Gong and drum music refers to music that uses all percussion instruments to play gongs and drums. The gongs and drums are commonly known as "gong and drum ideas". Many percussion instruments are popular in southern Hubei.
Drums - Footpot drum. Hall drum, small hall drum, whip drum (sometimes written as "side drum"), Jian drum (oblate shape, with a long handle running along the diameter of the drum across the circumference of the drum, the left hand holds the handle to lift the drum, and the right hand holds the mallet to beat upward), flat drum , banggu (also known as "kidney drum"). In the rural areas of Chibi City, muntjac horns are often used as hammers to beat this drum to accompany the singing of "Planting the Field Drum", so the drum lyrics include the sentence "beating the muntjac horns makes a ding-dong sound"), fishing drum (rural areas along the river Popular, one end of the bamboo tube is covered with snake skin, black fish skin or pig "pee", and is slapped with the palm of the hand).
In addition, there are gongs, cymbals, copper and iron, wood and bamboo, etc.
In gong and drum music, not all percussion instruments are used in all tunes, but are used selectively according to needs. Commonly used percussion instruments in Enan gong and drum music include horse gongs, small gongs, hall drums, gongs, and cymbals. Sometimes whip drums and foot pot drums are also used. Horse gong is a prominent musical instrument that forms the local characteristics of gong and drum music in southern Hubei.
Gong and drum music is a popular type of music in urban and rural areas in southern Hubei. It has many applications among the people, including traditional folk festivals, especially the Spring Festival "lantern play", so gong and drum music is also called "flower lanterns, gongs and drums"; major Festive rallies or parades during festivals; "red and white" events for folk weddings and funerals; self-entertainment performances by the masses during traditional festivals other than "playing with lanterns"; and "muffy stage" before performances by folk theater troupes.
Throughout southern Hubei, there is a traditional custom of "playing with lanterns" during the Spring Festival. "Tongshan County Chronicle" in the sixth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty records: "On the first day of every year, the sound of firecrackers fills the alleys... A few nights before Shangyuan (the fifteenth day of the first lunar month - author's note), all villages and towns set off lanterns, made of bamboo. The main lamp is like a dragon or a teacher (lion - author's note). It is exquisitely made and is best used as a story lamp. There are hundreds of figures around it, stacked up layer by layer, shining like silver mountains or fire bamboo shoots, or ten, three or five. Without waiting, the gongs and drums followed, saying the New Year with lanterns. "The lanterns are what we call folk dance performances today. The first month of the year is the time when folk dance performances are most concentrated.
In addition to popular forms such as dragon lanterns and stilts found throughout the country, folk dances in southern Hubei mainly have local characteristics in southern Hubei: "Little Grass Holds the Dragon", "Single Dragon Playing with Tiger", "Drama" "Phoenix", "Flower Whip", "Five Dragons Gongsheng", etc. There are two forms of music used in these folk dances. One is the accompaniment of gongs and drums with vocal accompaniment (singing), and the accompanying folk songs are called "lantern songs". This part will be left in the later "Folk Songs·Lamp Songs" 》concentrated introduction; the other is to use only gongs and drums for accompaniment.
In some places, the Spring Festival dragon dance is just one dragon or multiple dragon lanterns. However, in Chongyang County, Suiyang in Chibi City, and Nanlin in Tongshan County, both dragon dance and tiger play are performed at the same time. There are also two sets of percussion troupes for the accompaniment of gongs and drums: the majestic and majestic "Da Da" and the intense and intense "Small Da". One year in the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao, the king of medicine, was collecting medicine in the mountains of Jiangnan. He encountered the Tiger God with a stuck bone in his throat and unbearable pain. The king of medicine treated him and applied herbal medicine, and the pain stopped. Afterwards, the Tiger God informed the Dragon King about the incident. The Dragon King was suffering from unbearable itching and asked the Medicine King to cure it. The Medicine King asked him to open his scales and find that they were full of mountain lice. After catching them all, the disease was cured. The Dragon King and Tiger God were overjoyed and danced for the Medicine King like a dragon soaring and leaping. From then on, the weather in this area was smooth and the people were safe. In order to pray for the protection of the Dragon King and Tiger God from generation to generation, people tie up dragon and tiger lanterns with bamboos in the first month of each year, and dance like a leaping dragon and a tiger.