Qupai in Chinese Music: Melodic Models in Form and Practice

Abstract

For almost four decades, Alan Thrasher has been writing about Chinese music, theory, and performance practice, culminating in his Sizhu Instrumental Music of South China (2008). He is an accomplished performer of the dizi 笛子 (bamboo flute) and sheng 笙 (mouth organ), and established one of the earliest and most successful University-based Chinese ensembles in North America at the University of British Columbia, where he is now Professor Emeritus. The current volume focuses on his longstanding interest in qupai 曲牌—a term variously translated as everything from “labeled melody” to “fixed tune,” and here concisely defined thusly: “In their basic forms, qupai are essentially short structures, with melodies several or more phrases in length ...” (p. 4). To readers of CHINOPERL, qupai are probably most familiar from their use in Kunqu 崑曲 opera, but they are also essential to many genres of instrumental music. Unlike most edited volumes, this collection is the work of a small group of kindred spirits: Thrasher (responsible for four chapters) and his former student Kar Lun Alan Lau 劉嘉麟, along with François Picard (Paris), Chen Yingshi 陳應時 (Shanghai), and Yu Hui 喻輝 (Ningbo). I will begin with two caveats: first, this book assumes some basic knowledge of the genres being discussed—if you are not familiar with huju 滬劇, nanguan 南管, or Jiangnan sizhu 江南絲竹, let alone dayue 大樂 of Danbi shang 彈陛上, this is not the place to begin. Thrasher’s own 2008 book, Stephen Jones’s overview of folk instrumental music, genre-specific studies of Jiangnan sizhu, huju, jingju 京劇, and Cantonese opera 粵劇, and articles in this journal on Kunqu by Lindy Li Mark and Isabel Wong would be helpful to readers interested in knowing more about the performance practices, contexts, and aesthetics of some of the main traditions from which these qupai are drawn. Second, the focus is primarily on musical structures rather than performance practice. That is, most of the notated melodies being analyzed and compared are skeletal in nature, rather than representing the details of actual performances. Having said that, for those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how qupai are genetically related, combined, and transformed over time and across multiple regions and genres, this book offers many rewards. Readers of this journal will be particularly appreciative of the inclusion of Chinese characters for the names of scholars, performers, genres,