From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. ^M00:00:04 [pause] ^M00:00:09 Peggy Bulger: Hello everyone. Welcome. I'm Peggy Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center, and on behalf of our entire staff, I want to welcome you to one of our Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lectures and a series that we use as part of our acquisition strategy. There is an ulterior motive, not only for us to have distinguished lecturers here, but we also are videotaping all of these lectures, and they go up as webcasts on our website. And we consider this to be a continuation of a collection, if you will. So this Botkin Series has allowed us to bring in cutting edge scholars and scholars who are working both in the academy and in the public sector presenting their findings on ongoing research and really, in this case, a lifetime of research that's just astounding. I would like to, at this point, introduce to you my colleague, Dr. Nora Yeh, who is an ethnomusicologist with the American Folklife Center, and I'll have her introduce the lecture and our scholar today. Nora. Nora Yeh: Hello. I'm Nora Yeh, Folklife Specialist and an Archivist of the American Folklife Center's Archive. Now, I have the honor to introduce Dr. Marjory Bong-Ray Liu. Dr. Liu has studied music therapy, music education, and ethnomusicology in the United States after she came from China. She spent decades visiting various libraries from all over the world and collecting old manuscripts, books, photographs, slides, tapes, artifacts, and stories on Kunqu. These activities came to fruition with her doctoral dissertation in 1976, The Art of Kunqu: Chinese Classical Opera of the Ming Dynasty. And these materials have formed the core of the collection she is generously donating to the Library of Congress. In fact, some old handbooks donated by her are displayed right here, together with Asian Divisions materials here on the table, and you are definitely invited to come up after the presentation to take a good look at them. In 1980 she was one of the first American-based scholars invited to teach ethnomusicology at the Central Conservatory of Music at Beijing. In 1981 Liu was given the rare opportunity to spend half a year as Resident Foreign Observer at the prestigious Jiangsu School of Opera in Nanjing, her birthplace. She has taught ethnomusicology, Chinese and Asian arts, philosophy, and culture at Arizona State University until her retirement in 1989. She has published extensively in English, Chinese, and German scholarly journals. A recent publication includes all entries on Taoism in World Encyclopedia which is called "Treasury of Mystic Terms". So let's welcome Dr. Marjory Bong-Ray Liu. ^M00:04:07 [applause] ^M00:04:14 [pause] ^M00:04:23 Marjory Bong-ray Liu: Thank you for this very good introduction, and my thanks go to all of the people who made this event possible, especially Nora Yeh, my esteemed friend and former colleague, and Nancy Groce, and all the members of the Folklife Department. Good day to you all. I'm here to talk about Kunqu. This is the earliest classical Chinese opera form and that I developed a passion for long before UNESCO, in 2001 declared it to be, and I quote, "a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage of humanity," end quote. Incidentally, I noticed that in this week's Chinese-language weekly, Yazhou Zhoukan, there is a lengthy piece on Kunqu by Bai Xianyong, who directed the most recent performance of Kunqu all over America, and in June in London, and in Athens, Greece, so this is a very timely piece. You might be interested in looking at it later. What really interests me, or intrigues me most, is the aesthetics of a total multi-art theater. Not only is the libretto composed of refined and elegant poetic verse, but we're shown the most artistic way to express a movement, a song, a story, or an emotion. And unique to most theatrical genres, dance movement is an integral part of the drama, as you shall see shortly. I heard that the most effective way to present a talk or lecture is to tell you what I'm going to say, and then say it, and then tell you what I've said. Okay. So with this in mind, I'll try to follow that. And then I'll -- during the course of lecture, I'll give you a slight taste on DVD of an actual performance of the most well known Kunqu performance and just describe as we go along some of the characteristics of that. So as far as the name Kunqu is concerned, the Chinese operatic form originating in the Kunshan District near Suzhou and Shanghai along the Yangtze River in central China. Kunqu literally means Kunshan song, or song from Kunshan, and it marks the development in the 16th century of the earliest mature classical opera. And as early as the 12th century B.C. simple folk dances and songs as well as enacted ritual songs and dance were recorded. Actors incorporated song and dance and drama in their storytelling, which eventually led to organized, simple opera style. Then in the 8th century, the Royal Tang Dynasty Court instituted an actor's school called Pear Garden -- Li-yuan -- which trained actors who used to dance and sing, and had dialogue based on historical tales, mainly. Later, there evolved a northern type of drama, beiqu, which used only one key and one rhyme type in each of the four acts and only one actor sang throughout. Then in the South, meanwhile, chuanqi, this form with roots in the Sung Dynasty ballads, and tz'u poetry developed. And these were romantic stories, lasting up to 60 scenes. In fact, Mudan Ting or The Peony Pavilion has 55 scenes, and it took 19 hours to perform originally. Each act could have tunes in several keys, and all actors could sing in solo, duet, or chorus form, in concert with others. Many modern audiences of Chinese Kunqu and Peking Opera performances are mesmerized by the visual spectacle, the gorgeous, elaborate costumes and makeup, as well as by the graceful movements on stage. Yet it's been my experience that they're often repulsed by the weird sounding music and high, restricted singing style. So I want to address the factors of scale, tones, and vocal quality first. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, from the 12th to the 13th century B. C., the seven-tone heptatonic scale was used in addition to the five-tone pentatonic scale. And this was to enhance a feeling of motion with the fourth and the seventh tones used as extra tones. The 12 ritual melodies of the Tang era were also heptatonic, and even a nine-tone scale was notated by 12th century Sung Dynasty chuanqi, who used [Chinese] or turning notes as independent microtones. Later, Kublai Khan, leader of the invading Mongols and founder of the Yuan Dynasty -- this would be 1280 to 1368 -- introduced a new system of Kunqu notation to the new diatonic major scale mold. And this used the popular music of the time. Finally, in a study of modes by contemporary author Lee Wan Jiou [spelled phonetically], it was found that except for Peking Opera, all opera styles in the northern province of Hebei feature six-tone scale modes. So there is a wide variety there. And it's evident the use of different scales were prevalent throughout China's history, and it's possible to obtain over 60 key modes from each of these 12 chromatic pitches only. And to that, the frequent modulation from one key mode to another introduced new scale tones to an existing piece. So it's no wonder that microtones appear in Chinese music that are perfectly legitimate, even though they may sound dissonant to the unfamiliar ear. Now, to many Western ears, Chinese operatic singing sounds high and harsh, and held back in a sort of a nasal and throat area. Some describe it as shrill and artificially produced, contrary to the bel canto open throat technique of Western opera. Upon further listening, though, however, one discovers that this type of so called restrictive singing is a highly intricate art used originally by male actors singing falsetto to impersonate main female characters and young hero roles. There is a purity and sweetness to it that reflects its very genteel nature, as opposed to the open throat technique used by males in warrior or judge, statesman, or comic roles. Although now females are allowed to sing on stage and even to adopt male roles, they still follow the traditional style of singing, and they're able to project deep-felt emotions through the way they use their vocal art, as you shall see. Along with scale pitches and vocal quality, speech tones are most important to understand Kunqu singing. The Chinese language is a tonal language, meaning each spoken word or character consists of one syllable spoken with one tonal inflection out of four available tones in ordinary speech or [Chinese]. These four tones are: high level, yin; high rising tone, yang; dipping and then rising tone, shang; and then leaving tone, qu. Yin, yang, shang, qu. And in the Kunqu stage speech, [Chinese], however, the tones used are level tone, ping; and dipping tone and rising tone, shang; and leaving tone, qu; and then an extra one called abrupt entering tone, ru. And this latter follows the southern style of speech, and is particularly important for both meaning and sound in singing. It can be used to signify a certain word, or when followed by a glottal sound for rhythmic emphasis or melodic turn in an individual line of verse. In an article I wrote on the influence of tonal speech on Kunqu Opera style, using Seeger Melograph machine to track simultaneously the relationship between pitch, amplitude or intensity, and partials of some words, I discovered that ornamentation is especially attractive and effective in the correlation between speech tones and melodic singing style. Because ornamentation can embellish directions, flow of speech tones can clarify rhythmic emphasis, highlight points of stress, and provide elaboration and variation. Although the melody may change direction in certain instances from the speech tone, it does so only after the general tonal contour has been established at the outset of a word. However, it was concluded that pitch contour alone is less important to meaning as is a gestalt of intonation, loudness, relative duration, and ornamentation of any kind. On the matter of speech tones, I was very fortunate to have had a discussion with Mr. Ya Ying Liu, leading Chinese 20th century musicologist, in his home in Beijing in 1979. And this was on the accomodation between speech tone text and tune in Kunqu and he agreed that tonal shape and progression are not determined separately in isolation, but are influenced by the neighboring tonal and musical enviornment. So again, all factors are totally integrated in Kunqu opera form. Now we come to glottalization and regarding vocal production the most unique singing device in Kunqu is a certain clicking technique or glottal stop in the throat, [Chinese] which distinguishes between speech tone movement and melodic movement. It also defines the continuous rhythmic pulse and the musical phrase of the aria. Much as Pointillism is to Impressionist Western art, so is glottalization to Kunqu operatic art. It's like a vocal punctuation. An example of the glottal stop is a short beginning excerpt from the [Chinese] aria or [Chinese] song form in the "Strolling in the Garden" scene [Chinese] of one of these most famous Kunqu Operas in The Peony Pavilion. I'll try just to give you one of two lines of this just to get an indication of how this might sound. ^M00:17:54 [Singing Chinese] ^M00:18:08 And then I'll just go on. ^M00:18:13 [Singing Chinese] ^M00:18:43 And so on, and so forth. So anyway, you get the punctuation there. ^M00:18:46 [applause] ^M00:18:54 You'll hear the real thing later. Now, we come to xipi. Many, many people talk about xipi and wonder what it is, even ethnomusicologists. Actually it's a song pattern, or it's been called a tone tune or a tone label a song form, or a song form pattern verse. It really defines a specific pattern of poetry that uses a particular sequence of level and undulating speech tones, and each line of verse has its own number and combination of tone words according to the melodic line, and each verse has its designated number of lines. So in the excerpt that I just illustrated, the [Chinese] xipi has only six lines, but it has different numbers of words to each line, and therefore different number of measures. The level and the directional moving speech tones are organized in lines, you might say as A, B, C/A, C, B, patterns. But the ultimate coordination between speech and song is seen by the cadential rhyme words. Yen, xien, tien, mien, pien, xien [all spelled phonetically], and so forth that occur in the first beat of each last measure in the lines. Each operatic scene consists of several of these melody arias, or xipi, linked consecutively as song set [Chinese]. Furthermore, each xipi has a name and designated emotional impact. And so it can be used in different combinations in different scenes. There are literally hundreds of xipi available in scenes that, as I said, may number even from 60 or more in one opera. Performance styles. I think you'll be interested in those. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so is a Kunqu Opera performance visually, aurally, and emotionally worth several thousand words. So with that in mind, I'd like to discuss some of the main performance features. To begin with, Kunqu plots are largely romances or civil-type stories relating to filial piety, courtship episodes, faithful wives, and other Confucian ideals. And two of the most famous Kunqu plots were about the seclusion of young women in a very traditional culture, whether it was an aristocratic maiden in love with a fantasy dream scholar as in The Peony Pavilion, or as a nun novitiate who decides to leave the nunnery in order to live and marry as an ordinary woman. This is shown in Si Fan. So I would like to now maybe give you a little showing of two excerpts in The Peony Pavilion. The first excerpt is a part of "Strolling in the Garden", and that shows Du Liniang, the mistress, and her maid, Chunxiang, strolling in the garden thinking about the beauties of the garden, and Du Liniang, the mistress, wondering if amidst all this beauty will she ever find a lover to help her enjoy the beauties. And then the next one is, she actually dreams, and in the dream she meets that lover, Liu Mengmei, and he asks her to stroll together in the Peony Pavilion, and then he becomes very amorous, and they both seemingly fall in love. And this describes that, so, these two short segments. ^M00:23:33 [music and singing in Chinese] ^M00:24:26 And this is the second one. This also shows the male type of singing, and singing falsetto usually, especially the young male. Okay. All right. Can we have the sound on this? Here he is approaching her. ^M00:25:11 [clip] ^M00:26:02 [music and singing in Chinese] ^M00:29:34 All right. Before we get anymore risque -- [laughter] I think you'll agree that courtship practices are pretty much the same anywhere. [laughter] They begin with, "Let's talk." [laughter] Okay. Then I just wanted to say a few words in regarding this next opera libretto. This is called "Longing for Earthly Pleasures," and it's sung by a nun, and this whole operatic scene is just one actress, the nun, Si Fan, and she's only 16 years old, but she shows this rebelliousness and desire to flee from the rigid restriction and the life of a nun. So this is the translation of one aspect there, the one aria. She says, "I want to get away from bell tower and temple. I want to go down the mountain and seek a lover. I don't care if he beats me, scolds me, laughs at me, maligns me. I've made up my mind. I don't want to become a Buddha. I will not recite 'Supreme Buddha' and 'The Wisdom Which Has Gone Beyond'. Oh, good. How lucky I have escaped and come down the mountain. I only want to have a child. I shall then die of happiness." So that's that little girl, 16-year-old nun. So people come not to be thrilled by the suspense or intrigue primarily, for they know that good is always victorious, evil is invariably vanquished, even though it takes the intercession of a righteous heaven. The main attraction, really, is to undergo a sight and sound bath of color, movement, melody uniquely transformed in a total theatre experience, that is entirely believeable although is highly stylized and repleat with symbolism. And we don't have time, but I did want to show you an excerpt of the ensemble type of dance and singing which would appear in a later segment, and the faster kind of rhythmic style and so on, because there is that also in Kunqu. Now, Kunqu music is generally lower in pitch and slower in rhythm than northern beiqu, and the key words are often prolonged melodically in melismatic fashion, which often lasts through several measures. Instrumental accompaniment depends mainly on winds in Kunqu with the transverse flute D as the leader, much as the first violin would be the leader in a Western orchestra. Then they also use xiao, flute; vertical mouth organ, the xun; and sometimes the qin, the table zither. And they're all lending a very subdued and lilting support, a variegated unison melody to the singing. And then the lute and the pee pa [spelled phonetically] and wooden clappers and drums, they all provide extra rhythmic interest. In more recent decades, some western orchestral instruments have also been added to give a deeper effect. The order of the musical design is by exposition, continuation, development, and recapitulation, [Chinese] as in many Western musics. All musical, tonal, and textural elements effect a mutual accommodation so that there is a very smooth progression from beginning to end. Now, talking about dance, this is so important. Folk dances were part of the early culture, and ritual song and dance can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty also -- that's 12th century B.C. --where they had a very important function in religious rites and court ceremonies, as well as in the social life of the commoners. In the temple court or military dances they had huge orchestras of thousands of players, whereas in folk song and dance, simple tunes and spontaneous movements were accompanied by only a few instruments to accent the melodies and rhythms. Later as dance incorporated a story line that was sung and acted out, it gradually developed into opera. Dance became an integral part of opera performances, not in the sense of elaborately staged formal dance productions as in the West, but in various solo ensemble dances interspersed throughout the drama for relief, or variety, or to enhance the plot or the acting roles. However, the most significant influence of dance in Kunqu is seen through the constant movements and gestures, and visual and vocal expression, which provided a grace, agility, and beauty that makes Kunqu a feast for the eye as well as for the ear. And so we come to the roles, the acting roles. The main acting roles in Kunqu are four: the sheng, or the young or old male scholar or hero; the dan, or the female role; the jing, the male warrior, judge, statesman, often with painted face; and then the chou is a comic, also with painted face. So the most famous female dan role actor of the 20th century, as you well know, was Mei Lanfang, and he performed in both Kunqu and Peking Operas. He had his basic training in Kunqu, which provided also a basis for much of his Peking Opera performance. His contemporary and often stage partner, Yu Zhenfei was most noted for his young male sheng roles. I was most fortunate to attend the week-long celebration of opera performances held in Shanghai in 1980 to honor Yu's 60 years on the stage. Yeah. And about props. This is where symbolism comes in. It's used extensively in the Chinese theater. The lavish costumes and the painted faces depict the type of role that is on stage. And then there are many props, such as a whip or sword used by a warrior, a flag to indicate an army, a curtain to reveal an entrance structure; a staff used by a monk, or nun, or old character; a sleeve or a fan employed by a woman coquette, or to hide an emotion, or even by a man to flip in emphatic gesture or anger; and also an oar, just a single oar could signify rowing a boat. These and other props help to depict personality or event and to enhance a situation on stage. The stage itself, as you all know, is bare except for usually a table and two chairs with a backdrop curtain only. So the audience then uses imagination to complete the impression the actors wish to convey. So I come to the final segment, and that is on the esthetics of Kunqu. Kunqu is total theater of the highest caliber. It integrates beautiful lyrics, artful singing voices supported by appropriate music instruments, graceful hand and arm gestures, and dance postures and movements with dramatic flair. These aesthetic values are enhanced tremendously, and resulting emotions are conveyed through vocal improvisation, body language, and by omission rather than by blatant dramatic expression. So this requires total participation through attention by you, the audience, in order to appreciate the subtle beauty of Kunqu. And when all these factors come together, it's as if one's whole being is energized [Chinese]. There is a culmination at certain strategic points in the music, text, and drama where one can experience high elation. It's a high point [Chinese] and a total lapping or overlapping of the senses, much like synesthesia, so [Chinese] is similar to the Japanese term ha na [spelled phonetically], or full flowering of aesthetic beauty, which lingers as an aftertaste [Chinese] long after the emotional high point has been reached. This then, I think is the real lasting value of Kunqu. So in this brief introduction I've talked about scale tones, voice production, speech tones, melody lines, glottal stops, meaning, ornamentation, xipi, verse styles, performance styles, esthetic considerations, and that's just a little bit of what it involves. But I hope I have wetted your appetite for a more personal hands-on experience of live Kunqu performance. Thank you very much. ^M00:40:16 [applause] ^M00:40:22 We have time for just a few slides that you might be interested in, and then we can have some questions and answer if you wish. So we could begin with the slides now. All right. Where is my -- ^M00:40:41 [low audio] ^M00:40:49 Okay. All right. Let's go on to the second [inaudible]. Okay. Now this is a map of China, and you will see Shanghai is here, and then Kunshan, where Kunqu flourished, is here. And then you go, I think it's over here, to Nanjing, or here, where I was born. But they are all in the general vicinity. Okay. Next. ^M00:41:24 Oh, this I this is such an ingenious way to typify a dream sequence. See, the balloon-type thing is where she is dreaming in The Peony Pavilion, and she's dreaming of meeting this scholar hero. Don't you think that's pretty ingenious? Okay. Next. All right. This is a sample of traditional Kunqu type of notation, where you have the words, and then by the side of it you have the actual notes written in word form to indicate the pitches. Yes. Next. And this is the modern type of notation which uses -- let's see, it uses numbers, yes. Do, re, me, fa, so; one, two, three four, five, six, and so on. All right. And instruments. Types of drums, okay, which are very important. Next. And the transverse flute which is a most important accompaniment to Kunqu. Yes. And various instruments here. The pee pa, and going from left to right above: the shung, which is a mouth, reed mouth organ, and the yuen [spelled phonetically], and the various gongs and cymbals, and then the two-stringed violin, and then down below, various drums, cymbals, gongs, and then the table zither, the drum on the far right. Next. Now this just goes to show you just a little bit of the hand sequences, and how expressive they are. And they all symbolize certain things or emotions that you have to learn. It's a total art. And my Kunqu teacher, one of my earliest Kunqu teachers wrote the defining book on dance gestures and movements, and she -- each one has to be coordinated to every single syllable and word and meaning. Okay. It's much like if any of you have studied Indian dance, the mudras. They are also very expressive in that way. All right. This is the famous Mei Lanfang who played the part of that mistress, the Du Liniang, the little 16-year-old mistress in Peony Pavilion. This was taken very, very early. So he's really a female impersonator. Okay. Next. Ah. And then this one to the right is Yu Zhenfei who often sang with him, and he was one that I went to celebrate his 60 years on stage. Okay. Next. This is Yu Zhenfei instructing a pupil on the gestures and so on of Kunqu. Next. This is, the role is the jing, right? No. This is the lao sheng, the old hero type. Yeah. And he usually has a beard and so on. And this is the [Chinese] young hero scholar type and notice the shoes are elevated, too. That was the custom of the time for then. The gentry. Okay. Next. This is the same young male hero using a fan to indicate certain emotions and gestures. Next. And this is the dan, the female role, the young dan, much like the heroine in The Peony Pavilion, using the sleeves. Also very important symbols to indicate various emotions. Next. This is a close up. Wouldn't you love to have to perfect skin? Yeah. [laughter] All right. And this is the, on the left is the older dan, and the right is the younger dan, the female role. And the same thing on the right. Okay. On the left here is a warrior-type dan or female, and the chou is like a comic sort of thing. All right. And the right is also the warrior girl or woman. Okay. Yeah. Here you see very -- sheng, dan, jing, and then chou. Here you see on the right is the dancing above the heroine in a very animated sequence. Okay. Next. Oh. Okay. This is a regular chou. that one was jing on the left. This is a chou, and it's typical to have the nose whitened out as a comic. And there was a lot of comic stuff in these operas. All right. Next. This shows you the elaborate tapestry that's used, all made by hand in making the garments, the costumes. It's just beautiful. Many of them made in Suzhou and parts nearby. Okay. Next. Another showing the sequins and the stitchings. It takes months to just make one complete costume. Okay. Next. And here, using the sleeves for emotional highlighting. Next. Again, the sleeves, he's getting closer with her. [laughter] The sleeves. But still using the sleeves. Okay. Next. And an extension, sort of, of the sleeves. But these are the wedding scene, when finally the hero and the heroine are united, and they have the wedding ceremony. And this celebrates their union, or coming together. Okay. Thank you. ^M00:48:07 [applause] ^M00:48:12 Female Speaker: This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov. ^M00:48:20 [end of transcript]