biwa instrument classification

(80 30 3.4 cm), The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, "Musical Instruments in the Metropolitan Museum": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 35, no. [21] During this time, Persian and Kuchan performers and teachers were in demand in the capital, Chang'an (which had a large Persian community). This type of biwa music has been preserved until now in gagaku (), or the court orchestra. 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. 36 1/2 7 7/8 5 in. In 2015, pipa player Jiaju Shen () released a mini album composed and produced by Li Zong (),[73] with E-pa music that has a strong Chinese flavor within a modern Western pop music mould. 2008. 77-103. It is one of the most enduring work in Chinese theatre, and one that became a model for Ming dynasty drama as it was the favorite opera of the first Ming emperor. The origin of the Japanese biwa as a generic type of instrument dates back to around the year 700 CE when the pipa was first introduced to Japan from China as part of ensembles gifted to the Japanese Emperor. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/500681, Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown ; James L. Amerman, 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. It is the most widely used system for classifying musical . From the 3rd century onwards, through the Sui and Tang dynasty, the pear-shaped pipas became increasingly popular in China. [20], Garfias, Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku Tradition 16, Garfias, Gradual Modifications of the Gagaku Tradition 18, Ferranti, Relations between Music and Text in "Higo Biwa", The "Nagashi" Pattern as a Text-MusicSystem 150, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Biwa&oldid=1097578427, This page was last edited on 11 July 2022, at 14:28. Recently, this instrument, much like the konghou harp, has been revived for historically informed performances and historical reconstructions. While blind biwa singers no longer dominate the biwa, many performers continue to use the instrument in traditional and modern ways. Biwa. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments. are crucial techniques to create the biwas subtle in-between notes that are unique for fretted instruments. As a point of clarification, the highest and last pitch of the biwa's arpeggio is considered as its melodic pitch. Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted, Credit Line: The five-stringed pipa however had fallen from use by the Song dynasty, although attempts have been made to revive this instrument in the early 21st century with a modernized five-string pipa modeled on the Tang dynasty instrument. The peg box is angled about 90 degrees from the neck, and the back of the body is flat, unlike the western lute. By the Kamakura period (11851333), the heike-biwa had emerged as a more popular instrument, a cross between both the gaku-biwa and ms-biwa, retaining the rounded shape of the gaku-biwa and played with a large plectrum like the ms-biwa. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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.) Its plectrum varies in both size and materials. In the present day, there are no direct means of studying the biwa in many biwa traditions. As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. The body is narrower and smaller than the other types of biwa. This music called heikyoku () was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14-15th centuries. The Koto came from the Chinese zither "Gu Zheng" during the Nara period in Japan. Options are limited when considering that a fingered string between two open strings must be fingered on the 4th fret to avoid damping. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years. The strings are made of wound silk. Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. In the narrative traditions where the pipa is used as an accompaniment to narrative singing, there are the Suzhou tanci (), Sichuan qingyin (), and Northern quyi () genres. In the 18th century, samurai in the Satsuma area (southern part of Kyushu island) adopted the blind monks biwa music into their musical practices. 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. These monophonic do not follow a set harmony. 1969. Several schools of biwa playing evolved from the ms tradition, one of which, founded in the 1890s by Tachibana Chij and others and called the Asahi-kai, was based on the style of the Chikuzen region of Kyushu. The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API. And thanks to the low tension of the strings, it is easy to bend the strings by adding pressure. Painted panel of the sarcophagus of Y Hung, depicts one of the Persian or Sogdian figures playing pipa. They recorded the critically acclaimed CD "Eagle Seizing Swan" together. This 5-stringed lute with a powerful. Kakubachi: This is the performance of arpeggio with a downward motion of the plectrum, and it is always loud. Although this instrument is quite large and a very substantial plectrum is used to excite its strings, its sound is surprisingly soft and meant more for intimate settings rather than concert halls. The biwa, originally an instrument of high society, gradually spread among wandering blind monks who used this instrument to tell stories. PDF Music - DepEd Tambayan [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]. It is a lute with a round, hollow soundboard, a short fretted neck, and usually four strings. Region: East Asia. It was in the late 20th century that this instrument started to be re-discovered and re-evaluated in various musical settings, such as soundtrack for movies and ensemble and orchestra music, culminating in Toru Takemitsus signature piece November Steps, which premiered in New York City in 1967. About Biwa - Japanese Traditional Music Typically 60 centimetres (24 in) to 106 centimetres (42 in) in length, the instrument is . This overlap resulted in a rapid evolution of the biwa and its usage and made it one of the most popular instruments in Japan. There are a number of different traditions with different styles of playing pipa in various regions of China, some of which then developed into schools. [49] In Nanguan music, the pipa is still held in the near-horizontal position or guitar-fashion in the ancient manner instead of the vertical position normally used for solo playing in the present day. 1800 Geography: Japan Culture: Japanese Medium: Wood, mother-of-pearl and ivory Dimensions: 35 12 1/8 11 1/2 in. chikuzen biwa Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection The typical 5-stringed Satsuma-biwa classical tuning is: CGCG, from first string to fourth/fifth string, respectively. Taiko Related Articles on Traditional Japanese Instruments 1. [6] The strings were played using a large plectrum in the Tang dynasty, a technique still used now for the Japanese biwa. Sun performed in the United States, Asia, and Europe, and in 1956 became deputy director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. The tuning of the strings changes according to the pieces mode. to the present. The Biwa is a four-stringed Japanese lute with a short neck that was commonly used in Japanese court music in the seventh and eighth centuries. Like with the shamisen, a distinctive raspy tone quality called sawari is associated with the chikuzen biwa. Blind priests would play them in order to tell stories and tales of ancient war. Lingering, filling the palace hall, spring snow flew. Ieyasu favored biwa music and became a major patron, helping to strengthen biwa guilds (called Todo) by financing them and allowing them special privileges. We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. The 4-string chikuzen biwa (gallery #1) is constructed in several parts and needs to be assembled and strung before being played. Hazusu: This is a sequence of two pitches, where the first one is attacked, and leades to a second one which is not attacked. 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. Bodmin, Cornwall, Great Britain: MPG Books, pp. This music was cherished and protected by the authorities and particularly flourished in the 14th-15th centuries. [17][14] Starting about the 10th century, players began to hold the instrument "more upright", as the fingernail style became more important. biwa, Japanese short-necked lute, distinguished by its graceful, pear-shaped body. As the biwa does not play in tempered tuning, pitches are approximated to the nearest note. The sanxian is made in several sizes. Apart from the four-stringed pipa, other pear-shaped instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa (, also known as Kuchean pipa ()),[20] a six-stringed version, as well as the two-stringed hulei (). The earliest-known piece in the collection may be "Eagle Seizing a Crane" () which was mentioned in a Yuan dynasty text. With turned wrist, he gathered the strings to pluck and strum faster. [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. Kaeshibachi: The performance of arpeggio with an up-ward motion of the plectrum, and it is always soft. The peg box is angled about 90 degrees from the neck, and the back of the body is flat, unlike the western lute. The excerpt is performed by the ensemble Reigakusha. Popular Japanese three-stringed lute. Pipa | musical instrument | Britannica The name "pipa" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "p" () and "p" (). The pipa pieces in the common repertoire can be categorized as wen (, civil) or wu (, martial), and da (, large or suite) or xiao (, small). Example 4 shows that the biwa's melodic pitch doubles the basic melodic tone on the downbeat of almost every measure, except in measure 4 where the melodic tone 'E' is supported with a 'D' in the biwa's part. [29], There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa. The stroking motion always starts from the 1st string, sequentially sweeping toward the others until it reaches the arpeggios last string. [1] Most contemporary performers use the five string version. [40] Through time, the neck was raised and by the Qing dynasty the instrument was mostly played upright. 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. The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi () that requires a full-handed grip. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. [6] Another Han dynasty text, Fengsu Tongyi, also indicates that, at that time, pipa was a recent arrival,[7] although later 3rd-century texts from the Jin dynasty suggest that pipa existed in China as early as the Qin dynasty (221206 BC). [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. The biwa sounds as written, and it is tuned to an A-430Hz. Example 4 shows the basic melody of Etenraku's section B and C, and its rhythmic accompaniment. Sanxian | musical instrument | Britannica An example tuning of the four string version is B, e, f and b, and the five string instrument can be tuned to C, G, C, d and g. For the five string version, the first and third strings are tuned the same note, the second string three steps down, the fifth string an octave higher than the second string, and the fourth string a step down from the fifth. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Formation: Japanese. Heike Biwa () | Japanese | The Metropolitan Museum of Art This seeming shortcoming is compensated for by the frets height and the low tension of the strings. It produces distinctive ichikotsuch () and hyj (). He also qualified as a doctor of Chinese medicine. When two strings are plucked at the same time with the index finger and thumb (i.e. Figure 4 introduces the biwas six traditional tunings. 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). The biwa strings are plucked with large wooden pick called bachi (, The basic technique is to pluck down and up with the sharp corner. Chikuzen Biwa. Performers on the instrument frequently pluck two notes simultaneously, producing a variety of intervals, especially when the singer is silent. Bodmin, Cornwall, Great Britain: MPG Books, pp. The narrative biwa music adopts a relative tuning; the pitch is decided to match with the players range of voice. Its pick or bachi () is the largest among all types of biwa it sometimes used to strike the hard soundboard sharply to create percussive effects, adding a more dynamic flavor to the music. The encounter also inspired a poem by Yuan Zhen, Song of Pipa (). One of these, the new chikuzen biwa tradition, became popular amongst many thousands of amateurs between c.1900 and 1920. For a long time, the biwa tradition was carried on by wandering blind monks who used the instrument to tell stories such as the Tale of Heike (). The biwas shallow body is a bouncing board that sharply projects its sound forward. [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]. The pipa has also been used in rock music; the California-based band Incubus featured one, borrowed from guitarist Steve Vai, in their 2001 song "Aqueous Transmission," as played by the group's guitarist, Mike Einziger. Because of this bending technique oshikan (. With the end of the wars, unsurprisingly, the biwa music became less popular, and the number of biwa musicians dropped significantly. This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. New York, 1903, vol. Played with a large wooden plectrum, the instrument has four or five strings of twisted silk stretched over four or more . The number of frets is considerably fewer than other fretted instruments. D. SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT A. Write True if the statement is correct and 2. The satsuma-biwa is traditionally made from Japanese mulberry, although other hard woods such as Japanese zelkova are sometimes used in its construction. Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item, Title: The gagaku biwa (), a large and heavy biwa with four strings and four frets, is used exclusively for gagaku. The fourth and fifth strings, if 5-stringed, are tuned to the same note. Traditional Musical Instruments of Japan | TOKYO RESTAURANTS GUIDE 38.5 in. In performance it was held sideways and played with a plectrum. The biwa is a stringed instrument used in Japan as a sort of story telling method. The piece is in Hy-j mode (E Dorian) and the basic melody is centered on the pitches: E, B, and A, three of the four fundamental pitches of the Japanese modes. 3 (Winter, 19771978). Rubbing the strings: The plectrum is used to rub an open string. The four-string specimen is tuned to a shamisen tuning called honchshi (interval structure, from the lowest string upwards, of P4 - P5, with the top two strings tuned in unison): approximately B2 E3 B3 B3; a typical tuning for the 5-string instrument has the intervallic sequence of P4 (down) P4 (up) M2 (up) P4 (up), approximately E3 B2 E3 F-sharp3 B3. Biwa is a 4-stringed lute played with a large spectrum. A player holds it horizontally, and mostly plays rhythmic arpeggios in orchestra or ensemble. Even the biwa hshi transitioned to other instruments such as the shamisen (a three-stringed lute).[15]. Wu Man is probably the best known pipa player internationally, received the first-ever master's degree in pipa and won China's first National Academic Competition for Chinese Instruments. Biwa | musical instrument | Britannica Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded. 5-string: biwa (gallery #2): He premiered the oldest Dunhuang Pipa Manuscript (the first interpretation made by Ye Dong) in Shanghai in the early 1980s. Popularly used by female biwa players such as Uehara Mari. This article is about the Chinese instrument. [citation needed]. 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. 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pieces in the Wu style are generally more rhythmic and faster, and often depict scenes of battles and are played in a vigorous fashion employing a variety of techniques and sound effects. Among ethnomusicologists, it is the most widely used system for classifying musical instruments. 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. Its tuning is C, G, c, g, g. Gaku-biwa, chikuzen-biwa, heike-biwa, ms-biwa, satsuma-biwa and their plectra. Modern biwa used for contemporary compositions often have five or more frets, and some have a doubled fourth string. sanxian, (Chinese: "three strings") Wade Giles romanization san-hsien also called xianzi, any of a group of long-necked, fretless Chinese lutes. 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. Sanxian ("Three strings") or Xianzi (Spike lute) - University of Edinburgh From the Dingjiazha Tomb No. 105-126. [10] An instrument called xiantao (), made by stretching strings over a small drum with handle, was said to have been played by labourers who constructed the Great Wall of China during the late Qin dynasty. When Yamashika died in 1996, the era of the biwa hshi tutelage died with him, but the music and genius of that era continues thanks to his recordings. Figure 5 shows examples of harmonic structures of, 2, 3, and 4 pitches in Ichikotsu-ch. 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. Written by Nobuko Fukatsu Two basic types of wood are used to make stringed musical instruments: woods for soundboards (top plates) and those for frame boards (back and side plates). The six fret type is tuned to B, E, B and b. Though its origins are unclear, this thinner variant of the biwa was used in ceremonies and religious rites. Heike Biwa (), Medium: Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted. Chikuzen was an historic northern province on Kyushu, the southern-most main island of Japan. Japanese Musical Instruments. Another. Nation: Japan. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. February 20, 2008. 5, period of the Northern Wei (384-441 A.D.), A Song dynasty fresco depicts a female pipa player among a group of musicians, Group of female musician from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960 AD), A mural from a Yuan dynasty tomb found in Hengshan County, Shaanxi, showing a man playing the pipa, A group of Qing dynasty musicians from Fuzhou. Male players typically play biwa that are slightly wider and/or longer than those used by women or children. In modern biwa, particularly in Satsuma-biwa, one sometimes strikes the soundboard sharply to get percussive effects. [3][4][5], The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han dynasty around the 2nd century AD. In the 9th century the Ms (blind monks') biwa began to be used by blind musicians as an accompaniment to chanted religious texts and sutras. This type of instrument was introduced to Korea (the bipa ), to Japan (the biwa ), and to Vietnam (the tyba ). The . In the performers right hand the bachi (plectrum) is held, its upward-pointing tip used to pluck the strings near the string holder. The biwa's Chinese predecessor was the pipa (), which arrived in Japan in two forms;[further explanation needed] following its introduction to Japan, varieties of the biwa quadrupled. [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. There is also evidence that other biwa instruments came from the Indian lute tradition. The two-headed tacked drum hung in an elaborate circular frame in court music is a gaku-daiko or tsuri-daiko. On the plectrum, figure of a golden phoenix with flowers in its beak, While the modern satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa both originated from the ms-biwa, the satsuma-biwa was used for moral and mental training by samurai of the Satsuma Domain during the Warring States period, and later for general performances. 2008. Ye Xuran (), a student of Lin Shicheng and Wei Zhongle, was the Pipa Professor at the first Musical Conservatory of China, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Ms Biwa (), Dimensions: This type of biwa is used for court music called gagaku (), which has been protected by the government until today. Instead, biwa singers tend to sing with a flexible pitch without distinguishing soprano, alto, tenor, or bass roles. The instrument initially used for this practice was the four-stringed chikuzen biwa (gallery #1), which was produced and sold cheaply--a fact attested to by the numbers of such instruments taken overseas by working-class emigrants. (de Ferranti, p. 122) [The instrument pictured in gallery #1 is very likely one of those many biwas taken overseas--it was purchased in a Honolulu shop specializing in Japanese antiques many of which were brought to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century.] Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API. used only as a drone, and usually tuned to the same note as the third string, making the second the lowest. 6 Traditional Japanese Instruments That You Can Listen To Today This scale sometimes includes supplementary notes, but the core remains pentatonic. What is the hornbostelsachs classification of biwa instrument - Brainly [2], Early literary tradition in China, for example in a 3rd-century description by Fu Xuan, Ode to Pipa,[1][28] associates the Han pipa with the northern frontier, Wang Zhaojun and other princesses who were married to nomad rulers of the Wusun and Xiongnu peoples in what is now Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Cheng Yu researched the old Tang dynasty five-stringed pipa in the early 2000s and developed a modern version of it for contemporary use. Tachibana sought to create a new narrative style that would appeal to a contemporary urban audience (de Ferranti p. 120) and that would be performed by sighted musicians. Dunhuang, Mogao Caves. The performer sings while playing the biwa, and the instrumental part is modular in structure in that there are dozens of named or numbered phrases that the player must internalize and that are used as the building blocks of the instrument part that supports the vocal part. Each group can include either two open strings or one open and one fingered string. Taiko Center Online Shop - String Instruments - Tagged "Biwa" The musical narrative of The Tale of Heike, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, edited by Alison McQueen Tokita and David W. Hughes.