Expanding the Violin's Possibilities in Chinese Music

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EXPANDING THE VIOLIN’S POSSIBILITIES IN CHINESE MUSIC: A CASE

STUDY OF TRANSCRIPTION AND PERFORMANCE ISSUES

RELATED TO PIPA MUSIC PLAYED ON THE VIOLIN

Chun-Chia Wang, B.M., M.M.

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

August 2018

APPROVED:

Steven Friedson, Major Professor Clay Couturiaux, Committee Member Warren Henry, Committee Member John Holt, Chair of the Division of Instrumental Studies Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music John W. Richmond, Dean of the College of Music Victor Prybutok, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Wang, Chun-Chia. Expanding the Violin’s Possibilities in Chinese Music: A

Case Study of Transcription and Performance Issues related to Pipa Music Played on the Violin. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2018, 82 pp., 4 figures,

74 musical examples, references, 26 titles.

In recent years, a large part of the erhu’s repertoire has been arranged for performance on the violin and vice versa. Given the difficulties involved in transcribing the music of plucked or woodwind instruments for the violin, the erhu has been the most popular choice for transcribing Chinese music for the violin.

However, the erhu and violin are radically dissimilar instruments based on different principles. Pipa music is an essential part of traditional Chinese music from as early as 202 BCE, and the instrument’s repertoire represents a large portion of East Asian music aesthetics, and this context should be considered to successfully transcribe pipa music for violin. This dissertation talks briefly about Chinese music history and its categories and also focuses on the history and development of the pipa as well as its repertoire categories to provide context for the following musical examples. I use existing transcription examples from different categories of pipa music as an avenue to discuss how to transcribe pipa music for the violin. Even though the violin has some limitations for use as a plucked instrument, the instrument can still make use of several different kinds of techniques in order to play the music in a way that can represent certain features of the pipa while retaining the violin’s characteristics.

Chun-Chia Wang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my major advisor Dr.

Steven Friedson for the support of my dissertation, for his patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Without his guidance and persistence, this dissertation would not have been possible. I am also indebted to Dr. Gene Cho; his advice and suggestions inspired me to explore this subject. Additionally, I am also truly grateful to Dr. Clay Couturiaux for his advice and help throughout my studies at UNT. A huge thank you goes to my friend and pipa player, Yuxin Mei. She helped steer me with her professional advice for this dissertation and her performances on the pipa. I would also extend my thanks to Holly Cassell for her help editing this dissertation.

Without her, this dissertation would not be so academically complete. Finally, I wish to thank my parents and family for their unconditional love, support, and encouragement through my studies and my life journey.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii

LIST OF FIGURES ...... v

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ...... vi

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 The Violin and the Chinese Music ...... 1 1.2 History of Chinese Music ...... 2 1.3 Chinese Music and Western Music ...... 8

CHAPTER 2. THE PIPA ...... 10 2.1 The History of the Pipa ...... 10 2.2 Categories of Pipa Music ...... 13 2.3 Comparing the Violin and the Pipa ...... 15 2.4 Cipher Notation Reading and the Pipa ...... 16

CHAPTER 3. TRANSCRIPTIONS ...... 26 3.1 Transcription Example in Wen Category...... 26 3.2 Transcription in Wu Category ...... 42 3.3 A New Transcription of the Contemporary Pipa Piece, “Swan” ...... 54

CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION: SUGGESTIONS FOR TRANSCRIBING MUSIC ...... 66

APPENDIX: THE AUTHOR’S TRANSCRIPTION OF “SWAN” BY LIU DE-HAI FOR VIOLIN ...... 70

REFERENCES ...... 80

iv LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1.1: An example of a “Shih Yueh” 詩樂. Melody which is characterized by a very slow tempo, with one Chinese character to a note...... 6

Figure 2.1: A clay figure playing a Quxiang pipa, from the Sui dynasty...... 12

Figure 2.2: A side-by-side comparison of gongchepu and cipher notation...... 18

Figure 2.3: The pipa cipher notation symbols for articulation...... 24

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Page

Musical Example 2.1: The cipher notation melody and its transcription into Western staff notation...... 19

Musical Example 2.2: Transcription of the pipa cipher notation passage in Musical Example 2.1 ...... 20

Musical Example 2.3: The cipher notation of the beginning of the fifth section of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 22

Musical Example 2.4: First line of Liu’s “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 23

Musical Example 3.1: Second line of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 28

Musical Example 3.2: The transcription that I suggest for the ending of m. 1 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 28

Musical Example 3.3: The cipher notation of “A Moonlit Night on the Sping River” for Musical Example 3.01...... 28

Musical Example 3.4: m. 1 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 29

Musical Example 3.5: Zhang’s transcription of m. 1 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 29

Musical Example 3.6: My transcription of m. 1 from “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 30

Musical Example 3.7: m. 2 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” in cipher notation...... 31

Musical Example 3.8: Zhang’s transcription of m. 2 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 31

Musical Example 3.9: The introduction passage of Zhang’s transcription...... 31

Musical Example 3.10: The trill ( ) should be played based on the note G...... 32

Musical Example 3.11: Transcription for violin of m. 2 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 32

Musical Example 3.12: The explanation of the use of the symbol (*). The (*) should be played like this musical example...... 33

Musical Example 3.13: Zhang’s transcription of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 33

Musical Example 3.14: m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 33

Musical Example 3.15: The suggested violin transcription of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 34

Musical Example 3.16: Zhang’s transcription without trill of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 34

Musical Example 3.17: Zhang’s transcription of m. 6 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 36

Musical Example 3.18: Zhang’s transcription of m. 23 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 36

Musical Example 3.19: Cipher notation of m. 7 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 36

Musical Example 3.20: Cipher notation of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”...... 36

Musical Example 3.21: The transcription of m. 7 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 37

Musical Example 3.22: The transcription of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 37

Musical Example 3.23: The transcription of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 38

Musical Example 3.24: Zhang’s transcription of m. 61-63 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 38

Musical Example 3.25: Cipher notation of m. 35 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”...... 38

Musical Example 3.26: Transcription of m. 33-38 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”...... 40

Musical Example 3.27: Cipher notation of m. 44-46 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”...... 41

Musical Example 3.28: Transcription of m. 44-46 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”...... 42

Musical Example 3.29: Liu’s Ambush from Ten Sides m. 1-8...... 45

Musical Example 3.30: Yang’s transcription of m. 1-10 of Ambush from Ten Sides. 45

Musical Example 3.31: First four sets of numbers in the cipher notation of Ambush from Ten Sides...... 46

Musical Example 3.32: The notes used in Musical Example 3.31...... 46

vii

Musical Example 3.33: Notes that Yang uses in his transcription for cipher notation score m. 1...... 46

Musical Example 3.34: m.1-3 of the Ambush from Ten Sides cipher score...... 47

Musical Example 3.35: Circled notes in Musical Example 3.34 in Western staff notation...... 47

Musical Example 3.36: Melody in Musical Example 3.35 that repeats several times in the violin transcription...... 48

Musical Example 3.37: m. 27-30 from Yang’s transcription of Ambush from Ten Sides...... 49

Musical Example 3.38: m. 9-12 from Ambush from Ten Sides...... 49

Musical Example 3.39: Author’s transcription of m. 9-12 from Ambush from Ten Sides to Western staff notation...... 49

Musical Example 3.40: The author’s suggested transcription of the “ ” symbol that appears in Yang’s transcription...... 50

Musical Example 3.41: m. 45-48 from Yang’s transcription of Ambush from Ten Sides...... 50

Musical Example 3.42: Five notes used in the “Ambush” section of the original pipa cipher notation of Ambush from Ten Sides...... 52

Musical Example 3.43: m. 65-66 of Yang’s transcription...... 52

Musical Example 3.44: The notes’ sounding pitches without artificial harmonics in m. 65-66 of Yang’s transcription...... 53

Musical Example 3.45: m. 1-2 of Liu’s “Swan.” ...... 55

Musical Example 3.46: m. 1 of the transcription of “Swan.” ...... 56

Musical Example 3.47: m. 24-27 of “Swan” in cipher notation...... 56

Musical Example 3.48: Transcription of m. 24-27 of “Swan” with the piano accompaniment part...... 57

Musical Example 3.49: m. 7 of “Swan” in cipher notation...... 57

Musical Example 3.50: m. 7 of “Swan” in Western staff notation...... 58

Musical Example 3.51: Transcription of m. 7 of “Swan.” ...... 58

Musical Example 3.52: m. 25-26 in “Swan.” ...... 58

Musical Example 3.53: m. 14 of the transcription of “Swan.” ...... 59

viii

Musical Example 3.54: m. 27 of “Swan” in cipher notation...... 59

Musical Example 3.55: m. 33 of “Swan” in the cipher notation...... 59

Musical Example 3.56: The transcription of m. 27 of “Swan” from cipher notation. .. 60

Musical Example 3.57: m. 41-42 of “Swan” in cipher notation ...... 60

Musical Example 3.58: The transcription of m. 41-42 of the “Swan” from cipher notation to Western staff notation. In an attempt to clearly define the symbol, I have also added a note at the bottom of the page to indicate how the trill should be played...... 60

Musical Example 3.59: m. 48 of “Swan” in cipher notation...... 61

Musical Example 3.60: Transcription of trills that appear in m. 48 of “Swan.” This is the same kind of transcription as what I suggested in Musical Example 3.15 for “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.” ...... 61

Musical Example 3.61: m. 58 in “Swan.” ...... 62

Musical Example 3.62: The transcription of m. 58 in “Swan.” ...... 62

Musical Example 3.63: m. 51-52 of “Swan” in pipa cipher notation...... 62

Musical Example 3.64: m. 51-52 of “Swan” in the Western staff notation...... 62

Musical Example 3.65: Transcription of m. 14 of “Swan”...... 62

Musical Example 3.66: m. 72-74 of “Swan.” ...... 63

Musical Example 3.67: The transcription of m. 72-74 of “Swan.” ...... 63

Musical Example 3.68: m. 93-97 of “Swan” ...... 64

Musical Example 3.69: Transcription of m. 93-97 of “Swan.” ...... 64

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Violin and the Chinese Music

A number of scholarly documents discuss the differences between the violin

and the erhu in terms of the instruments’ construction and repertoire as well as

performance issues and notation problems.1 In recent years, a large part of the

erhu’s repertoire has been arranged for performance on the violin, and vice versa. In

the article “The Characteristics of Violin Arts Developed in China,” Chinese

musicologist Cheng Shen notes that violinists frequently perform music written for

traditional Chinese string instruments, including the bowed lute (erhu). Given the

difficulties involved in transcribing the music of plucked or woodwind instruments for

the violin, the erhu has been the most popular choice for transcribing Chinese music

for the violin. The violin, with its rich techniques, is fully able to perform traditional

erhu pieces accurately.2 For example, the erhu’s sliding, wide vibrato, and grace

note techniques are applied in the Chinese violin concerto “The Butterfly Lovers,”

and they provide the concerto a Chinese flair enjoyed by Western audiences.

However, this dissertation seeks to expand the violin repertory by suggesting that

violinists can play music of another popular Chinese instrument, the pipa, and have

success recreating the sounds of Chinese music on an instrument associated mostly

with the West.

1 Luwei Yang, Elaine Chew, and Khalid Z. Rajab, "Vibrato Performance Style: A Case Study Comparing Erhu and Violin," The 10th International Conference on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, October 2013, 904-919, http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/16060 (accessed February 21, 2018). 2 Cheng Shen, “The Characteristics of Violin Arts Developed in China,” Asian Social Science 5, no. 12 (2009), http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/4560/3892 (accessed March 1, 2016).

1 According to the book The Way of the Pipa, American scholar John E. Myers

studied the description and music from the pipa repertoires collection, The Hua

Collection (1819), and stressed the importance of the solo pipa pieces in Chinese

music.3 Pipa music is an essential part of traditional Chinese music from as early as

202 BCE, and the instrument’s repertoire represents a large portion of East Asian

music aesthetics. Pieces such as Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏) and The

Emperor Discards his Armor (霸王卸甲) are still performed on the stage for large audiences. Of particular interest in this context is that, like the violin, the pipa has

many different performance techniques that result in the production of a wide range

of distinctive timbres. In the past, the use of the violin in performing Chinese music

was largely limited to arrangements of music for the huqin (two-string bowed lutes)

instrument class.

This study proposes extending the violin’s repertoire in Chinese pipa music

through the inclusion of selected transcriptions of Chinese pipa music for the violin.

With this purpose, this dissertation will examine in detail already existing violin

transcriptions of pipa music, present a newly transcribed piece for violin from the

pipa repertory, and discuss issues of transcribing and performing this music.

1.2 History of Chinese Music

The beginning of Chinese music can be traced to the time of the Yellow

Emperor (2700 BCE). It is recorded that minister Ling Lun (伶倫) received an order

from one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes, Huang Ti (黃帝),

3 John E. Myers, The Way of the Pipa: Structure and Imagery in Chinese Lute Music (Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1992), 1.

to “create music.” He then discovered the diatonic pitch series and established a

system of tuning using bamboo pipes. Thus began the history of Chinese music; the

discovery of the first lute is said to date from the same age. Later, Lu Pu-Wei used

mathematical calculations to invent the 12-tone system in Chinese music.4 However,

because the first emperor of China in the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shih Huang (秦始皇) (221-

209 BCE), enacted the policy “burning of books and burying of scholars,” most of the

state records previous to his regime were destroyed.5 Chinese musical notation is

not often extant earlier than the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 CE), and the learning of

music before the Sung Dynasty took place primarily through oral transmission.6

Music notation was found later in the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 CE); this notation was

employed for the singing of poetry.7 However, the Sung Dynasty notation system did

not have a consistent method of recording musical rhythms.

Generally speaking, the Chinese show their preference for nature in art and

poetry. Likewise, Chinese music often expresses human thoughts and emotions

symbolically through references to the natural environment; for example, the use of

moonlight to express a person’s feelings of missing someone.8 Unlike much Western

music, Chinese music often is meant to depict traditional paintings of landscapes, in

combination with poetry.

4 Chinese Encyclopedia Online, “中國音樂史 Chinese Music History,” Chinese Culture University, http://ap6.pccu.edu.tw/Encyclopedia/data.asp?id=9708 (accessed: Sep 26, 2017). 5 Bliss Wiant, The Music of China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Chung Chi Publications, 1965), 2. 6 Wiant, 1. 7 Ibid., 2. 8 Cheng, 114.

Linguistic clues also provide some insight into the role of music in those times.

Two Chinese characters are used to refer to the idea of music: one is yin (音), which

means “tone,” and the other is yueh (樂), which means “joy.” In the cultural

conception of Chinese music, “music must have a psychological meaning” and this

means that it is very important to find the “melodic relationship and spiritual harmony

among the performers and the listeners” when one listens to Chinese music.9 In

addition, rhythm in Chinese music is not only related to the duration of notes, but

also points to greater movements of time, like the seasons, the cycles of years, and

epochs.10

Western musicians are often confused by cipher scores’ metering (or lack of

it) in classical Chinese music. For example, in classical Chinese compositions,

musical expressions and meaning are considered more important than strictly

adhering to rhythmic elements and tempi. Bar lines do not exist in ancient Chinese

music scores, and performers need to understand the aesthetic aims of the music. In

addition, when reading Chinese music, it is necessary to emphasize phrasing and

breath marks over bar lines even in more recent cipher scores that do have bar lines.

It is also important to note that Chinese music progresses by melody, rather than

harmony. Chinese music often goes with different versions of the same melodic line

at the same time, which may sound strange to Western ears.11 In Chinese music, melodies are often based on the notes of pentatonic scales. The notes in the

pentatonic scale are called gong, shang, jie, zhi, and yu (宮商角徵羽 do, re, mi, sol, la),

9 Wiant, 2. 10 Ibid., 2. 11 Shen, 22.

and the most common mode to be used is zhi (徵, sol). Shen pointed out that most

Chinese music is formed by the same “series of harmonies.” This is why some

melodies sound the same to the Chinese, but different to the outside world.12 In

general, Chinese melodies make extensive use of non-tempered scales; since they

do not use keyed instruments, the melodies often sound out of tune to Western ears.

Chinese music developed into two main categories beginning from the time of

Confucius, and they have both persisted until the present day. One is called Ya Yueh

(雅樂), and the other is called Su Yueh (俗樂). In Chinese, the word Ya (雅) is “virtually untranslatable, meaning pure, elegant, and what is in good taste”; Su(俗) means

“common and vulgar.”13 The distinction between these musical types is evident in

their characteristics and melodies. Ya Yueh melodies are monosyllabic in nature,

whereas Su Yueh melodies are melismatic in character. In addition, Ya Yueh music

is used primarily in the court or temple as ritual music, but Su Yueh may be referred

to as folk songs and is intended primarily to please the listener’s ears. During the last

two thousand years, Chinese governments have traditionally used “refined music”

(Ya Yueh) to “promote harmonious behavior.”14 However, since Ya Yueh had certain

rules and could be played only under certain circumstances, it was “isolated from

other musical trends and failed to develop,” according to Lai and Mok, authors of the

Jade Flute.15 A severely limited amount of music has come down to us from the Ya

Yueh tradition. One of the most famous music styles from that category is “Shih

12 Ibid., 22. 13 T.C. Lai and Robert Mok, Jade Flute: The Story of Chinese Music (New York: Schocken Books, 1985), 40. 14 Alan R. Thrasher, Chinese Musical Instruments (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 11. 15 Lai and Mok, 42.

Yueh” (詩樂), which is characterized by a very slow tempo with monosyllabic lyrics; see Figure 1.1 for an example.

Figure 1.1: An example of a “Shih Yueh” 詩樂. Melody which is characterized by a very slow tempo, with one Chinese character to a note.16

Su Yueh, folk music which “reflects the ways of life of the people and is deeply rooted in entertainment,”17 is the music with which we are familiar today. As music scholars Lai and Mok assert, “it might have begun quite innocently, from imitating sounds of nature or from the music of wandering village storytellers.”18 One can still hear a considerable amount of diversity of style in Chinese music nowadays, and these varieties arise mainly from the Su Yueh tradition. One of the Chinese instruments that, like Su Yueh, might also be considered a “vulgar” instrument is the pipa. In the book The Story of Chinese Music, the authors state that “no gentleman-

16 Ibid., 42. 17 Ibid., 42. 18 Ibid., 42.

scholar deigned to touch. . . the pipa.”19 The “Six Arts” (rites 禮, music 樂, archery 射,

riding 御, writing 書 and arithmetic 數) were part of the Ya Yueh tradition during

Confucius’ time.20 However, the pipa was not included in the “Six Arts” since the

cultivation of the art of playing it was not counted as music in the “Six Arts.”21

Therefore, pipa music stems from the Su Yueh tradition, though since having

undergone thousands of years of transformation, the pipa’s repertoire now includes

many different kinds of Chinese music.

The only concrete difference between Ya Yueh and Su Yueh is the latter’s

highly complicated characteristics, such as the use of “tunes, grace notes,

glissandos, portamentos, and excessive rhythmic variation and vitality,” which

presents difficult challenges for notation.22 Jonathan Stock mentions that in the

majority of traditional genres, “each musician simultaneously aims to recreate a

common (memorized) melodic outline in a manner suitable to the technical

capabilities of his own instrument and in accordance with his own aesthetic

preferences.”23 In addition to preserving music from the past, music notation can

only keep its visual aspects, but later performers will represent it in the way that

matches the current generation’s aesthetic views. Therefore, similar to Western

music and its staff notation during the Baroque era, Chinese music notation (Chinese

cipher notation) “allow[s] the performer a certain degree of individual freedom and

19 Ibid., 123. 20 Wiant, 8. 21 Lai and Mok, 123. 22 Wiant, 5. 23 Jonathan P.J. Stock, “An Ethnomusicological Perspective on Musical Style, with Reference to Music for Chinese Two-Stringed Fiddles,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 118, no. 2 (1993): 277, http://www.jstor.org/stable/766308 (accessed Feb 26, 2018).

creativity in manipulating aspects of the musical material, namely meter, rhythm, and

phrase.”24 This can explain that, nowadays, one can often hear two or more versions

of performance style for each piece in question, and performers often interpret the

music using the style that they inherit from their teachers. This can be seen in the

ancient pipa repertoire as well since there are five different schools of pipa

performance (this is discussed in further detail in chapter 3.2) that emerged several

decades ago. This phenomenon led to ancient pipa repertoire often having multiple

fingering possibilities and different possibilities for expressive interpretations.

1.3 Chinese Music and Western Music

Since Chinese music is constituted differently and its aims differ from those of

Western music, Chinese music can sound exotic to Western ears. Shen identifies

that what makes one culture’s musical system different from another’s is partly due

to varying “individual preference for intervals.”25 Harmony and dissonance are

culturally specific. For instance, people often transcribe Chinese erhu music into

Western violin music. However, according to Shen, they are radically dissimilar

instruments based on differing philosophies. Shen says, “The erhu requires the

production of acoustics that maximize the contrast between its major resonance

component,” but the violin “even[s] out register differences as much as possible.”26

The violin has its fingerboard to even out spaces between notes, but the erhu does

not.27 This indicates one of the main differences between the two instruments in their

24 Bell Yung, “Historical Interdependency of Music: A Case Study of the Chinese Seven-String Zither,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 40, no. 1 (1987): 84-85. 25 Shen, 13. 26 Ibid., 14. 27 Lin (林), Yu-Tin (昱廷), “二胡與小提琴的 PK (The Comparison between the Erhu and the Violin),” 科學發展 Science Development 506 (February 2015): 14.

8 sound production. Other than the fingerboard, the material and the shape of the erhu and the violin are different as well; the body of the erhu is hexagonal in shape in which each of the six sides are made of redwood and two python skins cover the top and the back. The violin, on the other hand, is shaped like a gourd, usually with the top constructed from spruce and the back made out of maple. Though both instruments are bowed, their constructions are considerably different, and this makes a difference in their sound capabilities; the violin produces a bright, and penetrating sound while the erhu has soft and rounded sound.

CHAPTER 2

THE PIPA

2.1 The History of the Pipa

The beginning of the history of Chinese music and the appearance of the first

lute are described as coming from the same age. Sources such as wall paintings and

court records support the idea that the pipa was introduced into China from Central

Asia around 200BCE with the arrival of Buddhism via the Silk Road during the Han

dynasty (206BCE - 220CE). According to musicologist Alan Thrasher who

specializes in Chinese music, “The earliest of the musical instruments dating from

this period are prototypes of the pipa lute and the dizi flute.”28 Before the name “pipa”

had become the name of a specific plucked instrument close to the modern pipa in

the Han dynasty (now known as the “Han pipa”), the name pipa was a general term

for all plucked lutes in China until the end of 1000CE. Liao indicated in the book

Zhangguo Gudai Yinyue Jianshi (General History of Ancient Chinese Music 中國古代

音樂簡史) that from the Qin dynasty to the Sui (581-618 CE) and Tang (618-907 CE)

dynasties, the name “pipa” was used to apply to “many kinds of plucked string

instruments: long-necked, round-shaped, pear-shaped, wooden-sided, skin-sided,

with strings added or subtracted.”29

The pipa, therefore, has been part of Chinese music for thousands of years. It

is the hybrid result of a native instrument called Xian Tao (弦鼗) from China and a lute

imported from Persia.30 The name “pipa” first appeared in the text “Shi Ming, Shi Yue

28 Thrasher, vii. 29 Myers, 6. 30 Joseph S.C. Lam, “Pipa Stories as Cultural History of Chinese Music,” in Reading Chinese Music and Beyond, ed. Joys H. Y. Cheung and King Chung Wong (Hong Kong; City University of Hong Kong, 2010), 31.

10 Qi” (釋名釋樂器) (“Eastern Han Dynasty Dictionary of Names”), written by Liu Xi in the

Han dynasty. In the text, Liu Xi wrote “The pipa originated from amongst the Hu

people, who played the instrument on horseback. The outward striking hand gesture

is referred to as ‘pi’, and the inward gesture is called ‘pa’. The word referring to these

performative gestures subsequently became the instrument’s name.”31 (Original text:

枇杷，本出於胡中，馬上所鼓也。推手前曰枇，引手卻曰杷。象其鼓時，因以為名也。) From the

text, one may notice that the name “pipa” literally refers both to the sound and the

movements of performing on this instrument. Later, the pipa starts to appear in many

tragic-romantic stories throughout Chinese history.32

To become the instrument it is today, the pipa has changed vastly throughout

Chinese music history. The pipa first appeared in the story of a Han Chinese

princess Wang Zhaojun (王昭君) in the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), who played

the pipa to lament her unfortunate life. The Han pipa had a round shape, with a

straight neck. However, it is unclear whether the Han pipa is related to the lute that

was imported from Persia before. Later, the Quxiang pipa (曲項琵琶) seen in paintings

dating from the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), was thought to date from as early as

the first century CE (Tang and Sung dynasties) and had a short, bent neck, and four

frets.33 The Quxiang pipa was played with a plectrum. Figure 2.1 shows an image of

the Quxiang pipa.

31 Xi Liu. “the Eastern Han Dynasty Dictionary of Names,” ctext.org, March 6, 2016, under “Shi Ming,” http://ctext.org/shi-ming/shi-yue-qi (accessed March 6, 2016). 32 Lai and Mok, 127. 33 Lam, 33.

Figure 2.1: A clay figure playing a Quxiang pipa, from the Sui dynasty. 34

The pipa continued to develop and change throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE), the pipa changed to have a long-bent neck and ten or more frets with the player using their fingers to pluck the strings. By the late Qing dynasty, solo repertory for the pipa had already been established and there were also five distinctive schools that represented different pipa styles of playing and expression.35 As Joseph Lam describes, the contemporary pipa is “a lute with a bent neck, a pear-shaped wooden resonator, four strings which are conventionally tuned as la (A2), re (D3), mi (E3), and la (A3), and thirty frets.”36

However, performers never talk about thirty frets. Rather, they describe the pipa as having six large frets, called Ping (品), and twenty four small frets, called Xiang (相).37

After thousands of years of transformation, the pipa changed again in the period

34 Lam, 32. 35 Lam, 37 36 Lam, 29. 37 YuXin Mei, interview by author, Denton, TX, May 5, 2018.

12 after 1948; it became a completely chromatic instrument after adding frets in the

twentieth century.

2.2 Categories of Pipa Music

In the pipa repertoire, there are thematic categories which are based on

human life and/or nature: wen, and wu. Wen (文) refers to music with peaceful

characteristics. For instance, the title of pieces in the wen category are often related

to seasons, like “Thinking about Spring” (思春) or “River in Fall” (秋江). Moreover, the

wen (文) pipa repertory often refers to emotional, simple, and touching melodies.38

Wen performative gestures are relatively calm and small and the tempo of a

characteristically wen piece tends to be slow and stable. For example, the piece Xin

Fan Yu Diao Lv Yao (New Variation of Tang Dynasty Lvyao-Dance 新翻羽調綠腰, also

called Lv Yao 綠腰) is based on a famous song from the Tang dynasty, which is

categorized as a “soft dance” (軟舞). The “soft dance” represents the dancers’

softness and lightness, thus the melody is slow and gentle on the whole. The pipa

genre Lvyao-Dance (綠腰) transformed gradually over time from exclusively dance

music to being associated mostly with the pipa repertoire rather than as a piece for

dancing. The Lvyao-Dance genre includes three sections; each section is either a

variation or an extension of the main melody. The wen repertoire expresses the

beauty of the melody and utilized the pipa left-hand “swaying fingers” (搖指) technique closely associated with the pipa.

38 Ding (丁), Yi (怡), “淺談琵琶的文曲和武曲”. http://www.xzbu.com/8/view-3363271.htm (Accessed: Jan 21, 2018).

On the other hand, wu (武) represents a more aggressive style of music that is

often militaristic and warlike. It is easy to recognize a wu category piece of music

from the name of the composition. Some prominent examples include Ambush from

Ten Sides (十面埋伏) and “Thousands Time of Winning” (千勝). Myers speculates that

the categories can explain the theory of yin yang (陰陽) (female-male) in Daoist (道)

philosophy, and also the balance between aggressiveness and passivity.39 When

listening to a pipa composition, audiences may be able to determine which category

a piece belongs to from its rhythm and dynamics or may be able to discern the

varying performance techniques of both hands used for different categories of

repertoire.

There were five main schools which contributed to the pipa’s development

over several decades, each of them led by a headmaster who invented fingerings or

new techniques for playing the pipa. These were the Wuxi School (無錫派) led by Hua

Qiu Ping (華秋萍) who edited Nanbei Erpai Miben Pipa Zhenchuan (The Secret Music

of the True Pipa Traditions, both Southern and Northern) (南北二派秘本琵琶譜真傳) in

1819. Li Fang Yuan (李芳園) who edited Pipa Xinpu (New Music for Pipa) (琵琶新譜) in

1895 led The Ping Hu School (平湖派); Ju Shilin (鞠士林) led the Pu Dong School (浦東

派), and his student, also the headmaster of the Pu Dong School in 1929, Shen

Haochu (沈浩初), edited its important collection Yang Zhengxian Pipa Pu (Standard

Pipa Piece of Yang) (養正軒琵琶譜). In addition, Wang Yu Ting (汪昱庭) led both the

39 Myers, 33.

Chong Ming School (崇明派) and the Shang Hai School (上海派) that were also two

important pipa schools of the twentieth century.40 Different schools had their

individual performance styles which address fingerings, expressions, and skills used

in the pipa performance repertoire.

2.3 Comparing the Violin and the Pipa

Among all the Chinese vertical plucked (tantiao 彈挑) family instruments that

use pear-shaped resonators with frets, such as the pipa (琵琶) or the liu qin (柳琴), the

pipa is the one with the longest history and the largest repertoire which spans

several different periods of history. Lam points out that “the Chinese pipa

phenomenon is musically, culturally, socially, and historically significant.”41 For instance, the pipa occupies a similar role in Chinese music history to what the violin

does in Western music history. Wechsberg stated in regard to the violin, that it “has

much in common with speaking or singing.” The violin can represent a different

“meaning of the musical words” by changing its tone. Even though the violin is a

relatively young instrument (around four hundred years old) compared to the pipa;

the violin became a solo instrument in the sixteenth century, and the art of violin

playing started to have the “full glory of violin-playing that came with Paganini in the

first half of the nineteenth century.”42 Since then, violin performance has developed

to involve many advanced techniques, such as chords, large shifts, double stops,

40 Zhuang Yong-Ping 莊永平, The Handbook of the Pipa 琵琶手冊 (Shang Hai: Shang Hai Music Publications, 2001), 44-53. 41 Lam, 48. 42 Wechsberg, 219.

15 tenths for the purpose of expressing a range of emotions.43 A noteworthy example

can be found in Paganini’s Twenty-four Caprices, where he pushes the boundaries

of violin virtuosity.44 For example, in Caprice No. 9, Paganini imitates the sound of

other instruments, such as the flute and the English horn, at the beginning of the

sections where the theme is played in double-stops. Moreover, Paganini also uses

arpeggios to make the violin sound impressive and “as powerful as on a large

harp.”45 With the new-found capability of imitating other instruments’ sounds, it is

clear that the violin could be a capable vehicle to perform pipa music, thereby

extending its realm of repertoire to include Chinese music.

Music is a voice for cultural interpretation. Thus, the violinist who wishes to

perform pipa music must also commit to, as Lam suggests, “reading pipa stories as a

history of the instrument and as guides to the expressions of compositions [which]

leads to informed understanding of the pipa phenomenon.”46

2.4 Cipher Notation Reading and the Pipa

Most Chinese musical instruments use either the cipher notation system or

staff notation to notate music. According to renowned pipa performer Yuxin Mei,

ancient pipa music was recorded in cipher notation since it is easier for the player to

read and understand; however, contemporary pipa composers use staff notation to

compose pieces, but still use pipa cipher notation to publish the music. This is

because pipa cipher notation is different than normal cipher notation as it combines

43 Ibid, 219. 44 Ibid, 219. 45 Ibid, 235. 46 Lam, 40.

16 tablature notation as well as pitch indications. Therefore, pipa students in music

conservatories in China learn how to read notes for contemporary music in Western

staff notation, but later they will perform from the cipher notation.47 The notation uses

numbers to indicate pitches while symbols above numbers indicate right and left

hand techniques/movements. Symbols below the numbers indicate dynamics, tempo markings, and even which strings to use when necessary. Pipa cipher notation provides much more information to a player than Western staff notation can. One who wants to understand the pipa cipher notation needs to understand the meaning of symbols shown above and below numbers that indicate pitch. Furthermore, if one cannot read Chinese words, it is imperative that one listen to recordings (or witness live performances) of the pipa piece that they wish to transcribe.

Cipher notation, also known as numbered musical notation, is a musical notation that uses the numerals 1 through 7 to represent pitches. Before the twentieth

century, Chinese notated musical notes with Chinese words. This practice is called

gongchepu (工尺譜). Since this music was read only by conservatory-trained musicians prior to the 1930s, amateur musicians learned these melodies by listening, imitating, and practicing simple pieces which they usually performed from memory.48 Frenchman Emile Chevé developed cipher notation in the sixteenth

century. The notation was later transmitted to China via Japan in the early twentieth

century. It was quickly adopted by Chinese musicians due to its simplicity and the

fact that it can be learned quickly. Chinese fiddle players considered cipher notation

47 Yuxin Mei (pipa performer and ethnomusicologist) in discussion with the author. 48 Jonathan P. J. Stock, “An Ethnomusicological Perspective on Musical Style, with Reference to Music for Chinese Two-Stringed Fiddles,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 118, No. 2 (1993). http://www.jstor.org/stable/766308 (Accessed: Feb 26, 2018).

17 to be “scientific and modern,” and Chinese music spread widely after adoption of cipher notation since it was cheap and compact for publishers to print.49 Figure 2.2

shows a side-by-side comparison of gongchepu (工尺譜) and cipher notation.

Figure 2.2: A side-by-side comparison of gongchepu and cipher notation. 50

In Chinese cipher notation, the lines below the numbers indicate the rhythmic

values of the notes. If the number has nothing underneath it, it means the note

duration is equal to a quarter note. One line below the number means that the note

value is an eighth note, two lines under a note is a sixteenth note, and so on. If the

number has a dot next to it, this means that the note value is a dotted rhythm (dotted

quarter note, or dotted eighth note, etc.). A number with a short line after it (following

to the right of the number) means the note is a quarter note longer. For example, the

last note in Musical Example 2.1(a) is a half note because there is no line under pitch

“5” (indicating a quarter note), but the line following the number indicates that the

player should hold the note value for an additional quarter note.

(a) Cipher Notation

49 Stock, 295. 50 Stock, 293.

(b) Western Staff Notation

Musical Example 2.1: The cipher notation melody and its transcription into Western staff notation.

To indicate an octave change, cipher notation uses dots below or above the number. One dot above the number means the note’s pitch changes to an octave higher, and vice versa. It is important to note that the player performs a piece in the range suitable to their instrument if no directions for what string to play on are provided. It might be obvious which octave a player will use on the pipa if string directions are given, but for other Chinese instruments (like the erhu), string designations are rarely present and, thus, the player will use the octave they find most suitable to play the passage. The dots underneath the lines indicate note durations and the dots underneath them indicate that the player will use the lower octave. Musical Example 2.1(b) shows the cipher notation melody from Musical

Example 2.1(a) transcribed into Western staff notation.

The modern pipa has a range of more than three octaves: four strings tuned as la (A2), re (D3), mi (E3), la (A3), and thirty frets. When using Western staff notation, a pipa score may need to make use of more than two clefs to notate the score. Cipher notation is easier for pipa players to read because the numbers in the middle (main) line denote the main melody, and extra numbers below show additional or accompanimental notes that the player will also pluck. Since pipa strings can resonate for a while after having been plucked, the pipa takes on the role of both soloist and accompanist most of the time. The pipa cipher score, like a piano score, shows both melody and accompaniment parts in the notation. Pipa cipher notation sometimes has two rows instead of one if the composer also indicated the

19 string that the pipa player needs to pluck for an accompanimental line sounding at

the same time.

Pipa cipher notation uses the “movable Do system” in which Do is indicated at

the beginning. For example, ‘1=A’ means the number 1 (Do) in cipher notation refers

to the note A, and the music will use the notes of the A Major scale. The melody of

the music in ‘1=A’ will most likely be comprised of the five notes of the pentatonic scale: A (1), B (2), C-sharp (3), E (5), and F-sharp (6). After the 1960s, following the

Cultural Revolution, Chinese music was again opened up to influences from Western music and more recent pipa compositions use cipher notation in addition to symbols from Western staff notation, such as time signature and tempo markings. Pipa cipher notation for older repertoire serves the purpose of “being a frame of a song,”51 and

each school of pipa performance has its own interpretation of the music. However,

pipa compositions from the 1960s and beyond provide the player with less freedom

in interpreting the score. The pipa passage shown in Musical Example 2.1(a) will

sound like Musical Example 2.2 after all the symbols in the cipher notation have

been transcribed:

Musical Example 2.2: Transcription of the pipa cipher notation passage in Musical Example 2.1

Since the music in Musical Example 2.1 is from a contemporary composer,

the pipa cipher notation includes a time signature at the beginning, which looks

51 YuXin Mei, interview by author, Denton, TX, March 15, 2018.

20 similar to a Western staff notation time signature, i.e. 2/4, 4/4, etc. In scores that do not include a time signature, the performer needs to infer the meter from the musical phrase, because cipher scores (especially older ones) generally do not include time signatures. A player typically learns how to do this with instruction from a teacher and performance experience. Listening to multiple recordings of a piece can help a player become familiar with the musical style, and thus, allow them to decide on an appropriate time signature or a phrasing for a piece.

Just as Western music uses Italian words for tempo indications, a newer trend

in pipa cipher notation favors the use of Chinese words to convey tempi in order to

give performers clearer instruction than the older tradition of inferring tempo and

tempo changes from an instructor. For example, Allegro means “fast, quickly, and

bright” in Western music, the pipa cipher notation may use “快” (Fast), or “慢起漸快”

(Start with a slow tempo and gradually speed up). In scores that do not include a

time signature and a tempo marking, the shorthand notation “ ” (that comes from

part of a Chinese word, Loose 散) may appear at the beginning of the score as a type

of tempo marking for the cipher notation. This tempo marking instructs the player to

“play the passage freely.” Unlike contemporary pipa compositions, some old/original

pipa cipher notations do not have any tempo markings at all, and performers need to

figure out how fast to play the piece by listening to others performing it or will have to

infer an appropriate tempo from reading the section’s title within the piece. For

example, the famous wen category pipa piece, “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”

(春江花月夜) has seven sections with an introduction passage, and each section has a

topic (theme) written above the cipher notation. In Musical Example 2.3, the fifth

section’s title is shown above the cipher notation at the beginning of the music. The

21 title indicates that it is the fifth section (【五】) with the description “The fishing boat is

praising about the beauty of the night time” (漁舟唱晚). According to the title, it is

obvious that the music for this section will not be best characterized by a fast tempo.

Hence, pipa pupils can decide their tempo from the title of each section or seek help

from their teacher. Their teachers also can help them with expressive interpretations

of the piece. A transcriptionist can determine a suitable tempo by using the title of

the section as a guide and also by listening to different recordings. For this example,

they would likely infer that the tempo to be around Larghetto and Adagio (55-58

beats per minute).

Musical Example 2.3: The cipher notation of the beginning of the fifth section of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

The pipa cipher notation in use today has adapted some markings from

Western notation, such as dynamic markings, time signatures, or tempo indications.

Although this system of notation offers flexibility, the use of Chinese words along

with cipher notation for expression markings can cause performers who cannot read

Chinese to have trouble with understanding the music.

Pipa cipher notation scores not only show notes and rhythms, but also

indicate instructions for the movements of both hands. For example, in Liu’s edition

of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月夜), the first line of the music

demonstrates a few examples of instructions for both left and right hand movement

(see Musical Example 2.4).

Musical Example 2.4: First line of Liu’s “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

In the pipa repertoire, section titles are given at the very beginning of each

section. For example, “Yin Zi” “【引子】” means “introduction.” Pipa pieces are often comprised of a few sections; typically, they consist of an introduction section with

more than three sections following it. For the introduction section, the symbol “ ” is

provided at the beginning of the section; it means that the player can use some

artistic license with regards to tempi and dynamics. They are free to perform this

section with the interpretation they think fits the music best. In addition, the bar line

becomes an indication of a phrase rather than a grouping of beats. Therefore, the

player needs to consider what the music relates to, and what the composer intended

when playing the music from this section.

Other than numbers, there are two additional lines above and below the

numbers (notes). The top line above the numbers shows symbols for the pipa’s right-

hand techniques, which are roughly equivalent to the bowing indications of up and

down bow on the violin. Thus, one can ignore some of these symbols if they are for

the purpose of sustaining the note value when transcribing from the pipa to the violin,

but they might provide some insight into the kind of articulation that might be useful if

not sustaining the note. The symbols shown in Figure 2.3 indicate how the right

hand’s five fingers operate.

Figure 2.3: The pipa cipher notation symbols for articulation.

These symbols represent techniques for the right hand fingers and the fingers can combine together to achieve varied articulations. For example, ‘ ’, ‘ ’,

‘ ’, and ‘ ’ all are symbols that need to use the right hand’s index finger, which indicates that the index finger should pluck one string ( ) or four strings ( ) at the same time. In addition, there are also symbols for different finger combinations.

For instance, the symbol ‘ ’ indicates that both the thumb and index finger on the right hand should pluck strings at the same time. Furthermore, ‘ ’ means that the thumb, index finger, and middle finger all pluck notes at once. The transcriptionist might not necessarily need to explain to the player how to execute these symbols as they will generally not be plucking on the violin in the manner in which a pipa player would.

When transcribing pipa music into a violin part, it is important to decide whether to keep every note that the pipa plays. One should note that since the pipa is a plucked instrument, it can play both solo and accompaniment parts at the same time. However, as a bowed instrument, the violin is limited in its capacity to accompany itself, yet, the bow helps connect notes to one another and sustain sounds and note values easily. Those who attempt to transcribe pipa music to violin have to decide what they will include and how to preserve the sound effects that the pipa produces in its music. For example, the symbol “ ” instructs the player to pluck the note continuously with five fingers for the duration of the note value. When

24 transcribing pipa music into a violin part, it is important to decide whether or not to keep every note that the pipa plays. The right-hand fingers continue plucking to

make the plucking sound become equal to the note value that the music requires. In

this case, the first thing to consider is whether the violinist will play these plucked

notes as a long note sustained with the bow or a long tremolo note. Before starting

the transcription process, one should listen to the recording that follows the music’s

edition. Since there are five different schools of pipa performance, multiple editions

often exist today, especially for music that is thousands of years old.

CHAPTER 3

TRANSCRIPTIONS

3.1 Transcription Example in Wen Category

I have chosen to analyze two already existing violin transcriptions of pipa pieces in an effort to understand the thought behind these transcriptions and to find a unified method of transcribing pipa music to violin. Even with the combination of left and right hand techniques, the violin cannot totally and accurately imitate the plucking sound that the pipa produces in these two examples. However, the violin can still express a large portion of the pipa melody and its underlying aesthetic.

The first transcription example is the famous pipa piece “Chun Jiang Hua Yue

Ye” (春江花月夜) (“A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”, also called “Xun Yang Yue

Ye” 潯陽月夜). Some scholars believe that this music is based on Bai JuYi’s famous poem “Song of the Pipa.” However, the mournful and sad feeling of the poem does not quite match with the peaceful and quiet music but rather with a poem of the same name by Zhang Ruo-Xu (張若虛). Zhang Ruo-Xu’s poem comes from the Tang

Dynasty and in it Zhang describes the atmosphere and mood of a quiet river using beautiful sentences. With help from the poetry and the music in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”, listeners can imagine the peaceful moonlight on the river and how it interacts with trees and houses reflecting above the river. Furthermore, the poetry and music reflect the title of the music.

Since repertoire from the wen category can be characterized as “relatively stable and restrained,” the transcription of pipa music into violin can focus on presenting special pipa “plucking” aspects and its gentle sound.52 The transcription

52 Myers, 33.

26 for violin of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月夜) by Zhang Yan-Ling (張延

齡) from the book Back to Romance: Zhang’s Violin Suites (回歸抒懷：張延齡小提琴作品

選集) is an example of a transcription from the wen category of the pipa’s repertoire.53

In his transcription, Zhang wrote the main melody for the violin, and the piano

accompaniment. Nonetheless, compare what the violin sounds like after performing

the score to how the original pipa recording sounds, and it becomes clear that the

violin cannot truly represent all the sounds that the pipa can produce. However, it

likely was not Zhang’s intention to imitate the sound of the pipa on the violin, but

rather his main focus was probably transcribing the main melody to the violin with

few other considerations.

This violin transcription does not wholly express what the pipa cipher score

has and this is immediately noticeable in the introduction section of the piece. The

recording I selected is from Liu De-Hai’s student, Yang Jin (楊靖). Yang performs this

piece based on Liu De Hai’s cipher notation score. In the first measure of the music,

the second line of the violin and piano transcription (Musical Example 3.1) does not

match the sound from the recording (Recording from 0:07-0:22).54 Based on the

recording and the pipa’s numeric score, the ending of m.1 should transcribe to

Musical Example 3.2. In addition, the ending of the tremolo should disappear and

have a little breath. The violin transcription here does not accurately express this.

Musical Example 3.3 shows the piper cipher notation of the piece.

53 Yan-Ling Zhang (張延齡), “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River, Violin Transcription with Piano Part (春江花月夜, 小提琴獨奏及鋼琴伴奏),” 茅庐乐坊, accessed Jan 15, 2018, https://www.maolu.co/notation/193387.

54 Jing Yang (楊靖), “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River 春江花月夜,” YouTube video, 9:10, posted by “TheYangJing”, Jan 2012, https://youtu.be/VRlwAjpJ0sw.

Musical Example 3.1: Second line of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.2: The transcription that I suggest for the ending of m. 1 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.3: The cipher notation of “A Moonlit Night on the Sping River” for Musical Example 3.01.

When one listens to different recordings, it becomes clear that pipa performances may have differences in style especially at the beginning of the “free tempo” section ( ). Prior to the twentieth century, composers who wrote music using cipher notation only wrote down the main melody of the music without indicating embellishment or details. Different performers who play the same piece may choose different schools’ editions; thus, even though Zhang’s transcription does not match the numeric score that I provide here, it does not mean that his transcription is totally inaccurate. It is likely that Zhang based his transcription on a performance or recording and not on a cipher score at all.

To prevent confusion and to further the understanding of pipa music and its

28 history, one who transcribes a pipa piece should provide performers with the cipher

score that he/she transcribes from. However, performers who learned from different

pipa schools’ or mixed schools’ instructors may have their own interpretation of the

same cipher score. Therefore, it is better to provide the recording that the

transcriptionist based their transcription on as an appendix. The proliferation of

different editions for one piece has become a much smaller problem since,

nowadays, composers in China more frequently use Western staff’s corresponding

symbols in order to indicate everything that they want performers to note in their

music.

Looking back to Zhang’s transcription again, the issue of a violin (as a bowed

instrument) having limited ability to accurately express the pipa plucking sounds

returns. Deciding which type of bowings to choose to closely imitate pipa’s plucking

sound is important for a transcriptionist. For example, see the beginning of “A

Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月夜); the first measure is in cipher notation

shown below in Musical Example 3.4. Musical Example 3.5 is Zhang’s transcription

of the cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.4: m. 1 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.5: Zhang’s transcription of m. 1 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Zhang’s transcription in Musical Example 3.5 indicates that the player should use pizzicato at the beginning and later change to separate bows to play the sixteenth notes. It would be a better solution for the violinist to use a ricochet bowing here in order to imitate the sound of the pipa’s plucking rather than using pizzicato or separate fast bows, such as a détaché or staccato bowing. In my transcription, I suggest using ricochet bowings which is shown in Musical Example 3.6.

Musical Example 3.6: My transcription of m. 1 from “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

The violinists could possibly use off-the-string bow strokes to imitate the pipa’s plucking sound, such as ricochet, spiccato, sautillé, etc. A transcriptionist needs to choose which types of bow strokes are most suitable for the transcription. For example, in Musical Example 3.6, since there are groups of the same note at the beginning, the ricochet bow stroke is the one which can most suitably get an off- string (plucking) effect and also play a group of notes off-string while bouncing the bow.

In addition to deciding which bow strokes to use in a transcription, choosing which Western staff symbols to supplement the pipa cipher score is important, too. In the edition of the cipher notation from Liu De-Hai, there is a trill symbol (Musical

Example 3.7). However, In Zhang’s transcription of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring

River” (春江花月夜), Musical Example 3.8, Zhang ignores the trill ( ) in m. 2 of the cipher notation. One should notice that Zhang does not put any bar lines between

30 notes in this introduction passage. It is also possible that Zhang used a different

edition of the cipher score to transcribe the music (Musical Example 3.9).

Musical Example 3.7: m. 2 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” in cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.8: Zhang’s transcription of m. 2 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.9: The introduction passage of Zhang’s transcription.

Based on Liu De-Hai’s edition, there is a trill in m. 2. The recording that I

listened to includes the trill as well. According to Grove Music Online, the trill in

Western music means “A type of embellishment that consists in a more or less rapid

31 alternation of the main note with one a tone or semitone above or below it.”55 See

Musical Example 3.10 for an example of trills that a violinist generally sees notated.

Musical Example 3.10: The trill ( ) should be played based on the note G.

The trill that appears in the pipa numeric score sounds different from what the

violin usually plays. In order to have a transcription which can mostly match what the

pipa performs, the transcriptionist should use bar lines to indicate measures.

Furthermore, since the pipa uses Western staff notation to record music on the

cipher notation score nowadays, a transcriptionist needs to be aware of the

differences of the Western notation symbols used in the cipher notation. Therefore,

Musical Example 3.7 should have a transcription like the one shown in Musical

Example 3.11, which matches what the pipa plays in the recording, and should

eliminate any vagueness in the notation. In order to present the original music more

precisely, the transcriptionist can also use the symbol (*) as a note and indicate this

at the bottom of the page to inform the performer how to play this trill; see Musical

Example 3.12.

Musical Example 3.11: Transcription for violin of m. 2 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

When transcribing music from the pipa to the violin, it can be challenging to preserve the music in a way so that it truly approximates the original pipa music.

55 "Trill," Grove Music Online, 20 Apr. 2018, http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2173/grovemusic/ view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000048836.

Therefore, when transcribing using symbols such as trill or grace notes from Western staff notation one needs to be attentive. Zhang’s transcription provides an example of trills and grace notes. The third line of Zhang’s transcription is shown in Musical

Example 3.13. Here, Zhang uses trills throughout this entire measure. This is a

transcription from m. 3 of the cipher score shown in Musical Example 3.14).

Musical Example 3.12: The explanation of the use of the symbol (*). The (*) should be played like this musical example.

Musical Example 3.13: Zhang’s transcription of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.14: m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

The symbol “ ” above the number 3 and 2 indicates that the player should

use the four fingers of the right hand (excluding the thumb) to pluck the notes B and

A (as G = 1) in order to create a four-note plucking sound (two B’s followed by two

A’s). Also, the symbol “ ” above the number 1 means that the player should use the

right hand’s thumb to pluck the note G in order to get one plucking sound. The

33 number 0 means a rest. The “ ” means that the performer will repeat the same

music until they decide to finish it. To transcribe this measure straight from the pipa

cipher score into Western staff score, it should look similar to Musical Example 3.15.

If one were to play Zhang’s transcription, however, it would sound like Musical

Example 3.16, which is different from what the original pipa cipher score sounds like.

Musical Example 3.15: The suggested violin transcription of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.16: Zhang’s transcription without trill of m. 3 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

It is possible that Zhang considers the trill, as it is usually notated in violin music,

is similar to what the pipa cipher score has, or, Zhang prefers to use that kind of trill

here in order to give the music a different effect. However, I think it is important to

preserve what the cipher score originally has. Since this is a transcription from a

plucked instrument to a bowed instrument, it is obvious that the transcription will not

sound like the original. Nonetheless, if the violin is able to produce the same notes

that the pipa plays, then it can provide the same atmosphere that the pipa creates.

Instead of using a trill for m. 3 in the violin transcription, finding a way to notate what

the pipa sounds like and using a specific bowing stroke, such as ricochet, to play this

measure would be more suitable in the transcription.

Ancient pipa music was recorded in gongchepu (工尺譜), and is now read in cipher notation, but it is important to note that the tradition was also an oral one as

well as a written one. This ancient music was often spread through listening and

singing, and sometimes recorded in cipher notation. As people of the time would

have been familiar with the music, cipher notation scores for ancient pipa music such

as “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月夜) usually record only notes or

symbols that composers or arrangers consider important in the music. The symbol

“ ” in the middle of m. 3 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (Figure 4.2)

becomes a vague symbol in the cipher notation. How long should the performer

play? How many times does the performer need to repeat the passage “ ”?

In his transcription, Zhang clearly records this “ ” part in the transcription

(Musical Example 3.13) by writing a set number of repetitions out in the music. It is a

good choice to transcribe this symbol rather than keeping it as it is in the

transcription. When playing pipa repertoire in China today, performers often follow

music scores published from the China Conservatory of Music (中國音樂學院) or the

Central Conservatory of Music (中央音樂院). Hence, cipher notation scores have

started to integrate into one or two versions. These days, most performers follow

these versions and only have slight differences in their performance. The

transcriptionist can refer to a few different recordings in order to decide how long or

how many times they will repeat a certain melody pattern after this symbol and

record it in their transcription. This provides Western violinists with sufficient

information to interpret the original pipa music closely. In order to play the full

duration of a note’s length, the pipa uses non-stop plucking symbols such as

“ ”, “ ”, or “ ” based on musical necessity. Zhang omits these

35 symbols in the transcription and replaces these with equal notes length of long bows.

Examples can be seen in many places, such as Musical Example 3.17 and Musical

Example 3.18. The original cipher notation of m. 6 and m. 23 are shown in Musical

Example 3.19 and Musical Example 3.20.

Musical Example 3.17: Zhang’s transcription of m. 6 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.18: Zhang’s transcription of m. 23 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.19: Cipher notation of m. 7 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.20: Cipher notation of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”.

Note that in Musical Examples 3.19 and 3.20, both passages include the “ ”

symbol above one of the notes, which means to use four fingers except the thumb to

pluck the string. However, Zhang does not notate this in his transcription. As the

36 plucking sound is one of the distinctive characteristics of the pipa’s sound, it will be more appropriate if the transcription can retain notes from the plucking sound rather than delete them. Although the symbol “ ” and “ ” are different, one uses four fingers to pluck, and another uses five fingers. In the transcription, the transcriptionist can simply notate these two symbols as a tremolo; see Musical Example 3.21 and

Musical Example 3.22.

Musical Example 3.21: The transcription of m. 7 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.22: The transcription of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

As a Western instrument performer, one may notice that it is rare to put a tremolo on a sixteenth note ( ) in Western staff notation. Nevertheless, as this piece has only two beats per measure in a slow tempo, the sixteenth note is a relatively long

note here. To play a tremolo on this sixteenth note is a possible arrangement.

In addition to symbols that instruct how to pluck strings in pipa cipher notation,

there are symbols that have a similar execution in violin technique. For example, the

hollow circles above numbers in pipa cipher notation represent artificial harmonics on

the pipa. We can find this example in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月

夜), section four: “Glistening Light of Waves” (波光) (Musical Example 3.23). However,

Zhang does not transcribe these artificial harmonics into his transcription (Musical

Example 3.24). Instead of notating artificial harmonic notes on violin, Zhang suggests

pizzicato here.

Musical Example 3.23: The transcription of m. 24 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

Musical Example 3.24: Zhang’s transcription of m. 61-63 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River.”

As the title of this section is “Glistening Light of Waves” (波光), I think that it is more appropriate to use artificial harmonics on violin here instead of pizzicato. Artificial harmonics in violin playing create a more mysterious and uncertain character, just like glistening light of the waves on a spring river: they are pretty but disappear sometimes.

Through the process of understanding and reading the pipa cipher notation scores, one can discover that pipa has techniques and symbols that produce non-

pitched sound. One of the non-pitched sound symbols can be found in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”, which is shown in Musical Example 3.25.

Musical Example 3.25: Cipher notation of m. 35 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”.

The symbol “ ” is a percussive non-pitched sound symbol, which is called

zhai (摘 ), which I have translated as “pick”.56 To play this symbol, the pipa player

needs to hold the right hand’s thumb out against the string, and at the same time,

the fingers (other than the thumb) pluck the string. This is a way for the pipa to

imitate the sound of a percussion instrument. On the violin, there are not any specific

techniques related to this. During the transcription process, the transcriptionist may

wonder whether to transcribe it or not. The sound that the pipa produces from this

technique is so unique that the violin could not really use bow strokes or pizzicato to

imitate it. It might be most effective to instruct the violinist to use bow techniques that

create a special effect, such as sul ponticello (bowing near the bridge) or col legno

(using the stick of the bow, rather than the hair, on the strings) as a way to more

closely imitate the sound. In order to adequately notate a substitute for this symbol in

the transcription, one needs to make sure that the sound will be close to what the

pipa originally produces. On the other hand, since the violin is also a string

instrument and the setting of it, with bridge, strings, and fingerboard (fret on pipa), is

similar to the pipa, it may be possible for the violin to improvise a technique which

can copy this sound from the pipa with only a slight difference in timbre. For

example, the violin player could refer to an explanation of movements of the

technique and create a technique similar to it.

To create a new technique that is similar to what the pipa has, one needs to

understand how the pipa player would execute the technique in question. For “ ”,

the pipa player puts their left thumb at the end of the last fret, and another finger of

56 Jing Yang 楊靖, “Pipa Videos: pick string, lift and clap, pluck the front of the pipa 琵琶視頻: 摘弦, 提拍, 彈面板,” YouKu video, 3:20, March 23, 2018, http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTQ0MzIxMjY0.html?spm=a2h1n.8251843.playList.5!2~5~A&f=2538 6187&o=1. (accessed: March 2, 2018).

39 the left hand plucks between the thumb and the bridge. This means that on the

violin, the sequence of using fingers is opposite to the pipa. For example, the player

can use their right middle finger to press at the end of the fingerboard and use the

right index finger to pluck it. The transcriptionist can put a note in the appendix and

use the same symbol in the transcription, as shown in Musical Example 3.26.

Musical Example 3.26: Transcription of m. 33-38 of “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”.

To play this newly created technique on the violin, both the transcriptionist

and the player need to consider different problems regarding how to execute it. For

example, is the tempo slow enough for the player, who requires time to bring the

bow to the frog, to pluck the string with the right hand two fingers at the correct

timing? Is it possible to pluck this “pick” technique using the fingers of the left hand

instead of the right hand? How should the transcriptionist minimize the difficulties

that this technique brings to the performer? How will the transcription be altered in

order to make the technique easier to execute?

The solution I employ in my transcription here is to pluck the previous note,

‘A,’ using the left hand pinky finger. There are two reasons for doing this: one is to

create more plucking sounds in order to preserve the pipa’s plucked ringing tone.

The other reason is to give the violinist more time to prepare for the “pick” technique

during the rest.

Unlike Zhang’s transcription which seems like he transcribed this music

without reading the pipa cipher notation score and notated the music only from

listening to a pipa recording, the method of transcription that I wish to present

40 focuses on the pipa as a plucked instrument. Therefore, I have not only copied the

notes from the pipa cipher notation, but also have tried to preserve some

characteristics of the plucked instrument. Since the violin is also a stringed

instrument, one can pluck violin strings in order to make plucking sounds. Since the

pipa in general has four open strings la (A2), re (D3), mi (E3), and la (A3), “A Moonlit

Night on the Spring River” often uses la (A2) and re (D3) open strings as part of

triads or double stops. Here, I suggest using scordatura, a technique stringed

instrument tuned in an atypical manner to alternate the tuning of the violin’s open

string G to A (tuned one step higher). Hence, the violin will have four open strings

which are la (A3), re (D3), la (A4), mi (E4). There are few passages that the violin

player can pluck using the left hand pinky to pluck open string(s) while the bow is still

playing the melody. With scordatura, the player can pluck open string(s) as part of

an accompaniment part using the left hand and play the melody on the bow using

the right hand. I have provided a few examples below.

Measures 44-46 of the pipa cipher score in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring

River” (Musical Example 3.27), include a double stop in m. 44 and a chord in m. 46.

The transcriptionist can add a pizzicato note(s) below the bowing note in such

instances (Musical Example 3.28). Transcribing this part of the piece in such a

manner adds more flair characteristic of the pipa’s plucked, resonant sound to the

violin transcription.

Musical Example 3.27: Cipher notation of m. 44-46 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”.

Musical Example 3.28: Transcription of m. 44-46 in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River”.

3.2 Transcription in Wu Category

Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏) is a great example of programmatic music

from the pipa repertoire. This famous pipa music employs the use of sections in the

score that follow the history of a battle between the Chu and Han (楚漢) armies around 202 BCE. There are two similar ancient pipa musical works: Ambush from

Ten Sides (十面埋伏) and The Emperor Discards his Armor (霸王卸甲), which tell

different stories based on the same history about the Chu and Han armies. In the

book The Biography of Tang Pipa (湯琵琶傳) that was written in the Ming dynasty

(1368-1644 CE), there is a poem that describes when a pipa master, or Ying Ceng

Tang (湯應曾), also known as Tang Pipa (湯琵琶), performed a famous piece called

Chu Han (楚漢). This poem matches the melodic descriptions of Ambush from Ten

Sides (十面埋伏) and The Emperor Discards his Armor (霸王卸甲).57 From this

evidence, we can tell that the ancient pipa music Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏)

has likely been actively played in China since at least the sixteenth century.58

57 Yong-Ping Zhuang 莊永平, “Guide to pipa repertoire 名曲解說,” in The Pipa Handbook 琵琶手冊 (ShangHai, China: ShangHai Music Publisher, 2001), 321-23.

58 Muci Xu 許牧慈, “The importance of fingerings in pipa music「摧藏千里態，掩抑幾重悲」--指法在琵琶音樂語境中地位之探討,” (PhD diss., National Taiwan Normal University, 2002), 170.

Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏) is still one of the most famous wu category

pipa pieces. Since it is popular and has been performed for a very long time,

different schools have various interpretations of this work. There are four main

versions of Ambush from Ten Sides represented by four different schools, and each

of them follows the same story line, but contains different number of small sections.

Performers today not only perform different versions of the music, but also alter it in

order to fit their needs.

For the purpose of this discussion, I have selected the edition of Ambush from

Ten Sides from a well-known performer, Liu De-Hai, to review here. Liu learned from

teachers of all of the five main pipa schools; Liu mentions in an educational video

that his edition is based on the pipa master of Pu Dong School (浦東派), Lin Shi-

Cheng’s (林石城) editions.59 Liu’s edition combined what he learned and used the

pipa’s most characteristic sounds; in particular Liu uses the pipa technique  sway

and sweep 搖掃  at the very end of Ambush from Ten Sides. Most pipa players in

China use his edition to perform Ambush from Ten Sides today. Nonetheless, one

needs to note that most performances of this piece in China today rarely include all

ten sections in this piece; they usually stop after the seventh section.

The Chinese composer and performer Yang Bao-Zhi 楊寶智 (1935-), who dedicated himself to transcribing traditional pieces of Chinese instruments such as

dizi, erhu, pipa, and so on to violin, composed the violin concerto Shimian Maifu (十面

59 De-Hai Liu 劉德海, “The Masterclass from Liu De-Hai 刘德海琵琶教学,” YouKu Video, 1:09:32, May 17, 2012, http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzk3OTA5MzY4.html?from=s1.8-1- 1.2&spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0. (accessed March 21, 2018).

埋伏) based on the pipa music Ambush from Ten Sides. 60 However, the concerto is

different from what the pipa originally plays.61

Music from the wu category of repertoire relies even more heavily on pipa

plucking features than the repertoire of the wen category. For example, the pipa can

pluck four strings at once as a type of onomatopoeia in Ambush from Ten Sides,

which imitates the sound of swords and armor clashing into each other during

battle.62 As a bowed instrument, the violin needs to use different techniques in order

to create a similar effect. In my search for video recordings of performances that

include a performance of Liu De-Hai’s edition of Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏), I

found a few differing performances. The one that I have chosen to discuss at length

below follows the section order of Liu De-Hai’s edition, but the performer ends after

the seventh section without playing the last three sections.63

Instead of including seven or all ten sections in his violin concerto, Yang wrote

only five sections, which are named the same as the pipa music Ambush from Ten

Sides (十面埋伏). Throughout these sections, Yang has changed some notes in each

section, but he uses diversified violin techniques in order to preserve the pipa’s

sound effects in the music.

In his transcription, Yang tries to keep the main formal structure of the music,

preserve both intervals and melodies in the piece, and works to keep the music’s

60 "Some Briefing Notes on Professor Yang’s Music Compositions," China Culture Violin, 2015, accessed April 22, 2018, http://chinacultureviolin.com/note.php.

61 Bao-Zhi Yang 楊寶智, Ambush from Ten Sides (Violin Edition) 十面埋伏古曲楊寶智編曲, March 10, 2015, accessed February 10, 2018, https://youtu.be/9ZMcPx6v9H4. 62 YuXin Mei, interview by author, Denton, TX, March 20, 2018.

63 De-Hai Liu 劉德海, “Pipa solo: shi mian mai fu - liu de hai 琵琶独奏十面埋伏刘德海”, YouTube Video, 8:15, June 26, 2009, https://youtu.be/eDpOsBKdJhI. (Accessed January 20, 2018).

44 spirit and atmosphere. For example, the first section, named Setting Up Camp (列營),

is the same as the name in the original cipher score. Yang uses twenty-six measures

to transcribe and imitate the atmosphere from the first two lines (m. 1-8) in the pipa

cipher score (Musical Example 3.29).

Musical Example 3.29: Liu’s Ambush from Ten Sides m. 1-8.

Yang separates this section into a few short passages, and each of them

presents part of the original music using notes that are within the violin’s typical

range. The first three lines of Yang’s transcription (Musical Example 3.30) represent

the first three measures of numbers in the cipher notation (Musical Example 3.31).

Musical Example 3.30: Yang’s transcription of m. 1-10 of Ambush from Ten Sides.

Musical Example 3.31: First four sets of numbers in the cipher notation of Ambush from Ten Sides.

Yang transcribes three measures into eleven measures because his transcription includes the numbers of repetition of these three measures in the cipher score. He records the number of repetitions in the transcription based on what a pipa performer does, because the cipher score presents an indication of ‘from slow to fast

由慢到快’ which Yang clearly transfers in the rhythmic values that he uses in his transcription. Although different from the cipher score’s note order, Yang uses the same notes within the chord in m. 1 (Musical Example 3.32), but also added two additional notes, D4 and B4 (Musical Example 3.33), in order to enrich the chord.

These additional notes also serve as a way to remind the listener of the story of the two armies because this stronger, enriched sound is characteristic of a wu piece.

Musical Example 3.32: The notes used in Musical Example 3.31.

Musical Example 3.33: Notes that Yang uses in his transcription for cipher notation score m. 1.

In addition, Yang uses the note A5, instead of E5, as the highest note of the chord, which makes it possible for the violin to play the chord using all four strings

46 throughout the passage. This method of transcription allows for the violin to play

either triads or chords for this passage and helps preserve the warlike atmosphere

from the original pipa piece. Furthermore, Yang suggests double stops from broken

chords from m. 6 to m. 9 rather than notating continuous tremolos in this passage,

which, when playing with accompaniment (piano or orchestra), creates an effective,

grand sound effect similar to what the pipa would achieve when performing from

cipher notation.

Adjusting notes according to the instrument’s ability but still retaining the

notes of the melody is another way of transcribing the music. In this passage, the

pipa not only plucks several notes, but also changes the pitch of the notes within

these chords. Yang rearranges these notes and works them into this passage in his

transcription. The circled notes in Musical Example 3.34 are retained in the

transcription; see the circled notes in Musical Example 3.30 and Musical Example

3.35. Yang changes the starting note of this passage, but maintains the same

intervals between top notes of chords from m. 6 to m. 10. These five notes appear in

the transcription many times later from m. 12 to m. 18 (notes circled in Musical

Example 3.36), and m. 18 to m. 22 is an echo of this melody.

Musical Example 3.34: m.1-3 of the Ambush from Ten Sides cipher score.

Musical Example 3.35: Circled notes in Musical Example 3.34 in Western staff notation.

Musical Example 3.36: Melody in Musical Example 3.35 that repeats several times in the violin transcription.

From this transcription, we can tell that Yang preserves the principal notes of the cipher notation which he then alters so that they fit the violin’s register to comport with the violin’s capabilities. This is a wise approach of transcribing music from one instrument to another.

Generally speaking, Yang’s transcription follows the outline that the combination that the pipa cipher score and symbols indicate. The example can be seen from m. 27 to m. 30 (Musical Example 3.37). The way that Yang notated this part is very similar to what m. 9-12 of the original pipa cipher notation looks like

(Musical Example 3.38). Compared to Musical Example 3.38, it is clear that Yang altered the original pipa part in his transcription (Musical Example 3.37) in order to preserve the melody from the original cipher score; this is evident in the first measure of both figures. The second note in the transcription, “ ”, is how Yang transcribes the pipa symbol, “ ”, in the cipher score. The symbol “↑” next to the number 4, a special symbol that usually appears next to note fa (4) in Chinese ancient music, indicates that the player should adjust this note’s tuning to be slightly higher than the fourth scale degree, which is in between Fa and Fi.64 Moreover, the

64 Interview Mei YuXin April 20, 2018.

48 arrow symbol “ ” on the right side of number 4, is known as pull and push 推拉 in

pipa technique, and means that the pipa player uses the fingers of the left to

forcefully pull and push the string in order to change the pitch after the original

sounding of the note.65 At this point in the recording, the push and pull moves the

note up from the original pitch (from a frequency just higher than G, but not quite G-

Sharp to almost A) in order to create tension feeling within the music. Musical

Example 3.39 is a transcription of m. 9-12 to Western staff notation.

Musical Example 3.37: m. 27-30 from Yang’s transcription of Ambush from Ten Sides.

Musical Example 3.38: m. 9-12 from Ambush from Ten Sides.

Musical Example 3.39: Author’s transcription of m. 9-12 from Ambush from Ten Sides to Western staff notation.

Yang uses the grace note, C-sharp, to connect to the note D in order to

represent the symbol based on the key D major, however, it is not what the original

pipa music sounds like. The note C-sharp here (Musical Example 3.37, m.1) may be

written as a C-natural with a special symbol (↑) to indicate that the violinist should

play this note’s pitch slightly higher than C-natural. (Musical Example 3.40) The

65 Jing Yang 楊靖, “Pipa Videos: Push and Pull 琵琶视频推、拉、扳,” YouKu video, 5:49, April 28, 2015, http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTQzNzk0NDky.html?spm=a2h1n.8251843.playList.5!6~5~A&f=2538 6187&o=1.

49 transcriptionist can add a note below the score, mentioning that the symbol (↑)

indicates to play the note a little higher than its tuned note. Nonetheless, it is

possible that Yang wrote C-sharp on purpose in order to give the transcription a

similar but special flavor, because it is obvious that the violin transcription will not be

exactly the same as the sound that the pipa can produce.

Musical Example 3.40: The author’s suggested transcription of the “ ” symbol that appears in Yang’s transcription.

Another interesting point is that when one compares m. 27 of the transcription

(Musical Example 3.37) with m. 9 of the cipher score (Musical Example 3.38), it

becomes clear that Yang uses the symbol “ ” that appears in the cipher notation in

his violin transcription. Yang cleverly applies this technique with the second part of

the pull and push note as a “natural harmonic note” on the G string, which is in 7th

position, rather than on the D string in order to make the left hand finger slide from

third position to seventh position and more accurately imitate the sound of pull and

push from the pipa. The use of this method lends the passage a different sound color

than having the violinist play the same note in first position without a large slide. The

constraint of transcribing this passage using a natural harmonic note is that the note

he transcribes must be an open string (or an octave or two above one of the open

strings) on the violin. Thus, Yang uses the note D in this passage, and for another

passage from m. 45 to m. 48, Yang uses the note A (Musical Example 3.41).

Musical Example 3.41: m. 45-48 from Yang’s transcription of Ambush from Ten Sides. 50

It is difficult to determine if Yang should use natural harmonic here or not because the pipa uses a “firm sound” (實聲) here to express the tension of war. The violin may use a regular note with third finger sliding from note C-natural (higher pitch note) to note D (Musical Example 3.40) and may be an option to make the transcription closer to what the original pipa music sounds like.

A further example of Yang’s faithfulness to the pipa cipher score but disregard for performative interpretations can be found in m. 10 of the cipher score (Musical

Example 3.38). Here, the cipher score shows the symbol “ ,” as discussed earlier, that means to pluck the note with all fingers of the right hand except for the thumb.

Yang does not use tremolo here, but he still notates this in the transcription using a mordent ( ). It should be noted that it is quite impossible for the violin to play this passage with the glissando (pull and push) technique in a fairly fast tempo as the piece indicated. Therefore, the violinist can take liberty with the tempo in this passage. This shows that in Yang’s transcription, the original pipa piece is faithfully preserved, but with new inventions in order to provide performers and listeners a new perspective on ancient and unfamiliar music. Moreover, the different tone color of the old melody can help the listener develop a sense of familiarity with Chinese music of a similar style.

Furthermore, one can tell that Yang tries to keep the structure of the original pipa cipher notation, but methodically works in a way that the Western performer can understand and can execute the intensions of his transcription. For example, instead of writing the time signature 2/4 that the pipa cipher notation has, Yang uses the time signature 4/4, which is easier for a violinist to follow. Also, from m. 9 to m. 12 in the cipher notation (Musical Example 3.38), the pipa changes its time signature from two beats to three beats. Yang uses a triplet to transcribe this passage (Musical Example

3.37) rather than changing the time signature within two measures. This way, the

transcription fits with what violinists are used to seeing and will prevent uncertainty

when one performs.

While he does alter some rhythms from the original score, Yang’s

transcription from m. 27 until m. 60 mainly follows the music’s melody, structure, and

perception of the first section in the pipa cipher notation. However, before the next

section, “Ambush,” Yang skips three sections of the original pipa cipher score.

“Ambush” is a section that Yang composed but is based on notes found in the

original pipa score. The melody itself uses five notes that are prevalent in the cipher

score (Musical Example 3.42).

Musical Example 3.42: Five notes used in the “Ambush” section of the original pipa cipher notation of Ambush from Ten Sides.

Even though Yang composed this section (mm. 63-75), he utilizes the violin’s

artificial harmonics, based on the notes in Musical Example 3.42, to create an

unsure and careful atmosphere in the ‘Ambush’ section. In this section, the melody is

stated in the first two measures (Musical Example 3.43), and Yang develops those

two measures and expands them into the rest of the section. He uses glissando and pizzicato techniques to ensure that the listeners connect the music to the pipa music.

See Musical Example 3.44 for the notes’ sounding pitches.

Musical Example 3.43: m. 65-66 of Yang’s transcription.

Musical Example 3.44: The notes’ sounding pitches without artificial harmonics in m. 65-66 of Yang’s transcription.

Yang, as a composer and an accomplished violinist, retains part of the aesthetic side of the pipa music, while also managing to showcase the violin’s capability and flexibility when playing music written for other instruments. Since it is a newly composed melody, the tempo Yang writes here is Adagio, which is also different from the original pipa cipher notation.

In the other three sections, Yang uses similar transcription methods as I described earlier throughout the rest of this transcription. Half of the sections of

Yang’s transcription come from the pipa cipher score – “Setting up Camp” 列營,

“Small Battle” 小戰, “War” 大戰 – the same themes seen in the original pipa cipher notation, and the other half – “Ambush” 埋伏, “Withdraw Troops” 奏凱收兵 – are newly composed sections based on notes that the original pipa cipher notation uses. He also maintains the structure of the whole piece, but shortens it by showing the listener only the most interesting and unforgettable parts of the original piece. The way that he transcribes this pipa ancient music can transfer easily into Western listeners’ ears, and encourages them to appreciate the sound of Chinese pipa music. Nonetheless, some pipa performers think that this transcription does not fully transform the pipa music and its presentation of the wu category.66

66 YuXin Mei, interview by author, Denton, TX, March 20, 2018.

3.3 A New Transcription of the Contemporary Pipa Piece, “Swan”

“Swan” 天鵝, the piece of music I have transcribed as an example to present in

this dissertation, was originally composed for pipa by Liu De Hai in 1984. It is an

example of a wen composition (as Liu himself described it) and it seeks to describe

the temperament of swans. Liu, as he described in an interview, attempts to transfer

already existing techniques from other instruments to the pipa, such as the use of

left-hand thumb and pinky on the cello, or front and back sides of the right-hand

fingers plucking on the guitar.67 As techniques on the pipa evolve to become

increasingly complex, the music that Liu composed integrates techniques from older

generation to newer ones, which provided a broader range of musical expression.

Liu originally composed the piece in Western staff notation (see his handwriting

example below). However, the published edition of the work appears in cipher

notation as many pipa pieces often are. It is for this reason that I have presented

cipher notation examples in this dissertation.68 In this music, the pipa presents

swans playing happily on a peaceful lake. While transcribing this piece, there are a

few sections where the violin may struggle to wholly represent the notes in the pipa

cipher notation. Therefore, the violin needs an accompanist in order to help best

represent the song. This transcription can also serve as an educational tool for those

wishing to learn how to transcribe pipa pieces for the violin.

Before starting the transcription process, it is important to first read through

the music in order to decide what the key of the transcription should be. The main

reason for this is because the violin has different open strings than the pipa does. A

67 Ng Rui Jun, “音乐人生 - 刘德海与琵琶的不解之缘 A Life of Music: Liu De Hai,” filmed [Feb 2012]. YouTube video, 00:19. Posted [Feb 2012]. https://youtu.be/5KLtyq2S19I. 68 YuXin Mei (renowned pipa performer) in discussion with the author, March 2018.

54 transcriptionist may choose to keep the principal notes of the music but alter keys

within the music, like what Yang does in Ambush from Ten Sides (Figure 10.3). On

the other hand, one can also change the key of the music in order to fit into the

violin’s register. This piece is in A Major, and the composer often uses notes 1 and 5 for its melody or in the base of chords. Therefore, I have decided to change the key of this transcription from A Major to G Major, as the violin’s open strings are G, D, A, and E, and it is easier for the violin to produce a chord with G and D.

While reading through the pipa cipher score of “Swan”, one may notice that the tempo changes a few times throughout the piece. I have decided to keep the tempo similar to what the original cipher score marks in my transcription. Since the transcription may be played by non-Chinese violinists who cannot read Chinese words in the cipher notation, it is recommended that the transcriptionist indicate tempo markings when the tempo changes in the transcription. Because Liu is a contemporary composer, he already states the music’s tempo clearly at the beginning (Musical Example 3.45).

Musical Example 3.45: m. 1-2 of Liu’s “Swan.”

In Musical Example 3.45, Liu gives a precise tempo marking next to the time signature. In addition, he also described the tempo he wants below it, using

“moderate tempo close to slow tempo, peacefully” (中速偏慢安祥地). However, since

he marked the speed as “ ,” the tempo marking for this speed should be Lento 55 instead of Adagio. I suggest notating this speed and description of the piece’s speed

at the beginning of the music, instead of the tempo marking in the transcription

(Musical Example 3.46).

Musical Example 3.46: m. 1 of the transcription of “Swan.”

Additionally, the time signature in this piece changes. In order to clearly

instruct performers, I have chosen to use different time signatures in my transcription

than what the original pipa cipher score denotes with the intent that it will be easier

for the performer to understand. An example of this consideration can be seen at the

very beginning of the piece. The pipa cipher score begins with a time signature of

2/4. However, the music could just as easily make sense when notated with the time

signature 4/4 here, too. Therefore, I decided to change the time signature here into

4/4. This can be found in Yang’s transcription as well (Musical Examples 3.37 to

Musical Examples 3.39).

Furthermore, I have also left out some grace notes in the transcription,

because the violin will have difficulty executing those. Also, I have added piano

accompaniment to this transcription so that the piano can play the harmony, leaving

the violinist to focus on the melodic and virtuosic passages; see m. 24-27 of the pipa

cipher notation (Musical Example 3.47).

Musical Example 3.47: m. 24-27 of “Swan” in cipher notation.

Note that there are chords or extra lines under the main cipher notation lines which are already circled in this example. It is difficult for the violinist to execute this

part, therefore, an accompaniment instrument such as piano can be helpful here, as shown in Musical Example 3.48. The piano can play notes that the violinist would have difficulty playing; such notes are circled in Musical Example 3.48.

Musical Example 3.48: Transcription of m. 24-27 of “Swan” with the piano accompaniment part.

A transcriptionist must bear in mind that the instrument (in this case, the

violin) would not be able to play music written for another instrument perfectly or

exactly the same. Pursuing help from an accompanist in order to preserve the

aesthetic expression from the original instrument is a way to solve the problem.

One may notice that in m. 7 of the pipa cipher notation, the time signature

changes to 3/4 rather than remaining in 2/4 (Musical Example 3.49). However,

compare m. 3 to m. 7 where the extra notes are likely embellishments or

accompanimental notes to enhance the melody. Therefore, instead of changing the

time signature here, I chose to use rubato with a fermata in order to best represent

the cipher score and its intentions.

Musical Example 3.49: m. 7 of “Swan” in cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.50: m. 7 of “Swan” in Western staff notation.

Musical Example 3.51: Transcription of m. 7 of “Swan.”

Like in my discussion of Zhang’s transcription (Musical Examples 3.21 and

3.22), for the purpose of keeping the essence of the pipa, I chose to transcribe the symbol “ ” in the cipher score as a tremolo for the purpose of preserving the essence of the pipa in the violin transcription. The example can be seen in Musical Example 3.52 and Musical Example 3.53. The frame around the symbol “ ” means that the way of using fingers remains the same until the new symbol shows up later.69 Nonetheless, for keeping the consistency of the music, I still suggest the use of a tremolo instead of a long note for those notes in m.

26, 29, 33 of the cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.52: m. 25-26 in “Swan.”

69 YuXin Mei, interview by author, Denton, TX, March 20, 2018.

Musical Example 3.53: m. 14 of the transcription of “Swan.”

Comparing the contemporary pipa music composer’s cipher score with ancient ones, it is obvious that the way of notating the music becomes more detailed in contemporary cipher scores compared to cipher scores from before the mid- twentieth century. For instance, the composer does not indicate how a performer should execute the trill in “A Moonlit Night on the Spring River,” and it is likely for a

Western instrumentalist to play it differently than intended, as can be seen in Musical

Example 3.07 and Musical Example 3.09. But in “Swan”, Liu clearly notates instructions on how to play a long, plucked note or a trill using extra numbers above the main melody in the cipher notation. The examples can be found in many different places, such as m. 27 (Musical Example 3.54), m. 30, or m. 33 (Musical Example

3.55). Like the example in Musical Example 3.12, I use the symbol (*) as a note for the player to pay attention to the difference of the trill here, and also notate the trill clearly on the score, which is shown in Musical Example 3.56.

Musical Example 3.54: m. 27 of “Swan” in cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.55: m. 33 of “Swan” in the cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.56: The transcription of m. 27 of “Swan” from cipher notation.

The varying methods of playing trills in pipa music may become a problem for

Western players. In the cipher score, Liu uses trill ( ) as a symbol to indicate that the notes should rapidly alternate between each other. However, the ways of playing trills often sound differently in different passages. Taking an example in Musical

Example 3.52, the trill here starts from slow notes which have almost the same rhythm as the sixteenth notes in the first beat, and later gradually speed up for the rest of the beat. However, in Musical Example 3.57, the trill in m. 42 of the cipher notation starts without slowing down at the beginning.

Musical Example 3.57: m. 41-42 of “Swan” in cipher notation

Undoubtedly, it is better to indicate the differences between each trill in the transcription as well. Therefore, the way I notate the trill in Musical Example 3.57 is different from the previous example in Musical Example 3.54. I notate the trill note patterns in the score using sixteenth notes, but also put the symbol “ ” in the middle of these sixteenth notes shown in Musical Example 3.58.

Furthermore, it is important to keep referring to the recording while transcribing the music in order to make sure notes that are not notated in the cipher notation, but are present in the recording are accounted for. In the pipa cipher notation, the trill means to play different assembling notes fast and repeatedly which sometimes are not only two different note combinations, and it is different from what

Western instrumentalists would normally expect. For instance, trills starting from m.

48 (Musical Example 3.59) until m. 52, indicates a note combination that repeats two times in the measure. To avoid misunderstanding, I recommend notating notes in the transcription by writing them out so that the player knows what to do throughout this passage (Musical Example 3.60).

Musical Example 3.59: m. 48 of “Swan” in cipher notation.

The pull and push technique, which is frequently used in pipa pieces, creates a short glissando effect on notes that function to give the note more color (which can be used in a similar manner to vibrato on the violin) or represent a tone’s effect in the music. Deciding whether it is necessary to keep glissando notes is imperative when transcribing. A transcriptionist should attempt to create a similar effect in the transcription. In the example in Musical Example 3.37, Yang chooses to keep the glissando using a method in which the violin could express the glissando properly. In

61 my transcription for Liu’s “Swan”, it is difficult for a violinist to accurately perform the push and pull note in Musical Example 3.61. Instead of keeping the glissando note in

the same place, I decided to move the glissando to the previous note which provides

a similar effect in the transcription (Musical Example 3.62).

Musical Example 3.61: m. 58 in “Swan.”

Musical Example 3.62: The transcription of m. 58 in “Swan.”

Notice that from m. 13 to m. 17 of the transcription, the staff notation

corresponds with the material in the pipa cipher notation score from m. 47 until m.

62. Instead of interchanging the time signatures 2/4 and 3/4, I combine two different

time signatures’ beats into a time signature 5/4 in this whole section. Moreover, I

suggest using left hand pizzicato here in order to imitate the two parts the pipa plays.

See Musical Examples 3.63, 3.64, and 3.65.

Musical Example 3.63: m. 51-52 of “Swan” in pipa cipher notation.

Musical Example 3.64: m. 51-52 of “Swan” in the Western staff notation.

Musical Example 3.65: Transcription of m. 14 of “Swan”. 62

In the transcription of the pipa cipher score of “A Moonlit night on the Spring

River,” I suggested spiccato in Musical Example 3.6 for the purpose of imitating the

pipa sound on the violin. The passage in Musical Example 3.66 is also an

appropriate place to use a spiccato bow stroke. Moreover, the cipher score has an

instruction to “start slowly” (慢起) at the top of the chord here in Musical Example

3.66, which utilizes the plucked, resonant sound of the pipa to create a delicate,

broken chord. Since a violinist would struggle to recreate this effect on the violin, I

notate pizzicato in the violin part here and then have the piano accompanist play a broken chord as a supplement to enforce the effect that the pipa creates in the

music. The transcription of the violin part is shown below in Musical Example 3.67.

Musical Example 3.66: m. 72-74 of “Swan.”

Musical Example 3.67: The transcription of m. 72-74 of “Swan.”

Using of the violin ricochet bowing to imitate the pipa’s sound can be seen in

many places in my transcription. As in Liu’s “Swan,” he depicts swans playing on the

water forms a small wave is from m. 93 to m. 97 (Musical Example 3.68). The

ricochet effect can be seen as an onomatopoeic device that portrays the water; the

ricochet bowing imitate a dripping water sound, as shown in Musical Example 3.69.

This is further represented through repeated notes close in register to each other.

Musical Example 3.68: m. 93-97 of “Swan”

Musical Example 3.69: Transcription of m. 93-97 of “Swan.”

The most striking part of this pipa piece is that Liu uses slap 打 starting from m. 116 of the cipher score. In the recording, this part successfully allows audiences to imagine how swans fly from near to far, and fling from the water level to the sky. I write for the violinist to use Col Legno here. The notes in m. 116 of “Swan” are a

combination of G and D. Therefore, I use the chords of G and D for this measure in the transcription. The method that I used to figure out how to execute col legno in this transcription is the same as what I mentioned earlier in Musical Example 3.25.

From the technique that the violin already has, the col legno technique can vary a little in order to fit what the pipa music needs. For example, the pipa player taps the

strings from the beginning of the fingerboard to the bridge in order to create a higher

tapping pitch. The violin player can execute its col legno in a similar way by tapping

three strings with the bow stick, tapping from the beginning of the fingerboard to the

bridge. As the bow moves closer to the bridge, the sound becomes louder, and the

player also needs to tap down with an increasing amount of force in order to get a

bigger sound.

The pipa can supply accompaniment and/or harmony, but the violin cannot

always do that. Therefore, in a performance, there should be an accompaniment part

for this transcription. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to detail the issues of

64 transcribing from pipa to violin; thus, I have not included an accompaniment part for

“Swan.” However, the Appendix provides my violin part transcription of “Swan.”

CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION: SUGGESTIONS FOR TRANSCRIBING MUSIC

Through the examination of existing transcriptions of pipa music to violin and the creation of a new transcription, this dissertation aims to demonstrate an effective transcription process. Future transcriptionists can follow the transcribing process in this dissertation. To accurately transcribe other pipa pieces to the violin it is important to understand the cipher score as well as to listen to and, if possible, watch performances of the piece under consideration. The following is a list of procedures that I suggest to future transcriptionists:

1. Listen to the music several times.

2. Determine the formal outline of the piece.

3. Analyze sections that will have the greatest potential for a violin transcription; some sections may contain techniques which are not easily transcribed to the violin. In such cases, the section may be deleted.

4. When listening to the recording, read the cipher score at the same time and start to mark sections in order to match the recording.

5. Write down the main notes in the cipher score.

6. Think about what time signature(s) to use.

7. Decide which technique is adequate in each passage, i.e. tremolo or staccato.

After conducting research on transcription and comparing two different kinds of transcriptions from both the wen and wu categories of music. It has become clear to me that transcribing music from a plucked instrument, pipa, to a stringed instrument, violin, is a great way to familiarize Western listeners with traditional

Chinese music and also expand the violin repertoire. Even though the violin has some limitations for use as a plucked instrument (for example, the violin cannot mimic the fast plucking of the strings or create such a resonant plucked sound like the pipa can), the instrument can still use its techniques in order to play the music in

66 a way that can represent certain features of the pipa while retaining the violin’s

characteristics. Seemingly, transcribing pipa repertoire from the wen category is

more straightforward than transcribing pieces from the wu category. Nonetheless, to

thoroughly transcribe a piece with the aim to preserve the original pipa music and the

feeling of the music will be a challenge for a transcriptionist. One can either

transcribe the music from the cipher score without altering it too much, or compose

the music loosely based on notes from the music one is going to transcribe. The

most important things that a transcriptionist must do is to read the pipa cipher score

and also listen to the performance or recording, in order to fully understand and

capture the abstract essence and nuances of pipa music. Furthermore, it is important

to keep the most memorable part of the original score in the transcription, so as not

to lose the essence of the particular pipa music or Chinese music being transcribed.

This way, the possibilities of expanding the violin repertoire and introducing the pipa

into the Western music world using violin will be more numerous.

Transcribing music from pipa to violin serves the purpose of expanding

repertoire for the violin, particularly in Chinese music. There are a great number of

musical works written for the pipa and it is also considered one of the most important

instruments in Chinese music. Thus, there are many pieces for the pipa that have

never been transcribed for Western instruments like the violin but could potentially

serve to expand Western violinists’ exposure to Chinese music.

To sum up, I have analyzed how pipa notation has been transcribed into violin

from already existing transcriptions of Ambush from Ten Sides (十面埋伏) and “A

Moonlit Night on the Spring River” (春江花月夜) from both wen and wu categories in

the pipa repertoire, and also suggested methods of transcription that serve to

preserve the aesthetic essence of pipa music on the violin. As shown in these two

67 existing transcription examples, the way that Western players understand ornament

symbols such as trill, and the music phrases like breath markings or time signatures

are different from what Chinese pipa music denotes in cipher notation scores.

Moreover, through analysis, we may realize that the ancient wu category repertoire

presents more difficulties for transcriptionists than wen category pieces since they

often have more than one edition and more difficult techniques to transfer to a violin.

Furthermore, as a bowed instrument, the violin is, on the whole, less percussive than

the pipa which makes it difficult to recreate a warlike atmosphere. More research

may need to be conducted in this area. Hence, I think the wen category or

contemporary compositions should first be considered for violin transcriptions. Some

suggestions for future transcriptions include “The Moon Aloft” (月兒高) of the wen

category or “Spring Silkworm” (春蠶) from contemporary composer Liu De-Hai.

A fundamental understanding of the pipa and its traditional repertoire is

essential for one who wishes to transcribe pipa music for the violin. This, in addition

to a comprehension of the pipa cipher score, will help the transcriptionist to procure a

better violin transcription when seeking to imitate the sound of the pipa on the violin.

Even though the pipa is a plucked instrument and the violin is played with a bow, it is

still possible to preserve a similar timbre and articulation if one can transfer

techniques and movements from the pipa onto the violin to carefully interpret pipa

music using violin techniques. Furthermore, it is also possible to transfer the pipa’s

technique to the violin in innovative ways; as I mentioned earlier in this dissertation,

the pipa’s technique pick (摘) can be transferred to the violin. Hence, I have applied

the transcribing process I have outlined in this dissertation onto the contemporary

pipa piece “Swan”.

Through such research and transcriptions, the repertoires of Western instruments can be enriched by Chinese music. This dissertation shows that it is possible to transcribe plucked string instruments’ music onto the violin, but the same techniques can be applied to other Western bowed instruments. Future transcriptionists may also discover different techniques that one instrument can execute like another even if the instrument belongs to another instrument family or another culture. The larger ramifications of such exchanges serve to help understand

and explore Chinese music on the violin, and transcribing pipa music to the violin is a

direct and approachable method for linking Eastern and Western music culture.

APPENDIX

THE AUTHOR’S TRANSCRIPTION OF “SWAN” BY LIU DE-HAI FOR VIOLIN

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