Hanizuduoshengbu Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Hani multi-part folk song originated in the terraced rice-farming life on the southern slopes of the Ailao mountains and is of one lineage with the Hani “rice-transplanting mountain song”. According to field investigation, several Hani villages centred on Puchun village in Honghe county still preserve a complete eight-part singing in its original form; its origin is closely bound up with the Hani migration epic and the ritual of terraced farming, and it has been carried on from generation to generation by oral transmission.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Hani multi-part folk song has a long history and circulates mainly in the several Hani villages of Honghe county, Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture, Yunnan, centred on Puchun village. It includes content that praises labour, celebrates love and sings of the beauty of the hills and fields. Its most representative pieces are Wuchu Aci (the rice-transplanting mountain song) and The Love Song. Its forms of performance fall into two kinds: with instrumental accompaniment and with vocal answering without instruments. The occasions of performance are varied—the terraced fields, the mountain woods and the villages may all be its performing space. The accompanying instruments are all made by the folk singers themselves; the sanxian and the small erhu are used only in Puchun village. The Hani multi-part folk song concentrates the musical wisdom and talent of the Hani and displays their distinctive gift for singing. It is a treasure of the music of the Chinese nation and has drawn wide attention from musical circles at home and abroad.
Wuchu Aci
The most representative pieces are Wuchu Aci (the rice-transplanting mountain song) and The Love Song.
The Love Song
One of the two most representative pieces of the Hani multi-part folk song, sung with instrumental accompaniment or with vocal answering.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The lyric structure of the Hani multi-part folk song consists of the opening words, the thematic words and the answering words making up one small basic stanza, and its musical form shows clearly marked ethnic and regional features in song-section structure, modal tone series, modal colour, modal combination and multi-part composition.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs · Polyphonic Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the course of field investigation the experts concerned have collected and recorded native-form Hani multi-part folk songs of eight parts, which is extremely rare and of high historical, scientific and artistic value. The Hani multi-part folk song grew up together with social production, and in particular with the terraced rice-farming labour, and is important material for the study of Hani culture and of their ethnic character and aesthetic ideas. It lies deep in the hinterland of the Ailao mountain system and its transmission depends entirely on folk singers; although it has drawn wide attention from experts in music and anthropology, it has long lacked organized and planned protection, the bearers with a comprehensive command of multi-part music grow ever fewer, and this precious form of folk music stands on the verge of being lost. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Che Ge, female, Hani, born 1965, a native of Honghe, Yunnan. She began to learn Hani mountain songs in 1974 and in 1985 began to learn the Hani funeral and marriage songs and to take the lead in singing such Hani multi-part music as Wuchu Achi, still today taking the high part and playing the “menba”. She can both sing and dance and her singing technique is superb; in 2003 she was named a “folk music artist” by the Honghe prefectural department of culture and the prefectural commission for nationality affairs. Her representative works include Wuchu Achi and Oulou Lanlou. She is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Hani multi-part mountain song. Chen Xiniang, male, Hani, born 1965, a native of Honghe, Yunnan. His present works include Wuchu Achi and Oulou Lanlou; he is chiefly responsible for the singing and for the accompaniment of the “small sanxian”, can blow, bow, pluck and sing, and can both sing and dance, and has great influence in the Puchun area of Azhahe. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Hani multi-part folk song. From 1986 to the present he has many times taken part in domestic and foreign exhibition performances and exchanges of Hani multi-part music and won various prizes, and during this time he has engaged in the folk transmission of Hani multi-part singing, taking such apprentices as Yang Zegan.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Che Ge 02-0258
- Chen Xiniang 02-0259
- Manglai 03-0829
- Wen Guiyuan 03-0830
- Lang Jiamu 03-0831
- Suyilatu 05-2052
- Fang Shaobao 05-2053
- Mo Huamei
- Ou Yumei
- Jiancheya
- Zeyingjun
- Yang Kaiyuan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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