Tibetan Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Mianning lies on the yak road of the ancient 'Southern Silk Road', and historically was a place where the Tibetans formed the main population. The ancestors of the Mianning Tibetans can be traced to the ancient Qiang tribes such as Bailang and Yak, who were active in western Sichuan in the Han dynasty; in the refrain 'u hu hu' accompanying the call of the yak in their 'horse-driving tune', the tonal features of the Tibetans of the northwest and of western Sichuan are still preserved.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Its music has marked ethnic and local character; the tunes are high and drawn out, the rhythm is free, and they are mainly pentatonic, with hexatonic modes as well. The refrains 'u hu hu' and 'o' ornament the beginning and the end of verses. The lyrics are concentrated in content, dealing mainly with the life, thoughts, feelings and aspirations of the men who drive the horses. Examples are 'The kite in the sky, the horse on the ground', 'The bells on the pack horse ring merrily, and glad at heart I break into song', 'Long have I not come this way; the main road here has collapsed into rock', and so on. The main characteristics of the horse-driving tune are the marked centrality of the life of the men who drive the horses, the diversity of musical language and style, and the richness of the distinctive atmosphere of everyday life.
Gan Ma Diao
The representative piece of the Mianning Tibetan horse-driving tune and a representative work of the inheritor Wu Defen.
Yi Ge Wa
One of the representative works of the inheritor Wu Defen.
Mao Niu Shan Shang Wang Bei Jing
One of the representative works of the inheritor Wu Defen.
Opening and closing refrains
The horse-driving tune ornaments the beginning and the end of the lines with refrains such as 'u hu hu' and 'o', preserving the tonal features of the Tibetans of the northwest and of western Sichuan.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The 'horse-driving tune' of the Mianning Tibetans, called 'mu ruo jia' in Tibetan, is part of the horse-driving tunes transmitted along the yak road of the Anning River basin and the Tea Horse Road of southwestern Yunnan. The 'horse-driving tune' of the Mianning Tibetans is called 'mu ruo jia' in Tibetan and is transmitted mainly along the yak road of the Anning River basin and along the Tea Horse Road; the men who drive the horses sing as they walk, using the melody to keep step and to relieve the tedium of the long road. Their words use local dialect and everyday speech, the lines are short and repeatedly sung, and the refrains 'u hu hu' and 'o' are placed at the beginning and the end of the lines, serving both as an opening flourish and as a close, in keeping with the marching rhythm of the caravan.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs · Tibetan Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Its important value is that it is a historical witness of the Southern Silk Road; through it one can glimpse the social life, folk ways and customs of the old road, and it has an enduring artistic charm. Wu Defen (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Tibetan nationality, born in June 1966, a native of Mianning County, Sichuan Province. She learned Tibetan mountain songs from the elders of her family when young, mastering a large number of traditional pieces and simple, natural singing techniques. Her representative works include 'Gan Ma Diao', 'Yi Ge Wa' and 'Looking at Beijing from the Yak Mountain'. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Tibetan horse-driving tune. She has taken part many times in various kinds of performance and won awards; in 2010 she took part in the CCTV 'Passion Square' event in Mianning and in the filming of the CCTV programme 'Local History'. She has long devoted herself to performing the Tibetan horse-driving tune, collecting materials and training successors, and in 2015 she undertook the teaching work in the training class for inheritors of the Tibetan horse-driving tune held by the Mianning County Cultural Centre.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Jianjun 03-0871
- Hua Ergong 03-0872
- Dawazhandou 03-0873
- Jiangbaqizha 05-2122
- Wudefen 05-2123
- Majinlian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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