A Study Of Comprehensive Anthology Of Texts And Notation Of Southern And Northern Opera Tunes In Nine Modes

The dissertation consists of four parts, i.e. Introduction, Part I, Part II, and Conclusions.The Introduction involves an elucidation of the research object of this dissertation Xinding jiugong dacheng nanbeici gongpu (comprehensive anthology of texts and notation of the Southern and Northern opera tunes in nine modes), followed by a comprehensive survey of the gongdiao (pitches and modes), translated notations, collection and catalogues retention, examination of the tablatures, etc.. Then the significance, the research perspective, the contents and methods are briefly described.Part I, from the perspective of the "study of literature", is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 tackles the background of the codification and the major factors for such an anthology, mainly from the social and political context, the cultural context, and the author's motives. Chapter 2 is a comparison between Jiugong dacheng and other tablature collections such as Nanci dinglu, Qupu dacheng, Taigu chuanzong, operas of the Qing Dynasty's imperial court, Yongxi yuefu, Yuanren baizhong, with a detailed examination of the main sources of Jiugong dacheng's texts and notations. Chapter 3 examines the classification in genres of all its labeled melodies, as well as its author and some related aspects, mainly involving the poetry of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, the zhugongdiao (ballad singing) of the Song and Jing, the nanxi(southern opera) of the Song and Yuan, The chuangqi (legend) of the Ming and Qing, the zaju (variety plays) of the Yuan and Ming, the sanqu (ditty) of the Yuan, Ming and Qing.Part II is based on the "study of yuelu (fundamental music theory)", with five chapters. Chapter 4 discusses the relationships between gongdiao and the 28 modes of banquet music, with the conclusions that Jiugong dacheng, and in turn, the gongdiao in the tablatures of the Ming and Qing dynasties, are unrelated with the 28 modes of banquet music. Chapter 5 treats with the relations between Jiugong dacheng modes and gongche seven modes, concluding that Jiugong dacheng modes possess the meaning of gongche seven modes; furthermore, numerous documents analyses have clarified the pitches of Jiugong dacheng modes. Chapter 6 discusses the relations between Jiugong dacheng modes and their expressive quality, the quality's influence on Jiugong dacheng, which persisted in the theory and practice of Chinese operas since the Mimg and Qing dynasties. Chapter 7 explores the rules of Jiugong dacheng's rhymes, with a summery of the relationships between modes and rhymes of the Ming and Qing through an analysis of a large number of chuangqi and zaju scripts of that period. Chapter 8, starting with the scales of the South and the North operas, analyzes in morphological details all the scales of the labeled melodies in Jiugong dacheng, exploring the causes for the diversity of Jiugong dacheng scales. The conclusions are an outline of the major points of the whole dissertation from two perspectives, i.e. the "study of literature" and the "study of yuelu" .That is followed by the writer's own conclusions, maintaining that the so-called "study of Jiugong dacheng " overlaps in many ways with the "quxue" (study of opera) and the "yuelu xue " (study of music theory), thus with minor significances.