Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry

01 · Historical Records

In the early twentieth century, northeastern great drum had differentiated during its transmission into a number of distinct artistic schools, including the Fengdiao, Dongcheng diao, Jiangbei, Nancheng diao and Xicheng diao schools; each school has its own characteristic vocal style and traditional repertoire.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Northeastern great drum is a local form of quyi drum narrative and drum music, mainly popular in the three northeastern provinces of China; in history it has also been known as "Fengtian great drum" and "Liaoning great drum". It began with a single performer speaking and singing while accompanying himself on a small sanxian; it later developed into a form in which one performer beats the story drum and clappers while singing in the northeastern dialect, with a separate musician accompanying on the sanxian. Fuzhou northeastern great drum has a history of three hundred years in the Wafangdian area, and its noted performers include Guan Yong'an, Zhao Wenyi, Nie Tiansheng, Lin Zhengxin, Song Yuxi, Chen Shixin and others. Xiuyan northeastern great drum has a history of nearly one hundred and fifty years to date, and its repertoire consists mainly of long works. It is sung in metrical patterns such as the four-beat mouth, the clarifying board and the flowing pattern, enriching the vocal repertoire of the great drum and strengthening the artistic means of depicting characters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xiuyan northeastern great drum formed three major schools centred on Ma Delian, Cui Guanglie and Tang Guozhi, which vied with one another in artistry and each held its own field of advantage. The Xicheng diao school of northeastern great drum is centred on Jinzhou; its performance has two main styles, represented by Song Xiuren and Chen Zhongshan respectively. The Song master and disciple are elegant and emotive, singing with a sigh after each phrase, and excel at expressing the sorrow of parting between men and women; the Chen father and daughter and their "New Xicheng" school, by contrast, are handsome and beautiful, ingeniously lively, playful and humorous, flexible in the alternation of singing and speech, with crisp comic effect, and well suited to singing narrative works of several levels. Besides dizi shu, the Three Kingdoms sections and a number of long and medium-length traditional titles, the Xicheng diao school of northeastern great drum also has exclusive repertoire such as The Returning Dragon, The Returning Cup, The Five Righteous Men of the Ming (Song school), Xue Dingshan and Fan Lihua, The Generals of the Cao Family, and The Romance of Sui and Tang (Chen school). Its repertoire and titles are both rich, with many long, medium and short works which, by content, fall into categories such as long robe, short weapon, legal case and tales of the supernatural. This great drum also has many tune patterns, with more than twenty in common use. Wuchang northeastern great drum belongs to the "Jiangnan school" within the northern great drum schools. It incorporates many elements of local Manchu music and also absorbs in quantity old tunes sung in Manchu shamanic rituals; its vocal style is melodious and beautiful, with dramatic rises and falls, clear diction, sincere and moving delivery and strong lyrical quality. Representative works include Yi Zhenfei, Daiyu Bewails the Autumn and Lu Leiyuan.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Wuchang City lies to the south of Harbin. The local northeastern great drum belongs to the "Jiangnan school" within the northern great drum schools, and its performers commonly sing lyrical passages of the Yi Zhenfei, Touring the Lake and Borrowing the Umbrella, and Daiyu Bewails the Autumn type, weaving old Manchu shamanic ritual tunes and northeastern folk ditties into their vocal styles. The Wuchang City Cultural Centre is the protecting unit for this project, responsible for collecting old song books and old gramophone records and for organizing training for young performers; inheritors such as Qiu Shuhua have taken part in holding inheritor training classes since 2006.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The "Dongcheng diao" school of northeastern great drum in Yushu has now been handed down through five generations, over a span of more than two hundred years. The various schools of northeastern great drum occupy an important place in the cultural life of the people where they are popular; the drum's titles and music have had no small influence on other local arts, and they hold considerable reference value in the study of northeastern local folk customs and history and culture. At present there are fewer and fewer performers of northeastern great drum in each locality, old performers are passing away one after another, and most performers have turned to other occupations; the survival of northeastern great drum as a whole is close to endangered, and it urgently needs protection and transmission.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Xia Xiaohua 02-0716
• Chen Lijie 04-1702
• Huo Dashun 05-2478
• Chen Shifang 05-2479
• Wang Lianke 05-2480
• Qiu Shuhua 05-2481

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry (Wuchang, Heilongjiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗