Performance Art Of Pipa In Jiangnan Sizhu

Jiangnan Sizhu, having a long history and wide popularity, is considered as atypical music genre in Jiangnan (South Yangtze) culture. Continual researching efforthas been put on Jiangnan Sizhu since its initiation, and various achievements havebeen gained from the different fields.Recently, results in related researching fields have been mainly published inmusical journals in China, comprising general reviews and academic articles onhistory, musical style, performance art and the biographies of musicians in Sizhu Art.Statistics shows, from 1994 to 2006, there are about:①10 articles on general information and social survey of Jiangnan Sizhu.②10 articles on the origination and history of Jiangnan Sizhu.③30 articles on musicology. (styles, melodic textures, musical forms anddevelopments etc).④11 articles on performance arts, focusing on instrumental performance inJiangnan Sizhu ensembles.⑤7 articles on the biography of several famous musicians in Sizhu Art.From the figures above, it shows that the recent researches on the instrumentalperformance is less than the musicology, including styles, musical forms anddevelopments of Jiangnan Sizhu. Particularly, in performance research, Pipa attractseven much less effort than Erhu, Dizi, and Yangqin.This work aims on the exact usage and performance of Pipa to expound its ownposition and contribution in Jiangnan Sizhu ensemble. This research is important andvaluable for both Jiangnan Sizhu and Pipa music.