How did this particular art form of Chinese opera come into being? It was based on the combination of theater and music. The creation of any art form does not come out of nowhere, it always has a certain historical and traditional origin. The origin of Chinese opera is a synthesis of three different art forms, namely ancient song and dance, rap and burlesque. These were originally separate art forms, each with its own performance program. However, with the development of history, these three art forms gradually converged to form opera. Song and dance originally did not perform stories, but later gradually added storylines; rap originally narrated stories as a third party, but later moved to the stage to perform stories as a playwright; burlesque originally performed with speech and movement, but later gradually added song and dance elements. As a result of this convergence, an art form was formed that integrated singing, dancing, recitation, and dramatic performance into one, which is what we now call opera. This process of convergence is the gradual dramatization of song, dance and rap performances, and the gradual dramatization of song and dance performances. From this, we can see that at the beginning of the formation of Chinese opera, drama and music were inseparably combined.
The development of Chinese opera has a history of more than 800 years. A history of Chinese opera is also a history of the evolution of the vocal cadence of opera. The so-called vocal cadence refers to a group of tunes, or a system of tunes, with strong local coloring, adopted for opera and based on the folk songs of a certain region. The two oldest types of Chinese opera, the Southern Opera of the Song Dynasty and the Miscellaneous Operas of the Yuan Dynasty, are both sung in songs, but due to the different regions in which they originated, there is a clear difference in the styles of the songs in the South and the North, which led to the formation of the two different vocal cadences for opera, namely, the Southern Song and the Northern Song. The further evolution of the southern and northern operas is the emergence of the four major voices of the southern operas in the Ming Dynasty, namely the Haiyan, Yuyao, Yiyang and Kunshan voices. Each of them has a different style, which is the product of combining with folk music in different places after the expansion of the circulating area of the Southern Song. The mutual competition and digestion of the four major voices contributed to the prosperity of opera in the Ming and Qing dynasties. After the emergence of the clappers and Pihuang, and as two new opera voice emerged. This new sound is the fruit of the development of folk music, and they have reproduced many new types of opera, creating a new situation for the development of Chinese opera, influencing and promoting the emergence of many local opera styles in modern times. This history shows that every process of the development of opera is directly related to the development of opera music; and the formation of every type of opera in history is always marked by the rise and change of a certain voice.
There are many types of Chinese opera, and now there are more than 300 types. Due to the different dialects in different parts of the world, each type of opera has a different artistic style. Whether it is the elegant Kunqu opera, which is like an orchid, or the Cantonese opera, which is known as the red bean in the south, as well as the idyllic pastoral Flower Drum Opera, the soaring Bangkok Opera, or the gentle Yueju Opera, they are all different and colorful in their styles. Where are the differences in style and color? The first is in the music.
People often say that Chinese opera is a comprehensive art. Because it contains literature, music, performance, art and other components. Each of these components has its own artistic characteristics, but when they enter the opera, they are either directly or indirectly related to the music.
Taking the literature of opera as an example, the method of its artistic structure is different from that of drama, because it is linked and adapted to the structure of opera music. The literature of opera requires a chorus, and a chorus is a form of literature linked to music. Even the recitation of an opera is different from the lines of a drama, because in addition to the need for characterization and action, the recitation of an opera also requires it to be musical, to read well, and to be compatible with the music.
The structure of opera scripts has undergone some evolution in history. Whether it was the Yuan Dynasty's miscellaneous dramas or the Ming Dynasty's sagas, the structure of the script was in the form of a split (or split out) based on long and short lines of the song. From the beginning of the North-South Opera to the present-day Kunqu Opera and Gaoqiang, this structural form has been adopted, but in the Qing Dynasty, since the emergence of clappers and Pihuang, the structural form of the scripts has changed into a form of division based on the upper and lower sentences of seven or ten words. Why was there such a change? This is also compatible with the development of opera music, because the structure of opera music has undergone a major change in the form of the earlier "song set" body evolved into a "plate change" body. The former is a complete song as the basis of the musical structure, a play must be composed of a number of songs by a number of songs; the latter structure is based on a pair of symmetrical upper and lower phrases, a singing is a pair of upper and lower phrases repeated many times the changes. The cantata of an opera can have dozens of pairs of upper and lower phrases or more, or only one or two pairs of upper and lower phrases, or even no singing at all, which is composed entirely of recitations. From this we can see how closely the changes in the literary form of the opera are related to the music of the opera.
Let's look at the performing art of opera. Opera performances utilize singing, recitation, acting and playing, each of which has an inseparable relationship with music. Singing, originally is a musical means of performance, it goes without saying. Nianbai is not singing, but to have musicality, it is required in the tone, rhythm, there is a staccato, can be harmonized with the singing. As for doing work, martial arts, which belongs to the physical action, but the physical action on the stage of the opera is not a direct imitation of the action of life, but a dance performance, it is strong, exaggerated, rich in rhythm. Therefore, this kind of physical movement is closely combined with the music and melts into the rhythm of the music. Traditional opera performances require actors to be familiar with the gongs and drums, i.e., the combination of various gongs and drums, and the movements of the body should be in tune with the gongs and drums; skilled actors who leave the gongs and drums feel that they cannot move, and their emotions can't be brought into play, and this is the same reason why they can't do so.
Singing, reciting, acting and playing are four different means with different characteristics. But how are they synthesized together and blended into a whole? Between these means, music is a link, through the rhythm of music, plays a unifying and coordinating role. At the same time, the conduct of the drama should talk about the rhythm of the stage, the plot of the drama, the development of various changes in the mood, the ups and downs of the drama contradictions, need to be reflected through the strong or weak, or Zhang or relaxation of the rhythm of the stage. Not only a play between the scene and the scene to have this change, even if a section of the performance or a section of the singing, in the rhythm, speed also need to have a variety of different changes. All of this is reflected through the music, to regulate, music to the rhythm of the whole play unified through.
It is in this sense that we say that opera is a kind of musical theater. Because opera music is an indispensable component of the art of opera, it permeates and runs through all aspects of the art of opera.