The Different Aspects Of Tone Colour In The Traditional Repertoire Of Liu De Hai

As what many say, Art is a personality, and one of the main part of it comes from its tone, its design. Sound comprises of five great elements; tempo, dynamics, rhythm, meter and tone colour. Other than tone colour, all the other four above mentioned elements can be notated and marked on the score to a certain extent, while tone colour is the only element that be explained with ink. It requires the musician’s personal idea, musicianship and his comprehension of the music to express his emotions. Tone colours a representative of each musicians’style, temperament and disposition, along with their own unique way of portraying themselves, differentiating one from the other. Although similar, sound and music, tone colour and sound quality, intensity and strength-they have stark differences and have contrasting meanings. Only when one understands these factors can his tone colour be properly portrayed.In the300years of history of the Pipa, different genres of Pipa music contains different styles and elements as they have diversity, their unique differences and distinctiveness in tone colour. The sound of the Pipa today originated from the genre of Silk and Bamboo or literally (Jiangnan Sizhu), and also the influences it received from different parts of China, from North to south and vice versa.Five of Pipa’s most representative music; the usage of different hand positions and techniques giving them contrasting and appropriate sounds and tone colours; utilizing three unique Pipa playing methods and forms, juxtaposing them, allowing the different sounds to be more colourful, complicated and delicate. As the great Liu Dehai once said:Use humanistic emotions to grasp the tone colour and allow the music to return to the spirits of our hearts.