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The Collection of Masks (pipa and Chinese orchestra) is a pipa concerto of four movements composed by Lu Yun for the 2005 Chinese Music Composition Competition organized by Taiwan’s Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) and is awarded top prize at that year. Inspired by Chinese Beijing opera, the four movements are designed to correspond to the four images of four main characters “Sheng, Dan, Jing. Chou” of that and handle traditional materials with novel sounds; the piece is one of the representative modern pipa compositions. Lu Yun, the composer, has won the top award for three consecutive years at the CCA’s Chinese Music Composition Competition since 2003 for Lord Xinqin (erhu and Chinese orchestra), Lang Sai (suona and Chinese orchestra) and The Collection of Masks (pipa and Chinese orchestra), is considered as one of representative Taiwanese composers in recent years. The mentioned above has motivated this study.
Lu Yun has a clear idea of theme setting and atmosphere building, emphasizing on the usage based on original performing skills, and creates a different format and acoustic effects from existing performance forms. The Collection of Masks is full of characteristics of Chinese Beijing opera, applying its performing traits of “song, speech, dance-acting and combat” and musical principals in its accompaniment (wenwucheng), and every movement has embodied each performing movement and format of that into music by portraying distinct characters through respective pipa performing techniques.
The study gave objective analysis to The Collection of Masks. Based on literature review and interview survey, it presented an understanding of composer’s background and concluded the composing background and concept; through the basic knowledge of Chinese Beijing opera, it probed into the connection between the character, music, Chinese percussions of that and this piece, and further analyzed it. As for pipa performance, it discussed how to imitate the traits of voicing and instrumental sound effects in Chinese Beijing opera by the application of rich techniques, timber variations and breath usage in pipa performance. It explained the relation between the comprehension of performance tips and also the Chinese Beijing opera styles and the role modeling in order to help performers, through feeling the emotions and connotations of the piece, figure out a specific and deep interpretation.
The Collection of Masks composed by Lu Yun, inspired from her abundant experiences of appreciating Chinese Beijing opera, has reproduced traditional arts by modern techniques. Performers should learn it from an objective perspective, comprehend the subjective contents in the music, and create a new aesthetic experience. The study is expected to provide future performers with a reference to research and performance.
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