Chinese Craft Stories NATIONAL HERITAGE INVENTORY
Home / Inventory / Ⅱ-37

Suona Art

Ⅱ-37Traditional MusicYananshizizhang, ShaanxiBatch 5 (2021)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

It originated in the folk music of northern Shaanxi and flourished in Zichang City of Yan'an, Shaanxi Province. It is distributed throughout Zichang City and radiates to neighbouring Jingbian County, Wuqi County, Zhidan County, Ansai District, Yanchang County, Yanchuan County, Baota District and other places. Records show that in the Jin and Yuan periods the suona was brought into China from the Persian-Arab region and developed after modification; it was also called 'laba' and 'dachui', and it was already widely circulated among the folk in the Ming dynasty. The 'Ai Yue' used today derives from pieces of the bitter mode.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Zichang suona is a traditional music form with distinctive character in northern Shaanxi. The Zichang suona is the large suona, and the pieces performed are mainly traditional music circulating among the folk. Festive pieces are used for weddings and for fetching the bride, with a high, cheerful and auspicious melody, the main ones being 'De Sheng Hui Ying' and 'Da Bai Dui'; pieces of the bitter mode are used for funerals and other mournful occasions, desolate and melancholy, as if crying out in grief, the main ones being 'Ji Ling' and 'Dian Jiu Ci'. Zichang suona both preserves the traditional tune patterns and ingeniously absorbs the distinctive elements of folk tunes, religious music and theatre music. It is the representative of the large suona of northern Shaanxi: the pipe is long and the bell large, the range is wide and the timbre beautiful, and it can produce marked contrasts of register, timbre and volume. Its music is high-pitched, full, deep and resonant, the pieces it plays are spacious and unrestrained and convey expression, and it forms an organic whole with the natural and human environment of the Loess Plateau. It breathes by puffing the cheeks and can play continuously; it has great stamina and can reach a state as flowing as running water that draws the listener in. The Zichang suona band is the traditional military band of northern Shaanxi. Its tune patterns such as 'Da Bai Dui' and 'De Sheng Hui Ying' display the stirring character of military music; they are collective and performative, several hundred people can play the same piece together, singing and dancing as they play, uniform and tidy, with a magnificent momentum that rolls up the mountains and overturns the seas. The long horn is the characteristic instrument of Zichang suona and can carry the atmosphere of the performance to its height. A Zichang suona band generally has two suona players, one playing the high part and one the low part, plus one player each on the flat drum, the small cymbals and the small gong; it is a band in which playing leads and percussion supports. Over the years Zichang suona has produced generation after generation of talent, and a group of virtuoso players has emerged. For weddings, funerals, betrothals, red and white occasions, entertainments and opening celebrations, suona playing is indispensable. Its tune patterns are rich, both inherited and developed; it is a 'living fossil' in the folk music of Shaanxi and an important part of the culture of northern Shaanxi, and it has considerable historical, social, cultural and artistic value.

De Sheng Hui Ying

A representative festive piece of Zichang suona, displaying the stirring character of military music.

Da Bai Dui

A representative festive piece of Zichang suona, used at occasions such as fetching the bride, and playable by several hundred people together.

Ji Ling

A representative piece of the bitter mode of Zichang suona, desolate and melancholy, as if crying out in grief.

Dian Jiu Ci

A representative piece of the bitter mode of Zichang suona, used for funerals and other mournful occasions.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

It is generally divided into festive pieces and pieces of the bitter mode. The Zichang suona band follows the traditional military band constitution of northern Shaanxi, generally with two suona players taking the high and the low parts, plus one player each on the flat drum, the small cymbals and the small gong; playing leads and percussion supports, and the long horn, the characteristic instrument of Zichang suona, often carries the atmosphere of the performance to its height. The bands are distributed throughout Zichang City and radiate to Jingbian, Wuqi, Zhidan, Ansai, Yanchang, Yanchuan, Baota and other counties and districts, forming a single school in which hereditary family bands and village drum bands exist side by side.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art · Suona Art.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Later, as the range of performance occasions widened, the duet of two players gradually developed into collective performance by ten or even more than a hundred people, forming a transmission practice based mainly on bands, families and orchestras. Zichang suona is one of the folk art forms of the large suona of northern Shaanxi that are widely transmitted, strongly influential and highly prevalent; it is highly practical and broadly applied.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Suona Art (Yananshizizhang, Shaanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。