Traditions of Sichuan chuanju opera
in piano pieces by Song Mingzhu and Jia Daqun

Lyu Tsze Postgraduate student, Department of Music History, Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory named after M.I. Glinka 603005, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Piskunov str., 40 jielliptical@qq.com Other publications by this author

Chinese traditional opera is the most important sphere of national art. Recognized by UNESCO in 2001 as an invaluable world heritage, it vividly and fully reflects the uniqueness of the country's culture ^[1]. The uniqueness of the Chinese theater is due to its amazing genre diversity, however, if the Beijing opera is well known outside of China, then regional genres, of which there are more than three hundred, are not given enough attention even within the state.

Among the regional operas that have preserved their unique features, the Sichuan opera Chuanjui () occupies a special place. It was formed at the beginning of the twentieth century on the basis of the synthesis of five different local varieties of Chinese traditional drama. United together, they gave impetus to the emergence of an original synthetic genre built on the interaction of the most important theatrical arts – singing, recitation, acting, acrobatics and instrumental music. The text was written and performed in the Sichuan dialect. Currently, chuanjui can be called the most influential regional opera in southwest China, widely distributed not only in Sichuan, but also in Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou and some areas of Hubei. In recent years, publications about the unique originality of the theatrical traditions of Southern China have begun to appear in the Russian-speaking art space ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]. At the same time, researchers are building a dialogue with recognized works of Chinese musicologists about Sichuan opera ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[7].

In 1912, the Sichuan troupe "Sanqing" ("Sanqinhoy") ^[8] for the first time presented plays that absorbed the features of five local theatrical traditions, distinguished by distinctive singing styles, instrumentation, musical repertoire and place of origin – Gaoqiang, Kunqiang, huqinxi, tangxi and huadenxi. All of these genres were popular and performed by independent troupes until the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Combining the types of performances from different provinces, the Sanqing troupe added a typically Sichuan composition of the percussion ensemble. The new genre was called Chuanju – Sichuan opera. According to the theatrical origins, there are five main varieties – chuanjui gaoqiang, chuanjui kunqiang, chuanjui huqinxi, Chuanjui tangxi and chuanjui huadenxi.

Like all regional theatrical dramas of the south-central and south-western provinces of the country – Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, chuanjui is characterized by a unique singing style, refined acting, colorful costumes, a rich repertoire of percussion ensemble, comic roles, lively dialogues and the use of local dialects ^{[9, p. 54]}. The main part of Chuanjui's repertoire is based on Chinese classical novels, mythology, legends and fairy tales. More than 2000 performances of the Sichuan opera have been preserved.

Let's take a closer look at the five regional varieties of chuanjui.The most characteristic, well-preserved and richly developed of them is Gaoqiang. Chuanjui gaoqiang (gaoqiang – "high melodies") originates from the musical style of geyangqiang of Jiangxi province (the end of the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644). He absorbed the traditions of both southern and northern China, combining the Sichuan dialect with high-range vocals, local folk song of the Song and Yuan eras with various local styles of theatrical singing and even with Taoist music, which allowed him to become the most significant variety of Sichuan opera.

Chuanjui gaoqiang is distinguished by a high tessitura of typical qiupai vocal melodies ^[10], as well as accompaniment in the performance of percussion instruments (subsequently, wind and string instruments were included in the ensemble). The most important component of Sichuan opera is singing, based on two genre components: ban and chan. Ban (?) has its roots in the dramatic "choir" (zhonghe) accompanying the soloist or performing without him. Ban music is typed and cannot vary, and therefore is known as a "fixed style" (dingqiang ) ^{[11, pp. 40-44]}. Chan originates from the character's solo singing on stage without accompaniment (tug). Unlike the choir, the vocal part of chan is changeable and whimsical (huoqiang) ^{[11, p. 44]}. In the process of evolution, three key elements of the Chuanjui Gaoqiang genre were formed.

1. Banqiang () refers to a backstage or stage "choir" (usually two actresses and five percussionists, the latter also join in singing unison vocal parts). The choir ban performs three main functions ^{[11, p. 12-13]}:

· represents the character of the hero, "pronounces" the inner thoughts of the character, characterizes his state of mind, emotions and feelings experienced by him;

· represents the voice of the author when the actor goes beyond his role and comments on what is happening;

· describes the circumstances of the action and stage situations, pictures that appear to the hero's eyes.

According to Xu Jian: "depending on the stage situation, the banqiang precedes or completes a solo performance; it can polyphonically accompany the soloist's singing process; it can, like an echo effect, repeat the spoken phrase, or it can be independent and independent of the soloist's singing" ^{[12, p. 289]}.

2. Chan is the main vocal genre of Sichuan opera. The scale of the musical phrases of the aria is determined by the text: the actor adapts the chosen melody of Yizi xingqiang ^{[11, p. 44]}, repeats and varies it so that it corresponds to the number of syllables of the text, thereby achieving a natural combination of words and music. Chuanjui gaoqiang's vocal style is distinguished by a very high range, a sharp loud sound, an abundance of ornaments, a characteristic increase or decrease in the main steps of the fret by a quarter tone, brilliant glissandi, various types of vibrato.

  3. Yes (?) – acrobatics and elements of kung fu, closely related to the accompaniment of the percussion group of the instrumental ensemble. Chinese researchers of Sichuan opera note the inherent trinity of ban, da and chan.

The orchestra of the Sichuan Opera is called Changmian ("stage"). It includes the Ying ("hard") Changmian percussion group and the ruan ("soft") Changmian string and wind instrument group. At first, the accompanying ensemble of the Sichuan opera consisted only of percussion instruments, and only in the process of development absorbed strings and wind instruments. Performers can also act as singers in the Banqiang choir ^{[11, p. 19-20]}. Percussion plays a key role in the Gaoqiang orchestra. The accompaniment in Chuanjui Gaoqiang is provided by an ensemble of five instruments.

· The leader of the ensemble (gushi) plays the bangu drum () and wooden rattles (ban);

· Performer I plays the dalo – a large copper gong;

· Performer II plays dabo () – large cymbals;

· Performer III plays the xiaolo (?)) – a small gong and a small – small hand gong;

· Performer IV plays xiaobo (?)) – small cymbals and tangu () – a medium-sized drum.

In Chuanjui Gaoqiang's opera, percussion instruments always accompany acrobatic numbers, and also "support" the ban chorus at key moments: at the beginning, at the climax and during the transition to the next number, often performing a sound-imaginative role. Chuanjui gaoqiang has become the dominant variety of chuanjui and remains the most popular regional opera among traditional Gaoqiang-style dramas in China.

Chuanjui huqin has its roots in the traditional Pihuangqiang chant system, which combined the Erhuang and sipi chants, and became the main source of Beijing opera. Sichuan theater relies on erhuang melodies – mostly slow and lingering. The main instrument of the accompaniment is a two-stringed violin with a high tuning of the huqin, similar to the jinghu in the Beijing opera, but with a softer tone. The Sichuan two-stringed violin Chuan erhu and the four-stringed plucked zither Yueqin are also important components of the ensemble.

The variety of Sichuan opera chuanjui tangxi was formed during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1661-1772, Qing Dynasty). The genre goes back to the tradition of Hunan banzi opera, in which the bangzi rattles of the same name act as the main accompanying instrument, as well as the two-stringed gaibanzi violin (a violin with two metal strings). The melodies of tansy are based not so much on traditional pentatonic as on heptatonic frets ^{[11, p. 199]}.

The type of chuanju kunqiang originates from the genre of kunqiu from Kunshan County, Jiangsu Province. The dominant instrument of the ensemble is the bamboo flute dizi. After kunqiu came to Sichuan province, it was named chuanqiun (short for Sichuan kunqiang). Currently, the genre has fallen into decline, only individual fragments or selected arias are performed within the framework of the opera Gaoqiang, huqin or tangxi. The bamboo flute is still the leading instrument, and percussion varies: small Sichuan xiaobo cymbals are replaced by softer subo cymbals, and in the big gong, the dalo is beaten along the edge of the instrument, using the "su" technique (abbreviated from Suzhou, reflecting its origin).

The chuanjui huadenxi variety turned out to be less developed than other forms of the theatrical genre, and is considered indigenous to Sichuan. Her repertoire is limited to about twenty plays. This type of opera is strongly associated with the city of Gulin. Traditionally, during the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year, especially on the last day of the holiday – the Lantern Festival, performances of huadenxi (?)) are staged in the city, necessarily including solo singing (chang huadeng ). In other counties of Sichuan, huadeng is played at weddings, funerals and even decorated as part of exorcism ceremonies. In chuanjui huadenxi opera, local percussion instruments are combined with a special, guttural-sounding two-stringed pantuntun violin ("thick violin") ^{[8, p. 47]}. When staged at the Chuanjui Theater, Huadenxi sounds in the Chengdu dialect with the accompaniment of the chuanjui percussion instrument group.

The characteristic features of the traditional opera of Southern China are reflected in the piano music of modern Sichuan composers. The diversity and multi-composition of the origins of chuanju is embodied by the piano cycle of Song Minzhu "Musical Suite of the Sichuan Opera". The composition consists of three piano miniatures based on typical melodies common in the southern region – "Tangxi" (), "Huqin" () (this tune is usually played by the huqin violin) and "Kunqiang" () (a typical tune of the kunqiu opera). The work uses melodies and rhythms of chuanjui, imitation of typical percussion instruments, pentatonic fret organization with key intonations of the big second and fifth.

The cycle opens with the play "Tansy", created on the basis of the tune of the same name – one of the key ones in chuanjui. Tansy is performed in the Sichuan dialect, accompanied by string-bowed instruments, bangzi rattles, gongs and drums, which gives the tune a pronounced local flavor. An active mobile melody, resembling the playing of a gaibanzi violin, overgrown with characteristic ornamentation in the process of presentation, sounds against an ostinate background of empty fifths, and then large seconds imitating a percussion group of instruments. The intervals of fifths and seconds, extremely typical of Chinese music, are the key consonances of the miniature.

Fig. 1. Song Minzhu. "Musical Suite of the Sichuan Opera". "Tansy". Tt. 1-10.

   The main theme of the play, following the bright introductory section, reflects the monodic nature of Chinese opera: the threefold repetition of the cliche tune in a high register is accompanied by an expressive shading sub-tone, replaced by persistently repeated acute-staccato small seconds. The melody sounds in the tart heptatonic mode of zhengsheng (yayue) As B C D Es F G (see about terminology ^[13]).

Fig. 2. Song Minzhu. "Musical Suite of the Sichuan Opera". "Tansy". Tt. 10-21.

The play "Huqin" is based on the most important song of the same name of the Pihuangqiang system.  The melody came to chuanjui from the arch of erhuang and sipi, firmly entrenched and acquired a local timbre color due to the performance accompanied by the huqin violin.

In his piano piece, Song Minzhu quotes the melodies of erhuang and "anti erhuang" (fan erhuang ), which is the same melody of erhuang, but set out from the fifth tone (a quart below) ^[14]. The composer presents the theme in a slow Adagio tempo in the form of a two-voice fugato, in which the proposta and risposta are in traditional tonic-dominant ratios, consonant with the quarto-quint relations of erhuang and fan Erhuang in Sichuan opera. The whimsical ornamented melody sounds in the heptatonic scale of qingshan (yanyue) D E Fis G A H C (theme), is articulated with various strokes and complicated by syncopated accents.

Fig. 3. Song Minzhu. "Musical Suite of the Sichuan Opera". "Huqin." Tt. 1-7.

The third piece "Kunqiang" is the smallest in the suite. Its name testifies to the borrowing of the tune from the Kunshan opera Kunqiang: the melody organically entered the circle of tunes of the Sichuan opera, which absorbed many themes from various local opera traditions. 

The play is written in a free time measuring meter and is based on the contrasting juxtaposition of two thematic elements. The first is a melodic phrase, harmonized with heavy fifth chords on fortissimo, in a wide range, with an accentuated marcato. The second element – rapid, percussive short phrases in the Allegro tempo – also bring the rhythmic beginning to the fore. The piercing rehearsal repetitions of sharp semitone dissonances in different registers and the accentuation of the rhythm indicate the influence of the tradition of making music by an ensemble of percussion instruments – gongs and drums. 

Fig. 4. Song Minzhu. "Musical Suite of the Sichuan Opera". "Kunqiang".

It should be noted that the author does not expose the key signs in principle, despite the fact that he relies on heptatonic frets, which especially vividly declare themselves in the first two pieces (in the third miniature, rhythm comes to the fore). This is due to the strengthening of the timbre, sound-imaginative beginning, with an obvious imitation of the natural structure of the instruments of the Sichuan opera. 

Another illustrative example of working with the legacy of chuanju is found in the play "Chuanqiang" from Jia Datsun's piano cycle "Three Preludes for Piano". In the preface to the composition, the composer indicates that it is written in the genre of passacaglia, in the form of variations on basso ostinato characteristic of him. However, the interpretation of the European model is very unusual and reveals a vivid national specificity. The three-stroke theme is followed by 6 variations on it, replaced by a fragment imitating the sound of percussion instruments of the Sichuan opera, and then by a free figurative cadence. At the end, the theme reprises itself, being replaced by a synthesized coda.

The composer relies on the melodic framework of a fragment of the traditional Gaoqiang chant "Red Brocade Caftan" ("?""), woven from the pentatonic intonations of pure quart, pure fifth and big second typical of national folklore.

Fig. 5. Gaoqiang's chant "Red Brocade caftan" ("?""). A fragment of a typical tune and the theme of Jia Datsun's play.

Jia Daqun relies on the key intervals of the original source, preserving its melodic outline and completing the phrase with a characteristic angemitonic consonance (g-c-d). Meanwhile, the author "dissolves" the pentatonic original in acutely dissonant semitones taken for a strong fraction of a beat (e-f, d-es), which cause intentional associations with the intonation features of the melodies of Sichuan operas (a quarter-tone decrease or increase in the main steps of the fret).

The principles of the metrorhythmic organization of the theme also contribute to the erosion of the Gaoqiang melody: the four-sided size indicated in the key is interpreted very freely, improvisationally (the remark "recitative"). The speech allusions are not accidental: the author likens the theme of the passacaglia to the replicas of the "backstage" choir of the Ban Sichuan opera. In the Gaoqiang tradition, the interaction of the soloist and the choir is usually regulated: the choir either precedes the solo performance of the character, or completes it, or alternately exchanges phrases with him. The theme is symbolized by the recitative phrases of the choir, then, in the first variation, the exquisitely whimsical atonal melody of the soloist is superimposed on them polyphonically, indicated by the author with the remark "cantabile".

Fig. 6. Jia Daqun. "Chuanqiang". Variation I. Tt. 4-6.

The second variation introduces another important actor of the Sichuan performance – the Ying Changmian percussion ensemble ("percussive" remark), which supports the chorus's replicas (theme) in the lower layer of the polyphonic texture. The interval composition of dissonant consonances, symbolizing percussion, is indicative: they include "interlocked" seconds and quarts, referring to the national prototype – four-stage angemitonic chu-sound orders.    

Fig. 7. Jia Daqun. "Chuanqiang". Variation II. Tt. 7-9.

In the third variation, the soloist's new atonal melody ("cantabile") develops against the background of a theme "weighted" with bass. The resulting second-quart consonances bring the theme of "chorus" closer to the part of "percussion".  The fourth, fifth and sixth variations are a complex polyphonic canvas in which each part is written out on a separate sheet music. The simultaneous deployment of three independent lines contradicts the principles of the drama of the Sichuan opera: as a rule, in Gaoqiang's performance, the soloist and the choir play music alternately. Meanwhile, the choice of the form of variations on basso ostinato is fully consonant with the polyphonic techniques of chuanjui drama, built on the interaction of several layers: solo, choral and instrumental.

      Thus, an original type of traditional opera has developed in Sichuan, the specific features of which have been vividly embodied in the piano works of modern Chinese composers. Having turned to the authentic theatrical heritage of Southern China , Song Minzhu and Jia Daqun succeeded:

· to introduce into the piano repertoire an original circle of standard tunes borrowed from various shengqiang systems (gaoqiang, Kunqiang, pihuangqiang), common in the opera culture of Sichuan;

· preserve the fret organization of the tunes – pentatonics and heptatonics typical of tansy tunes (zhengsheng and qingshan frets);

· recreate on the piano the timbres of stringed and percussion instruments typical of the southern region (two-stringed huqin and gaibanzi violins, bangzi rattles, an ensemble of gongs, drums and Ying Changmian cymbals);

· reflect the unique feature of chuanjui Gaoqiang related to the organization of stage action – communication of the soloist and the choir;

· to convey the special manner of Gaoqiang singing, due to the high register and microalteration of the main steps of the fret.

The refraction of the characteristic features of Chinese traditional opera in the genres of piano music fits the works of Song Minzhu and Jia Daqun into the intensive process of adapting regional varieties of the national theater (Beijing, Hunan, Henan, Cantonese operas) to the piano repertoire.