From Concubines’ Lament to Goddess Fantasy: The Changing Imagery of Women in the Twentieth-Century Chinese Pipa Music
The pipa has long occupied a distinctive place in Chinese musical culture as an instrument uniquely associated with femininity in repertory, performance practice, and reception history. Yet the sonic means through which femininity is articulated in pipa music have changed significantly across the twentieth century. This concert, performed by Dr. Yuxin Mei, examines four different musical strategies through which gendered meaning is produced in pipa repertoire: narrative lyricism, aesthetic contrast, symphonic heroism, and timbral abstraction. By juxtaposing traditional narrative repertoire with twentieth-century programmatic, socialist-era concerto writing, and late-century coloristic composition, the program demonstrates that femininity in pipa music functions not as a fixed cultural symbol but as a historically contingent performance aesthetic shaped through technique, texture, and sound production.
