If You Can Recite It You Can Play It: The Transmission and Transcription of Jingju (Peking Opera) Percussion Music

Abstract

This article focuses on the transmission of the percussion music of Jingju (Peking opera) through a system of transcription known as luogu jing in both oral and written forms. It examines how luogu jing, an onomatopoeic system that uses verbal syllables to represent percussion sounds with indication of instruments, playing techniques, and musical expression, is used by Jingju practitioners as a special musical “language” to “speak” of music, transmit musical concepts, and communicate with each other in rehearsal, training, and even daily conversation. It then analyzes the forms, concepts, and uses of notational representations of luogu jing, with a discussion of how these written forms correspond to or contradict the “oral notation” and have influenced scholarship and musical practice in Jingju percussion music. These written forms, which all strive to authentically represent the music, have failed to gain significant acceptance (particularly among the musicians and actors) due to their limitations when it comes to appropriately representing the actual sounds of live performance and accommodating the flexibility of Jingju percussion music. Because of this, luogu jing as an oral form continues to play an indispensable role in Jingju percussion music today for musical conservation, communication, concept transmission, and the relaying of cultural meanings.