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Suona Art

Ⅱ-37Traditional MusicNanzhang, 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. In the 1980s experts and scholars from Hubei carried out exploration and collation of the wu-yin trumpet.

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. The wu-yin trumpet is now mainly prevalent in the Xiaokou of Xunjian town in NanZhang county, Hubei and the area adjoining Baokang; its origin may be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, when it was originally court music of the state of Chu and afterwards flowed out among the people; it has more than a hundred traditional named tunes and is a living survival of the musical culture of the ancient land of Chu, called by musical historians a “living fossil” of Chu music. Its leading instruments are the long trumpet, the trumpet, the side drum, the protruding gong, the great cymbals, the small cymbals and the hooked gong. In the application of named tunes it strictly observes the ancestral instruction of playing different tunes on different occasions, the saying being “entering the door do not play Ye Ye Luo, going out do not play Up the Hillside”. Its common named tunes fall into the two kinds of the joyful tune and the sorrowful tune: such joyful tunes as The Wedding Tune, The Tiger's Head and He Xiangu are used for joyful affairs, and such sorrowful tunes as Up the Hillside, Ye Ye Luo and Pu Tian Luo for funerals. Its melody is mostly in the zhi mode and its musical structure is very close to that of the Nine Songs and the Li Sao. There are no written records of its notation; it depends wholly on oral transmission from the masters of successive generations, and it is taught within the family and not outside it. On the whole, however, the old artists who command this traditional folk performing craft are daily growing fewer, while the young who come after are unwilling to learn and inherit it.

Named Tunes of the Joyful Kind

Such joyful tunes as The Wedding Tune, The Tiger's Head and He Xiangu, used on joyful occasions such as weddings.

Named Tunes of the Sorrowful Kind

Such sorrowful tunes as Up the Hillside, Ye Ye Luo and Pu Tian Luo, used exclusively for funerals.

The “Shamanic Tone” Playing Technique

The “shamanic tone” produced by combining hand tone, mouth tone and kneaded tone is the most representative sound of the wu-yin trumpet.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

At present only five wu-yin trumpet troupes are active in the Xiaokou area and fewer than sixty people can play it; among them the Liu family troupe has been transmitted through six generations and has considerable influence in the Jingmen, Yuan'an and Baokang areas adjoining NanZhang.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The wu-yin trumpet has relatively fixed named tunes and its playing is closely bound up with such folk activities as funerals, weddings, festivals and sacrifices; its music preserves the manner of the early Chu custom of revering shamans and spirits, is an important part of Chu culture and has relatively high aesthetic and academic research value. In these circumstances the wu-yin trumpet is on the verge of being lost and urgently awaits rescue. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Liu Guofu, male, Han, born November 1957, a native of NanZhang county, Hubei. He can transmit all the performing techniques, in particular the “shamanic tone” produced by combining hand tone, mouth tone and kneaded tone, and can play more than a hundred named tunes, including Kao Gu, the Official Tune, Ye Ye Luo, Up the Hillside, Yue Yue Gao, The Tiger Embraces Its Head, The White Crane Ballad, Yue Yue Qing and Bie Zhi Zi. Because of the richness of his tunes and his superb technique he is often invited out to take part in wedding and funeral performances in the surrounding villages and in performances in the county, city and townships. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the suona (wu-yin trumpet). His apprentices are spread over the three counties of NanZhang, Baokang and Yuan'an and number more than twenty.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Suona Art (Nanzhang, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Liu Guofu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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