A Research On The Spoken Parts Of Sheng In Kunqu Opera

Flourished in Ming Dynasty,with a history of six hundred years,Kunqu Opera is considered as the "mother of Chinese operas".Seven main categories of roles are derived from its development.They are sheng(?,male characters),dan(?,female characters),jing(?,"painted face" characters),mo(?,main male characters),chou(?,clown),wai(?, old male characters),tie(?,old female characters).Among them,sheng is of important proportion,and developes a more intact system of roles.The system includes the roles of daguansheng(???,older officials),xiaoguan sheng(???,young officals),Jinsheng(??,scholars),qiongsheng(??,poor men),zhiweisheng(???,brave youngsters or soldiers),chang(?,singing),nian(?,speaking),zuo(?,acting),and da(?,martial arts)are the four artistic means of traditional opera performance.Both chang and nian have their own approaches,and complement each other.It is said:"many speaking only equates to few singing"("???????").This saying affirms the importance of the spoken parts in traditional(Chinese)opera.The spoken parts of traditional Kunqu are based on Central area Phonology Dictionary(????)and Rhyming Dictionary Hongwu Period(????).Each role has its own words' pronunciation(??)and style of yunqiang(??,a singing skill).The difference is firstly caused by the singers' different tones and characters,and secondly because of the different duration,pitch,and volume of the words' pronunciation and the influence of the difference.Each singular role derived from the category of sheng in Kunqu opera,especially daguansheng or jinsheng,has both common characteristics of the general spoken parts in Kunqu opera,and its specific characteristics.Therefore,on the basis of relevant literatures,audios and videos,with the research methods of musicology,history,musical acoustics and so on,this thesis teases out the developement vein of sheng in Kunqu opera,summarizes and concludes the stage performance of the spoken parts of sheng in Kunqu opera,analyzes the singing samples of daguaasheng and jinsheng,explores the language's rules,speaking and singing's styles of the spoken parts of sheng in Kunqu opera,and finally does the demonstration and conclusion.Besides introduction,this thesis is composed of three main parts.The introduction part states both the reasons why this topic is chosen,and the significance,methods,and literature review of this research.The first part is about the developement history and categories of sheng(the male characters)in Kunqu opera,mainly teasing out the vein of its historical development from Ming Dynasty to the modern time by the research of the relevant literatures and plays.The second part is on the stage performance and accompaniment of the spoken parts of sheng in Kunqu opera,mainly expounding the roles in Kunqu through the performing patterns,costumes,props,and accompanying instruments.The third part is on the characteristics of the the spoken parts' language and singing of sheng in Kunqu opera.This part traces the history and status quo of the metrical patterns of the spoken parts' language of sheng,and uses the relevant literatures to analyse the rules of the traditional Kunqu's singing and pronunciation.Meanwhile,This part chooses the spoken parts of the typical male characters in Kunqu opera,that is daguansheng(order official)'s spoken parts in the Palace of Eternal Youth(?????)and jinsheng(scholar)'s spoken parts in the FPeony Pavition(?????),measures the duration,intensity and pitch of the words in their spoken parts,compares the two spoken parts in normal speaking conditions and stage performing conditions,finds the differences and similarities between them,analyzes the causes and concludes the characteristics.In addition,this part compares the rules of their singing,and explores their common and specific characteristics.