MUSICAL WORKS

ZHANG Xiaofu / 张小夫

2019

Visages peint dans les Opéra de Pékin II / 脸谱II / lian pu II

Birth Y: 1954 Birth C: CHINA Gender: Male

Media Specification: Multimedia

Performer(s): Video Designer: ZHANG Chao, ZHAO Hanqing, JIN Hengyan (China)

First perf.: The Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, 22 OCT. 2019

Duration: 13:50

Perf. Country: CHINA

Context: All the world’s a stage,

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts…

– William Shakespeare: As You Like It

In time-honoured Peking opera, there are four main types of roles which follow traditionally fixed patterns for specific types to highlight the disposition and quality in the personages so that the audience may immediately identify them:”sheng” is the positive male role, “dan” is the positive female role, “jing” is a supporting male role with striking character and “chou” is the comedian or clown. Apart from distinguishable vocal tessitura, every type has its telltale facial makeup and decoration pattern – i.e. the Lianpu, which clearly denotes the nature of each character.

The composer attempted in this work to revise the set of percussions – the soul of Peking opera music – into the classification of material criterion, i.e. leathern, bronze, wooden and clavier – these acoustic patterns are an interesting couplet (counterpoint) to the four facial makeup patterns: sheng, dan, jing and chou, as well as the four major vocal patterns in Peking opera: chang (singing), nian (reciting), shuo (speaking voice) and yunbai (rhythmical declamation). Electroacoustic methods are utilized in the transformation and synthesization of varius percussion and vocal sound. A completely new kind of “acoustic facial makeup patterns” is vividly portrayed. “Visages peint dans les Opéra de Pékin II” was a commission from the French government and IMEB in 2007, world premiered in MUSICACOUSTICA-BEIJING 2008.

Editor: ming