length Modern notation systems, new compositions as well as recordings are now widely available and it is no longer crucial for a pipa players to learn from the master of any particular school to know how to play a score. (88.9 30.8 29.2 cm) Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1968 Accession Number: 68.62.1 Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. Typically, the lowest notes of the arpeggios are open strings, while the highest ones can either be fingered pitches or an open string. February 20, 2008. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi () that requires a full-handed grip. In Satsuma-biwa classical pieces, the thickest string (the first) is in principle used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/502655, Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; Clara H. Rose (d. 1914), The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. Nation: Japan. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han dynasty during the Jin dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century. The biwa player with whom we worked, NAKAMURA Kahoru, improvised ten different versions of this rhythm. Acoustical classification of woods for string instruments Continent: Asia. The left hand techniques are important for the expressiveness of pipa music. It may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu (, grand suites), an elaborate music and dance performance. 1800 Geography: Japan Culture: Japanese Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl and ivory Dimensions: 35 12 1/8 11 1/2 in. Pipa is also an important component of regional chamber ensemble traditions such as Jiangnan sizhu, Teochew string music and Nanguan ensemble. The Birbyne and Biwa | The Other Instrument - Pennsylvania State University The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, Song of Pipa (). During the Qing dynasty, scores for pipa were collected in Thirteen Pieces for Strings. [16], While many styles of biwa flourished in the early 1900s (such as kindai-biwa between 1900 and the 1930s), the cycle of tutelage was broken yet again by the war. to the present. [1][2] Modern researchers such as Laurence Picken, Shigeo Kishibe, and John Myers suggested a non-Chinese origin. sanxian, (Chinese: "three strings") Wade Giles romanization san-hsien also called xianzi, any of a group of long-necked, fretless Chinese lutes. In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (, ) and has been grown for over . The body is often made of stretched snakeskin, and come in varying sizes. The gogen-biwa (, lit. In modern biwa, particularly in Satsuma-biwa, one sometimes strikes the soundboard sharply to get percussive effects. to divide instruments into eight categories determined by materials. Pipa is commonly associated with Princess Liu Xijun and Wang Zhaojun of the Han dynasty, although the form of pipa they played in that period is unlikely to be pear-shaped as they are now usually depicted. The biwa is a stringed instrument used in Japan as a sort of story telling method. Another often-used technique is rubbing the long side of the bachi on the strings to get wind-like sounds. And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. II, p. 30. Typically 60 centimetres (24 in) to 106 centimetres (42 in) in length, the instrument is . The 4 wedge-shaped frets on the neck became 6 during the 20th century. 2000. The biwa (Japanese: ) is a Japanese short-necked wooden lute traditionally used in narrative storytelling. As one of the modern types of biwa that flourished in the late 19, centuries, Satsuma-biwa is widely played today in various settings, including popular media. The design and construction of the 5-string Chikuzen biwa pictured in gallery #2 is basically the same as for the 4-string model described above except accommodations need to be made to the pegbox (detail #7) and bridge (detail #8) for the additional string. It helps illustrate the neglible amount of resonance the biwa produces, because already after 1 second most of its sound energy is below the threshold of hearing. The instrument has seen a great decline . Shakuhachi 2. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. Novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as Jin Ping Mei showed pipa performance to be a normal aspect of life in these periods at home (where the characters in the novels may be proficient in the instrument) as well as outside on the street or in pleasure houses.[24]. Upon its arrival, the biwa was used in purely instrumental music in the court culture the instrument appears in various works of literature and art in the 10th -12th centuries, depicting nobles enjoying it in rituals as well as in their private lives. In biwa, tuning is not fixed. [8] The varying string thickness creates different timbres when stroked from different directions. With the rounded edge of the resonator resting in the players lap and the peg box end of the instrument tilted to the left at about a 45-degree angle from vertical, the biwas soundboard faces forward. [61][33], During the Song dynasty, players mentioned in literary texts include Du Bin (). Both were pupils of Wang Yuting (18721951), and both were active in establishing and promoting Guoyue ("national music"), which is a combination of traditional regional music and Western musical practices. Because of its traditional association with silk strings, the pipa is classified as a silk instrument in the Chinese bayin (eight-tone) classification system, a system devised by scholars of the Zhou court (1046-256 B.C.) So the previously mentioned tuning can be tuned down to B, F, B, c, d. Asahikai and Tachibanakai are the two major schools of chikuzen-biwa. Title: Satsuma Biwa () Date: ca. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, Accession Number: The Museum's collection of musical instruments includes approximately 5,000 examples from six continents and the Pacific Islands, dating from about 300 B.C. The strings are struck with a hand-held wooden plectrum. Because of this tradition as a narrative music, the biwa is mostly played solo and is less commonly played with other types of instruments, except in gagaku () or the court orchestra where it is used in its original instrumental role, and in modern instrumental repertoire. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. Catalogue of the Crosby Brown . Thought to be of Persian origin, the biwa was brought to Japan in the 8th century via Central Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. The biwa arrived in Japan in the 7th century, having evolved from the Chinese bent-neck pipa (; quxiang pipa),[1] while the pipa itself was derived from similar instruments in West Asia. The strings on a biwa range in thickness, with the first string being thickest and the fourth string being thinnest; on chikuzen-biwa, the second string is the thickest, with the fourth and fifth strings being the same thickness on chikuzen- and satsuma-biwa. This next instrument seems to have some spiritual meaning behind it. Mural from Kizil, estimated Five Dynasties to Yuan dynasty, 10th to 13th century. The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. The tuning of the strings changes according to the pieces mode. The biwa's twangy plucks were most commonly accompanied by a single voice during court performances, but its popularity spread the instrument made its way into religious sermons and oral history . Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted, Credit Line: Type. The body is narrower and smaller than the other types of biwa. Typically, the duration of each group subdivides the measure into two equal durations. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. The 4-string chikuzen biwa (gallery #1) is constructed in several parts and needs to be assembled and strung before being played. In the beginning of the Taish period (19121926), the satsuma-biwa was modified into the nishiki-biwa, which became popular among female players at the time. The satsuma-biwa (), a biwa with four strings and four frets, was popularized during the Edo period in Satsuma Province (present-day Kagoshima) by Shimazu Tadayoshi. It has not caught on in China but in Korea (where she also did some of her research) the bipa was revived since then and the current versions are based on Chinese pipa, including one with five-strings. The instrument itself resembles gaku-biwa but is slightly smaller, and is held horizontally. 77-103. Its tuning is C, G, c, g, g. Gaku-biwa, chikuzen-biwa, heike-biwa, ms-biwa, satsuma-biwa and their plectra. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. used to strike the hard soundboard sharply to create percussive effects, adding a more dynamic flavor to the music. [19] Pipa acquired a number of Chinese symbolisms during the Han dynasty - the instrument length of three feet five inches represents the three realms (heaven, earth, and man) and the five elements, while the four strings represent the four seasons.[7]. [34][57][58] Duan Anjie described the duel between the famous pipa player Kang Kunlun and the monk Duan Shanben () who was disguised as a girl, and told the story of Yang Zhi () who learned how to play the pipa secretly by listening to his aunt playing at night. Carlo Forlivesi's compositions Boethius () and Nuove Musiche per Biwa () were both written for performance on the satsuma-biwa designed by Tsuruta and Tanaka. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. [51] The music collections from the 19th century also used the gongche notation which provides only a skeletal melody and approximate rhythms sometimes with the occasional playing instructions given (such as tremolo or string-bending), and how this basic framework can become fully fleshed out during a performance may only be learnt by the students from the master. It is the most widely used system for classifying musical . As part of, Metalwork by Goto Teijo, 9th generation Goto master, Japan (16031673). 4. Written by Nobuko Fukatsu By the Ming dynasty, fingers replaced plectrum as the popular technique for playing pipa, although finger-playing techniques existed as early as Tang. Yo-sen has 2 tones regarded as auxiliary tones. The sole stroke motion used in this example is kakubachi, but it also includes examples of hazusu and tataku. The ms-biwa (), a biwa with four strings, is used to play Buddhist mantras and songs. The 14- or 16-fret pipa had frets arranged in approximately equivalent to the western tone and semitone, starting at the nut, the intervals were T-S-S-S-T-S-S-S-T-T-3/4-3/4-T-T-3/4-3/4, (some frets produced a 3/4 tone or "neutral tone"). Table of Contents 1. [62] From the Ming dynasty, famous pipa players include Zhong Xiuzhi (), Zhang Xiong (, known for his playing of "Eagle Seizing Swan"), the blind Li Jinlou (), and Tang Yingzeng () who was known to have played a piece that may be an early version of "Ambushed from Ten Sides".[63]. In Japan, the biwa is generally played with a bachi instead of the fingers, and is often used to play gagaku. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi (). Another new style called Chikuzen-biwa () was created in the 19th century in northern Kyushu Island, based off of the blind monks biwa music, and adopting shamisen, Satsuma-biwa, and other contemporary musical styles. [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used. to the present. 5.5 in. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, and usually four strings. Instrument Classification | Mary K. Oyer African Music Archive | Goshen With the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. This is a system used to classify all musical instruments.This system was created by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs.The Hornbostel-Sachs system is based on how an instrument vibrates to produce sound. Few pieces for pipa survived from the early periods, some, however, are preserved in Japan as part of togaku (Tang music) tradition. Western performers of pipa include French musician Djang San, who integrated jazz and rock concepts to the instrument such as power chords and walking bass.[70]. For example, a piece like "The Warlord Takes off His Armour" is made up of many sections, some of them metered and some with free meter, and greater freedom in interpretation is possible in the free meter sections. The gagaku biwa (), a large and heavy biwa with four strings and four frets, is used exclusively for gagaku. [45] Other collections from the Qing dynasty were compiled by Li Fangyuan () and Ju Shilin (), each representing different schools, and many of the pieces currently popular were described in these Qing collections. The strings are sounded with a large, thick, fan-shaped plectrum called a bachi (detail #6), traditionally made of wood (the practice bachi pictured here is made from resin). During the war time in early 20th century, biwa music was easily adapted to the nationalism of Imperial Japan, and many songs that emphasized the virtue of loyalty and sacrifice for the country were created and widely played. The interval between the pitches of the open string and first fret is a major second, while the interval between pitches on two adjacent frets is a minor second. It was those blind monks who fell outside of governmental protection who, during the 17. century, creatively modified the biwa to introduce a shamisen flavor, such as making frets higher to play in-between notes. It is an instrument in Japan, that is a two-stringed fiddle (violin). The full vibrating lengths of the strings, the distance between their bend over the nut and the knots that secure their lower ends to the string holder, are all 27.7 inches. And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. Most contemporary performers use the five string version. Further, the frets and the nut are wide, which provides a surface, not a point, for a string to touch. The most eminent 20th century satsuma-biwa performer was Tsuruta Kinshi, who developed her own version of the instrument, which she called the tsuruta-biwa. [31] Celebrated performers of the Tang dynasty included three generations of the Cao familyCao Bao (), Cao Shancai () and Cao Gang (),[59][60] whose performances were noted in literary works. In the late 20th century, largely through the efforts of Wu Man (in USA), Min Xiao-Fen (in USA), composer Yang Jing (in Europe) and other performers, Chinese and Western contemporary composers began to create new works for the pipa (both solo and in combination with chamber ensembles and orchestra). Exploiting the sound of the open strings increases the overall sounds volume. The artist Yang Jing plays pipa with a variety of groups. It has the largest body and relatively short neck among biwas. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The biwa is a plucked string instrument that first gained popularity in China before spreading throughout East Asia, eventually reaching Japan sometime during the Nara period (710794). [17][18] The pear-shaped pipa may have been introduced during the Han dynasty and was referred to as Han pipa. It is made out of wood, with a teardrop-shaped body and a long neck with four or five high frets, and is stringed with four or five silk strings that are plucked by a big pick called bachi. The same piece of music can therefore differ significantly when performed by students of different schools, with striking differences in interpretation, phrasing, tempo, dynamics, playing techniques, and ornamentations. Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. Hornbostel-Sach Classification of instruments is a means of sorting out instruments according to how it produces sound. In both cases, the sound of the non-struck pitches is not hearable when performed with the orchestra, but the gesture itself might help the biwa player keep time. 'five-stringed biwa'), a Tang variant of biwa, can be seen in paintings of court orchestras and was used in the context of gagaku; however, it was removed with the reforms and standardization made to the court orchestra during the late 10th century. The instrument itself resembles gaku-biwa but is slightly smaller, and is held horizontally. The heike-biwa, smaller than the ms-biwa, was used for similar purposes. The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, and is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China. As well as being one of the leading pipa players of his generation, Li held many academic positions and also carried out research on pipa scales and temperament. It is an arpeggio that is always starting from the first string (the lowest) and swepping upwards to either the second, third or fourth string. [31] The pipa is mentioned frequently in the Tang dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its expressiveness, refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances. Played with a large wooden plectrum, the instrument has four or five strings of twisted silk stretched over four or more . [3] From roughly the Meiji period (18681912) until the Pacific War, the satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa were popular across Japan, and, at the beginning of the Shwa period (19251989), the nishiki-biwa was created and gained popularity. The main part of the music is vocal and the biwa part mostly plays short interludes. shamisen Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection Grinnell [27] The traditional 16-fret pipa became less common, although it is still used in some regional styles such as the pipa in the southern genre of nanguan/nanyin. [23], During the Song dynasty, pipa fell from favour at the imperial court, perhaps a result of the influence of neo-Confucian nativism as pipa had foreign associations. Moreover, it always starts from the 1st string and stops on either the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th string depending if the arpeggio contains 2, 3, or 4 pitches, respectively.
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biwa instrument classification