Study On The Art Of Chen Suzhen’s Singing

With a long history,Xiang-Fu tones of Henan Opera originated from Kai-feng,the political and cultural center of Song Dynasty.It has been more than three hundred years since a local opera called "Bang-zi Tune"(prototype of Xiang-Fu tones)rose rapidly in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty.There appeared to be many famous actors and talents at that time.The artistic style,the melody trend,the singing way and the performance way became mature gradually along with the practice of a large number of actors.At the end of the 18th Century,a lot of excellent Xiang-Fu tones artists were trained by two major opera schools called"Jiang Men"and"Xu Men"respectively.Later,due to the flood,"Jiang Men"fell apart.Related artists were scattered all over the province as well as in Southwest Shandong and Jiangsu and Anhui Border Area.As a result,it is said that three other schools of Henan Opera(Eastern tones,Western tones and Sha-He tones of He-Nan province)originated from Xiang-fu Tones.At first,due to the restrictions of feudal ethics in the old society,women over the age of 12 were prohibited to perform on stage.Therefore,Xiang-Fu tones had been dominated by Male roles and male Dan-roles(Wai Ba Jue)(外八角,指四生四花脸)for a long period.A group of excellent female artists of Xiang-Fu tones played a leading role in performing on stage by breaking through the shackles along with the change of social environment about the 1920s,which marked the beginning of a new era dominated by"Nei Ba Jue".(内八角,指八个旦行)Xiang-Fu tones was also transformed and reinvigorated gradually through the innovation and reform of these excellent female artists on the basis of tradition.It reached its peak around Kaifeng City.Chen Suzhen was one of these female artists.Above all,she promoted Xiang-Fu tones into a new era in cooperation with Fan Cuiting who was known as"Father of Modern Henan Opera",which marked the beginning of Modern drama of Henan Opera.Chen Suzhen was born and grew in the operatic circle.Her teacher was called Sun Yande who was known as "Master of Henan Opera" in the field of Henan Opera.Her artistic career was full of hardships due to her less outstanding voice condition and unyielding character regardless of unique growth environment,artistic resource and diligence resulting from love and "talent" as a result of diligence.Due to various factors,she failed to become the most famous opera artist in modern China,but her reform efforts and achievements in opera were obvious to all and highly respected by the predecessors and colleagues in the field of opera.She broke through the feudal shackles as one of the first group of Kun-roles.She created new tunes,innovated the rhythm cohesion way,improved the makeup technology and created a unique performance way for traditional operas by means of her love for opera performance as well as her related research.She created Dan-roles singing of Xiang-Fu tones in cooperation with other actresses,such as Si Fengying,Ma Shuangzhi and Tian Xiuling.Her vocals was known as "Official vocals of Xiang-Fu tones ".She spared no effort to carry out reform and innovation on the basis of tradition.She created dozens of operas with great significance like "Ling Yun Zhi","Yi Lie Feng" and "San Fu Xiu" in cooperation with Fan Cuiting.After experiencing countless hardships and damaged voice,she was still involved in opera teaching.She cultivated a number of outstanding opera stars such as Guan Lingfeng,Wu Xiubo and Niu Shuxian.The personal style of Chen Schools Art created by Chen Suzhen was very strong.As a result,it seemed that peers were backward at that time.Being still active in the current operatic circle,it is very popular among the audience.In the paper,the phenomenon is avoided as far as possible that the previous master theses were only focused on the research on the stage performance of Chen Schools Art and limited to the simple description about its aria or the rare ontological research.The aria music ontology of the school is taken as a starting point.The analysis methods of Chinese traditional music structure and music morphology are adopted.Chen Suzhen’s aria law is studied and the root cause for the aesthetic characteristics of her performance style is revealed through the comparative analysis of music scores as well as the analysis of her classical aria.The innovation of the paper lies in:investigating Chen Suzhen’s aria in the development environment of Henan Opera about the 1930s.The music noumenon is taken as a starting point to reveal that the unique style of Chen Suzhen’s aria was formed by the inheritance of the traditional aria of Xiang-Fu tones of Henan Opera as well as the bold reference to other art types,other genres and other contemporary artists.The research method of traditional music structure is adopted to analyze the personality Qiang Yin(腔音),Qiang Yin Lie(腔音列)and Qiang Yun(腔韵)of Chen Suzhen’s aria.