Miao Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Miao are concentrated mainly in south-eastern Guizhou, in the Great Miao Mountains of Guangxi, on Hainan Island and along the borders of the provinces and autonomous regions of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi. Miao folk songs are forms of ethnic folk music created by the Miao people in the course of long production and life; according to their content they fall into types such as youfang songs (love songs), wine songs, bitter songs, counter-songs, funeral songs, labour songs, songs on current affairs, children's songs and riddle songs. From the earliest Miao ancestors the Miao feige has voiced feelings and carried messages in ringing song, and it has a very long history.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Miao are concentrated mainly in south-eastern Guizhou, in the Great Miao Mountains of Guangxi, on Hainan Island and along the borders of the provinces and autonomous regions of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi. Miao folk songs are forms of ethnic folk music created by the Miao people in the course of long production and life; according to their content they fall into types such as youfang songs (love songs), wine songs, bitter songs, counter-songs, funeral songs, labour songs, songs on current affairs, children's songs and riddle songs, each with its own melody. Every form of Miao folk song contains both traditional lyrics and material composed and sung on the spot. Among them the Miao feige is high in pitch, bold and unrestrained, is performed in solo, antiphonal and choral forms, and is much loved by the Miao people. The Miao feige is a form of folk song peculiar to the Leishan Miao; it is current in the Miao-inhabited areas of Leishan County in south-eastern Guizhou Province. The Miao feige has a very long history: from the earliest Miao ancestors, feeling has been voiced and messages carried in ringing song. The opening section of the feige takes the chest voice as its core tone, bright and pleasing to the ear and extremely moving; the main section uses falsetto, with a high pitch, a full and resonant timbre and a mighty sweep, so that the voice shakes the forest valleys and the lingering resonance drifts and ripples, which is why the song is called the “flying song”. Its rhythm is slow and free and its melody highly undulating; sustained notes are held as long as the breath allows, pauses may fall anywhere between phrases, glides move by continuous step within a phrase, and a swung note closes the phrase; at the end of the song the falsetto voice adds a high cry of “a-hu”. At the end of the song this makes the performance all the more ardent and unrestrained. The feige is mainly about inviting relatives and friends, praising the other party and expressing one's innermost feelings; it mostly uses five-character poetic lines that refine the mood, with a clear theme and a brief form. Its representative works include Song of Praising One's Hometown, Song of Blessing the Elders and others. The Miao feige makes combined use of words, melody, falsetto and chest voice, and through a skilled grasp of techniques such as the quickening and slowing of rhythm, pausing and sustaining, it fuses words, melody and mode into a single whole, fully embodying the artistic ideal in which poetry, music and dance are one.
Zanmei Jiaxiang Ge (Song of Praising One’s Hometown)
Its representative works include Song of Praising One’s Hometown, Song of Blessing the Elders and others.
Zhufu Laoren Ge (Song of Blessing the Elders)
Its representative works include Song of Praising One’s Hometown, Song of Blessing the Elders and others.
Chest-voice and falsetto transition
The opening section of the feige takes the chest voice as its core tone, bright and pleasing to the ear; the main section switches to falsetto, with a high pitch, a full and resonant timbre and a mighty sweep, so that the voice shakes the forest valleys.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Miao feige is a form of folk song peculiar to the Leishan Miao; it is current in the Miao-inhabited areas of Leishan County in south-eastern Guizhou Province. The opening section of the feige takes the chest voice as its core tone, bright and pleasing to the ear and extremely moving; the main section uses falsetto, with a high pitch, a full and resonant timbre and a mighty sweep, so that the voice shakes the forest valleys and the lingering resonance drifts and ripples, which is why the song is called the “flying song”. Its rhythm is slow and free and its melody highly undulating; sustained notes are held as long as the breath allows, pauses may fall anywhere between phrases, glides move by continuous step within a phrase, and a swung note closes the phrase; at the end of the song the falsetto voice adds a high cry of “a-hu”.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The bright tonality, the appealing melody and the direct expression of inner feeling of the feige display the basic characteristics of Miao music, strike a strong emotional blow on the listener, and open a window onto Miao culture, and they are of important reference value in research in ethnology, musicology, cultural anthropology and other fields. At present men and women over thirty in the Leishan area can still sing with ardour and freedom in the open fields and at drinking feasts, while young people under twenty-five are no longer skilled in it. The prospects for the development of the Miao feige are not encouraging, and measures to protect and transmit it urgently need to be strengthened.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Qianjun 03-0867
- Ren Maoshu 05-2118
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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