[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. 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. Region: East Asia. The strings are usually tuned to A2 D3 E3 A3 , although there are various other ways of tuning. Taiko Related Articles on Traditional Japanese Instruments 1. (80 30 3.4 cm), Classification:
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. Biwa hshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoku (, The Tale of the Heike),[further explanation needed] and continues to this day. [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. [42] During the Qing dynasty there originally two major schools of pipathe 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 (). 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. The pipa, pp, or p'i-p'a ( Chinese: ) is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. 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 . What is the hornbostelsachs classification of biwa instrument - 9005546 Although shaped like a Western lute, the Biwa's back is flat and it has a shallower body. The biwas sound at the attack (top) at one second later (bottom). [16], While many styles of biwa flourished in the early 1900s (such as kindai-biwa between 1900 and the 1930s), the cycle of tutelage was broken yet again by the war. Performers on the instrument frequently pluck two notes simultaneously, producing a variety of intervals, especially when the singer is silent. [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). 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. The strings are sounded with a large, thick, fan-shaped plectrum called a bachi (detail #6), traditionally made of wood (the practice bachi pictured here is made from resin). 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]. Ms Biwa () Japanese. Its tuning is C, G, c, g, g. Gaku-biwa, chikuzen-biwa, heike-biwa, ms-biwa, satsuma-biwa and their plectra. 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 . String-bending for example may be used to produce a glissando or portamento. For a long time, the biwa tradition was carried on by wandering blind monks who used the instrument to tell stories such as the Tale of Heike (). We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. The exception for these methods is for when hazusu or tataku are performed on the 4th string. By the middle of the Meiji period, improvements had been made to the instruments and easily understandable songs were composed in quantity. A player holds it horizontally, and mostly plays rhythmic arpeggios in orchestra or ensemble. 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. [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. Thought to be of Persian origin, the biwa was brought to Japan in the 8th century via Central Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. The strings are numbered from the lowest (first string) to the highest (fourth string). The biwa has a shallow, rounded back and silk strings (usually four or five) attached to slender lateral pegs. 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. This causes a sustained, buzzing noise called sawari () which adds a unique flavor to the biwa sound. Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted, Credit Line:
The heike-biwa (), a biwa with four strings and five frets, is used to play The Tale of the Heike. [41] Three Ming dynasty pieces were discovered in the High River Flows East (, Gaohe Jiangdong) collection dating from 1528 which are very similar to those performed today, such as "The Moon on High" (, Yue-er Gao). [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. 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. All rights reserved. It is possible to include a fingered pitch among the lower grace-notes but that pitch should preferably be chosen among those playable on the 4th fret. She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. [69] The instrument is also played by musician Min Xiaofen in "I See Who You Are", a song from Bjrk's album Volta. The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. the fingers and thumb flick outward, unlike the guitar where the fingers and thumb normally pluck inward towards the palm of the hand. The fourth and fifth strings, if 5-stringed, are tuned to the same note. The Met Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue Each type has different and unique tones, techniques, and musical styles. The pipa, pp, or p'i-p'a (Chinese: ) is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Jiaju Shen from The Either also plays an Electric 5 String Pipa/Guitar hybrid that has the Hardware from an Electric Guitar combined with the Pipa, built by an instrument maker named Tim Sway called "Electric Pipa 2.0". Biwa traditions began with blind priests who traveled from village to village singing sutras. (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. Catalogue of the Crosby Brown . As a result, younger musicians turned to other instruments and interest in biwa music decreased. Influenced by the recitations of blind priests, the music of the heike biwa reflects the mood of the text. The body is often made of stretched snakeskin, and come in varying sizes. However, following the collapse of the Ritsury state, biwa hshi employed at the court were faced with the court's reconstruction and sought asylum in Buddhist temples. The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. From these styles also emerged the two principal survivors of the biwa tradition: satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa. [51][52] Different schools have different repertoire in their music collection, and even though these schools share many of the same pieces in their repertoire, a same piece of music from the different schools may differ in their content. Wei Zhongle (; 19031997) played many instruments, including the guqin. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Although typically it is used to play short standardized phrases between lines of vocal text, it may be used for longer programmatic pieces depicting battles, storms, or other dramatic events. The design and construction of the 5-string Chikuzen biwa pictured in gallery #2 is basically the same as for the 4-string model described above except accommodations need to be made to the pegbox (detail #7) and bridge (detail #8) for the additional string. Heike-biwa is an accompaniment instrument specifically used to chant the Tale of Heike stories () in the traditional way dating from the medieval era. The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "p" () and "p" (). The excerpt is performed by the ensemble Reigakusha. One of these, the new chikuzen biwa tradition, became popular amongst many thousands of amateurs between c.1900 and 1920. In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (, ) and has been grown for over . The number of frets is considerably fewer than other fretted instruments. Members of these schools are sighted and include both females and males. 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. Clara H. Rose (d. 1914) Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Asia, Gallery 27. 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. used to strike the hard soundboard sharply to create percussive effects, adding a more dynamic flavor to the music. General tones and pitches can fluctuate up or down entire steps or microtones. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 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.[70]. 1. 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. In more recent times, many pipa players, especially the younger ones, no longer identify themselves with any specific school. Shamisen players and other musicians found it financially beneficial to switch to the biwa, bringing new styles of biwa music with them. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. Its pick or bachi () is the largest among all types of biwa it sometimes. L 31 1/2 W. 11 13/16 D. 1 5/16 in. There is little space between the strings on the first three frets, causing obstruction when attacking an upper string whose immediate lower string is fingered in one of the first three frets. greatest width of resonator The biwa is a stringed instrument used in Japan as a sort of story telling method. Four or five frets are attached to the body, and it is played with a large wooden plectrum (bachi). Example 4 also shows the biwa's standard one-measure motive. With the end of the wars, unsurprisingly, the biwa music became less popular, and the number of biwa musicians dropped significantly. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. 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. So the previously mentioned tuning can be tuned down to B, F, B, c, d. Asahikai and Tachibanakai are the two major schools of chikuzen-biwa. 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. 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). [29], 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. Corrections? [9] When singing in a chorus, biwa singers often stagger their entry and often sing through non-synchronized, heterophony accompaniment. Although this instrument is quite large and a very substantial plectrum is used to excite its strings, its sound is surprisingly soft and meant more for intimate settings rather than concert halls. The biwa developed into five different types in its long history: . (92.7 20 12.7 cm), The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889. It has not caught on in China but in Korea (where she also did some of her research) the bipa was revived since then and the current versions are based on Chinese pipa, including one with five-strings. Formation: Japanese. 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. Heike Biwa (), Medium:
Sheng. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. , one can make two or three notes for each fret and also in-between notes. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. It is however possible to produce the tremolo with just one or more fingers. Written by Nobuko Fukatsu The 4 wedge-shaped frets on the neck became 6 during the 20th century. Type. The higo-biwa is closely related to the heike-biwa and, similarly, relies on an oral narrative tradition focusing on wars and legends. It always starts from the 4th string and stops on either the 3rd, 2nd, or 1st string depending if the arpeggio contains 2, 3, or 4 pitches, respectively. often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. The instrument is played with a large wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. Male players typically play biwa that are slightly wider and/or longer than those used by women or children. 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. 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. 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 (). Notes played on the biwa usually begin slow and thin and progress through gradual accelerations, increasing and decreasing tempo throughout the performance. Heike-biwa is an accompaniment instrument specifically used to chant the Tale of Heike stories () in the traditional way dating from the medieval era. There are 4-string and 5-string biwas, both with 5 frets, and the soundboard is made from soft paulownia wood. The 4-string chikuzen biwa (gallery #1) is constructed in several parts and needs to be assembled and strung before being played. The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. (92.7 20 12.7 cm), Classification:
Kakubachi: This is the performance of arpeggio with a downward motion of the plectrum, and it is always loud. The piece is in Hy-j mode (E Dorian) and the basic melody is centered on the pitches: E, B, and A, three of the four fundamental pitches of the Japanese modes. These two modern styles came to Tokyo with the local reformists who led the Meiji Restoration, and became the center of the contemporary music scene in the late 19th to early 20th century. 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. Interest in the biwa was revived during the Edo period (16001868), when Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan and established the Tokugawa shogunate. 2. Kakisukashi: This is a three or four-note arpeggio with two strings in unison. In all biwa styles, except for Gaku-biwa (: please refer to the section Types of Biwa), fingers are positioned between the frets, not on the frets. Like the heike-biwa, it is played held on its side, similar to a guitar, with the player sitting cross-legged. 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. It is an instrument in Japan, that is a two-stringed fiddle (violin). Ms Biwa (), Dimensions:
After having arrived in Japan via the Silk Road for purely instrumental music, the biwa evolved over time into a narrative musical instrument. Wood, leather, Dimensions:
Biwa Description The biwa is a four stringed lute and it is approximately 106 cm long (42 inches). used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. 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. Famous solo pieces now performed include: 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. With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. The biwa originated in the Middle East and was delivered to Japan via the Silk Road in the 8th century. Multiple strings are often played in one pluck like an arpeggio.
The rich legacy of the biwa | The Japan Times 13 in. [2] Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in Kusana sculptures from the 1st century AD. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Because of this bending technique oshikan (), one can make two or three notes for each fret and also in-between notes. 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. For other uses, see, Illustrations from the 15th century Korean work, Xiansuo Shisan Tao (, later incorporated into Complete String Music ), Note that some people claimed Pei Xingnu to be the female player described in the poem, History of lute-family instruments Short-necked lutes, "The pipa: How a barbarian lute became a national symbol", "Avaye Shayda - Kishibe's diffusionism theory on the Iranian Barbat and Chino-Japanese Pi' Pa', "Chapter 1: A General history of the Pipa", "Bracket with two musicians 100s, Pakistan, Gandhara, probably Butkara in Swat, Kushan Period (1st century-320)", The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics, "Pipa - A Chinese lute or guitar, its brief history, photos and music samples", A report on Chinese research into the Dunhuang music manuscripts, "Chapter 3 Musical structure in the Hua Collection", "Comparison of Three Chinese Traditional Pipa Music Schools with the Aid of Sound Analysis", "Lui Pui-yuen, master of Chinese music, returns to perform once again", "Incubus - Mike Einziger Guitar Gear Rig and Equipment", "[search page, albums featuring Yang Jing]", "La scne musicale alternative pkinoise vue par Jean Sbastien Hry (Djang San)", "BC GRIMM Experimental Acoustic-Electric Music EPK", "Experimental Electric Pipa - , by Zhang Si'an (Djang San )", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pipa&oldid=1138787889, Articles with dead external links from January 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Articles with MusicBrainz instrument identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Flute and Drum at Sunset / Flowery Moonlit River in Spring, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 16:35.