Polyphonic Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
As early as the last years of the Tang the Zhuang three-part folk song began to spread in the east of Mashan county, and by the middle of the Ming it had reached a degree of unprecedented flourishing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Multi-part folk song refers to folk songs whose texture and structure take a multi-part form; China's multi-part folk songs are concentrated chiefly among the dozen or so minority nationalities of the Zhuang, Dong, Bouyei, Gaoshan, Maonan, Qiang, Miao and Yi, most of them adopting the two-part form and a small number being three-part and four-part art. The Zhuang three-part folk song commonly sings the tunes Manhuan, Buliehuan, Jiafanghuan and Jiehuan; its structure has three parts, the first and second parts having independent tunes and the third part setting off the harmony; all three parts bring out and enrich the main melody and are mutually harmonious, gentle in tone and unified in style. It generally has relatively fixed song-books, such as Dahong Huan, Denghuan Huan and The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, but there is also content improvised from daily life. The lyrics are generally in five-character four-line form or in the five-three-five-six-character form, with strict waist-and-foot rhyme. It is sung mainly in activities of life and production, intercourse and entertainment, courtship, marriage and mourning and the entertaining of gods, among which the folk songs used in weddings, funerals and rites of entertaining the gods appear especially solemn. Representative works include Huanyana, The Orphan's Huan and The Filial Son's Huan. The Zhuang three-part folk song is an important representative of China's folk multi-part song: it fully reflects the chief characteristics of Zhuang society and is a distinctive form of expression of Zhuang culture.
Dahong Huan
One of the relatively fixed song-books generally sung in the Zhuang three-part folk song.
Denghuan Huan
One of the relatively fixed song-books of the Zhuang three-part folk song.
Huanyana
One of the representative works of the Zhuang three-part folk song.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhuang three-part folk song originates in Jiafang township and other places in Mashan county, Nanning city, Guangxi, and is called by the local people “huanha”, meaning “part-singing” mountain song; at present it is concentrated mainly in the townships of Guzhai and Lidang, in Zhenxu township, Xiyan town and Tanghong township of Shanglin county, in Beigeng township, Suiyi township and Gupeng town of Xincheng county, in Longwan township and Jingsheng township of Du'an county, and in Gongchuan township and Gonghe township of Dahua county.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hanizuduoshengbu 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
At present, because of changes in the social environment, the platforms for singing display are steadily decreasing, the distinctive features of the Zhuang three-part folk song are fading day by day, and protection and revival are urgently needed. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wen Guiyuan, male, Zhuang, born February 1934, a native of Mashan county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. With a thorough command of many local ways of singing folk songs and a high, ringing voice, he takes the lead part of the Zhuang three-part folk song. He is skilled at improvised singing and answers in song as if it were flowing water. He has always devoted himself to the transmission of the Zhuang three-part folk song, has composed and collated more than four thousand folk songs, organized the village's Bailing singing team, and trained more than a hundred singers and more than five hundred pupils of Anshan primary school free of charge, many of whom have become the backbone of the ranks of transmitters of the Zhuang three-part folk song. He is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the multi-part folk song (Zhuang three-part folk song).
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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