Introduction to the Searching and Analysis Tools
The "Query Engine” consists of two separate search bars which may be used in combination, along with a set of tools for analyzing various aspects of the pieces and/or lines selected using the two search bars.
Near the top of the page is a search bar for narrowing the selection of pieces (the “Select Songs” Search Bar). Below the list of pieces is a search bar used to look for parts of pieces fitting certain parameters, such as the appearance of a particular pattern of tones or melody (the “Filter Lines” Search Bar). One may combine queries within the top search bar. For example, to look for all Northern pieces from the play 長生殿 type region:n source:長生殿
“Select Songs” Search Bar
Understands the following queries, which may be combined:
| Attribute | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| id: | The songs in the collection are numbered based on the page they appear in within the Shanben xiqu congkan edition. (when more than one song appears on the same page they are numbered like 300.1, 300.2) | To find the first piece on page 3300 type id:3300.1 |
| title: | The title of the song (qupai 曲牌). | To find all pieces with qupai name 山桃紅 type title:山桃紅 |
| region: | Narrows the collection to one of the two regional styles. |
To narrow to only Northern pieces (北曲) type region:n ; For only Southern pieces (南曲) type region:s |
| mode: | Narrows by traditional mode-key category. |
To find only pieces categorized as 仙呂宮 type mode:仙呂宮 ; One may further narrow Southern pieces here by adding 引子 for preludes, 正曲 for metered arias, or 集曲 for pastiche arias and Northern pieces by adding 隻曲 for stand-alone arias or 套曲 for Northern suites. Thus one may search for e.g., mode:仙呂宮集曲 or mode:仙呂調套曲 (several mode-key names have a “Northern” and a “Southern” variant, the Southern generally ending in 宮 and the Northern in 調) |
| source: | Narrows by the source of piece. May include the name of an author of ci 詞 poetry, a chuanqi drama like 牡丹亭, 散曲 for stand-alone art songs, 元人百種 for Yuan zaju dramas. |
To find any ci poems composed by 周邦彥 type source:周邦彥詞 ; To find all pieces from 牡丹亭 type source:牡丹亭 |
| lyrics: | Find any piece with a particular phrase as part of the lyrics. | To find all pieces with the lyrics 春夢 type lyrics:春夢 |
| melody: | Find any piece with a particular sequence of gongche characters as part of the melody. | To find all pieces containing 伬仜伬 type melody:伬仜伬 |
| padding: | Filter pieces by the total number of padding characters. |
To find pieces with no padding characters type padding:0 ; To find pieces with exactly 10 padding characters type padding:10 ; To find pieces with 30 or more padding characters type padding:30+ |
Filter Lines” Search Bar
Can filters lines and parts of pieces by the following parameters:
| Attribute | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| melody: | Search for a melodic pattern. 1=do (上 in gongche notation), 2=re (尺 in gongche notation), etc. | To find all lines with melodic pattern do-re-mi-re-mi type melody:12323 |
| fuzzy: | Search for melodic strings with some margin for variability. |
Between any pair of the specified notes, there may be at most 3 intervening notes. For example: fuzzy:65323 would match against 6x53xx2xx3, but not 6xxxx5323. |
| tone: |
Search for strings of characters belonging to a particular tone. Tones may defined with less or greater specificity. For example, 平仄平 or 平去平. 陰 and 陽 tones may also be specified optionally. | For example, to find all strings of tone 陽平陽平陰平上去 type tone:陽平陽平陰平上去 |
| tonemelody: | Search for patterns of tone and melody appearing together. | To find all cases where tonal pattern 平平去 corresponds to melodic pattern mi, mi, la-sol, type tonemelody:平3平3去65 |
| padding: | Search for lines with a particular number of padding characters. | To find all lines with 6 padding characters type padding:6 |
| length: | Find all lines of a certain length (in terms of number of Chinese characters). | To find all lines of length 8 type length:8 |
Analysis Tools
These are the tabs beneath the “Filter Lines” search bar.
| Attribute | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tone: | Produces a bar graph analyzing the interaction of tone with melodic contour. | One may enter a specific tone, such as 平, 上, 去, or 入 to see the melodic contour associated with that tone. Melodic contours are described in terms of + and -. Therefore, if a particular character with 平 tone begins on do and ends on re that will be counted as a melodic contour of +1 associated with 平tone. |
| Rhythm: | Analyzes appearance of rhythmic markers。,、,_, ▯,L, ﹆,and ╚.\
|
Entering 。into the bar here, for example, will show the frequency with which that rhythmic marker appears at certain positions in a poetic line. Click “show as percent” to control for the fact that e.g. there are fewer character 9s” in the collection than “character 3s.” |
| Line Lengths: | This tool simply shows the frequency of appearance of lines of various length within the selected pieces or line. | Within the full collection the most common line length is 7 characters, followed by 4. |
Other functions:
- Count Padding Characters Box: The default is not to count padding characters for purposes of analysis of e.g. where a particular rhythmic marker appears. Check this box to count the padding characters. For example, if a given poetic line begins with three padding characters and is followed by five metrical characters the first metrical character will count as character“1” while the box is unchecked but count as character “4” when the box is checked.
- Motifs: Find repeating melodic patterns within selected pieces, ordered from longest to shortest.