Xinyang Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Primitive Xinyang folk songs originated in labour, in daily life and in sacrificial rites; after long development and transformation they reached maturity and full flourishing in the late Qing and the Republican period.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xinyang folk songs circulate widely in the counties and districts of Xinyang city, Henan province, especially in Shangcheng, Huangchuan, Gushi, Xin county, Guangshan and Luoshan. As one of the most unusual flowers among the Han folk songs of China, Xinyang folk songs have developed in step with the history of Chinese folk song. Xinyang folk songs comprise two main types, xiaodiao (minor tunes) and labour songs, which can further be divided into more than ten categories, including love songs, minor tunes, narrative songs, ritual songs, work chants, mountain songs, field songs, lantern songs, gathering songs, children’s songs and pedlars’ cries. Minor tunes and love songs are usually sung without accompaniment and improvised; lantern songs and gathering songs are often accompanied by wind and string instruments or by percussion, the instruments in common use being suona, bamboo flute, sheng, banhu, erhu, pipa, yangqin, hall drum, cymbals, and large and small gongs; labour songs such as water songs and rammed-earth songs are usually accompanied by the tools of labour and other related implements. Xinyang folk songs cover a wide range of subjects, embracing the social life of every age; their style is marked and their influence far-reaching. Their forms and modes are rich and varied; the melodies are based mainly on the national pentatonic modes, with all of gong, shang, jue, zhi and yu represented. Some songs also introduce such tones as the lowered seventh and the raised fourth, forming six-tone and seven-tone modes. Xinyang lies in the south of Henan province, in the transitional zone between northern and southern folk songs; this particular geographical position gives Xinyang folk songs the strengths of both northern and southern folk song, and hence an artistic style in which hardness and gentleness are joined.
An Gen Er Ge Ge Dao Qiang
One of the representative works of the inheritor Fu Dakun; it was broadcast on China Central Television and Henan Television.
Xin Zuo Tang Geng Er Mian Guang
One of the representative works of the inheritor Fu Dakun; it was broadcast on China Central Television and Henan Television.
Zai Ba Huang Yang Qu Qiao Qi
One of the representative works of the inheritor Fu Dakun; it was broadcast on China Central Television and Henan Television.
Minor tunes and work songs
They can be further divided into more than ten categories, including love songs, minor tunes, narrative songs, ritual songs, work chants, mountain songs, field songs, lantern songs, gathering songs, children’s songs and pedlars’ cries.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xinyang folk songs circulate widely in the counties and districts of Xinyang city, Henan province, especially in Shangcheng, Huangchuan, Gushi, Xin county, Guangshan and Luoshan. Xinyang lies in the south of Henan province in the transitional zone between northern and southern folk songs, and this particular geographical position gives the songs the strengths of both northern and southern folk song, so that they have an artistic style in which hardness and gentleness are joined; their minor tunes and love songs are usually sung without accompaniment and improvised, while their lantern songs and gathering songs are often accompanied by suona, bamboo flute, sheng, banhu, erhu, pipa, yangqin, hall drum, cymbals and large and small gongs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
These folk songs reflect social conditions in Xinyang in different periods and display distinctive value for the study of history and culture. Changes in the way of life today have made the environment in which folk songs survive increasingly cramped, and have weakened their recreational and educational functions; together with the death in succession of large numbers of local folk song performers in Xinyang and the resulting lack of successors, the ancient Xinyang folk songs are now in a precarious position and urgently need rescue and protection. Fu Dakun (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1949, native of Shangcheng county, Henan province. In 1990 he formed the folk song troupe “Bayue Guihua Bi Di Kai” in Shuangchunpu town, Shangcheng county, and served as its head. He has sung more than three hundred mountain songs, love songs, ritual songs and work chants; over long years of performance he formed his own distinctive style of singing Xinyang folk songs, and his representative works An Gen Er Ge Ge Dao Qiang, Xin Zuo Tang Geng Er Mian Guang and Zai Ba Huang Yang Qu Qiao Qi were broadcast in turn on China Central Television and Henan Television. After more than fifty years of singing practice, the works he has accumulated are rich in subject and numerous in number, and his performance, while inheriting the style of the traditional repertoire, has incorporated elements of the present and won broad praise within the profession. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Xinyang folk songs.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Fudakun 05-2097
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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