Musical characteristics of Taiwanese opera

The music of Taiwanese opera can be explained from the aspects of melody classification, melody application and backcourt. As far as the original tune of Gezai Opera is concerned, it comes from the Gezai Opera in Zhangzhou, and it is adapted from the four-hole, five-hole and miscellaneous tunes of Gezai Opera into seven-hole, major and miscellaneous tunes. For example, Taipei tune, flower appreciation tune, seven-character crying and seven-character white are all related to four empty boys. Major, Beisi and Chaiqiao are all related to Wukongzi. The tunes of Zazi and Manduma Zazi are related to Zazi.

Later, Taiwanese opera absorbed the tunes and folk songs of other operas, enriching the music of Taiwanese opera. In the Taiwanese opera, Tight Diezai, Sion, Jiang and Slow Head originated from Jiujia Opera. There are four Kong Zi, Harmony and Bangzi tunes in Beiguan Opera. Brother-sending tune, umbrella-keeping tune and big urn-making originated from car-drum drama. Shaoxing tune comes from Yue Opera; "Kill House Tune" comes from Han drama; Tunes such as divination, Wugeng Valley and Xue Mei's Four Armies, as well as later tunes such as Humanity, Three Steps of Tears, Martial Arts, Autumn Night Song, Rain in Mongga, Dark Road, Thinking, and Pastoral Song, are all from.

In addition to the above origins, many new tunes have emerged in the development of Taiwan Province opera, such as Wenhe Tune (Wenhe Troupe), Nanguang Tune (Nanguang Troupe) and Baodao Tune (Bao Dao Troupe). There are also songs written for the needs of the plot, such as Mei, La Traviata, Zhuang Yuanlou, Deep Palace Complaints and Chongde Mother.

There is no fixed pattern in the use of tunes in Taiwanese opera. Usually, tunes will be inserted according to the situation in the play, among which seven-tone and Duma Road are the most commonly used. According to the narrative situation, Qizidiao and Dumadao are used in general narrative situations; Long narratives often use fast-paced miscellaneous items. Other songs look at the plot. For example, on festive occasions, twelve tunes, three pots of narcissus tunes, Xigong tunes, Zhuangyuanlou, La Traviata, Liusan tunes and Canal tunes are used. When mourning, use Jiangxi tune, An 'an Catch Chicken, Nanguang tune, Wangxiang tune, Love Valley tune, Frost and Snow tune, Qionghua tune and other slow tunes; When you are excited or angry, you should use fast-paced tunes, such as allegro in seven characters and boy in Tibetan tune.

As for amusement and scenery appreciation, seven-character tune, youth ridge, lotus viewing (also used for behind-the-scenes singing) and other light tunes are often used. And "Hundred Spring" is used for string performance; In addition, some tunes are absorbed from Guangdong music and used for birthday celebrations, curtain calls and fights.

The tone of crying is adopted in Mourning, which is a major feature of early Taiwanese opera music and can reflect the social reality of Taiwan Province Province. There are two kinds of crying tones. One is crying in Yilan, Mengga, Changhua, Xinhua and Tainan. The second is the slow-paced crying tone, such as seven-character crying, daffodil, daffodil, broken kiln tone, Duma crying, canal crying, fireworks sigh, fireworks sigh.

In addition, some relatively fixed tunes are usually used in some special situations, such as "slow head" when waking up; If a ghost appears, use a female carving. When singing poetry and acting, use "Sion"; Use "out of tune" or "close overlap" when running; Write a book about "Liu Shu Carving" ("Life Carving"); The restaurant sings "Jianghu Tune"; Fortune tellers use divination tunes; Beggars beg in a beggar's tone. As for the specific paragraphs, fixed tunes are usually used, such as the "umbrella-keeping tune" in Yichun; Zhan Dian's "Sister-in-law's Complaining to Imperial Court" uses "Love Gu Tune" (Complaining Tune); Send my brother from Yingtai with "send my brother" and so on.

In the music of Taiwanese opera, there are three singing methods: solo, duet and chorus. Solo is that a person sings a song alone, which is the most common singing method in Taiwanese opera; A duet is a duet. Generally, two people answer each other by singing, one sings the first sentence and the other sings the second sentence. Another way is that one person sings the whole piece of music and the other person sings the same piece of music to answer. In addition, there are three ways to sing the answer. In Taiwanese opera, there are chess tune, Sichuan tune and loose tune. Chorus means that more than two people sing the same song together, but because the singing of Taiwanese opera relies on oral communication, the pitch and rhythm of the same song are often different.

Like other operas, the backcourt of Taiwanese opera is divided into Wenping (Wenchang) and Wuping (Wuchang). Wenchang is a kind of silk and bamboo musical instrument, which generally includes coconut tree (the first hand string), daguangxian (the second hand string), sanxian, flute, Qin Yue, dulcimer, flute, suona, duck and mother. The percussion instruments in the field of martial arts are (Northern Drum, Commander in the Backcourt), Tanggu, Bangzi, Gong, banknote, shaking and ringing lights. Some troupes have added national music such as Sheng, zhongruan, Pipa, Gehu and Nanhu, while others have added instruments such as cello, electronic organ, jazz drum, electric guitar and saxophone. The types of musical instruments used increase or decrease according to the needs of the troupe.

Generally, there are about four or five people in the backcourt of a folk troupe, a drummer and a gong player in the martial arts field, and several musical instruments are played by one person in the literary field. In the backyard of a large troupe, there are as many as twenty or thirty people. One person plays gongs, drums and notes, and several people play a musical instrument in the literary field. But in order to save the cost of the troupe, such a big backcourt is rare.