Pipa
The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.
The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used; examples survive in museums, as attempts to revive the Korean instrument have been partially successful in recent years.
History
There are considerable confusion and disagreements about the origin of pipa. This may be due to the fact that the word pipa was used in ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones 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. 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. Modern researchers such as Laurence Picken, Shigeo Kishibe, and John Myers suggested a non-Chinese origin.The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han Dynasty around the 2nd century AD. According to Liu Xi's Eastern Han Dynasty Dictionary of Names, the word pipa may have an onomatopoeic origin, although modern scholarship suggests a possible derivation from the Persian word "barbat", the two theories however are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called pipa, though written differently in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people. Another Han Dynasty text also indicates that, at that time, pipa was a recent arrival, although later 3rd-century texts from the Jin dynasty suggest that pipa existed in China as early as the Qin Dynasty. An instrument called xiantao, made by stretching strings over a small drum with handle, was said to have been played by labourers who constructed the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty. 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. Yet another term used in ancient text was Qinhanzi, perhaps similar to Qin pipa, but modern opinions differ on its precise form.
showing a lute being played by a musician, 1st-2nd century AD
The pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia, Gandhara, and/or India. Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in Kusana sculptures from the 1st century AD. The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the Han dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. 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. Pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han dynasty - the instrument length of three feet five inches represents the three realms and the five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons.
Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the Southern and Northern Dynasties onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang Dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa, bent-neck pipa, some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa, a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei. From the 3rd century onwards, through the Sui and Tang Dynasty, the pear-shaped pipas became increasingly popular in China. By the Song dynasty the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument.
The pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang Dynasty, and was a principal musical instrument in the imperial court. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu, an elaborate music and dance performance. During this time Persian and Kuchan performers and teachers were in demand in the capital, Chang'an. Some delicately carved pipas with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the Shosoin Museum in Japan. It had close association with Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts. For example, masses of pipa-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. The four and five-stringed pipas were especially popular during the Tang Dynasty, and these instruments were introduced into Japan during the Tang Dynasty as well as into other regions such as Korea and Vietnam. The five-stringed pipa however had fallen from use by the Song Dynasty, although attempts have been made to revive this instrument in the early 21st century with a modernized five-string pipa modeled on the Tang Dynasty instrument.
During the Song Dynasty, pipa fell from favour in the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of neo-Confucian nativism as pipa had foreign associations. However, it continued to be played as a folk instrument that also gained the interest of the literati. The pipa underwent a number of changes over the centuries. By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. Extra frets were added; the early instrument had 4 frets on the neck, but during the early Ming Dynasty extra bamboo frets were affixed onto the soundboard, increasing the number of frets to around 10 and therefore the range of the instrument. The short neck of the Tang pipa also became more elongated.
In the subsequent periods, the number of frets gradually increased, from around 10 to 14 or 16 during the Qing Dynasty, then to 19, 24, 29, and 30 in the 20th century. The 4 wedge-shaped frets on the neck became 6 during the 20th 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,. 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 traditional 16-fret pipa became less common, although it is still used in some regional styles such as the pipa in the southern genre of nanguan''/nanyin. The horizontal playing position became the vertical position by the Qing Dynasty, although in some regional genres such as nanguan the pipa is still held guitar fashion. During the 1950s, the use of metal strings in place of the traditional silk ones also resulted in a change in the sound of the pipa which became brighter and stronger.
In Chinese literature
Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by Fu Xuan, Ode to Pipa, associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier, Princess Liu Xijun and Wang Zhaojun, who were married to nomad rulers of the Wusun and Xiongnu peoples in what is now Mongolia and northern Xinjiang respectively. Wang Zhaojun in particular is frequently referenced in later literary works and lyrics, as well as in music pieces such as Zhaojun's Lament, and in paintings where she is often depicted holding a pipa.There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. The pipa is mentioned frequently in Tang Dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its expressiveness, refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances. A famous poem by Bai Juyi's Pipa xing, contains a description of a pipa performance during a chance encounter with a female pipa player on the Yangtze River:
The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, Song of Pipa. Another excerpt of figurative descriptions of a pipa music may be found in a eulogy for a pipa player, Lament for Shancai by Li Shen:
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. They included Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, and Su Shi. During the Yuan dynasty, the playwright Gao Ming wrote a play for nanxi opera called Pipa ji, a tale about an abandoned wife who set out to find her husband, surviving by playing the pipa. 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 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. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as Jin Ping Mei showed pipa performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses.
Playing and performance
The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "pí" and "pá". These, according to the Han dynasty text by Liu Xi, refer to the way the instrument is played - "pí" is to strike outward with the right hand, and "pá" is to pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. It has however been suggested that the long plectrum depicted in ancient paintings may have been used as a friction stick like a bow. The plectrum has now been largely replaced by the fingernails of the right hand. The most basic technique, tantiao, involves just the index finger and thumb. The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. the fingers and thumb flick outward, unlike the guitar where the fingers and thumb normally pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. Plucking in the opposite direction to tan and tiao are called mo and gou respectively. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb, it is called fen, the reverse motion is called zhi. A rapid strum is called sao, and strumming in the reverse direction is called fu. A distinctive sound of pipa is the tremolo produced by the lunzhi technique which involves all the fingers and thumb of the right hand. It is however possible to produce the tremolo with just one or more fingers.The left hand techniques are important for the expressiveness of pipa music. Techniques that produce vibrato, portamento, glissando, pizzicato, harmonics or artificial harmonics found in violin or guitar are also found in pipa. String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. Note however that the frets on all Chinese lutes are high so that the fingers and strings never touch the fingerboard in between the frets, this is different from many Western fretted instruments and allows for dramatic vibrato and other pitch changing effects.
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.
The strings are usually tuned to A-D-E-A, although there are various other ways of tuning. Since the revolutions in Chinese instrument-making during the 20th century, the softer twisted silk strings of earlier times have been exchanged for nylon-wound steel strings, which are far too strong for human fingernails, so false nails are now used, constructed of plastic or tortoise-shell, and affixed to the fingertips with the player's choice of elastic tape. However, false nails made of horn existed as early as the Ming period when fingerpicking became the popular technique for playing pipa.
The pipa is held in a vertical or near-vertical position during performance, although in the early periods the instrument was held in the horizontal position or near-horizontal with the neck pointing slightly downwards, or upside down. Through time, the neck was raised and by the Qing Dynasty the instrument was mostly played upright.
Repertoire
Pipa has been played solo, or as part of a large ensemble or small group since the early times. Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some however are preserved in Japan as part of togaku tradition. In the early 20th century, twenty-five pieces were found amongst 10th-century manuscripts in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, most of these pieces however may have originated from the Tang dynasty. The scores were written in tablature form with no information on tuning given, there are therefore uncertainties in the reconstruction of the music as well as deciphering other symbols in the score. Three Ming dynasty pieces were discovered in the High River Flows East collection dating from 1528 which are very similar to those performed today, such as "The Moon on High". During the Qing dynasty, scores for pipa were collected in Thirteen Pieces for Strings. During the Qing dynasty there originally two major schools of pipa — the Northern and Southern schools, and music scores for these two traditions were collected and published in the first mass-produced edition of solo pieces for pipa, now commonly known as the Hua Collection. The collection was edited by Hua Qiuping and published in 1819 in three volumes. The first volume contains 13 pieces from the Northern school, the second and third volumes contain 54 pieces from the Southern school. Famous pieces such as "Ambushed from Ten Sides", "The Warlord Takes Off His Armour", and "Flute and Drum at Sunset" were first described in this collection. The earliest-known piece in the collection may be "Eagle Seizing a Crane" which was mentioned in a Yuan dynasty text. 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. Further important collections were published in the 20th century.The pipa pieces in the common repertoire can be categorized as wen or wu, and da or xiao. 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. 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. The wu style was associated more with the Northern school while the wen style was more the Southern school. The da and xiao categories refer to the size of the piece - xiao pieces are small pieces normally containing only one section, while da pieces are large and usually contain multiple sections. The traditional pieces however often have a standard metrical length of 68 measures or beat, and these may be joined together to form the larger pieces dagu.
Famous solo pieces now performed include:
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | Pinyin | English |
| :zh:十面埋伏 |十面埋伏 | 十面埋伏 | Shí Mìan Maífú | Ambushed from Ten Sides |
| 夕陽簫鼓/:zh:春江花月夜|春江花月夜 | 夕阳箫鼓/春江花月夜 | Xīyáng Xīao Gǔ/Chūnjiāng Huā Yuèyè | Flute and Drum at Sunset / Flowery Moonlit River in Spring |
| :zh:陽春白雪|陽春白雪 | 阳春白雪 | Yángchūn Baíxuě | White Snow in Spring Sunlight |
| 龍船 | 龙船 | Lóngchuán | Dragon Boat |
| 彝族舞曲 | 彝族舞曲 | Yìzú Wúqǔ | Dance of the Yi People |
| 大浪淘沙 | 大浪淘沙 | Dàlàng Táo Shā | Big Waves Crashing on Sand |
| 昭君出塞 | 昭君出塞 | Zhàojūn Chū Saì | Zhaojun Outside the Frontier |
| :zh:霸王卸甲|霸王卸甲 | 霸王卸甲 | Bàwáng Xiè Jiǎ | The Warlord Takes Off His Armour |
| 高山流水 | 高山流水 | Gaoshan Lishui | High Mountains Flowing Water |
| 月兒高 | 月儿高 | Yue'er Gao | Moon on High |
Most of the above are traditional compositions dating to the Qing Dynasty or early 20th century, new pieces however are constantly being composed, and most of them follow a more Western structure. Examples of popular modern works composed after the 1950s are "Dance of the Yi People" and "Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland". Non-traditional themes may be used in these new compositions and some may reflect the political landscape and demands at the time of composition, for example "Dance of the Yi People" which is based on traditional melodies of the Yi people, may be seen as part of the drive for national unity, while "Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland" extols the virtue of those who served as model of exemplary behaviour in the People's commune.
Schools
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. In the narrative traditions where the pipa is used as an accompaniment to narrative singing, there are the Suzhou tanci, Sichuan qingyin, and Northern quyi genres. Pipa is also an important component of regional chamber ensemble traditions such as Jiangnan sizhu, Teochew string music and Nanguan ensemble. 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.There were originally two major schools of pipa during the Qing Dynasty — the Northern and Southern schools, and from these emerged the five main schools associated with the solo tradition. Each school is associated with one or more collections of pipa music and named after its place of origin -
- Wuxi school – associated with the Hua Collection by Hua Qiuping, who studied with Wang Junxi of the Northern school and Chen Mufu of the Southern school, and may be considered a synthesis of these two schools of the Qing Dynasty. As the first published collection, the Hua Collection had considerable influence on later pipa players.
- Pudong school – associated with the Ju Collection which is based on an 18th-century handwritten manuscript, Xianxu Youyin, by Ju Shilin.
- Pinghu school – associated with the Li Collection first published in 1895 and compiled by Li Fangyuan who came from a family of many generations of pipa players.
- Chongming school – associated with Old Melodies of Yingzhou compiled by Shen Zhaozhou in 1916.
- Shanghai or Wang school – named after Wang Yuting who created this style of playing. It may be considered a synthesis of the other four schools especially the Pudong and Pinghu schools. Wang did not publish his notation book in his lifetime, although handwritten copies were passed on to his students.
In more recent times, many pipa players, especially the younger ones, no longer identify themselves with any specific school. Modern notation systems, new compositions as well as recordings are now widely available and it is no longer crucial for a pipa players to learn from the master of any particular school to know how to play a score.
Performers
Historical
Pipa is commonly associated with Princess Liu Xijun and Wang Zhaojun of the Han dynasty, although the form of pipa they played in that period is unlikely to be pear-shaped as they are now usually depicted. 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 introduction of pipa from Central Asia also brought with it virtuoso performers from that region, for example Sujiva from the Kingdom of Kucha during the Northern Zhou dynasty, Kang Kunlun from Kangju, and Pei Luoer from Shule. Pei Luoer was known for pioneering finger-playing techniques, while Sujiva was noted for the "Seven modes and seven tones", a musical modal theory from India.. These players had considerable influence on the development of pipa playing in China. 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.Texts from Tang dynasty mentioned many renowned pipa players such as He Huaizhi, Lei Haiqing, Li Guaner, and Pei Xingnu. Duan Anjie described the duel between the famous pipa player Kang Kunlun and the monk Duan Shanben who was disguised as a girl, and told the story of Yang Zhi who learned how to play the pipa secretly by listening to his aunt playing at night. Celebrated performers of the Tang Dynasty included three generations of the Cao family — Cao Bao, Cao Shancai and Cao Gang, whose performances were noted in literary works.
During the Song Dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin. From the Ming dynasty, famous pipa players include Zhong Xiuzhi, Zhang Xiong, the blind Li Jinlou, and Tang Yingzeng who was known to have played a piece that may be an early version of "Ambushed from Ten Sides".
In 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 late Qing dynasty.
Modern era
In the 20th century, two of the most prominent pipa players were Sun Yude and Li Tingsong. Both were pupils of Wang Yuting, and both were active in establishing and promoting Guoyue, which is a combination of traditional regional music and Western musical practices. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai minzu yuetuan. 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. Wei Zhongle played many instruments, including the guqin. In the early 1950s, he founded the traditional instruments department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. 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. Other noted players of the early 20th century include Liu Tianhua, a student of Shen Zhaozhou of the Chongming school and who increased the number of frets on the pipa and changed to an equal-tempered tuning, and the blind player Abing from Wuxi.Lin Shicheng, born in Shanghai, began learning music under his father and was taught by Shen Haochu, a leading player in the Pudong school style of pipa playing. He also qualified as a doctor of Chinese medicine. In 1956, after working for some years in Shanghai, Lin accepted a position at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Liu Dehai, also born in Shanghai, was a student of Lin Shicheng and in 1961 graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Liu also studied with other musicians and has developed a style that combines elements from several different schools. 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. He premiered the oldest Dunhuang Pipa Manuscript in Shanghai in the early 1980s.
Other prominent students of Lin Shicheng at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing include Liu Guilian, Gao Hong and Wu Man. Wu Man is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. She lives in San Diego, California and works extensively with Chinese, cross-cultural, new music, and jazz groups. Shanghai-born Liu Guilian graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and became the director of the Shanghai Pipa Society, and a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and Chinese National Orchestral Society, before immigrating to Canada. She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. Gao Hong graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and was the first to do a joint tour with Lin Shicheng in North America. They recorded the critically acclaimed CD "Eagle Seizing Swan" together.
Noted contemporary pipa players who work internationally include Min Xiao-Fen, Zhou Yi, Qiu Xia He, Liu Fang, Cheng Yu, Jie Ma, Yang Jing, Yang Wei, Guan Yadong, Jiang Ting, Tang Liangxing, and Lui Pui-Yuen. Some other notable pipa players in China include Yu Jia, Wu Yu Xia, Fang Jinlung and Zhao Cong.
Use in contemporary classical music
In the late 20th century, largely through the efforts of Wu Man, Min Xiao-Fen, composer Yang Jing and other performers, Chinese and Western contemporary composers began to create new works for the pipa. Most prominent among these are Minoru Miki, Thüring Bräm, YANG Jing, Terry Riley, Donald Reid Womack, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, and Carl Stone.Use in other genres
The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from legendary guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. The Shanghai progressive/folk-rock band Cold Fairyland, which was formed in 2001, also use pipa, sometimes multi-tracking it in their recordings. Australian dark rock band The Eternal use the pipa in their song "Blood" as played by singer/guitarist Mark Kelson on their album Kartika. Other musicians who released albums featuring Yang Jing on pipa include Swiss jazz group 4tett, Pierre Favre, Wolfgang Sieber, and Miki Minoru. The instrument is also played by musician Min Xiaofen in "I See Who You Are", a song from Björk's album Volta. Western performers of pipa include French musician Djang San, who integrated jazz and rock concepts to the instrument such as power chords and walking bass.Electric pipa
The electric pipa was first developed in the late 20th century by adding electric guitar–style magnetic pickups to a regular acoustic pipa, allowing the instrument to be amplified through an instrument amplifier or PA system.A number of Western pipa players have experimented with amplified pipa. 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 to an audio interface for studio tracking. In 2014, French zhongruan player and composer Djang San, created his own electric pipa and recorded an experimental album that puts the electric pipa at the center of music. He was also the first musician to add a strap to the instrument, as he did for the zhongruan, allowing him to play the pipa and the zhongruan like a guitar.
In 2014, an industrial designer residing in the United States Xi Zheng designed and crafted an electric pipa - "E-pa" in New York. In 2015, pipa player Jiaju Shen released a mini album composed and produced by Li Zong, with E-pa music that has a strong Chinese flavor within a modern Western pop music mould.