Introduction to music and instruments

There are three main types of gongs and drums in Yu Opera:

(1) The opening gongs and drums, which are mainly composed of the [Hun Jia Guan] [Mao Bian] [Bao Lao Cui] and so on.

(2) The gongs and drums that are used to match the performance and set the mood of the stage. Most of them are the same as those of Peking Opera, but some of them have different names. Commonly used are various forms of [one gong] [two gongs] [three gongs] and [head closing] [four strikes] [emergency wind] [battlefield] and so on.

(3) For the singing voice, the characteristics of the theatre are more prominent. The more commonly used ones are [welcome wind] [to take off boots] [head nail] and so on. There are various kinds of [running water head] and [a drop of oil] in the running board category. There are various kinds of [non-board head] [rolling white] in the loose board category. The two-eighths boards have the most abundant gongs and drums, and are divided into two categories: single drums and double drums. In addition to the two have [string hammer] [long gong] etc., single drums are commonly used in the category of [in the skimming] [outside skimming] etc., and double drums are commonly used in the category of [five spikes] [bang bang fringe] [wind churning snow] etc. Together with the various gongs and drums in the other ancillary plate singing, there are more than a hundred kinds in total. In addition, Yu Opera is performed during important festivals.

In the early days, the Yu Opera orchestra's main instruments were the big string (the octagonal moon piano, with the player also playing the Suona), the two-stringed (the small soprano banhu with a bamboo or wooden barrel and a tung wood face) and the three-stringed (a plucked instrument).

In the 1930s, Mr Fan Cuiting learnt from the accompaniment bands of the Shandong Opera, a similar theatre style. He introduced the Banhu, and gradually discarded the Big String and the Second String, replacing them with the Alto Banhu (commonly known as the "Piao") as the main string.

After the 1950s, Erhu, Pipa, Bamboo Flute, Sheng, Menzi and Cello were gradually added to the general music scene.

Some of them also added the Zhuihu, Guzheng, etc., and some added violins, violas, and Western brass and woodwind instruments, forming a mixed Chinese and Western orchestra.