melodies," and concludes that the Gaoqiang system is a "deconstruction" of the "qupai system" in comparison with other vocal styles. These are all original insights. In the historical analysis of Gaoqiang, the author closely integrates musical evidence with textual research, concluding that "changing tunes and melodies" was the fundamental path for Gaoqiang to evolve from the Northern and Southern Qu styles of the Song and Yuan dynasties and to give rise to numerous regional branches, marking an important breakthrough in the methodology of vocal style history research.
Lu Yingkun was born in 1953. In 1970, he joined the Chengdu Sichuan Opera Theater, where he engaged in musical instrument performance, music composition, and research. In 1985, he pursued a master's degree in opera studies at the Chinese Academy of Arts. In 1988, he joined the Beijing Art Research Institute. In 1992, he enrolled in the doctoral program at the Chinese Academy of Arts. In 1994, he joined the Institute of Opera Research at the Chinese Academy of Arts, where he conducted research on opera and music. Since 1996, he has served as the Deputy Director of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Arts. In 2002, he moved to the School of Film and Television Arts at Beijing Broadcasting University. He currently holds the title of Researcher and serves as a doctoral supervisor. His main research and teaching fields include opera music, opera history and theory, and the history of Chinese music. He has published monographs such as Chinese Opera and Social Colors, Dreamy Dreams and Clear Songs—Chinese Scholarly Opera, Gaoqiang and Sichuan Opera Music, and The Theory of Opera Art. His major papers include "The Economic Foundation of Traditional Peking Opera Art—A Brief Discussion on the Income of Peking Opera Artists in the Late Qing and Early Republican Period," "The 'Human Touch' of Opera," "A Brief Discussion on Scholarly Opera," "Shakespeare's Dream and the Dream of Chinese Scholars," "A Brief Examination of the Xiansuo Tunes of the Ming Dynasty," "Mr. Huang Xiaopeng's Translation of 'Tianhong'," "The Evolution of Qu and Qiang in the History of Chinese Opera," and "Era, Tradition, and Opera Music." His co-authored works include Yangtze River Opera and The History of Chinese Literature in Body Forms—Volume on Opera. He has served as the editor-in-chief (co-edited) of series such as The Treasury of Chinese Art and The Youth Art Vision Library. He has taught graduate courses such as "Opera Music," "Folk Opera of the Ming and Qing Dynasties," "The History of Chinese Opera," and "The Theory of Opera Art" at the Chinese Academy of Arts, Beijing Broadcasting University, and other universities. Currently, he is undertaking the National Social Science Fund project Research on Late Qing Luandan Opera, while also participating in national projects such as The Compendium of Chinese Opera Music (serving as the editor-in-chief of the general section and a special reviewer for some provincial volumes), The Comprehensive History of Chinese Art (serving as the deputy editor-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty volume), and The Revised Edition of the Dictionary of Chinese Music (serving as the editor-in-chief of the opera music branch).