On a blue cloth with peony flowers rest a moon guitar, a two-string fiddle with its bow, a pair of wooden clappers and two blue-and-white tea cups; a small red drum stands on a wooden stand to the right; behind a rail two seated musicians play a flute and a fiddle, and to the left, beside a bamboo screen, are a teapot, a vase of white flowers and a second fiddle.
Pihuang Tunes
Xipi and erhuang, two tunes that merged as Anhui and Hubei troupes shared the stage
Introduction
Xipi and erhuang are two tune systems that are together called pihuang. The name xipi comes from the way people in Hubei called a tune brought from Shaanxi. From 1790 the four great Anhui troupes came to Beijing and worked with Han tune performers from Hubei, and xipi and erhuang merged. Peking opera singing rests mainly on erhuang and xipi, and Han opera, Cantonese opera and Hui opera also call the two together pihuang.