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Suona Art

Ⅱ-37Traditional MusicBaokang, HubeiBatch 2 (2008)Extension ItemFeatured

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 Jushui wu-yin is a form of folk wind-and-percussion music current in the area of Baokang county, Hubei; it flourished in the Jingshan mountain region as early as the pre-Qin period, and through thousands of years of evolution it has been transmitted to the present.

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. It is used mainly on occasions of sacrificing to the remote ancestor Zhurong (the fire god) and of mourning the dead, and has clearly marked features of ritual music. In a thousand years of transmission this musical practice has turned from being mainly for sacrificing to the gods towards celebration and the entertainment of people, and it may be seen both at weddings and at funerals. The band of the Jushui wu-yin is made up of the long trumpet, the wu-yin trumpet, the war drum, the side drum, the hooked gong, the wrapped gong, the horse gong, the leading gong, cymbals, the wooden fish and the bamboo flute; the wu-yin trumpet is longer and thicker than the ordinary trumpet and its sound is low and gloomy. Its performing procedure is very regular, and the piece agrees in structure with the Nine Songs of the Songs of Chu, being made up of the three sections of head, belly and tail. The music uses the five-tone modes of zhi, yu, gong, shang and qingjiao, its melody moving in a stretched and upward manner stepwise and in bold and uncanny leaps, with a plain and steady rhythm, fully reflecting the custom of esteeming the zhi mode in the land of Chu. As for the tunes, apart from Gao Guo and Ye Ye Luo, which are used only for funerals, the other pieces may all be used for weddings. The wu-yin is transmitted by the artists' “humming”, the notes being felt with the second joint of the finger, with much attention to the “mouth of the rhyme”. The dim and misty wu-yin and the flickering tone used on the qingjiao and yu notes, with its wide and slow swing, are the most distinctive sounds of the Jushui wu-yin, and of these the wu-yin is the most representative; it is precisely these sounds that give the Jushui wu-yin its ancient, elegant, mysterious and illusory style.

Gao Guo and Ye Ye Luo

The two pieces of the Jushui wu-yin used only for funerals.

The Three-Section Structure of Head, Belly and Tail

The pieces of the Jushui wu-yin agree in structure with the Nine Songs of the Songs of Chu, being made up of the three sections of head, belly and tail.

The Wu-Yin and the Flickering Tone

The dim and misty wu-yin and the flickering tone used on the qingjiao and yu notes, with its wide and slow swing, are the most distinctive sounds of the Jushui wu-yin.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Jushui wu-yin circulates mainly in the Maqiao, Xiema and other townships of the Jushui river basin within Baokang county, Hubei, and extends to the mountain villages of the adjoining NanZhang, Yuan'an and Shennongjia districts, being mostly played by troupes at weddings and funerals and at sacrificial activities.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Jushui wu-yin contains the ways of thinking, spiritual qualities and cultural cognition peculiar to the land of Chu and is important evidence for understanding and studying Chu culture, having important reference value in the study of history, folklore and musicology. At present most of the old artists who performed the wu-yin have died, and under the impact of modern ways of cultural practice the rigorous, regular and difficult Jushui wu-yin tunes are transmitted less and less, so that it faces a crisis of dying out and urgently needs rescue and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wang Shuyin, male, Han, born December 1953, a native of Baokang county, Hubei. As troupe head he leads a band able to play skilfully more than fifty Jushui wu-yin named tunes, such as Universal Joy, the Great and Small Official Tune, the Great and Small Lotus Immortal Mushroom, Twin-Peak Swallow and Golden Bars and Silver. He has many times taken part in surveys and exhibition performances and leads his troupe in performance all year round. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the suona (Jushui wu-yin) and has long devoted himself to taking apprentices and transmitting his art, training numerous young transmitters.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Suona Art (Baokang, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Wang Shuyin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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