Jizhong Sheng and Guan Ensemble
01 · Historical Records
The instruments of the music society include sheng, guan, flute, cloud gong, drum, cymbals, nao, clash cymbals and dangzi; among the pieces it plays are preserved tunes from the Ming and Qing dynasties and even earlier, handed down for several hundred years and continued to this day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Besides wind instruments such as the sheng, guan and flute, Jizhong sheng-and-guan music also uses such percussion instruments as cloud gongs, drums, nao, cymbals and clapper bells. The pieces of sheng-and-guan music fall into three kinds: suites, short pieces and independent sets of percussion music; of these the suites are of great length and complex structure, and form the main part of the whole performing repertory. The music society current in Quantou village, south-east of Anxin County seat, Baoding City, Hebei Province, was founded at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty; its scores and pieces were all transmitted by monks, and it belongs to the northern music. Since the Quantou village music society was formed it has always given free service to folk funerals, sacrificial activities and official celebrations in its own village and the surrounding area, and has gradually merged with the local folk custom, becoming an important part of the local folk culture. The performing technique of the Anxin County Quantou village music society is highly distinctive; all the instruments it uses are in E, and its full repertory comprises forty pieces and one set of percussion music, Zuo Chan Tan. These include fourteen xiao-ta pieces, short and pithy and somewhat low in tone; ten xiao-jian pieces, also short but pitched higher than the ta pieces; thirteen xiao-da pieces, longer than the previous two kinds, lasting six to twelve minutes in performance; and three da pieces, lasting about twenty to forty minutes. Representative pieces of the Quantou village music society include Liu Huang Yan, Wu Si Pai and Da Zou Ma. As society develops, the people of Quantou village no longer have the concept of slack season, which greatly affects the training of the band; added to insufficient society funds and instruments long out of repair, the prospects for the development and transmission of the Quantou village music society are worrying and it needs active protection.
Zuo Chan Tan
The performing technique of the Anxin County Quantou village music society is highly distinctive; all the instruments it uses are in E, and its full repertory comprises forty pieces and one set of percussion music, Zuo Chan Tan. These include fourteen xiao-ta pieces, short and pithy and somewhat low in tone; ten xiao-jian pieces, also short but pitched higher than the ta pieces; thirteen xiao-da pieces, longer than the previous two kinds, lasting six to twelve minutes in performance; and three da pieces, lasting about twenty to forty minutes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jizhong sheng-and-guan music is current in nearly thirty counties and cities south of Beijing, west of Tianjin and north of Cangzhou and Dingzhou; it is a drum-and-wind music peculiar to the Jizhong Plain, popularly called a “music society” by the people, and, because it is led by the guan and accompanied by the sheng and other instruments, also called “sheng-and-guan music”. Jizhong sheng-and-guan music is found all over the Jizhong Plain; the farmers of this region form societies by village, borrowing instruments to meet, and play in local sacrificial rites, funerals and other folk activities, handing it on from generation to generation in their own distinctive way. All the pieces, according to their beat, fall into five kinds: the free beat, the leading beat, the beat-pattern beat, the slow flowing beat and the fast flowing beat.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Quantou village music society venerates the medicine king Bian Que and the ten great physicians of China's successive dynasties — Pi Tong, Hua Tuo, Sun Lin, Zhang Zhongjing, Sun Simiao, Liu Hejian and others; its combination with folk belief has given it rich soil of folk culture, which has supported it in being handed down to this day. The Anxin County Quantou village music society as a whole contains rich cultural information, and has high research value in the fields of folklore, ethnomusicology and the history of music. Xia Lao Fei (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): his fingering is light and ingenious, his articulation clear, his tone and intonation correct, and his musicality and taste beautiful; he is adept at such techniques as tongue tone, beat tone, tremolo, lip tone and muted tone, producing distinctive effects. His hui shao skill is also superb, and among several generations of guan players his technique is unique. In 2004 he took part in the recording in sound and picture of Jizhong sheng-and-guan music, making albums of short pieces, mid-length pieces and long pieces and of guan solos, with ten pieces including Xiao Jian Qu and Lang Tao Sha, which have been kept on file as teaching material. Male, Han, born in February 1934, died in August 2015, a native of Anxin County, Hebei Province. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Jizhong sheng-and-guan music (Anxin County Quantou village music society). He persisted in taking apprentices and teaching the craft, and many of his pupils have become the backbone of the music society.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Feng Yuechi 02-0302
- Cai Yurun 02-0303
- Shangxuezhi 02-0304
- Hu Deming 02-0305
- Xia Laofei 03-0849
- Liu Qin 03-0850
- Wang Ruhai 03-0851
- Hu Guoqing 04-1528
- Shi Junping 05-2083
- Shao Shutong 05-2084
- Cai Baoheng 05-2085
- Zhang Zhanmin 05-2086
- Jia Tingxin
- Lizhanglin
- Pan Desen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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