Preliminary Research On The Style Of Henanquju Arias

In the perspective of musical and singing characteristic of Henanquju(quju refers to the opera derived from balled singing) arias , the paper preliminarily studies its style. The whole paper (introduction and epilogue not included) consists of 4 parts .The first part is general introduction. This part provides a panoramic view of the formation and development of Henanquju, and dividing its history into 6 periods: pre-formation period in late Qing Dynasty; formation between 1920s and 1930s; struggle for survival hi 1940s; prosperous development between 1950s to 1960s; declining during the culture revolution; renovation period since late 1970s.Based on the primary features of Hennanquju arias, the second part analysizes its musical features, mode, usually used tunes, band and instruments. The music of Henanquju, featured by a melody of starting at high pitch and ending in low, is dominated by the use of pentachord and four diatonic degree intervals with occasional deviation of "7" or "4";Based on analysis, the author finds there are both natural shift and alternative use of modes in Henanquju; The tunes of Henanquju can be divided into two major types according to usage. The first type can support long arias, while the other cannot. In addition, the structure of tunes can also be divided into four types:2-line verses; 4-line verses; 3-line verses and verses with random length; The bandconsists of two part: wenchang and wuchang, with the major instrument "Quhu", a kind of two-string Chinese violin, and some other instruments like sanxian (Chinese trichord) > lute> zither and etc.The third part researches on the style of the singing. The author points out that the "unmodified voice" is the major singing technique used in Henanquju, with "falsetto" employed occasionally, and clearly explained the definitions of "lateral", "sonorous" and etc;The use of "dantianqi" is emphasized; Singers should pay attention to the use of "trimeter". Furthermore, the singing techniques used in Henanquju are expatiated hi details from 4 aspects: breath, resonance, pronunciation and tone.The fourth part gives a brief introduction of the representative artists of Henan quju and then" styles in three major periods of its developing history.