Jiashantiange
01 · Historical Records
The folk songs of Jiashan are habitually called field songs; they were originally known as mountain songs or field-and-mountain songs. According to Shange, compiled by Feng Menglong of the Ming dynasty, Jiashan field songs were inherited directly from the Wu songs of the Ming period. In the early 1950s new-style cultural workers came to call this folk song form “field songs”, and by general custom the term came to be used as its proper name. Besides circulating locally in Jiashan, Jiashan field songs have spread to neighbouring places such as Wujiang in Jiangsu province and Qingpu in Shanghai, and their influence is wide. In the study of the literary development and evolution of Wu songs past and present and of the musical condition of the Wu songs, Jiashan field songs play a special role and provide important corroboration.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jiashan field songs have seven tune-types: pingdiao, diluosheng, jijige, luoqiuge, yangsaotou, hailuodiao and daitouge. The first three are sung by a single singer and the last four by several singers, and include continuation singing, alternate-response singing and unison in such forms as zhu tou, mai, xi yao, liao shao and manpeng jiao. These tune-types share a common melodic trait: the melodic line is often tortuous and widely undulating, and the tones are long-drawn and bright. A mountain song of only four lines may take three or five minutes to sing; if a long piece is sung in the field with several tune-types taken in turn, a single long work can run for three or four hours. Jiashan field songs are sung by alternate response: first A sings the first line, the zhu tou (words with real meaning), then B answers with the tou mai (syllables without real meaning), A sings the third line, again the zhu tou, C answers with the fourth line, the er mai (syllables without real meaning), and so on without end, which is highly engaging to the audience. Jiashan field songs are based on four lines of seven syllables and make much use of filler words and syllables, which gives rise to distinctive mixed-length and long-line forms; Wu-dialect colloquialisms often appear in the words, and the songs are especially skilled in playing on homophones for double meanings. The occasion and the number of singers for field songs are not fixed and are generally free, but by custom the folk song troupes are required by rule to consist of three, five, seven or nine members, with duties clearly divided and never interchanged. Jiashan field songs are clear and beautiful in style, full of the flavour of the Jiangnan water country, and are a folk song form of highly individual character within the local culture of Jiangnan. Representative works of Jiashan field songs include Wu Gu Niang and others.
Wu Gu Niang
A representative work of Jiashan field songs, sung by the inheritor Gu Youzhen at the first provincial amateur music and dance performance of Zhejiang province in 1955.
Seven tune-types
There are seven tune-types — pingdiao, diluosheng, jijige, luoqiuge, yangsaotou, hailuodiao and daitouge; the first three are sung by one singer and the last four by several, with tortuous melodic lines and long-drawn, bright tones.
Alternate-response singing procedure
A sings the first line, the zhu tou (words with real meaning); B answers with the tou mai (syllables without real meaning); A then sings the third line, the zhu tou; C answers with the fourth line, the er mai, and so on without end.
Odd-numbered song troupe
By custom the folk song troupe is required to consist of three, five, seven or nine members, with duties clearly divided and never interchanged.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jiashan county of Zhejiang province lies on the Hangjiahu plain of the Yangtze River delta, where an agrarian culture handed down through generations has bred the distinctive water-country folk songs of the locality. At present only some fifty-odd singers of Jiashan field songs remain, most of them already old, and the local song troupes have fallen into disrepair.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The development and transmission of Jiashan field songs have fallen into difficulty, and their protection urgently needs to be strengthened. Gu Youzhen (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): female, of Han ethnicity, born in January 1937, native of Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province. As a small child she learned to sing field songs from her mother. From the beginning of the 1950s she was active on field song stages at provincial, municipal and county level. Her voice is clear and resonant, her pitch exact, and she can sing the various tune-types of field songs. In 1955 she joined the field song troupe of Shen Shaoquan and sang Wu Gu Niang at the first provincial amateur music and dance performance of Zhejiang province. In 1960 the newly arranged field song Huangpu Taihu Jiecheng Qin took part in the Zhejiang provincial amateur music and dance performance and was recorded on disc. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Jiashan field songs. In 1959 she took part in the Shanghai Music Festival and won a performance award for the newly arranged field song Huangpu Taihu Jiecheng Qin. Over many years, through family transmission and master-apprentice transmission, she has trained a group of Jiashan field song inheritors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gu Youzhen 03-0865
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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