le pavillon aux pivoines - Maison des Cultures du Monde

Chinese opera distinguishes two ways of training
the voice that apply to dialogues and
recitatives as well as to singing. The falsetto
voice is reserved for female characters both
young and less young – a hangover no doubt
from the time, not so long ago, when such
roles were played by men – and for young
men (personified here by the actress Kao Huilan).
For these latter, the exercise is particularly
difficult since the actor must render the
cracked voice of an adolescent whose voice is
breaking. The natural voice is used in male
roles and for old women.
Four essential principles regulate declamation
or prose recitation and good performance in
kunqu singing.
1. The “five sounds”, coming from the
throat, the tongue, the molars, the incisors
and the lips.
2. The “four respirations” : with the mouth
wide open, the sound comes out freely; in closing
the teeth, the sound begins to whistle; in
pursing the lips, the sound slips between
them; the well-rounded mouth means that the
sound comes up from the depths of the throat.
3. Respect for the four tones of the tonal system
of the Chinese language.
4. Articulating words, on the one hand,
breaking them down into three sounds: the
head, the belly and the tail, on the other
hand, clear distinction of the following word
so as to avoid any confusion.
Declamation is in three orders, declamation
in prose used for monologues, dialogue in
–26–
ordinary language and finally, poetry in regular
verse which the poet uses to comment on
the action (sung here by the chorus).
Kunqu uses seven musical modes which correspond
to the various transpositions (or
‘aspects’) of the pentatonic scale augmented by
its two auxiliary degrees [(C, D, E (F), G, A, (B)],
and in which each of the degrees acts as tonic
to one of the seven modes. Each of these
modes has its corresponding expression for
various sentiments (melancholy, joy, torment,
anxiety, anger...) which are classified according
to a definite system, the kong tiao; finally,
the tunes or qupai on which the songs are performed
are regrouped according to each kong
and each tiao. As we have seen, there were 335
different airs in yuanqu and 543 in nanqu.
There are more than a thousand in kunqu,
derived from repertories in both the North
and South, and it is up to the author of the
piece to choose the qupai that best translates
the feelings of the character who is singing.
This way of composing explains why the work
remains above all that of a poet and not a
musician, with the exception of course of Wei
Liangfu who was the creator of the genre.
The orchestra may be divided into three
groups of instruments; percussion, wind and
string.
Percussion instruments play an all-important
role. They keep time, punctuate the voice and
gestures of the actors by marking strong emotions
such as anxiety, suffering, fits of rage,
and provide sound effects. There is the flat