Polyphonic Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Miao multi-part folk song circulates mainly in the Miao villages of Taijiang county, Jianhe county and other places in Guizhou; by the reckoning of the old singers this folk song, sung by young men and women, has a history of more than seven hundred years, and its emergence and development are closely bound up with the history of the Miao migration and settlement in the Qingshui river basin and with Miao ethnic history, cultural history and folklore.
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 Miao multi-part folk song is an original-ecology folk song current in the Miao villages of Taijiang county, Jianhe county and other places in Guizhou; by the reckoning of old singers this folk song, sung by young men and women, has a history of more than seven hundred years. Its principal tone series are the gong, shang, yu, zhi and jue notes, its harmonies the perfect fifth, the perfect octave, the major third and the major sixth, and its metre relatively free, mostly mixing 3/4, 4/4, 2/4 and 6/8; its tune is beautiful and pleasing and its feeling finely moving, showing a clearly marked ethnic and regional character. The Miao multi-part love song is sung in two ways, antiphonal singing of the main melody between man and woman and choral singing of the main melody by men and women, and has a distinctively ethnic character. A complete multi-part love song generally runs from six to sixteen musical phrases; taking an eight-phrase love song as an example, the first to the sixth phrases at the beginning are a single male part, and from the seventh phrase the female part joins in harmony to form multiple parts; after the male part has sung the eighth phrase the female part leads the second section while the male part harmonises to form polyphony, and from the third phrase there is a single female part, until in the seventh phrase of the second stage the male part joins in harmony to form multiple parts. Repeated in this way in mutual answer, they constitute the embryo of Miao polyphonic music. The content of the multi-part love song mostly reflects the course of young men and women from first acquaintance to marriage, including the “meeting song”, the “praise song”, the “single song”, the “youth song”, the “courtship song”, the “mutual-love song”, the “parting song”, the “wedding song”, the “marriage-fleeing song” and the “divorce song”, each sung to a different tune, and at the singing there are generally more than two men and two women. Representative works of the Miao multi-part folk song include If You Were a Flower and Fine Scenery in the Third Month of Spring. Its emergence, development and final formation are closely bound up with Miao ethnic history, cultural history and folklore.
If You Were a Flower
One of the representative works of the Miao multi-part folk song.
Fine Scenery in the Third Month of Spring
One of the representative works of the Miao multi-part folk song.
The Series of Love Songs: Meeting, Praise, Courtship and So On
A complete set of love songs reflecting the whole course of young men and women from first acquaintance, praise, courtship and mutual love to parting and marriage, each sung to a different tune.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Miao multi-part folk song is the most important component of the surviving traditional culture of the local Miao.
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
Under the impact of the modern economy and culture the mode of production and way of life in the Miao villages of Guizhou are now changing, fewer and fewer people can sing the multi-part love song, and this ancient art is on the verge of being lost, urgently requiring rescue and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Fang Shaobao, female, Miao, born September 1973, a native of Taijiang county, Guizhou. Her grandmother and mother were both locally famous song masters, and influenced by them she mastered the singing techniques of Miao folk songs from childhood and learned a good many Miao songs as a girl; in singing she applies the natural voice, falsetto, thrown notes and vibrato flexibly, and her singing is finely felt and deeply loved by the local people. She is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the multi-part folk song (Miao multi-part folk song). After completing her training she has taken an active part in all kinds of artistic activity organized among the folk and has assisted the cultural and educational departments in carrying out programmes bringing traditional Miao culture into the schools, training primary and middle school pupils and imparting all her skills to her apprentices without reserve, bringing out batch after batch of young original-ecology singers and recommending some of them for further study in higher music institutions.
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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