Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China Sinica Leidensia
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Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, E. Zürcher, H.T. Zurndorfer VOLUME 84 Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China Ethos, Theory and Practice By Alan R. Thrasher LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 On the cover: Hakka qingyue ensemble, Guangzhou. Photo: A. Thrasher, 1986. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISSN 0169-9563 ISBN 978 90 04 16500 7 Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands For Huang Jinpei, scholar, mentor and friend CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................... ix Conventions ................................................................................ xv Acknowledgments ....................................................................... xvii Chapter One Sizhu Music in South China ............................. 1 Music Categories: Sizhu as a Domain .................................... 2 Music Cultures of South China ............................................. 6 Social Perspectives .................................................................. 21 Chapter Two Yuelun: the Confucian Foundation ..................... 25 Confucian Ideology ................................................................ 25 Government Theory and Music ............................................ 37 Other Trends .......................................................................... 44 Chapter Three Qingshang Music and the Historic Legacy ...... 53 The Ancient Heritage ............................................................. 54 The Eclectic Tang .................................................................. 61 Emergence of the Common-practice Traditions ................... 65 Chapter Four Yuelü: Music Theory and Practice .................... 75 Chinese Melody ...................................................................... 75 Pitch Systems and Notation ................................................... 83 Mode in Southern Music ....................................................... 95 Chapter Five Baban and the Sizhu Repertoire ......................... 113 Sizhu Repertoire ...................................................................... 113 The ‘Variation’ Ideal in Compositional Practice ................... 124 The Suite Forms ..................................................................... 136 Chapter Six Bianzou: Performance Practice and Aesthetics ... 149 ‘Variation’ in Performance Practice ....................................... 149 Performance Variation Types ................................................. 153 Values and Aesthetics: the Rujia Ideal .................................... 163 Ideologies and Styles .............................................................. 170 viii contents Postscript ..................................................................................... 173 Appendix A: Gongche Notation System and Selected Repertoire 179 Appendix B: Cipher Notation System and Selected Repertoire 185 Glossary of Chinese Technical Terms and Repertoire ............. 201 Bibliography ................................................................................ 205 Index ........................................................................................... 213 PREFACE In this book I examine the theoretical underpinnings of the sizhu (‘silk- bamboo’) instrumental ensemble traditions of the peoples of South China. Sizhu, a very general domain term in Chinese usage, refers to a category of chamber music performed by small ensembles in homes, music clubs or teahouses. I will carefully defi ne this and related terms in the opening chapters. The dominant cultures of southern and southeastern China—Chao- zhou, Hakka, Cantonese and Minnan—share a number of behavioral and musical concepts, though their individual sizhu traditions exhibit distinctive melodic characteristics, performance styles, overall forms and musical instrument variants. The Chaozhou, Hakka and Cantonese cultures are centered in Guangdong province, the Minnan in southern Fujian (q.v. map, Fig. 1.1). Among the Chaozhou, Hakka and Cantonese there has been considerable musical interaction over the recent centuries and, to a lesser extent, with the more northern Jiangnan tradition in eastern China—though musicians rarely recognize such cross infl uences. Analysis shows, however, that these three cultures have drawn upon a common pool of traditional melodic models. They have also exchanged instruments, modal forms and some structural characteristics. The Minnan, while culturally related to the Chaozhou in linguistic and other ways, maintain a highly idiosyncratic tradition which musi- cians believe was derived from a sophisticated genre of palace music from the distant past. Minnan chamber music (nanguan) displays only superfi cial structural similarities with the other southern traditions. These characteristics will be cited along the way. But since the Min- nan repertoire itself is not closely related to the southern mainstream in Guangdong province, my examination will center on the core of Chaozhou, Hakka and Cantonese traditions. My focus in this book is upon two theoretical domains of musical relevance: fi rst, Confucian theory, the ancient corpus of written and practiced behavioral doctrine (ethos) which promoted music as a means to achieve social harmony and which, in turn, exercised unusually strong infl uence over common-practice musical style and aesthetics; and second, music theory, an overlapping combination of imperial court pitch theory and more recent Chinese modal and structural x preface theory, much of which is related to (even derived from) Confucian theory. Other musical parameters, including idiom and performance practice, will be examined as well, but primarily as they relate to the above theoretical focus. This is not an ethnographic study. I have in fact conducted a good amount of fi eldwork in South China over a period of three decades, documenting questions of social organization in the music clubs, gender roles, values and function. Some basic social observations will be men- tioned but, again, in attempt to contextualize theory and practice. Organization and Approach This material is organized in six chapters and followed by a postscript. Chapter One, “Sizhu Music in South China”, begins with an outline of the basic categories of Chinese instrumental music and its often troublesome terminology. This is followed by an overview of the distinctive cultural characteristics and musical genres of South China. Chapter Two, entitled “Yuelun: the Confucian Foun- dation”, examines the dominant Chinese ideologies and their impact on music. For most of the last two thousand years, the Confucian infl uence on social behavior and expressive culture has been deeper than commonly assumed, and there is strong evidence of the existence, promotion and acceptance of an actual Confucian theory of music. Especially interesting are the differing perceptions among local cultures as to exactly what this infl uence has been. Chapter Three, “Qingshang Music and the Historic Legacy”, provides an historical sketch of the development of Chinese chamber music types and instruments—a his- tory of both continuity and change over nearly two millennia. Can the local traditions really be traced back to the legendary qingshang music and other Tang genres, as some scholars believe? Chapters Four and Five are of a technical nature, containing a nec- essary core of structural analysis. Chapter Four, “Yuelü: Music Theory and Practice”, deals with traditional concepts of pitch, notably the ancient cosmologically-correct pitch theories (lülü) and modal forms, their relevance in today’s music, and a re-evaluation of modal systems in common-practice music. The chapter begins with an examination of the structural parameters of Chinese melody, in which diverse cultural infl uences merge. Chapter Five, “Baban and the Sizhu Repertoire”, examines the very old Chinese usage of melodic models—especially the 68-beat form known as Baban, its numerological basis, and the subsequent growth from this and other models of the southern instru- mental repertoires by way of several derivative techniques. Prevailing preface xi suite-form types are discussed at the end of the chapter. Chapter Six, “Bianzou: Performance Practice and Aesthetics”, is focused upon issues arising from performance, including local concepts of heterophony, sound ideals and aesthetics—most of which derive from a fusion of Confucian ideology, Daoist creative impulses, and local tastes. A Postscript will bring the reader up to date on some of the basic changes the southern chamber traditions have undergone