The main artistic features of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera include three aspects, one is the folk operaization of gongs and drums; the second is the use of horse gongs; and the third is the dramatization of local folk songs.
As the saying goes, "Ugly flower drums and many gongs." On the one hand, this shows that the flower-drum opera is rich in percussion; on the other hand, it shows that "percussion" is an important and inseparable part of the music of Jingzhou flower-drum opera.
In addition, the use of folk horse gongs in the martial arts field is a clear manifestation of the operaization of folk gongs and drums. Usually, the martial field of the big Pihuang opera types such as Beijing and Han only use boards, side drums, big gongs, cymbals and small gongs, while the martial field of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera directly adopts horse gongs. The horse gong is the iconic instrument in folk gongs and drums.
Wuzhang uses the gong to play the skillful person, the right hand small hammer hit the effective part of the gong, the left hand will be hit by the gong thrown into the air above the head, issued a rough "wave wave" sound, unique.
The music of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera comes directly from the popular folk songs and ditties of the Jianghan Plain, as well as the rich field songs and labor horns, and after a long period of practice on the stage, it has gradually developed into a system of vocal cadences with rich rhythmic variations and capable of expressing a wide range of thoughts and feelings.
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera has four main voices, including Gaoqiang, Qishui, Taolong, and Sipingtong, and a rich variety of ditties. In addition to the main cavity of the high cavity is evolved on the basis of the local grass-gathering song, while the cavity of the Ky Shui and the gong is similar to the vocal structure of the flower-drum opera of the East China's flower-drum opera.
Among the many minor operas, various tunes such as "Mending Back Yu", "Key Latch" and "Weeding Cucumber" are dramatizations of local folk songs. These vocal cadences of different origins, based on the local language and musical characteristics, evolved and merged into one, forming the unique style of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera.
In the early days of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera, the main roles of the characters were the young scholar, the clown, and the young dancer. Later, with the development of history and changes in the repertoire, the roles of the roles were developed, and five roles appeared, namely, Sheng, Shengjiao, Zhengdan, Huadan, and Choujiao.
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera's Sheng mostly plays young men, and sings and reads with a big voice. The roles played by them include Hu Jinyuan in the play "White Fan Story", Liang Shanbo in the play "Visiting Friends", and Liu Hai in the play "Playing Toad".
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera's Zhengdan mainly plays the role of a dignified and virtuous young woman with a strong character. For example, Qin Xianglian in the play "Three Officials Hall" and Qin Xuemei in the play "Qin Xuemei".
The flower girl of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera, also known as the "Iron Flat-bearer Row", mostly plays the role of a spirited middle-aged woman and a lively little girl. The performance is characterized by a brisk and flexible footwork, delicate movements, and a crisp and clear voice. The roles played by them are like the girl who sells food in the play "Resignation Shop" and Yan Shijiao in the play "Oolong Academy".
The clowns of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera have a wide range of roles, such as hired laborers, schoolboys, pedagogues, shopkeepers, and villains. The characters played by them are either witty, witty and funny, or treacherous, cunning and tricky. For example, Mr. Zhang in the play "Mr. Zhang asks for money to study" and the Judge in the play "Yin Judgement".
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera's raw roles are mostly played with integrity, boldness, perseverance, spontaneity, and characters who love to fight for justice. For example, Zhang Chaozong in the play "Sue Jingcheng" and Song Jiang in the play "Wulongyuan".
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera has four main cavities and more than 200 ditties, which are sung in a fast-paced, melodious, lyrical and narrative way, full of the aroma of the soil. Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera percussion accompaniment from the folk gongs and drums of the Jianghan Plain, the existing documentary records of the traditional percussion plate has 76.
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera's main cavity is in the form of a plate, and most of the lyrics are in seven-word and cross phrases. The traditional form of singing is "one singing and many singing, accompanied by gongs and drums". The singing voice is high-pitched and simple, with a wide range of tunes and a lot of big jumps in the melody; men and women sing with a combination of their own voices and falsetto voices, which, together with the close coordination of singing, helping and playing, forms the unique singing style of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera.
The main cavities of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera are High Cavity, Sad Cavity, Ky Shui Cavity, Ky Shui Failure Rhyme, Siping Cavity, Playing Gong Cavity, and Returning Soul Cavity. The high cavity is commonly known as the skeleton cavity because of its high-pitched and rough singing. The male voice is rough and bold, while the female voice is gentle and soft, and the arrangement of words and phrases and the treatment of the cavity are more flexible, and the plasticity is also very strong.
Actors according to their own voice conditions and the need for flexibility in the thoughts and feelings of the characters in the play, and therefore is one of the most representative Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera singing, generally used for the singing of the opera in the singing.
Because the high voice is good at expressing sad and deep feelings, it is used as the key singing section in many plays. For example, the long section of Qin Xianglian's lyrics in "Three Officials Hall" is processed with the high cadence transferred to the sad cadence, and its singing voice is graceful and poignant, like a sob, which better expresses the emotions of the characters in the play.
The famous dances of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera include "Picking Flowers", "Ten Plums" and "Picking Lotus". The single piece of cards, special tunes, interludes 3 categories, mostly from folk songs and various folk rap music. The music is short, melodious, fast-paced and colorful.
After the founding of New China, Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera was reborn. Many of the flower-drum artists who switched to sing Chu opera before the founding of New China, put out the banner of "return of the opera", and got the attention and support of the cultural authorities around. The first county-level flower-drum troupes were established in Tianmen, Qianjiang and Shinyang.
In 1955, Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera took a step forward on the road of inheritance and reform. An important symbol of this was the change from the traditional performance mode of "singing and singing together, with the help of gongs and drums" to the accompaniment of strings, which led to the development and prosperity of the Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera on the stage.
The plays such as "Double Skimming Shoots", "Chopping the Scripture Hall", "Three Officials Hall", "Chun Nun Picking Up Axes", "Borrowing Cattle" and "Stopping the Sedan Chair" won prizes in the Hubei Provincial and Central and Southern Regional Literary and Artistic Performances respectively. These achievements have laid the foundation of Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera with Hubei Han Opera and Chu Opera.
After the reform and opening up, Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera has shown a strong vitality. 1980, Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera "Flower Wall Meeting" was filmed by Pearl River Film Studio as a color opera film; Jingzhou Flower Drum's traditional opera "Wang Blind Man Haunts Shop" and "Recruitment" were filmed as a TV opera art film by Hubei Television Station; in 1984, the modern Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera "The Family Matters" went to the Beijing for reporting and performance, which was a great sensation in Beijing, and was regarded as "a rare and precious play". In 1984, Jingzhou flower-drum modern opera "Family Case" was performed in Beijing, which made a great impression on the capital and was praised as "a rare good modern opera".
Subsequently, there are Jingzhou flower-drum play "water township love", "to the old three son-in-law", "Channel love", "the wilderness feud", "haunted Dragon Boat" and other plays have been to the Beijing performance, is the national types of theater, the creation of the play on the Beijing performance of one of the more varieties of theater.
Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera after the establishment of New China, has gained considerable development. Can be summarized into three stages, namely, popularization and dissemination stage, rapid development stage, reform and innovation stage.
In these three stages, due to the adjustment of administrative divisions and the requirements of the development of the play, in 1954 named "Tianshin Flower Drum Opera", renamed "Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera" in 1981.
Village troupes also sprang up, and some villages even formed troupes. During this period, the rural troupes did a lot of fruitful work to spread and popularize the Flower Drum Opera.
During this period, the development of the opera and the restructuring of the administrative division led to the renaming of the Tianshin Flower Drum Opera, which was changed to "Jingzhou Flower Drum Opera" in 1981 in the Jingzhou region.
Jingmen Municipal Troupe, after investigation and research, and taking into account the city's situation, from 1990 onwards, the focus of their creations and performances was adjusted to modern theater, especially modern theater on rural themes.
Jingmen City Flower Drum Opera Troupe has created and performed a number of modern plays such as "Gao Yulian", "Weng and Daughter-in-law", "Deep Peach Grove", "Ninety-two Six Strong Songs", "Lotus Chau Tau", "Long Zhou", etc., which have had an impact in the province and even in the country.
This period, Jingmen City, flower-drum opera led by professional troupes, the rapid development of folk troupes, the formation of a professional groups strive to open up the development of flower-drum opera situation, so that this local theater has entered its heyday.
After the flower-drum opera entered its heyday, in order to deal with the popularization and improvement of flower-drum opera artists, inheritance and innovation, Jingmen City, on the one hand, to increase efforts to encourage and support the rural amateur troupes, in the founding of troupes, hiring coaches, actors contracted to buy equipment, information and so on to give preferential treatment and convenience, so as to facilitate the healthy development of the flower-drum opera and the widespread popularization.
Jingmen City began planning and creating a large-scale modern flower-drum opera "December Waiting for the Lang" in 2002. The original intention of the creation of the play is to jump out of the traditional repertoire mode, to create a new style of flower-drum opera, on the one hand, inherited the tradition of flower-drum opera, so that it has a national character; on the other hand, injected into the fashionable, modern atmosphere, so that it is rich and development, with a distinctive era.
"Waiting for Lang in December" is also bold and innovative in its vocal design. On the premise of retaining the melodious, sweet and pleasant musical elements of the singing of the Flower Drum Opera, it incorporates folk songs, mountain songs and other folk music materials, giving it a strong local flavor and a refreshing feeling.
The theme song of "Waiting for Lang in December", "Waiting for Lang", is taken from the "Three-stick Drums" of the Jianghan Plain, and the a cappella chorus follows the a cappella singing style of the original flower-drum opera. Because the music is infused with distinctive elements, contemporary audiences find it appealing and can produce ****songs.
In terms of stage art, December Waiting for Lang absorbs the realistic approach of drama and retains the realistic approach of opera, using a large number of real sets and props, but not all of them, both real and imaginary.
In addition, flower-drum opera artists also make full use of modern technological achievements, so that the stage space is freely transformed, and enhance the expressive power of the stage. In the play <
"Waiting for Lang in December" has won a place in the country for Hubei Flower Drum Opera, a local opera, which has gained a wider mass base in Jingmen and stepped into its heyday.