A Study Of The Music In Yangzhou Opera

As is known to all, music is an art form expressing thoughts and feelings as well as life by means of certain forms of sounds. The performer tries to achieve the purpose of infection by singing or playing, while audiences tend to hold a kind of appreciation towards music-playing behavior itself. Because of this, a form of singing with actions or play with the nature of performance can be derived from it. The typical one is singing with actions. Dressing-up, generally in costumes, etc., even properties are used which are taken as supplementary means to serve singing. Once the music is integrated into the opera art and the opera music comes into being. At this time, being restricted by the opera, the music loses the independence as a pure music form, and becomes a kind of opera music with dramatic characteristics. As a form of local opera, Yangzhou opera’s music also needs to serve the local opera of Yangzhou. Language and tones rich in characteristics of Yangzhou must be used in Yangzhou opera in order to create a dramatic image. Based on the theory of dramaticism of opera music, without involving the situation of combining Yangzhou opera music with the stage performance, the thesis aims at conducting a research from the perspective of dramaticism of Yangzhou opera aria Qupai. By analyzing the dramatic techniques of Yangzhou opera music, the thesis tries to achieve the goal of cracking the dramatic characteristics of Yangzhou opera genre aria, and furthermore, to reveal the Yangzhou opera aria. From this angle, the author explores the dramatic aesthetic characteristics of Yangzhou opera music. The thesis contains five main chapters:The content of Chapter one is about the dramatic aesthetic characteristics of opera music. Firstly, it discusses what dramaticism of an opera art is, and demonstrates that the conflict is the essential characteristics of an opera art. And then, the argument mainly focuses on the dramatic aesthetic features of opera aria, involving the historical reasons for the opera with singing as the major form, together with the lasting appeal and artistic conception of opera aria.Chapter two is a research on the dramatic performance of commonly used aria Qupai. First of all, based on the basic requirement of the dramatic function of Yangzhou opera music, the author gives classification on Qupai. Then, specific arguments focus on the dramatic characteristics of Qupai, combing with the particular dramatic situation and conflict in a certain play.Chapter three is the study on the creating techniques of dramaticism of Yangzhou opera music. The structure style of Yangzhou opera music belongs to Qupai joint structure cycle, therefore, in combination with play, the thesis made concrete analysis and demonstration on the creating techniques of dramaticism of Yangzhou opera music from the aspects of Qupai joint structure, rhythm change and roles singing, singing and speaking form, Wen Wuchang music, etc. Chapter four focuses on the dramaticism of Yangzhou opera genre aria. Taking the genre aria as a typical example, this chapter attempts to analyze the dramatic feature of the Yangzhou opera aria. Specifically, from the perspective of the background such as the skill-learning and stage career of the genre founder, an analysis and demonstration on typical aria Qupai and main arias are conducted to explore the individual dramatic characteristic of the genre aria and then to detect the iconic dramatic feature of the Yangzhou opera aria. Chapter five is on the dramatic aesthetic interpretation of Yangzhou opera music. Firstly, the author investigates the cultural background of Yangzhou where Yangzhou opera music survives. Then, from the angles of folk, local, inclusiveness, and inner temperament the thesis demonstrates the dramatic aesthetic characteristics of Yangzhou opera music.