Many of the lyrics of the Jingyun Drum are from the hands of literati inkers, which are obscure and difficult to understand, and are relatively elegant in the art of music, and the cultural level of the audience and actors is also relatively high. During the Republic of China, three major schools were formed - Liu Baoquan, Bai Yunpeng and Zhang Xiaoxuan. They all have a unique creation of the Jingyun drum, and the art of singing is a family of its own. Later, Xiaocai Dance Luo Yusheng founded the Luo School, and the funny drum of the old Wugua Cui Ziming was also known as the Cui Sect, which together constituted the artistic picture of the Jingyun Big Drum.
Liu Baoquan is the peak of the Jingyun big drum. The Jingyun Big Drum used to be called "Jingyin Big Drum" and "Small Mouth Big Drum", and only after Liu Baoquan did it have the four words "Jingyun Big Drum". He combined his own strengths, the singing characteristics of the previous generations of artists were blended together, refined, created many beautiful singing voices, and according to the needs of the content, absorbed the performance body of Peking Opera, applied to singing, actions, expressions have added a lot of color to the program, but also given this art a new vitality.
Liu Baoquan
Liu Baoquan enjoys the title of "King of the Drum World". His voice is full of five tones, horizontal and vertical, high and high, low and low, the biggest feature is "ga, collapse, brittle". In the more than twenty paragraphs he often performs, each paragraph sings differently, not only can the warblers, red brides, Snow Yanniang, Zhao Yun, Mrs. Sun and other characters realistically carved in the masterpiece programs "Great West Chamber", "Thorn Tang Qin", "Zhao Yun Cut The River" realistically, in the program where the story is not strong, the audience can also be brought to the work with performance and singing. For example, "Ugly End YinChu", there is no vivid story, no distinct characters, just a pre-dawn sketch, but through his singing, the audience seems to see the sun rising from the light clouds and mist, as if to see the innocent and leisurely look of the shepherd boy who crosses the back of the cow and plays the piccolo.
Liu Baoquan can be called "all-knowing, all-encompassing", his art is pure, and it is difficult for ordinary people to fully inherit his things. He was also an innovator, never set in stone, never acknowledging that his art had "arrived home", and there were many new changes in his singing style in his later years.
Liu Baoquan advertising
Bai Yunpeng, the founder of the White School, is characterized by "petite, ingenious and charming". Although the tone of his singing is low, but the voice is wide and the words are clear, his singing is based on "clear and heavy words", although the words are heavy but not turbid, the tone is light but not floating, and the sentences are powerful and the words are clear. In the "Red Chamber" section, his singing art has been perfectly played, and the portrayal of characters also has unique features, such as "Dai Yu Burning Manuscript", whether it is the depiction of Lin Daiyu's appearance and the revelation of the inner world of the characters, they are very delicate and moving. From the subsection "Mengxia Garden Grass and Trees" to "Tears Flow Dry eyes", he put the image of a sentimental girl alive in front of the audience.
Zhang Xiaoxuan is characterized by a good voice, a wide bass, a clear mouth, and sufficient strength, accounting for the three words of "stable, accurate and fierce". Every episode of the show is completed in one go from beginning to end, and there is never a phenomenon of blushing and shortness of breath. His best programs are also mostly "Three Kingdoms" segments, such as "Huarong Road" and so on.
After the formation of the three major schools of Jingyun Dagu Liu, Bai and Zhang, there were many scholars liu, fewer learned white, and fewer learned Zhang. But whether it is Zong Liu or Zong Bai, the actors have different creations on the basis of the original, and they also combine the strengths of each faction with their own characteristics. The former is like Xiao Lanyun, Lin Hongyu, Hou Yueqiu, Yan Qiuxia, and the latter is like Xiaocai Dance (Luo Yusheng).
Luo Yusheng
The characteristics of Xiaocai Dance are both horizontal and vertical, high and low, natural, wide range and mellow charm, which has both the characteristics of Liu Pai's high-pitched and crisp voice, and the euphemistic style of Bai Pai. She absorbed and melted the strengths of each school and the nourishment of other sister arts, and gradually developed her own style through nearly four decades of stage practice. She not only expressed her artistic characteristics in the traditional passages such as "Sword Pavilion Smelling Bells", "Hongmei Pavilion", "Drumming and Cursing Cao", but also had significant creative attempts in new songs, such as the singing voice design of "Everest Red Flag" and "Lying Down to Taste The Guts", as well as the performance methods of "five-character sentences" and recitation. Her representative programs "Sword Pavilion Wenling Bell" and "Ugly End YinChu" were filmed by Changchun Film Studio and circulated in the world, providing valuable information for the study of Jingyun Big Drum.
Among the actors of the Zong Liu Sect, Xiao Lanyun's art is more prominent. The programs she sang, such as "Great West Chamber", "Battle Changsha", and "Zhao Yun Intercepting the River", had the style of Liu Baoquan's later years. Xiao Lanyun's voice is crisp and round, the range is wide, the treble is loud and not noisy, the bass is thick and not turbid, the strength is abundant, each song is sung, from beginning to end, it is easy to use the high and low cavity, and on the basis of inheriting the Liu Pai, it has played its own characteristics well. For example, the high cavity of the first sentence of "Battle Changsha" "Loyalty and Righteousness Are Peerless And Beautiful Hairdresses" is the characteristic of Liu Pai. There are also some creations in "The Great West Chamber", from beginning to end, there are ups and downs, and the whole paragraph is full of comedic atmosphere. She sang many excellent new songs, such as "Huang Jiguang", "Hero Gunner Hu De'an", "Xu Xuehui", "Red Heart", "Battle Tianjin" and so on. At the beginning of "Battle in Tianjin", several high cavities were used consecutively, which effectively rendered the majestic momentum of the People's Liberation Army waving its division into the pass, and after listening to it, I felt that the strength of the people's army was thunderous and unstoppable.
Bai Yunpeng
Lin Hongyu's Jingyun drum is very attentive to the expression of the action. Her performance style is rough and bold, the stage atmosphere is fiery and warm, the action is dashing and healthy, "Noisy Jiangzhou" is her specialty program, really playing the characteristics of "one person acting a play", the image of Li Kui, Song Jiang, Dai Zong, Zhang Shun and other people is vividly placed in front of the audience, known as the "knife and gun frame" on the Jingyun stage.
Yan Qiuxia is a descendant of the White School, with a wide voice and many basses, and although there is not much tone when singing, it is beautiful and beautiful, delicate and touching. Her "Yugong Moving Mountains" is relatively mature in content, singing reform and performance, such as starting to use recitation and then singing is also natural, and does not feel stiff.