biwa instrument classification

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. [17] Even higo-biwa players, who were quite popular in the early 20th century, may no longer have a direct means of studying oral composition, as the bearers of the tradition have either died or are no longer able to play. Biwa 6. Outside influence, internal pressures, and socio-political turmoil redefined biwa patronage and the image of the biwa; for example, the nin War of the Muromachi period (13381573) and the subsequent Warring States period (15th17th centuries) disrupted the cycle of tutelage for heikyoku[citation needed][a] performers. These cookies do not store any personal information. Heike Biwa (), Medium: The flowers fluttered, and from Heaven the phoenix trilled, Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some, however, are preserved in Japan as part of togaku (Tang music) tradition. 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. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used. Players hold the instrument vertically. Acoustical classification of woods for string instruments This article is about the Chinese instrument. Biwa players no longer enjoyed special privileges and were forced to support themselves. Biwa - Stanford University . Ms Biwa () Japanese. 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. (80 30 3.4 cm), Classification: This singing style is complemented by the biwa, which biwa players use to produce short glissandi throughout the performance. Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item, Title: The . Biwa traditions began with blind priests who traveled from village to village singing sutras. greatest depth of resonator If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. By the Song dynasty, the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument. 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). 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 origin of the Japanese biwa as a generic type of instrument dates back to around the year 700 CE when the pipa was first introduced to Japan from China as part of ensembles gifted to the Japanese Emperor. Pipa is also an important component of regional chamber ensemble traditions such as Jiangnan sizhu, Teochew string music and Nanguan ensemble. This biwa often has five strings (although it is essentially a 4-string instrument as the 5th string is a doubled 4th that are always played together) and five or more frets, and the construction of the tuning head and frets vary slightly. [61][33], During the Song dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin (). From these styles also emerged the two principal survivors of the biwa tradition: satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa. Since the revolutions in Chinese instrument-making during the 20thcentury, 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. Plucking in the opposite direction to tan and tiao are called mo () and gou () respectively. shamisen Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection Grinnell It is similar in shape to the chikuzen-biwa, but with a much more narrow body. Omissions? Bodmin, Cornwall, Great Britain: MPG Books, pp. Sandstone carving, showing the typical way a pipa was held when played with plectrum in the early period. One of these, the new chikuzen biwa tradition, became popular amongst many thousands of amateurs between c.1900 and 1920. The two-headed tacked drum hung in an elaborate circular frame in court music is a gaku-daiko or tsuri-daiko. In the 20th century, two of the most prominent pipa players were Sun Yude (; 19041981) and Li Tingsong (; 19061976). Sanxian ("Three strings") or Xianzi (Spike lute) - University of Edinburgh 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. The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. [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. It produces distinctive ichikotsuch () and hyj (). The biwa is a relative of Western lutes and guitars, as well as of the Chinese pipa. Its boxwood plectrum is much wider than others, often reaching widths of 25cm (9.8in) or more. 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 sound can be totally different depending on where the instrument is hit, how the plectrum is held, and which part of the plectrum hits the surface. The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, and is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China. Loquat - Wikipedia (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. We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. The four-string specimen is tuned to a shamisen tuning called honchshi (interval structure, from the lowest string upwards, of P4 - P5, with the top two strings tuned in unison): approximately B2 E3 B3 B3; a typical tuning for the 5-string instrument has the intervallic sequence of P4 (down) P4 (up) M2 (up) P4 (up), approximately E3 B2 E3 F-sharp3 B3. 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 (, quxiang pipa), some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa. A rapid strum is called sao (), and strumming in the reverse direction is called fu (). Sort by. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In the early 1950s, he founded the traditional instruments department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The musical narrative of The Tale of Heike, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes. Wei Zhongle (; 19031997) played many instruments, including the guqin. Hornbostel-Sachs - Wikipedia Hazusu: This is a sequence of two pitches, where the first one is attacked, and leades to a second one which is not attacked. Komoda Haruko. The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Not to be confused with the five-stringed variants of modern biwa, such as chikuzen-biwa. [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 first and second strings are generally tuned to the same note, with the 4th (or doubled 4th) string is tuned one octave higher. Over the centuries, several types of biwa were created, each having a certain size plectrum, a specialized purpose, a unique performance technique, and varying numbers of strings and frets. The biwa became known as an instrument commonly played at the Japanese Imperial court, where biwa players, known as biwa hshi, found employment and patronage. 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. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. [17][14] Starting about the 10th century, players began to hold the instrument "more upright", as the fingernail style became more important. There are seven main types of Biwa, each distinguished by the number of strings, sound produced, and use. February 20, 2008. Ueda Junko and Tanaka Yukio, two of Tsuruta's students, continue the tradition of the modern satsuma-biwa. 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. Formation: Japanese. In this case, the left hand fourth finger taps the string so that the un-attacked pitch or pitches can be somewhat heard. This instrument also disappeared in the Chinese court orchestras. 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. 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. Traditionally, the duration of each pitch subdivides the measure into two equal durations. Songs are not always metered, although more modern collaborations are metered. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese n t b in Southeast Asia. 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. However, false nails made of horn existed as early as the Ming period when finger-picking became the popular technique for playing pipa.[24]. With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. 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.[48]. Its classification is a type of an Aerophone. [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. Samurai ethics and battles were selected as the main themes for this style, called Satsuma-biwa (), and more dynamic techniques were developed. Traditional instruments in japanese and chinese music - SlideShare The main part of the music is vocal and the biwa part mostly plays short interludes. The satsuma-biwa is traditionally made from Japanese mulberry, although other hard woods such as Japanese zelkova are sometimes used in its construction. 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. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API. Shamisen players and other musicians found it financially beneficial to switch to the biwa, bringing new styles of biwa music with them. Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. It is not used to accompany singing. A. Biwa B. Koto C. Shakuhachi D. Shamisen 3. The Met Fifth Avenue 1000 Fifth Avenue [74], Modern pipa player, with the pipa held in near upright position. Heike-biwa is an accompaniment instrument specifically used to chant the Tale of Heike stories () in the traditional way dating from the medieval era. Koizumi, Fumio. 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. There are some types of traditional string instrument. At first the chikuzen biwa, like the one pictured in gallery #1, had four strings and five frets, but by the 1910s Tachibana and his sons had developed a five-string model (gallery #2) that, since the 1920s, has been the most common form of the instrument. 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. Its purpose is to show in context how the biwa uses its various patterns to color some melodic tones. The most eminent 20th century satsuma-biwa performer was Tsuruta Kinshi, who developed her own version of the instrument, which she called the tsuruta-biwa. The exception for these methods is for when hazusu or tataku are performed on the 4th string. 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. Pipa has been played solo, or as part of a large ensemble or small group since the early times. This is the original form of biwa that came to Japan in the 8. century. 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. Exploiting the sound of the open strings increases the overall sounds volume. Harmonics: The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th harmonics of each open string can be performed by attacking the string with either the plectrum or the finger, and in both cases, the overall sonority is quite soft. We speculate that being half-way in the section, the purpose of this clash may be to avoid a too strong feeling of cadence on the 'tonic E,' since there is one more phrase to come before completing this section. ________. Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. Influenced by the shamisen, its music is rather soft, attracting more female players. The body is narrower and smaller than the other types of biwa. She now performs with Red Chamber and the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. 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. Sheng. 2008. Heike Biwa () | Japanese | The Metropolitan Museum of Art Typically 60 centimetres (24 in) to 106 centimetres (42 in) in length, the instrument is . In the 13th century, the story The Tale of Heike ()was created and told by them. 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. Different schools however can have sections added or removed, and may differ in the number of sections with free meter. In more recent times, many pipa players, especially the younger ones, no longer identify themselves with any specific school. All rights reserved. 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. 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. CLASSIFICATION DIAGRAM OF WOOD A fundamental structure of string instruments in the Asia and Western is a box-sound hole structure [4,5] as seen in the harpsichord, guitar, violin, and biwa . The fingers normally strike the strings of pipa in the opposite direction to the way a guitar is usually played, i.e. The full vibrating lengths of the strings, the distance between their bend over the nut and the knots that secure their lower ends to the string holder, are all 27.7 inches. The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Though formerly popular, little was written about the performance and practice of the biwa from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The strings are numbered from the lowest (first string) to the highest (fourth string). Figure 4 introduces the biwas six traditional tunings. The performers left hand is used both to steady the instrument, with the thumb hooked around the backside of the neck, and to depress the strings, the index finger doing most of the work but sometimes aided by the middle finger. In Satsuma-biwa classical pieces, the thickest string (the first) is in principle. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi (, The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Clara H. Rose (d. 1914) Catalogue of the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments: Asia, Gallery 27. [14], Biwa usage in Japan has declined greatly since the Heian period.