Introduction to Yi music

The ancestors of the Yi people have been living in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other provinces (regions) of China as early as the 2nd century BC. The Yi people have many branches and complex names, among which the vast majority call themselves "Nuosupo", "Yousupo", "Xiasupo", "Nisupo" and "Nasupo". The current population is 7,762,286 people (statistics in 2000). The Yi language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is generally divided into 6 dialect areas, 3 sub-dialect areas and 25 dialects. The Yi people believe in polytheistic worship. Literature and art are vast. The Yi ethnic group has many branches and a wide distribution area. Folk music in various places is rich and colorful, including folk songs, songs

(Photo by He Yunfeng)

Dance music, instrumental music, rap, and drama 5 category, among which folk songs are the most abundant. There are great differences in Yi folk songs due to different regions. Generally speaking, they can be divided into the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest of Sichuan Province and the Big and Small Liangshan areas in Ninglang in the northeast of Yunnan Province. Northern, central and southern Yunnan Province and other vast areas, as well as three color areas including Bijie and Liupanshui areas in northwest Guizhou Province. In fact, the Yi people in Yunnan Province include many different branches, each with its own unique music. According to the theme, Yi folk songs can be roughly divided into eight categories: narrative songs, labor songs, hypnotic songs, custom songs, children's songs, love songs, folk songs, and baby songs. Traditional lyrics are mainly composed of characters 5 and 7, and phrases are mostly composed of characters 1, 2, and 4. The rhymes generally use homophones of borrowed characters, and generally adopt the pentatonic mode. Dance music can be classified into two categories: song and dance and music and dance, among which The singing and dancing part is the most important, among which the more famous ones include "Da Ge", "Tiao Jiao", etc., most of which have distinct rhythms and bright tones. The music and dance parts often have their own characteristics due to different accompaniment instruments, among which the more famous ones include "Tiaohulusheng", "Tiaoyue", "Three-Step String", "Miscellaneous String", etc.

The most popular ones so far include moon dance, tumble dance, cigarette box dance, flower drum dance, sheng dance, golden bamboo dance, copper drum dance, music dance, etc.; the main musical instruments include horse cloth, mouth string, Yueqin, gourdsheng, Hura? There are more than 30 kinds of flute, bawu, suona, muffled flute, bilu, recorder, transverse flute, flute, three-stringed flute (large, medium and small in different shapes), four-stringed flute, etc. Among the more famous ones are the mouth string tune "Ma Ge tune", the piccolo tune "Herding Cow tune", the Yueqin tune "Lei Bo tune", etc.