Miao Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Tang poet Xu Tang wrote in "Ji Qinnan Li Jiaoshu": "common folk favour the Ba songs", and the Song poet Huang Tingjian wrote: "barbarian songs come towards us, fragrance congeals at the noon tent".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
This heritage item is transmitted mainly in Anzi Town of Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing Municipality, and the surrounding area, centred on the seats of Anzi Town, Meizi Town and Zhufo Township. The "Ba songs" and "barbarian songs" referred to here are precisely the local folk tunes of the Miao forebears of Pengshui at that time. Chongqing Miao folk songs have very rich content and numerous pieces, but are chiefly love songs. Their styles include the unrestrained and the shy, the easy-going and the rigorous, the rough and the elegant, and the joyful and the bitter. Chongqing Miao folk songs have flexible singing forms, including chorus, one leader with all responding (da yin), several leaders with all responding, and unison singing. Lyric structures include lines of five characters, seven characters, ten characters and lines of unequal length. The pitch types mainly comprise three large categories: high register, plain register and mixed register. They are not only suitable for mountains and fields, but also for squares and courtyards. Chongqing Miao folk songs both retain the inherent characteristics of Miao songs and incorporate the singing approach of singing Miao songs in Chinese. They integrate elements of other ethnic groups' folk songs in such respects as melodic structure, range and pattern, and scale and mode; in the relation between words and music they display a single melody with many sets of words. They have formed such musical-morphological characteristics as a core vocal register of the ancient narrow-mode three-tone system, wide use of alternating modes, a wide-range high register series with large leaps rising and falling, and a non-functional evenly-divided rhythmic pattern in the dragged tail notes of phrases and the descending final notes of pieces. At the same time, "jiao a yi" is widely embedded as a refrain in most of their tunes, forming a distinctive type of refrain vocal line.
Love songs as the core genre
Chongqing Miao folk songs have very rich content and numerous pieces, but are chiefly love songs; their styles include the unrestrained, shy, easy-going, rigorous, rough, elegant, joyful and bitter.
High, plain and mixed registers
The pitch types of Chongqing Miao folk songs mainly comprise three large categories, high register, plain register and mixed register. They are not only suitable for mountains and fields, but also for squares and courtyards.
Jiao-a-yi refrain
"Jiao a yi" is widely embedded as a refrain in most of their tunes, forming a distinctive type of refrain vocal line.
Lyric-line formats
Lyric structures include lines of five characters, seven characters, ten characters and lines of unequal length; singing forms are flexible, including chorus, one leader with all responding (da yin), several leaders with all responding, and unison singing.
Narrow-mode three-tone core
In the relation between words and music they display a single melody with many sets of words, forming musical-morphological characteristics such as a core vocal register of the ancient narrow-mode three-tone system, wide use of alternating modes, a wide-range high register series with large leaps rising and falling, and the descending tail notes of phrases and the descending final notes of pieces.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chongqing Miao folk songs are mountain songs rooted in the characteristic genetic traits of Miao songs in southwest China, having assimilated and integrated the tonal elements of folk songs of the Tujia and other peoples and of many regions including present-day Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan. Their forms, melodies and rhythms differ, and though the manner of expression varies the emotional intent is the same: all display a persistent devotion to love and a pursuit of morality and ideals, and they contain the ethical views and aesthetic attitudes of the local people. This heritage item has assimilated and integrated folk song schools distinctive to multi-ethnic and multi-regional cultural areas, and in comparative research on folk music it has irreplaceable value as a sample and as a record of history. Chongqing Miao folk songs are closely bound to the life of the local Miao people, becoming a vehicle for them to express their thoughts and feelings, and are a vivid testament to ethnic unity and cultural exchange. They play an important driving role in transmitting and spreading ethnic and regional culture and in promoting local social harmony.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs · Miao Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Chongqing Miao folk songs have relatively stable content, musical characteristics and a lineage of transmission. They have developed to the present day mainly through family and master-and-apprentice transmission, and are in a good state of preservation. Ren Maoshu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): A female of the Miao ethnicity, born in December 1965, native of Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing Municipality. She has liked music since childhood, especially loving Miao folk songs, and often sought instruction from older song masters. She has a clear, bright voice and a wide range, performs fluently, naturally and with ease, has mastered numerous pieces, and can sing more than a hundred Miao songs. She has taken part in events such as the third National Minority Arts Performance. She has now been transmitting Miao folk songs for more than thirty years. She is a representative inheritor of Miao folk songs, a project of the fifth national-level batch intangible cultural heritage.
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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