Xiling Mountain Songs
01 · Historical Records
In the memory of the local people, Xiling mountain songs can be traced back to the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty, and by the beginning of the 20th century they had already become flourishing. Judging by their lyrics, they are also connected in many ways with the immigration into Sichuan during the Qing dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiling mountain songs are of vivid colouring, have a wide compass, high and clear pitch, a free manner of performance and rather special melodies, and are strongly flavoured with the taste of the mountains and the wilds and with an ethnic character. Their melodies are beautiful and their words vivid: some are high and resonant, some low and chanting, some mellow and winding, some as if weeping and as if complaining. The five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs — the old tune, the small tune, the large tune, the Yao-o tune and the Ya-mei tune — together with the pursuit of particular vocal styles, fully express its musical character. Xiling mountain songs take as their basis the “wedding lament” tune formerly used in the countryside, especially in the mountain areas, which shows in the use of vibrato, in the use of dialect and in the half-speaking, half-singing manner, so that the melody is closer to real life. Besides this, in some parts of the songs the pitch of certain notes lies between two semitones, which adds a strange colouring to the songs. The lyrics of the Xiling mountain songs are rich in metaphor and simile, the structure of the musical phrases is complete, the musical image is concentrated, and they are humorous and amusing and give pleasure. “Planting pepper on the top of the high mountain, if I cannot sing a mountain song my heart grows anxious…” — singing mountain songs and mountain songs themselves accompany not only productive activities such as spring sowing and autumn harvest, burning brushwood and digging medicinal herbs, felling timber and hunting, but also the folk activities of the Xiling people such as marriage, funerals and betrothals, courtship between young men and women, and festivals in the slack season; they are handed down from mouth to ear and have become second nature. For several hundred years the Xiling mountain people have taken singing mountain songs as a pleasure, using mountain songs to refresh themselves, to convey their feelings and to express their open-hearted, optimistic, tenacious, hardy, sincere, humorous and quick-witted outlook.
Lao-diao
One of the five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs.
Xiao-diao
One of the five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs.
Da-diao
One of the five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs.
Yao-o-diao
One of the five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs.
Ya-mei-diao
One of the five vocal styles of Xiling mountain songs.
Wedding-lament vibrato and half-speech
Xiling mountain songs take as their basis the “wedding lament” tune formerly used in the countryside, especially in the mountain areas, which shows in the use of vibrato, in the use of dialect and in the half-speaking, half-singing manner; the pitch of certain notes lies between two semitones, which adds a strange colouring to the songs.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xiling mountain songs are the general name for the mountain songs sung among the Han common people in the Xiling mountain area of western Sichuan; they are centred on Xiling Town of Dayi County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, at the foot of the Xiling Snow Mountain, and radiate to places such as Lushan County, Baoxing County and Chongzhou in western Sichuan. Records relating to them are scattered through the local prefectural gazetteers, county gazetteers and gazetteers of arts and literature. At present the song gatherings held at regular intervals have become an important channel through which the local masses make friends through song and convey their feelings through song.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xiling mountain songs preserve the typical formal characteristics of the mountain songs of western Sichuan, are closely bound up with the folk customs of the Xiling mountain area, and have a high folk and artistic value. They are the music of the soul of the mountains and the voice of the mountain people; to this day they remain an important cultural carrier through which the Xiling people transmit history, express feelings, harbour ideals and educate their descendants, and they play a positive part in enlivening the cultural life of the masses and in building a harmonious society.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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