Pipa Repertoire

The pipa is a pear-shaped, fretted Chinese lute with four strings (formerly silk, now usually steel-wound nylon), played with finger picks on the right hand. The repertoire divides into two contrasting traditions: 'martial' pieces (wuqu) such as 'Shimian Maifu' ('Ambush from Ten Sides'), which use rapid finger-tremolo, all-string strums (saoxian) and percussive snaps to evoke battle, and 'civil' pieces (wenqu) where each note's color and decay carries the expression. Dynamics range from near-inaudible plucks to thunderous strums; few solo string instruments can match the pipa's range.

The pipa entered China along the Silk Road from Central Asia, probably during the Northern and Southern dynasties (4th-6th centuries). It reached its court-music peak under the Tang (618-907); the Shosoin treasury in Nara, Japan still holds an 8th-century five-stringed pipa as a unique survival. The instrument was reduced to four strings in the Ming and Qing periods, and the two-stream repertoire was systematized. In the 20th century Liu Dehai and the diaspora soloist Wu Man (b. 1963) expanded the technical and contemporary-commission repertoire; Wu Man's collaborations with the Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project and contemporary composers have made her the instrument's most visible international voice.

On Wu Man's recording of 'Shimian Maifu' (1995), track the transition from the quiet opening into the rhythmic march of an approaching army; later, the central battle section pushes the saoxian strum to maximum density. The piece is essentially a one-instrument tone-poem and lasts about twelve minutes.

Wu Man's 'Shimian Maifu' is the natural entry — visceral, well-recorded, and dramatic in shape. For civil-style writing try her recording of 'Chunjiang Huayueye' ('Spring Moonlit River').

'Shimian Maifu' depicts the Battle of Gaixia in 202 BCE, in which Liu Bang's Han forces surrounded the Chu general Xiang Yu with ambushes on ten sides. The current version of the piece is a Qing-era arrangement reworked again in the 20th century, so the question of an authentic 'original' version doesn't really apply.