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Suona Art

Ⅱ-37Traditional MusicQijiang, ChongqingBatch 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. At that time Sichuan, affected by war and plague, suffered a sharp fall in population and there appeared the great migration of “Huguang filling Sichuan”; many regional cultures were introduced into Sichuan with it and blended with local custom, and it was against this cultural background that the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion formed and developed.

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 instruments of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion consist of the suona and percussion. There are seven forms of suona, including the jinaizi, the santai, the ertai, the toutai and the tetai, while the percussion includes the Sichuan cymbals, the hall drum, the bamboo-joint drum, the Su cymbals, the jiaozi, the horse gong and the great drum. It excels in suona playing, its range broad enough to span more than four octaves and capable of forming the embryo of two- or three-part polyphony; its tone is high and its momentum magnificent, making it quite distinctive among folk wind-and-percussion music. It has more than a thousand pieces, representative ones being Brother Sees Off the Bride, Teasing the Bride, Mourning, The Lazy Snake Climbs the Slope and The Fire-Lantern Moth. With the acceleration of modernisation the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion has gradually lost the soil on which it depended for survival; its players live mostly by farming and many go out to work under the pressure of making a living, greatly weakening the stability of the traditional troupes. At the same time many highly skilled artists are advanced in years and there is a great shortage of successors.

Brother Sees Off the Bride

Representative pieces of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion include Brother Sees Off the Bride, Teasing the Bride, Mourning, The Lazy Snake Climbs the Slope and The Fire-Lantern Moth.

Teasing the Bride

A representative piece of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion of the Qijiang area of Chongqing.

Mourning

A representative piece of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion belonging to the “sorrowful tune” style.

The Lazy Snake Climbs the Slope

A representative piece of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion, played in folk activities of the Qijiang area.

The Fire-Lantern Moth

A representative piece of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion, whose repertory numbers more than a thousand pieces.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Yongcheng wind-and-percussion is a kind of folk instrumental music current in the Qijiang area of Chongqing and its origin may be traced back to the late Ming and early Qing. The Liu family troupe of Qijiang that plays the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion has been transmitted through eighteen generations over more than three hundred years and has had great local influence. By form of activity it may be divided into “sitting in the hall” and “walking the road”; by form of performance into “continuous blowing and continuous beating” and “alternating blowing and beating”; and by musical style into the three kinds of the “sorrowful tune”, the “joyous celebration” and the “through-the-river”. The Yongcheng wind-and-percussion has won the affection of the local people by its rich pieces and superb technique; in particular its great tai (great suona) and te tai (double-bass suona) have important theoretical and practical value for solving the problems of the expression of the bass, the broadening of the range and the enrichment of colour in the wind section of the modern national orchestra.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Yongcheng wind-and-percussion is thus in an endangered position and urgently awaits rescue and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Liu Daorong, male, Han, born August 1940, a native of Chongqing. In 1984 he became head of the Liu family troupe of the Yongcheng wind-and-percussion, combining playing and instrument making in himself and being skilled in the suona. The great tai, te tai and other bass suona he developed fill a gap in the relevant field of national music, making the forms of suona wind-and-percussion performance richer and greatly enriching the expressive power of the suona. He is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the art of the suona (Yongcheng wind-and-percussion). Over more than thirty years he has trained more than a hundred disciples, including Liu Yongbo, Du Chaoming and Xu Cailin. Under his leadership the Liu family troupe has gradually come onto stages at every level, taking part in more than three hundred competitions and exhibition performances of all kinds and winning more than fifty awards.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Suona Art (Qijiang, Chongqing) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Liu Daorong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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