The so-called pipa in history not only refers to the music pipa with a pear-shaped sounding box, but also refers to a variety of plucked instruments, whose names "Pi" and "Pa" are based on the right-handed technique of playing these instruments. That is to say, the pipa and the arpeggio are the names of two playing techniques. The pipa is played forward by the right hand and the arpeggio is picked backward by the right hand.
So at that time, "Pipa" was similar in shape but different in size, such as Yueqin and Ruan, all of which were pipa instruments. Pipa is the main plucked instrument with a long history in China. After the improvement of the performers, the shape has become unified, and it has become a four-string pipa with six phases and twenty-four products. Pipa has a wide range, its playing skills are the first of national instrumental music, and its expressive force is the most abundant instrument in folk music.
When playing, each finger of the left hand presses the string at the corresponding grade, and the right hand wears a fake nails plucked string made of celluloid (or tortoise shell) for pronunciation.
around the Qin dynasty, a round musical instrument with a long handle began to spread. Because there are two main ways to play: to pop it forward and call it "batch", and to pick it up and call it "ba", people call it "batch ba". Later, in order to unify the writing with the instruments such as Qin and Qin at that time, it was renamed Pipa.
In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a pear-shaped sound box, a curved neck and a four-stringed musical instrument came from the Western Regions, and some people combined it with China's pipa and made it into a new-style pipa. In the method of playing, the horizontal holding style is changed to vertical holding style, and the plucking style is changed to five fingers of the right hand. After many artists' improvements, it has become two kinds of pipa with four phases and thirteen grades and six phases and twenty-four grades.
Pipa is also called "Piba", which was first recorded in the history of Liu Xi's "Interpreting Names and Musical Instruments" in the Han Dynasty: "Piba originated from Hu Zhong and was immediately drummed. When you push your hand, you say yes, but when you pull your hand, you say yes, just like when you drum it, because you think it's famous. " This means that the batch handle is a musical instrument that is played on a horse. It is called the batch when it pops forward, and it is called the handle when it is picked backward. According to the characteristics of its performance, it was named "batch handle".
in ancient times, knocking, beating, playing and playing were all called drums. At that time, nomads were good at playing pipa on horseback, so they were "immediately drummed". Wang Sengqian's Technical Record in the Southern Dynasties: "Empress Wei Wende played the lute gracefully. Ming Di tasted the clothes behind him and begged for music. When Yang Fu was at his side, he asked the emperor,' Empress Dowager, your majesty's first mother, is your ceremony evil?' The emperor withdrew his hand in shame, and then he went out.
The emperor said to Fu,' I know that Qing respects the festival, but I am sincere because my mind is unfair. Now, from Qing's words, I can't go to the countryside and see the Iraqi people?' The melody after this remark is exquisite. "It can be seen that in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the name of" Pipa "officially entered the court.
the pipa evolved from the straight-neck pipa and the curved-neck pipa in history. According to historical records, the straight-neck pipa appeared earlier in China. The Qin and Han Dynasties' "Qin Hanzi" was a straight-neck pipa with a straight handle and a round * * * sounding box (with both sides covered with * * * sounding box), which was developed from the string cymbals at the end of Qin Dynasty.
"Ruan Xian" or "Ruan" is a straight-handled wooden round * * * sounding box with four strings and twelve columns, which is played vertically by hands. Ruan Xianshan played this instrument in Jin Dynasty, so it is commensurate with its name, that is, today's Ruan.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, cultural exchanges were conducted with the Western Regions through the Silk Road, and the lute was introduced from Persia to China via Xinjiang today. The curved pipa is pear-shaped with four strings and four phases (without columns), and it is played horizontally with a pick. It prevailed in the Northern Dynasties and spread to the Yangtze River valley in the south in the first half of the 6th century.
In the 5th and 6th centuries, with the strengthening of commercial and cultural exchanges between China and the nationalities in the Western Regions, a musical pipa was introduced from Central Asia, which was then called "Hupipa". ?
its shape is a curved neck, pear-shaped sound box with four columns and four strings, which is very similar to the Ud or UD common in Arab countries or the Barbat in ancient Persia. Hold the pipa horizontally and play it with a pick. Modern pipa evolved from this kind of music.
From the Northern Qi Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, it was the first peak in the history of pipa development. The Pipa family in Cao Shi, which was originally from Cao State (now in the northeast of Samarkand, Uzbekistan), was an outstanding representative. For example, Cao Miaoda was crowned king in the Northern Qi Dynasty for his good pipa, and was appointed as a palace musician after he entered Sui Dynasty, and taught pipa skills in Taile.
Among the nine or ten pieces of music in Sui and Tang Dynasties, the music pipa has become the main musical instrument, which played an important role in the development of song and dance art in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. From Dunhuang murals and Yungang stone carvings, we can still see its position in the band at that time.
Extended information:
Pipa, the first plucked instrument, is a plucked string instrument. Wooden, the speaker is semi-pear-shaped, with four strings on it. Originally it was made of silk thread, but now it is made of steel wire, steel rope and nylon. The neck and the panel are provided with "phase" and "product" for determining phonemes. It is an important national musical instrument for solo, accompaniment, ensemble and ensemble.
Pipa, a traditional plucked instrument in East Asia, has a history of more than two thousand years. The earliest musical instrument called "Pipa" appeared around the Qin Dynasty in China. The word "Jue" in the word "Pipa" means "two jade collide and make a pleasant knocking sound", which means that it is a musical instrument that sounds by bouncing the strings. Their names "Pi" and "Pa" are based on the right-handed technique of playing these instruments.
That is to say, the pipa and the arpeggio are the names of two playing techniques. The pipa is played forward by the right hand and the arpeggio is played backward by the right hand. Before the Tang Dynasty, pipa was also a general term for plucked instruments of all Lute families (also known as Lute) in Chinese. Chinese pipa spread to other parts of East Asia, and developed into Japanese pipa, Korean pipa and Vietnamese pipa.
in the history of modern national music in China, there are two schools of pipa: Shanghai school (Pudong school) and Zhejiang school (Pinghu school). The art of Pinghu school pipa has considerable historical value for studying the history of national music.
Basic structure of the pipa:
The pipa is composed of a head and a body, and the head includes a chord groove, a chord axis and a mountain pass. Body includes phase, taste, speaker, hand cover and other parts.
The head of the pipa is composed of a chord groove, four hammers (chord axes) and a mountain pass.
The upper end of the body of the pipa is also called the "neck", that is, the "phase". The overlapping part of the upper end of the neck is called "pillow", and the middle and lower parts are "grade". Both phase and product are called "column" in ancient times, which is a phoneme device. The middle and lower part of the body is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and the bottom is semi-circular and hollow, that is, the sound box.
The grade is stuck on the panel made of plane-tree board, and the four strings are tied in the four small holes of the lower hand cover. A small hole called "sound receiving hole" or "sound outlet hole" is opened on the panel at the center of the hand cover. The back of the body is called "Pipa Back", the upper end of the back is connected with the head, the middle and lower part of the back is bonded with the panel, and there are two rungs and several sound columns in the abdomen, which are placed in a certain position.
Backing materials made of rosewood, black material, old rosewood, rosewood and fragrant rosewood are top grade, while those made of white wood are popular products, because rosewood and mahogany are good at making natural overtones when playing.
Pipa consists of six phases and twenty-four notes, which constitute the twelve average laws with a wide range. One string is made of steel wire, and the second, third and fourth strings are made of nylon wrapped with steel rope. Pipa sounds very special, and its overtone ranks first among all kinds of musical instruments in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad. It is not only loud in volume, but also crisp and bright in sound quality.
At the same time, the pitch of the pipa is accompanied by rich overtones, which can make the sound of the piano less attenuated in transmission and have strong penetration. When playing in a calm and empty place, the sound of the piano when playing a strong sound with it can spread to two or three miles away.
high-quality pipa has strong sound penetration (small attenuation and long transmission). The treble is bright and rigid, the midrange is soft and moist, and the bass is pure and honest. The large strings hummed like rain, the small strings whispered like a secret, hummed, whispered-and then were intermingled, like a pouring of large and small pearls into a plate of jade, a silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water and and out leapt armored horses and weapons that clashed and smote described in Bai Juyi's poem Pipa Xing.
"and all four strings made one sound, as of rending silk" is no longer an artistic exaggeration of the poet, but a veritable performance effect of contemporary pipa.
The head, body and hammer of pipa are mainly made of hardwood, colored wood, rosewood, rosewood, chicken wing wood, rosewood, ebony and rosewood. Among them, the high-grade pipa shaft is also made of horns, ox bones and ivory. The panel is made of paulownia wood in Lankao, Henan, and the handrails are mostly made of perennial bamboo.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Pipa