Jiang Ting/Voice of the Pipa
With a history of more than 2000 years, the Chinese Pipa is one of that culture`s oldest and most elegant instruments. When first seen in China, (having arrived from India by way of the Silk Road sometime during the Han and Tang Dynasties), the Pipa, being a plucked instrument, was verbally described to sound like “pi~pa~pi~pa.”.
Originally round, the Pipa was a highly regarded instrument of the court. Over the centuries however, with influence from Iran, the current pear shape evolved and the Pipa became more widely accepted and heard in entertainment and ritual genres outside the court.
While the four strings, tuned A D E A, were originally made of silk, the modern 3 octave Pipa uses steel strings, allowing for more projection and volume. The number of frets has increased over the years, the most common Pipa now having 26 frets and 6 ledges. The frets are very deeply cut, allowing for the player to bend notes by depressing the strings, as opposed to bending them sideways as in western guitar performance. The modern player, almost always female, uses her nails, (now almost always artificial) in performance techniques that have evolved over the centuries to include 1) Backward and forward four finger tremolo strumming 2) Harmonics 3) Pizzicato 4) Fretted pitch bending
The shallow body of the Pipa is made of hollowed out, varnished teak, while the soundboard is made of wutong wood (firmiana plantanifolia). There are two tuning pegs on each side of the neck, the top of which is almost always carved, depicting a flower, dragon head, phoenix tail, bat or other abstract design. In contemporary performance, the Pipa is perpendicularly placed on the left part of the seated performer`s lap, while the neck and head are positioned close to the performers left ear. More ancient practice dictates a more horizontal positioning of the instrument.
Of Chinese heritage, Jiang Ting was born in Inner Mongolia in the beginning of the 1970`s. Her Pipa studies commenced when she was seven years old, her first teacher being her mother. At the age of ten, she went alone to Beijing to continue her studies, starting in the primary school associated with the Central State Conservatory. In 1996 she won first prize in the national Pipa performance contest, receiving her Conservatory graduation certificate in 1997. Since July 1997, Jiang Ting been living in Japan where she has performed with orchestras, on television and continues to concertise throughout the country.
“Voice of the Pipa” is Jiang Ting`s first recording outside of China, where her debut was released in the late 1990`s. The project was recorded in a small church, “Chiesa di S. Colombano” in the mountains outside the beautiful city of Lucca, in the Toscana region of Italia.
