Mudong Mountain Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Mudong mountain songs are a mountain-song kind sung by the people of Mudong town in Banan district, Chongqing; their origins may be traced to the “Ba-Yu song and dance” of high antiquity, passing through the “rustic songs of Ba” of the Warring States, the “Ba chanting” of the Han and the “bamboo-branch” of the Tang, until they evolved into the Mudong mountain songs in the Ming and Qing. Their lyric form and tune characteristics are quite similar to the bamboo-branch songs circulating among the Ba-Yu people since the Tang, and they are the “direct descendant” of the bamboo-branch song in the Mudong area. In 1991, of the first batch of forty folk singers named by Chongqing, Mudong accounted for thirty-seven, and all four of the first-grade singers able to sing more than five hundred songs were in Mudong. Mudong also compiled a monograph of more than three hundred thousand characters, The Mudong Mountain Songs, published in December 2005. In 1990 the Mudong area was named a “home of mountain song” by Chongqing, and in 1999 the Mudong mountain songs were named an “outstanding folk art of Ba-Yu”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The main body of the Mudong mountain songs is the helai, called the rice-transplanting song. The helai circulates only in Mudong and its surroundings and is a rare kind among Chinese folk songs. It has a rich regional character and abundant tunes and pieces. There are chiefly the high-pitched helai, the low-pitched helai, the flat-pitched helai, the flowered helai and the linked-eight-line and other styles. These styles again include several sub-styles; the high-pitched helai, for instance, also includes the yiya helai, the ye helai, the gong-and-drum style, the yiyi style, the yaya style, the four-flat style, the oho style, the wu'o style and the youhe style. Another important song kind of the Mudong mountain songs is the children's tune. The pieces of the Mudong mountain songs include Mountain Songs Are Easy to Sing but Hard to Open the Mouth, Going Deep into the Hills the Rain Will Come, Mudong's New Look and Going to Market. The Mudong mountain songs also include work chanteys, custom songs and performance songs and other styles. There are thousands of pieces, and folk singers are numerous.
Mountain Songs Are Easy to Sing but Hard to Open the Mouth
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Going Deep into the Hills the Rain Will Come
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Mudong's New Look
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Going to Market
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
The High-Pitched, Low-Pitched and Flat-Pitched Helai
The main styles of the helai, called the rice-transplanting song.
Such Sub-Styles as the Yiya Helai, the Gong-and-Drum Style and the Four-Flat Style
The various sub-styles included in the high-pitched helai.
The Flowered Helai, the Linked-Eight-Line and the Children's Tune
The styles existing alongside the helai and the important song kinds of the Mudong mountain songs.
Work Chanteys, Custom Songs and Performance Songs
The various styles on which the thousands of pieces and the numerous folk singers rest.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Mudong mountain songs circulate mainly in Mudong town of Banan district, Chongqing, and the surrounding townships of Fengsheng, Shuanghekou and Maliuzui. Mudong lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze and has always been a strategic point of land and water; the atmosphere of mountain-song singing is rich, and in 1990 it was named a “home of mountain song” by Chongqing, forming a regional circle of singing with the helai as its main body and the chanteys and custom songs existing alongside.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because of the change in the way of production and life most of the mountain songs have lost the basis on which to be nourished and flourish, and with the ageing and death of the older generation of singers transmission has broken off, so that the Mudong mountain songs face endangerment. Saving and protecting the Mudong mountain songs will not only enrich Ba-Yu folk-song art but also promote the enrichment and development of Chinese folk-song art. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Pan Zhongmin, male, Han, born 1937, a native of Chongqing, the fourth generation of transmission in this family. Besides composing and singing the luo'er tune and other mountain songs, he excels mainly in the rice-transplanting helai and the stoneworkers' chantey, and is especially good at singing the high-pitched helai. His singing is high in pitch and of a distinctive charm. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Mudong mountain songs. From the 1980s to the present he has many times taken part in and organized mountain-song performances and contests and won prizes repeatedly, and in the meantime engaged in teaching the Mudong mountain songs, being called the “king of Mudong mountain songs”, the “Ba mountain monkey” and “Pan the mountain singer”. In the early 1990s he was awarded the title of “folk singer” by the Chongqing municipal bureau of culture, has been interviewed specially by CCTV and has dubbed background music for many films and television dramas. Yu Lianghua, male, Han, born October 1943, a native of Chongqing. Nurtured by his elders and neighbours from childhood, he loved singing mountain songs. In the 1960s he learned to sing mountain songs with Bai Bingcheng, a famous Chongqing folk singer known for composing and singing as he went, and after becoming a music teacher in 1976 he carried out teaching in the schools; after retiring in 2006 he taught singing in the community. He is skilled in more than twenty Mudong mountain-song tunes, including the high-pitched, low-pitched and flat-pitched helai, the plate song and the stoneworkers' chantey, can sing nearly a thousand mountain songs and has composed and arranged more than ten pieces including Welcoming the Bride. He has been invited to record for CCTV programmes and has many times gone to Taiwan and to Japan and other countries for cultural exchange. He is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Mudong mountain songs.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Pan Zhongmin 02-0251
- Yu Lianghua 03-0823
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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