Suona Art

01 · Historical Records

Suona is a transliteration of the Arabic “surna” (zurna), called in antiquity “suoliao” or “su'ernai”, and widely current in many countries of Asia, Africa and Europe; it came into China at the latest in the Jin and Yuan periods. In addition, the small suona used in the performance of Fujian nanqu is called the “aizi” or “nan'ai”; the suona used to accompany Puxian opera is called the “meihua” or “chuibian”, and a larger kind is called the “dalong” or “dahaidi”; the all-wood suona of the Uyghur is called the “su'ernai”; and the Tibetan, Miao, Mongol and Korean peoples each have suona of different form. The Shangdang bayin hui is a form of folk instrumental music current in the area of Changzi county, Shanxi; it originated in the Tang dynasty, won relatively great development in the Song, and flourished to the utmost in the Ming and Qing.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In Chinese folk usage it also has the names of bronze flute, tin flute, pear blossom and sea flute. The suona is made up of the reed, the staple, the air disc, the body and the bronze bell; its finger-holes are arranged in order according to the heptatonic scale, the distances between them being basically equal, it can turn through seven modes, and its range is generally two octaves and a major second. It has such blowing techniques as portamento, tonguing, arched-breath tone, top-breath tone, the rolling “du-lu” and circular breathing (blowing without a break for a long time), and is a solo instrument of very strong expressiveness. Its volume is great and its tone high and ringing, making it one of the indispensable instruments of the wind-and-percussion band; in antiquity, besides playing military music, it was used for the drum-and-wind music of the yamen and as accompaniment to opera, song and dance, and in the daily life of the people it is mostly used for festivals, weddings and funerals and theatrical scenes. “Eight tones” is the ancient Chinese classification of musical instruments and is also commonly used as a general name for instruments; it refers to the eight types of instrument made of metal, stone, earth, hide, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo. The bayin hui troupes of the Shangdang countryside use mainly the eight instruments of drum, gong, cymbals, sheng, flute, whistle, guan and huqin, and are named for them. They are used mainly in such folk activities as welcoming the gods and village sacrifices, weddings and funerals and festival celebrations, and in the long course of development and formation they have blended the essence of many kinds of music—court great suites, operatic music, folk songs and ditties—forming an artistic character at once plain and grand, warm and unrestrained. The Shangdang bayin hui is led by percussion and lays equal stress on wind and percussion. Its playing is divided into the two kinds of “civil playing” and “martial playing”. Civil playing is ordinary playing, its content mostly folk ditties, operatic arias and dramatic texts (including the spoken parts of different role types); martial playing chiefly displays all kinds of stunts containing acrobatic elements and demands a very high standard of playing technique. Percussion is the most exciting, warm and brilliant part of the bayin hui: the players sit, stand or leap according to the mood of the music and produce every kind of drum timbre by such techniques as light striking, linked striking, heavy beating, striking the rim, scraping the drum studs and the crossing of flourished drumsticks, while the gongs and cymbals flutter up and down with a ringing sound. The whole performance is warm and unrestrained, high and ringing, sweet and drawn out, displaying a distinctively Jinbei style. The Shangdang bayin hui has such named tunes as Striking the Ground Drum, Urging the Golden Cup, The Great Granting of Blessings and Welcoming the Gods, and more than a hundred principal pieces, including The Overlord's Whip, The Great Ten Repetitions, The Small Ten Repetitions, Rising Higher at Every Step, A String of Bells, Peony Played, The Great Lantern Viewing, Ten Kinds of Scenery and The Old Flower Tune. During the Cultural Revolution the bayin hui suffered destructive impact and was nearly extinguished.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Shangdang bayin hui circulates mainly in the area of Changzi county, Shanxi, and extends over the counties and districts under the two cities of Changzhi and Jincheng; it is mostly played in such folk activities as welcoming the gods and village sacrifices, weddings and funerals and festival celebrations, and the village communities transmit it from generation to generation in the form of troupes.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Shangdang bayin hui is bound up with the various folk activities of the places where it circulates and has outstanding musicological and folklore research value. Though the related activity has now been revived, the influence of the market economy and foreign culture has changed people's original aesthetic ideas, and the bayin hui faces the predicament of a lack of transmitters and near extinction, urgently requiring exploration, collation and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Cui Qingyun, male, Han, born August 1963, a native of Changzi county, Shanxi. He is chiefly a drummer but is also skilled in all kinds of folk percussion playing and accompanies Shangdang opera performance; in long performing activity he has trained himself to great skill. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the suona (Shangdang bayin hui). After taking over his father's ensemble he renamed it the “Cui Qingyun folk music ensemble”, persisted in training successors while performing and took part in all kinds of artistic exchange in the Changzhi area, winning many prizes.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• He Deyi 02-0276
• Li Jinhai 02-0277
• Yao Shaolin 03-0837
• Lu Buliang 03-0838
• Niuqiyun 03-0839
• Liu Yousheng 03-0840
• Mo Baihuai 04-1520
• Li Qishan 04-1521
• Wang Shifa 04-1522
• Ma Zigang 04-1523
• Liu Fushou 05-2062
• Cui Qingyun 05-2063
• Liu Xiaohong 05-2064
• Tang Haifeng 05-2065
• Yang Chengwei 05-2066
• Li Shupeng 05-2067
• Jiang Fajie 05-2068
• Liu Qiulin 05-2069
• Ding Qinghua 05-2070
• Wang Shuyin 05-2071
• Liu Guofu 05-2072
• Chen Dewang 05-2073
• Liu Daorong 05-2074
• Zhou Benxiang
• Xiehaiming
• Sun Huayang
• Yao Xina
• Suo Zhongxiu

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Suona Art (Zhangzi, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Cui Qingyun · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗