Yichang Silk and Bamboo Music
01 · Historical Records
When Ouyang Xiu was serving as magistrate of Yiling county in the Northern Song, he described the local folk ways as “on the twelfth-month market fish and salt come together for a while, in the gaudy temples flutes and drums sound without cease through the year”; the noted writer Su Shi also left the lines “before the temple the passers-by bow and dance, beating drums and playing flutes as they slaughter white sheep”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yichang silk-and-bamboo music is also called “xile”, fine music, and is the representative genre of Yichang folk instrumental music. It is mainly popular in Yaqueling and Longquan of Yiling district, and, centred on Yaqueling, radiates to the neighbouring counties and towns of Zhijiang, Zhicheng, Dangyang and others. According to the Donghu County Gazetteer of the Qing (the present Yiling district), the customs of Yichang generally were that “on the Lantern Festival lanterns are hung... drums, music, sheng and xiao go round all the streets and markets”. Yichang silk-and-bamboo music now has more than sixty pieces, and the single town of Yaqueling alone has more than sixty music bands and more than seven hundred musicians. Common pieces are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others. Yichang silk-and-bamboo music has long been played among the people at weddings, funerals and marriages and in folk customs, its principal instruments being the silk strings and the bamboo pipes. The qupai of this genre show the marked characteristics of sizhu qupai, with a method of deriving qupai in which “one tune gives birth to five tunes, and five tunes give birth to seven modes”; at the same time the notes that open and close a piece form the leading phrase running through the whole tune. Yichang silk-and-bamboo music has beautiful melodies and a delicate manner of expression, and together with light and fine drumming it often gives people a feeling of elegance and freshness. Its melodies are comparatively ornate, its formal patterns comparatively regular, and its qupai, xiaoqu and local folk songs mingle to form a style of its own.
Shui Long Yin
Common pieces of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others.
Xi Qiu
Common pieces of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others.
Xiao Qi Tang
Common pieces of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others.
Xiao Kai Men
Common pieces of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others.
Ke Sang
Common pieces of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music are Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men, Ke Sang and others.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yichang silk-and-bamboo music is distributed in the Yaqueling and Longquan area of Yiling district, Yichang city, Hubei Province, and, centred on Yaqueling, radiates to the neighbouring counties and towns of Zhijiang, Zhicheng, Dangyang and others. The single town of Yaqueling has more than sixty music bands and more than seven hundred musicians, and there are more than sixty existing pieces, common ones being Shui Long Yin, Xi Qiu, Xiao Qi Tang, Xiao Kai Men and Ke Sang. The bands take the silk strings and the bamboo pipes as their principal instruments, perform for a long time at weddings, funerals and marriages and in folk customs, and their qupai have a derivation method in which “one tune gives birth to five tunes, and five tunes give birth to seven modes”, with the notes that open and close the piece forming the leading phrase which runs through the whole tune.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yichang silk-and-bamboo music has a long history and a deep cultural tradition, and it has been handed down for nearly two hundred years through seven generations of musicians. Because transmission has been broken and the artists are ageing, Yichang silk-and-bamboo music has come to the brink of extinction and urgently needs rescue and protection. To summarise and study the rules of suite-linking and the techniques of deriving pieces in Yichang silk-and-bamboo music is of extremely great importance for expanding national music creation and for promoting the fine traditional culture of the nation. Huang Taibai (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1935, a native of Yichang, Hubei. His representative pieces are Liu Zi Yi Liu, Xiao Tao Hong, Fen He Lian and others. Representative inheritor of Yichang silk-and-bamboo music in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a fourth-grade machine technician. He is skilled in the big drum, the erhu and the flute; his drumming is steady in rhythm, well controlled in tension and relaxation, and uniform and tidy, showing a high level of artistry, and he has won prizes many times in national, provincial and municipal folk art competitions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Huang Taibai 02-0289
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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