The wonderful music culture of the She people

The She people are a nomadic ethnic group in southern China. For the She people, singing is one of the essential parts of their lives. Whether it's a festival, a wedding or a drinking time, the She people can't help but sing a folk song. Just because the She people like to sing, the current music culture developed.

The She people live in some mountainous areas in the five provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Anhui, with a population of 368,832 (statistics in 1982). The She language belongs to the Miao branch of the Miao-Yao group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Only a handful of She people in eastern Guangdong use the Bunu language of the Miao-Yao group. Folk music is mainly folk songs, among which the majority are folk songs, commonly known as "Guo", also known as "Xia Guo" (i.e. She songs). There is a grand singing party every year. The dates of the festivals vary from place to place, including the Marriage Festival, the Dragon-Splitting Festival, and the second, third, third, sixth, seventh, eighth, fifteenth, and ninth lunar months of the lunar calendar. There are a series of wedding songs when men and women get married.

In the traditional culture of the She people, folk songs occupy an important position as the most important oral literature of the She people. The She family calls folk songs "songs", and "songs" have been an indispensable part of the lives of the She people since ancient times.

Generally speaking, the folk songs of the She people in Luoyuan can be divided into three categories: ordinary folk songs, wedding songs and drinking songs. Because weeping wedding songs and drinking songs have their own unique historical background and folk customs, and have become independent from folk songs to form a folk music culture with She nationality characteristics, they will not be discussed here.

According to different themes, She folk songs can be divided into historical songs, story songs, love songs, labor songs, riddle songs, miscellaneous songs, and liberation songs after the founding of New China (also called Seven categories, including new songs or current political songs), respectively reveal the social life of the She people from ancient times to the present, reflect the people's thoughts and feelings in a certain historical period, promote the moral character of praising good and criticizing evil, and express the pursuit and pursuit of a happy life. The longing of leisurely feelings.

The tunes of Luoyuan's She folk songs are centered on the local area, and are integrated with tunes from Lianjiang and Jin'an counties and southwestern Ningde City to form three major tunes of She folk songs in Fujian and Zhejiang. One of the "Luo Lian Diao".

It is characterized by the close integration of melody and lyrics. The onset of each melody is determined based on the pronunciation of the starting words of each lyric. People will naturally adjust the score during the singing process.

During the singing process of each paragraph, the range and melody are often changed within the same mode (a pentatonic palace mode with wandering horn sounds). The basic phonetic notes are "do, re, ↑mi, sol, la", the basic progression of the melody is "sol, ↑mi, re, do", with more second and third degree progressions and fourth degree jumps as well as some octave transitions, fifths There are fewer jumps and more grace notes are used. The speed of the songs is generally relatively stable, and the style is mostly simple, fresh and eloquent.

China's first academic monograph on She music, "She Folk Music," has been published and distributed in Ningde, Fujian, where the She people live together. The publication of this book is of great significance to the research, protection, inheritance and development of Chinese She folk music. It is the first "History of She Music" in the history of Chinese ethnic minority music, and it is also an important work in the cultural and artistic circles of Ningde, Fujian. Important results.

"She Nationality Folk Music" was created by Li Chen, chairman of Fujian Ningde Musicians Association and director of the Art Museum. After nearly twenty years of hard work, he comprehensively collected and summarized information about She nationality music. Sort out and elaborate. The book "She Nationality Folk Music" has a total of 520,000 words and consists of two parts: "research" and "creation".

"History" and other twenty academic research papers.

The "Creation" section includes five She folk song choruses composed by Li Chen, including "Song of the Source", "Anthem on the Road", and "Farewell Song" and an instrumental piece "She Township Caprice" .

"History of Music of the She Nationality" has won the Silver Award for Cultural and Scientific Research Achievements in the "Stars Award" of the Ministry of Culture; The first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.