Kunqu is connected to the historical development of the Kunshan style. In the Ming, Wei Liangfu and others refined its singing, helping form an influential performance tradition. It combines music, lyrics, movement, and stage action. Today's excerpt performances often select a few scenes from a play and differ in scale from the full story.
Historical background
Kunqu, also known as Kunju, K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. It evolved from a music style local to Kunshan, part of the Wu cultural area, and later came to dominate Chinese theater from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Wei Liangfu refined the musical style of kunqu, and it gained widespread popularity when Liang Chenyu used the style in his drama Huansha ji (Washing Silken Gauze). Well-known pieces of Kunqu opera included The Peony Pavilion from the Ming dynasty.
The melody or tune of Kunqu is one of the Four Great Characteristic Melodies in Chinese opera. It is known for its elegant lyrics, graceful style and delicate performance. It is one of the operas grouped under Southern Opera, and it is known as the "ancestor of a hundred operas". Kunqu uses drum and board to provide rhythm to the tunes, with flute, sanxian and so on as the main accompanying instrument. The opera is sung in "Zhongzhou rhyme".
History
Kunqu refers to Kunshan tune (Kūnshān qiāng), a repertory of songs and performances from Kunshan in Suzhou. The Kunshan tune is generally believed to have been developed during the Ming dynasty by Wei Liangfu, who was from the port of Taicang. A more recent discovery, however, suggests that Kunshan tune was introduced in the late Yuan dynasty by Gu Jian, who developed an early form of Kunqu with a group of musicians in Kunshan. Nevertheless, Wei is believed to have modified Kunshan tune with songs of Haiyan near Hangzhou and Yiyang of Jiangxi; he also combined nanxi rhythms, which often used flute, with the northern zaju style, where plucked string instruments were preferred. The resultant elegant Kunshan tunes are often called "water mill" tunes (shuimo diao).
Kunqu operas are chuanqi-style operas but incorporating Kunshan tune throughout. An opera, Washing Silken Gauze (Huan Sha Ji) written by a Kunshan native Liang Chenyu, has been described as the first Kunqu opera. The story of Washing Silken Gauze was based on Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, and the use of elegant "water mill" tunes in the opera earned it wide praise from scholars. Kunqu operas then became popular throughout China, and the emergence of Kunqu is said to have ushered in a "second Golden Era of Chinese drama".
The most famous Kunqu opera is The Peony Pavilion written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming dynasty. Other important works include The Palace of Eternal Life written by Hong Sheng, and The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren written in the early Qing period. The operas were not necessarily performed in full, but may be performed as excerpts or highlights called zhézixì, which became the norm by 1760s and over 400 pieces of these were known.
Kunqu performance influenced the performance of many other styles of Chinese musical theater, including Peking opera, which contains much of the Kunqu repertoire. Kunqu was referred to as Yabu ("elegant drama"), and it came under competition from a variety of operas (e.g. Shaanxi opera, Clapper opera, Yiyang tunes, Peking opera, etc.) termed Huabu ("flowery drama"), and as a result, Kunqu troupes experienced a commercial decline in the 19th century.
Characteristics
Kunqu opera performance is characterized by strong lyricism, delicate movements, and the harmonious combination of singing and dancing. Kunqu opera is a comprehensive art of song, dance, mediation, and white performance, and the performance characteristics of singing and dancing have been formed in the long-term performance history, especially reflected in the performance body of each character, and its dance body can be roughly divided into two types: one is the auxiliary posture when speaking and the dance of rewriting the intention developed by gestures; one is a lyrical dance with singing lyrics, which is not only a superb dance move, but also an effective means to express the character's character and the meaning of the lyrics. Singing, unlike other operas, can be given free play according to the individual conditions of the actors.