ABSTRACT
Before 1907, spoken drama was basically non-existent in China. Certainly all the written dramatic genres dating from the Song dynasty (960–1279) contained both spoken and singing parts. Indeed, but for music, what we now think of as traditional Chinese theater would just not exist. Yet, throughout Chinese history, the music in Chinese drama has typically been seen as subservient to the poetic script, and not appreciated for itself, despite the fact that it is music that informs and organizes almost everything that takes place on the traditional Chinese stage. Kunqu 崑曲 is generally regarded as the performance mode in traditional Chinese drama that most perfectly united words and music, and it is also arguably the performance mode that has been most studied and written about. But even in the case of Kunqu music there remain many mysteries and imperfectly understood elements. In this chapter I will point out some of the former and try to improve our understanding of some of the latter.
