The music of Taiwanese opera can be explained from the aspects of melody classification, melody application and backcourt. In terms of the original tunes of Gezai Opera, it comes from Gezai in Zhangzhou, and has been adapted from Gezai's Four Kongzai, Five Kongzai and Miscellaneous Sons into the tunes of Qizizai, Major and Miscellaneous Sons. For example, Taipei Tune, Flower Appreciation Tune, Seven-character Cry and Seven-character White are related to Four Empty Boys. Major, Beisi and Chaiqiao Tune are related to Wukongzi. The tune of Miscellaneous Sons and Manduma Zasui Sons are related to Miscellaneous Sons.
Later, Gezi Opera absorbed tunes and folk songs from other operas, which enriched the music of Gezi Opera. In Taiwanese opera, Tight Diezai, Poetic Tone, Slurry and Slow Head originated from Jiujia Opera. Four Kongzi, Yindiao and Bangzi Tune are from Beiguan Opera. Send Brother Tune, Leave Umbrella Tune and Dabu Urn originated from Che Gu Opera. Shaoxing Tune comes from Shaoxing Opera; "Killing the House Tune" comes from Han drama; The tunes such as divination tune, Wugenggu and Xuemei Sijun, as well as the later tunes such as Humanity, Three Steps of Tears, Wugong, Autumn Night Song, Rain in monga, Dark Road, Thinking Up and Rural Song, are all quoted from folk songs, and Taiwanese operas are still continuously integrated up to now.
In addition to the above origins, many new tunes have been created during the development of Taiwanese opera, such as Wenhe Tune (Wenhe Opera Troupe), Nanguang Tune (Nanguang Opera Troupe) and Baodao Tune (Baodao Opera Troupe). There are also tunes written for the needs of the plot, such as Er Du Mei, La Traviata, Zhuang Yuan Lou, Deep Palace Complain and Advocating a virtuous mother.
There is no fixed pattern in the use of tunes in Taiwanese opera. Usually, tunes are inserted according to the situation in the play, among which Qizidiao and Dumadao are the most commonly used. According to the narrative situation, Qizidiao and Dumadao are used in general narrative occasions; Long narratives often use the fast-paced Miscellaneous Sons. Other tunes depend on the plot. For example, in happy situations, the brisk tunes such as Twelve Zhang Tunes, Three Pots of Narcissus, Xigong Tune, Zhuangyuanlou, La Traviata, Liuumbrella Tune and Canal Tune are used. Use slow tunes such as Jiangxi Tune, Catch Chicken in An 'an, Nanguang Tune, Wangxiang Tune, Love Gu Tune, Frost Snow Tune and Qionghua Tune when mourning; When you are excited or angry, you should use fast-paced tunes, such as Seven-Character Tune Allegro and Tibetan Tune Boy.
As for amusement and scenery appreciation, we often use brisk tunes such as Seven-Character Tune, Youth Ridge and Watching the Lotus (also used for backstage singing). And "Baijiachun" is used for string performances; In addition, some tunes are absorbed from Guangdong music and used in occasions such as birthday celebrations, curtain calls and fights.
In mourning, the crying tone is adopted, which is a major feature of early Taiwanese opera music and can reflect the social reality in Taiwan Province. There are two kinds of crying tunes. One is the local crying tunes such as Yilan Cry, monga Cry, Changhua Cry, Xinhua Cry and Tainan Cry. The second is the slow-paced crying tune, such as Seven-character Cry, White Narcissus, Narcissus, Broken Kiln Tune, Duma Cry, Canal Cry, Fireworks Sigh and Fireworks Sigh.
In addition, some fixed tunes are usually used in some special situations, such as "Slow Head" when you wake up from a coma; Use Yin Diao when ghosts appear. When singing poetry and acting, use the "Poetry Tone"; Use "Walking Tone" or "Close Overlap" when you are on the run; Writing book credit "Liu Shu Diao" ("Life Diao"); The restaurant sings "Jianghu Tune"; Fortune-tellers use the divination tune; Beggars beg with Beggars Tune. As for specific paragraphs, fixed tunes are usually used, such as "Leave an Umbrella in Yichun" using "Leave an Umbrella Tune"; Zhan Dian's Sister-in-law's Complaining to the Imperial Form uses Love Gu Tune (Complaining Tune); Seeing Brother Off from Yingtai uses "Seeing Brother Off" and so on.
In the music of Taiwanese opera, there are three singing methods: solo, duet and chorus. Solo means that one person sings a piece of music alone, which is the most common way of singing in Taiwanese opera; A duet is a duet singing. Generally, two people answer each other by singing, one of them 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 of singing by answering each other. In Taiwanese opera, Qizi Tiao, Chuandiao Tiao and Songgediao. Singing together means that more than two people sing the same music together, but because the singing of Taiwanese opera depends on oral communication, the pitch and rhythm of the same music are often different.
Like other operas, the backcourt of Gezai Opera is divided into Wenping (literary field) and Wuping (martial field). Wenchang is a silk and bamboo musical instrument, generally including coconut palm (head hand string), daguangxian (second-hand string), sanxian, flute, yueqin, dulcimer, flute, suona, duck mother and son. The percussion instruments in the martial arts field include Dan Pigu (Northern Drum, Commander-in-Chief in Backcourt), tanggu, bangzi, gong, banknote, rocker and ringing lamp. Some troupes have added national music such as Sheng, zhongruan, Pipa, Gehu and Nanhu, and some have added instruments such as cello, electronic organ, jazz drum, electric guitar and saxophone. The types of instruments used are increased or decreased according to the needs of the troupes.
Generally, a folk troupe has about four to five people in the backcourt, one drummer and one gong banknote player in the martial arts field, and one person also plays several musical instruments in the literary field. There are as many as twenty or thirty people in the back court of a large troupe, in which one person plays gongs, drums and banknotes, while several people play a musical instrument in the literary field. However, in order to save the cost of the troupe, such a large back court is rare.