First of all, let me tell you the general nature and characteristics of China folk songs:

Like other ancient nations in the world, China folk songs were produced and gradually spread in the primitive hunting, sacrifice, marriage and grazing activities of our ancestors. Around the 6th century BC, The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems in China, was circulated in the form of chorus, and the "four-font" sentence pattern laid the foundation for the further development of the lyrics sentence pattern of China folk songs in the future.

After thousands of years of dissemination, evolution, innovation and accumulation, China folk songs are rich and mature in subject range and genre categories that adapt to different social classes and different folk scenes, on the other hand, they are also national and regional characteristics accumulated in the specific environment of different nationalities and regions.

As a direct product of regional culture, folk songs are not only influenced by landform conditions, but also integrated with different languages and dialects. Therefore, their national and regional characteristics and styles are almost innate and outstanding. Nowadays, most folk song researchers like to distinguish the styles of folk songs according to their geographical distribution, such as "Jiangnan Watertown Style" represented by Jiangnan minor, "Northwest Plateau Style" represented by "Xintianyou" and "Huaer", and "Northeast Plain Style" represented by Northeast minor and Errenzhuan.

Shanxi Plateau, Loess Plateau and Qinghai Plateau west of Taihang Mountain are collectively called Northwest Plateau. Northwest folk songs refer to folk songs that are popular in this area, and the most representative one is "A Journey to Heaven" in northern Shaanxi. Northeast folk refers to the general name of Han minor, which spreads in three northeastern provinces. Its lyrics are full of the poetry of the people's life language in Northeast China, and the typical form is "Errenzhuan".

Second, the affectionate "faithful travel" and the vigorous and rough "two-person turn"

1, the representative of northwest folk songs-"A Journey to Heaven"

"Xintianyou", also known as "Shuntianyou", is a special genre of folk songs in northern Shaanxi, which can best represent the charm of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. Folk songs in northern Shaanxi are deeply influenced by region and culture, especially by the unique geographical position and lifestyle of the Loess Plateau, and the personality characteristics of "Xintianyou" are very obvious.

Love songs are the essence of Xintianyou, and folk songs are called sour songs. Among them, the more famous songs, such as "Orchid Flower" and "Walking to the West", embody the artistic characteristics of "Albatross", that is, expressing one's ambition by metaphor, expressing one's feelings by borrowing scenery, having beautiful tunes and catchy words. The musical features of Xintianyou are mainly manifested in the free rhythm, simplicity and generosity, and high and long. The sentence structure is very special. Generally, there are two sentences in each section, and two sentences have a rhyme. The next section may or may not change. A short song may have only one paragraph, or it may have dozens or even hundreds of paragraphs in a row.

The unique artistic style of Xintianyou has greatly promoted the development of China folk songs. Its unique and beautiful melody has become a classic of China folk songs through the innovation of later artists, such as Li Ji's Gui Wang and Li Xiangxiang and He Jingzhi's Back to Yan 'an, all of which were created and sung in the form of "believing in heaven" for a period of time.

2. The representative of the northeast folk-"Errenzhuan"

"Errenzhuan", also known as "Bouncing", is a popular folk art with strong local color in Northeast China, with a history of more than 300 years. Its songbook language is easy to understand, humorous and full of life breath. At first, "Errenzhuan" was performed by an artist who danced yangko during the day and sang a folk tune in Northeast China at night (commonly known as "Little Yangko"). Later, with the increase of residents in Shanhaiguan Pass, "Errenzhuan" gradually absorbed various artistic forms such as Lotus Drop, Northeast Drum, Taiping Drum, Bawangbian, Hebei Bangzi, donkey shadow play and folk jokes on the basis of the original Northeast Yangko and Northeast folk songs. Therefore, the performance forms and vocals are very rich.

The musical features of "Errenzhuan" are mainly manifested in its colorful musical singing, and it is known as "nine tunes and eighteen tunes, and seventy-two people love the sea". Its structure is a series of qupai, with a total of more than 300 qupai, and 56 qupai are more common. "Errenzhuan" still needs a singer to play because of its many characteristics of lyrics and melody. For example, in the performance, men and women sang in chorus, dancing fans and three handkerchiefs while singing. After the actress participated in the performance, the male and female voices sang in chorus, but the actress had to sing in her own voice, which was eight degrees higher than that of the actor. "Errenzhuan" is rich in accompaniment, with suona and banhu with strong timbre to keep the tune, and bamboo boards with crisp timbre as percussion instruments. Due to the cooperation of these individual instrumental music, coupled with the performance atmosphere of dancing and singing in the song, it highlights the beauty of the artistic personality of the northeast folk, which is simple, vigorous, lively, fiery and rough.

The Beauty of Difference between Northwest Folk Songs and northeast folk

1, singing form

The singing form of the northwest folk song "Xintianyou" is mainly solo, while the performance of "Errenzhuan" in northeast folk is mostly attended by more than two people. In the process of singing, "Xintianyou" has low requirements for musical instruments, and adopts the form of apprentice songs or simple melody musical instruments. However, because "Errenzhuan" is performed by more than two performers, it is sometimes necessary to adopt multiple voices, and the performance forms include solo, duet, duet, chorus and lead singer. At the same time, there is more demand for accompaniment instruments. In order to highlight its characteristics, hand-held props have also been added.

2. Beat and mode

The rhythms of Xintianyou and Errenzhuan belong to regular rhythms and have certain tunes, but there are great differences between them due to regional differences. In terms of mode, Xintianyou adopts a unique special scale with the folk music style of northern Shaanxi, such as a seven-tone scale composed of clear horn sound and clear feather sound (called "bitter tone" mode by local artists). Among the "two-person-to-two-person turn" modes, the long mode is the most, followed by the palace mode and the feather mode, and the angle mode is the least.

3, musical form and lining words and cavities

The tunes of Xintianyou are mostly single-paragraph, with short length, and the phrases are mostly consistent with the lyrics. Most of the structural parts of the music part are based on symmetrical relations and have clear functions. "Errenzhuan" is a strong performing minor, which is composed of several different tunes to form a two-part or multi-part suite, which also makes the performance of "Errenzhuan" have the performance characteristics of Quyi music. Lining words and cavities are the most commonly used special means to express songs in China folk songs. The lining words originally originated from modal particles, exclamations or onomatopoeia, which have strong musicality and emotional expression. When the melody of folk songs develops to the bondage of general lyrics, it is often used to make the melody play a greater role. The segments that match the lining words are called lining cavities, and the lining cavities are large and small, which form the lining cavity of a complete phrase and are called "lining sentences". This feature is very obvious in the singing of Errenzhuan. The so-called "nine tones, eighteen tones and seventy-two hi" actually shows the flexible use of "two-person turn" interlining and cavity. On the contrary, "Xintianyou" is weaker in this respect.

To sum up, northwest folk songs and northeast folk, both of which originated from the folk, have deep folk colors, but they are quite different in tune, lyrics and performance. On the one hand, they are influenced by the regions, folk customs and modes of labor production in the northwest and northeast regions, and on the other hand, they also reflect the differences in the inner character and inner needs of the people in the two places, which have created wonderful works in China folk songs. As an artist said, difference is beauty. When we say that "one side of the soil and water supports one side of the people", we actually emphasize the leading role of regional differences in the diversity of art forms.

The emergence and development of folk songs are closely related to social conditions, economic changes and people's material life. In the new century, the wave of global integration has had a great impact on folk song creation. In this context, it is of great significance to find the differences between northwest folk songs and northeast folk.