Bantouqu

01 · Historical Records

After 1949 Bantouqu was able to revive and came to be widely valued. In 1953 the noted guzheng player and Bantouqu transmitter Mr Cao Dongfu represented Henan at the first national folk music and dance presentation, and the distinctive style of Bantouqu caused a strong reaction in the musical world.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Bantouqu is a classical tune of the Central Plains, played on instruments such as the zheng, pipa and sanxian, and is a classic of the musical heritage of the Chinese nation. Because it consists mainly of prelude pieces played in solo and ensemble forms before the formal singing of Henan quzi, it is also called “Bantouqu” or “Bantouqu of Henan quzi”. Records show that in the Chongzhen reign of the Ming, Bantouqu appeared among the streets together with Henan quzi. By the early Qing it had gradually become current in the places just named. Its band uses no gong, drum, sheng or pipe, but is made up mainly of plucked string instruments, with bowed instruments such as the huqin and sihu added; it has thus become a rare string-band combination among the folk bands of China. Its pieces mostly derive from the old instrumental tune pattern Ba Ban and its various variants, while also widely absorbing the tune patterns, vocal styles and folk ditties of Henan quzi. Representative pieces include Tian Xia Da Tong (Great Unity Under Heaven), Gao Shan Liu Shui (High Mountains and Flowing Water), Xin Kai Ban (New Opening of the Ban), Chen Xing Yuan He Fan (Chen Xingyuan Goes to the Border), Da Yan (Shooting Geese), Shang Qiu (Enjoying the Autumn), Gui Zhong Yuan (Laments in the Boudoir), Shang Lou (Going Up the Storey) and Xia Lou (Coming Down the Storey). The zheng pieces Gao Shan Liu Shui (High Mountains and Flowing Water) and Su Wu Mu Yang (Su Wu Herding Sheep) transmitted in score by the great master Cao Dongfu spread even further, all over China and far overseas. Gui Zhong Yuan (Laments in the Boudoir), Gao Shan Liu Shui (High Mountains and Flowing Water), Nao Yuan Xiao (Lantern Festival), Shang Lou (Going Up the Storey) and Xia Lou (Coming Down the Storey) in the syllabus of the undergraduate course in Chinese instrumental performance are all Bantouqu scores.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Bantouqu is widely distributed: traces of it can be found in Nanyang, Biyang, Deng county, Xuchang and Kaifeng, but its centre of transmission is Nanyang city. Most of its pieces use the sixty-eight-ban form, rigorous in structure yet flexible and varied.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In the same year a part of the Bantouqu repertory was sorted and published by the Institute of Ethnic Music of the Central Conservatory of Music. After that Cao Dongfu and his successors devoted themselves wholeheartedly to recording, sorting and playing Bantouqu, making a great contribution to the transmission and protection of this rare musical genre. Recently, with the death of most transmitters, Bantouqu faces a crisis of decline and loss. Song Guangsheng (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1941, a native of Dengzhou, Henan. He studied the playing and singing of guzheng Bantouqu and dadiaoqu, and instruments such as the sanxian and pipa, under Cao Dongfu, He Yizhi, Wang Zhifu and others, and worked in music design and performance successively at the county quju troupe, the Henan opera troupe, the Nanyang Railway Cultural Troupe, the Dengzhou cultural centre and other units. He fairly comprehensively inherited the artistic tradition of the performing artists before him; the Bantouqu and dadiaoqu he plays are fine and moving with a pure flavour, his representative pieces include Shan Po Yang (The Lamb on the Hillside) and Gao Shan Liu Shui (High Mountains and Flowing Water), and he has published such studies as On San Bu Ge. Representative inheritor of Bantouqu in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects; a teacher at the Dengzhou city cultural centre in Henan Province, a member of the Henan Guzheng Research Association and president of the Dengzhou Dadiaoqu Research Association.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Song Guangsheng 02-0288

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Bantouqu (Nanyang, Henan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Song Guangsheng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗