Dizi (Scenic Suzhou)

This transverse bamboo flute has a blowing hole, a stop hole and six finger holes. The two holes furthest from the player are fundamental tone holes and next to them are two auxiliary tone holes. Its range is two and a half octaves. During the blossoming of the art of opera in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the dizi was adopted as an accompanying instrument for various kinds of stage dramas. There are two basic kinds of dizi: The bangdi, which was the shorter one, got its name because it was used to accompany clapper-type operas. It has a strong and piping tone, suitable for expressing robust and lively emotions; the qudi is longer, and is often used to accompany Kunqu Opera. It is five levels lower than the bangdi in pitch. Its tone is pure and mellow, making it suitable for expressing delicate and understated moods. A large number of techniques are used when playing these wind instruments, such as tapping, appogiatura, tremolo, legato, "flower tongue," augment, glide, trill, overtone and prong. Famous dizi tunes include The Golden Trembling Willows, Audience With the Emperor,Joyous Meeting, Five Clappers, The Partridge Soars, The Bird in the Shade, and Scenic Suzhou.

Five Clappers is a representative northern bangdi piece of music. It was originally an instrumental qu tune, common in North China. It was adopted as interlude music for operas, and then was re-arranged by the dizi artist Feng Zicun, who imbued it with a robust and ardent character. It now has a classical structure marked by variations of playing techniques; each section has a different rhythm, speed and intensity of variation. The result is an ornamented melody, expressing the special elegance of the art of bangdi performance and abounding in a mood of optimism.

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