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Suona Art

Ⅱ-37Traditional MusicXiangtan, HunanBatch 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. By the Qing at the latest the wind-and-percussion music led by the suona was already quite common in the folk life of Xiangtan. In the 1920s and 1930s a great many excellent suona artists emerged in the Qingshanqiao area, and the Qingshanqiao drum-music trade union was founded.

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 Qingshan suona is one of the kinds of Chinese folk wind-and-percussion music, circulating mainly in the three townships of Qingshanqiao, Shigu and Fenshui in Xiangtan county, Hunan and the surrounding area, and played mainly in such folk activities as weddings and funerals and joyful occasions, dragon-playing and lion-dancing, Buddhist and Daoist rites and shamanistic and nuo sacrifices. By historical origin, named-tune structure and expressive function its named tunes may be divided into the three kinds of the night-drum named tune, the road-drum named tune and the hall named tune. The night-drum named tune is an instrumental named tune used exclusively for funerals; the road-drum named tune is mainly a combination of suona and gong and drum, mostly played on the march; the hall named tune is popularly called the “sitting-hall named tune”, “sitting music”, “sitting in the hall” or “great music” and is a form of wind-and-percussion music shared with folk opera. In musical structure, tune names, melodic features, expressive style and performing technique the various named tunes still preserve a relatively primitive appearance, the representative ones being chiefly Lament in Confusion, Flying Diagonally, A Single Beat of the Drum, Making Merry at the Fifth Watch, Picking Lotus Twice, The Nine Modes, The Victory Command and Playing the Child. The members of the trade union possessed superb performing technique and were famous far and wide, so that the four counties of Hengxiang (Hengshan, Shuangfeng, Xiangtan and Xiangxiang) called Qingshan suona playing the “national music of Qingshanqiao”.

The Night-Drum Named Tune

The instrumental named tune of the Qingshan suona used exclusively for funerals.

The Road-Drum Named Tune

The named tune consisting mainly of a combination of suona and gong and drum, mostly played on the march.

The Hall Named Tune

Popularly called the “sitting-hall named tune”, “sitting music” or “great music”, a form of wind-and-percussion music shared with folk opera.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Qingshan suona is processed and created on the basis of the typical tonal features of central Hunan and has a strong local character, reflecting the aesthetic taste, customs and traditional ideas of the area where it circulates; it has relatively high value for artistic and folk-cultural research.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, although the Qingshan suona has a broad mass foundation in Qingshanqiao and elsewhere, it has always lacked professional and systematic research and collation. After the death in succession of a great many excellent old artists many named tunes have been lost with them, and the phenomenon of the art dying with the artist grows ever more serious; the performing technique of the Qingshan suona likewise faces a crisis of dying out and urgently needs the active protection of the quarters concerned. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Mo Baihuai, male, Han, born June 1964, a native of Xiangtan county, Hunan. A first-class national player and an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council, while attending to the collation of folk culture and the exploration of folk art he strives to fuse the southern suona and the northern suona into one. He is a representative bearer of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the suona (Qingshan suona).

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Suona Art (Xiangtan, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Mo Baihuai · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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