The most outstanding characteristic of pipa music is its utilization of fingering techniques. The application of these techniques is influenced by the music’s compositional type and its themes. The pipa fingering techniques currently in use were recorded using Jianzi notation (Chinese characters with reduced strokes) during the Ming and Qing dynasties; this format shifted to simplified notation shortly after the founding of the Republic of China. This paper outlines the evolution of pipa fingering notation from the Ming and Qing dynasties until the present, its continued use, and impacts following the changes. It investigates the unique and representative aspects of various schools’ fingering techniques as applied to traditional civil and marital style compositions, then observes the fingering techniques used in modern musical compositions to determine the influence of classical teachers on contemporary composers and how the composers’ personal styles reflect changes in the musical environment and aesthetic philosophies.
The pipa fingering techniques themselves engender different sound properties, which the author of this paper used as a basis for developing a “method for analyzing fingering techniques of pipa”. This step-by-step analysis distinguishes fingering technique, sound producing application, sliding resonance application, fingering sonic-stylistic of effects, and style. “Fingering” refers to the various fingering techniques used within a composition. “Use of tone” and “use of inflection” are angles for analyzing the aforementioned fingering techniques and summarizing seven separate sound phenomenon: point, line, emptiness, fullness, light, heavy, and inflection, thereby determining the composition’s style or “compositional scenario”. This analytical method effectively grasps the key fingering techniques to firmly identify the mannerisms of each traditional school and test the depth of technique application in modern compositions. The Gongche notation from the early days of pipa composition only recorded the basic melody of the music, after the founding of the Republic of China, the influence of Western music gradually led to the inclusion of actual performance details in the notation. Therefore, each fingering notation is adopted to analyze this subject.
Chapter 1 explains the important role that fingering plays in Chinese musical instrument performances. It presents a clear definition of “fingering” and provides an overview of contemporary pipa research. The literature on pipa fingering is split into two perspectives—that of contemporary scholars and that of pipa masters—to conduct a comprehensive exploration. Chapter 2 investigates the recorded and evolution of pipa fingering techniques methods in Pipa Gongche notation and non-Gongche notation from 1762 to the present, then proposes a new categorization method for pipa fingering techniques to conduct subsequent analysis. Chapter 3 designs a method for analyzing pipa fingering techniques and applies it to three different versions of one civil style and one martial style composition, respectively, to determine the key stylistic differences attributable to the use of fingering techniques. Chapters 4 and 5 utilize the author’s new analysis method to investigate the application of fingering techniques by pipa masters in music produced before and after 1950. Conversely, Chapter 6 investigates the application of fingering techniques in pipa music created by modern and contemporary composers, then draws overall conclusions about the relationship between traditional and modern compositional styles and fingering techniques. It observes that after 1950, fingering techniques for pipa compositions in mainland China and Taiwan were impacted by changes in the musical environment and underwent different developments. Chapter 7 concludes by reassessing the benefits and flaws arising from changes in pipa fingering notation, as well as the challenges and difficulties for fingering technique application in modern pipa compositions.