Peking Opera
China's best-known opera genre, built on the xipi and erhuang vocal traditions
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Peking opera is a genre that took shape in Beijing in the mid-Qing, built mainly on the pihuang vocal tradition (xipi and erhuang) and absorbing Kunqu, chuiqiang and other tunes. It fuses song, speech, movement and combat; roles divide into sheng, dan, jing and chou, and performance is governed by convention and suggestion: a riding crop becomes a horse, a table a city wall.
Pihuang is a vocal tradition; Peking opera is a genre — the two are not interchangeable, and Han and Hui opera sing pihuang too. Its tunes belong to banqiang form, so one erhuang passage can become a slow aria or a moderate one. The band splits into the melodic wenchan (jinghu, yueqin, sanxian) and the percussive wuchang (drum and clapper, gongs, cymbals); the drum patterns are themselves dramatic language.
Read deeper → Erhuang
Sources
- 京剧的皮黄声腔、行当、文场武场与板腔体结构，参《中国音乐词典》与 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "China" 相关条目；本文为原创表述
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