first, exquisite craftsmanship
Hulusi is a distinctive musical instrument with unique shape and structure, and its production reflects exquisite craftsmanship. Cucurbit silk consists of a complete gourd, three bamboo tubes and three metal reeds, with a total length of about 3 cm. A bamboo tube is inserted into the handle end of the gourd as a blowhole, and the whole gourd is used as an air box. Three bamboo tubes with different thicknesses are inserted into the bottom of the gourd, and each bamboo tube inserted into the gourd is inlaid with a copper or silver reed. The main pipe in the middle is the thickest, with seven sound holes (positive 6 and back 1) on it, which can play the melodic sound of g-g1. The auxiliary pipes on both sides only have reeds without sound holes, which can only emit the harmony sound with the main pipe. Usually, the thin bamboo pipe emits the A sound and the thinnest one emits the e1 sound.
1. Elegant and beautiful appearance
Cucurbita moschata silk has a natural pattern of bamboo leaf yellow, walnut brown, or the two shades, and with purple bamboo tubes, it has various charming shapes and different natural colors. Its shell is smooth, its cortex is hard, it is easy to carve, and it can be used for painting and poetry. Its structure is ornamental, reflecting the simple and elegant natural flavor.
Gourd melon is round and full in shape, symbolizing harmony and happiness, and is loved and treasured by people. It is a representative symbol of Chinese auspicious culture, with a special style of vigorous, simple, concise and lively. Gourd and melon are specially used to make gourd silk gas box. Choose mature gourd and melon with yellow color, thick and strong skin, which is beautiful, dense and not easy to break. The shape of cucurbit is related to tonality, and the pitch of cucurbit is smaller than that of cucurbit. The gourd silk with low voice is bigger than the gourd melon. Take the commonly used five keys as an example, the gourd and melon are arranged in the order from small to large: small D key, c key, bB key, G key and F key.
in the traditional culture of China, bamboo symbolizes the elasticity, longevity and happiness of life. Its shape is tall and slender, and it is green all the year round. It is known as one of the four gentlemen of Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum and one of the three friends of Mei Songzhu. The bamboo tube used in the production of cucurbit silk directly affects the timbre, with purple bamboo being the best, followed by bitter bamboo and phoenix bamboo. Generally, the bamboo is solid, old, dry and round without cracks, and the thickness of both ends is not much different. It is better to have a certain weight. The inner diameter of the bamboo tube should basically match the corresponding tonal size, and the difference should not be too big (generally not more than two millimeters).
2, superb technical beauty
The cucurbit silk should be accurate in pronunciation, soft in tone, smooth in interval and easy to play, which is closely related to the production technology. Although the cost of its production materials is not high, it requires extremely high technology. It is a fine manual stunt. Pronunciation is the core part of cucurbit silk, which determines its timbre, volume and durability. Historically, the selection of materials for cucurbit silk pronunciation has gone through a process from leaves to bamboo chips to copper chips. Teacher Yang Sheng, the producer of cucurbit silk, made many changes, and changed the pronunciation of cucurbit silk into copper. This kind of copper reed tongue expanded its range and volume, and its timbre was also very beautiful. The change of pronunciation made cucurbit silk a big leap in production. The practical thickness of copper skin is generally .1 mm, but it is better to choose .2 mm copper skin, and it is better to make it reach .1 mm after forging. There are also two types of copper reeds: brass and copper, of which copper reeds are better. In recent years, Yang Zhiyu, a teacher from Quanyu Studio in Yunnan, has processed the bullet shell into a reed, which has improved the anti-fatigue ability of the reed. The volume is also higher than that of the ordinary reed, and the timbre is brighter. This is the best quality and the highest durability of the cucurbit reed made in Yunnan at present.
second, the rich beauty of national culture
National culture is the spiritual resource formed in the long-term life of all ethnic groups, and it is a scientific summary of their social, political, economic, historical, cultural and military aspects. National culture is the spiritual heritage accumulated in the long history and the innovative consciousness to promote national progress. Hulusi music shows the true beauty of national life, profound beauty of national style and rich national culture.
1. Showing the true beauty of national life
Music can express people's thoughts and feelings and stimulate people's pursuit of beauty; Music can reflect the social reality and show the various worlds. Music can describe nature, present a vibrant artistic conception, and show colorful social life and customs. Hulusi has a special saying among Dai people that "bamboo symbolizes men, and gourd symbolizes women". Hulusi is a combination of "gourd" and "bamboo", which means "husband and wife love each other, the family is harmonious, and life is disaster-free". There is also a moving story among the Dai people: A long time ago, when a flash flood broke out, a Dai family's Xiao Bumao held a big gourd, braving the stormy waves and rescued his sweetheart. His faithful love moved the Buddha. The Buddha inserted a bamboo tube into the golden gourd and gave it to the brave Xiao Bumao. Xiao Bumao picked up the golden gourd and blew out wonderful music. Suddenly, it was calm, flowers were in full bloom, and proud as a peacock. Although we can't verify its concrete authenticity, from these beautiful legends and stories, we can realize that the music culture of Hulusi is closely related to people's lives. For example, "Bambusa in the moonlight": the moonlight is like water, the breeze is gentle, and the beautiful A-mei stares out of the window affectionately, listening to the sound of cucurbits admired by the spoony brother outside the bamboo building, and they are telling each other their love. The timbre of Hulusi is sometimes mellow and affectionate, sometimes lingering and distant, and sometimes tactfully bright, creating a soft, beautiful, quiet and pure picture of Dai life, which makes people truly realize the beauty of national life in Hulusi music.
2. It embodies the profound beauty of national style
National style is a national characteristic of a nation, reflecting people's living habits, thoughts and feelings, language characteristics, history and culture, etc. People often call the Dai people "the nation of water". They live by the water and celebrate the Water-splashing Festival. "Water" is a vivid portrayal of the national temperament and cultural character of the Dai people ―― gentle, quiet, delicate and beautiful. Westbank > Hulusi has a series of special skills in playing skills, such as "virtual finger vibrato", "abdominal vibrato", "playing", "overlapping sound", "sliding sound" and "circulating ventilation", which can fully express the national style embodied in different themes, genres, artistic conception and emotions, such as playing the first two sections of Hulusi's famous music Deep in the Bamboo Forest: Dai people's national temperament and cultural character, such as "water", are deeply infiltrated and embodied in Hulusi music culture. Through the forms and techniques with national characteristics, they show their unique national style everywhere in the fields of material and spiritual culture, which is natural with the beautiful local natural environment and gives people a very harmonious and quiet feeling.
Third, the unique artistic beauty of music
Music content is an artistic display of the beauty of human thoughts, feelings and social practice. The artistic beauty of music is characterized by the lingering melody, harmonious harmony and ups and downs of rhythm, and the artistic beauty of music can not be produced without the creation of musicians and the appreciation of appreciators. The music of cucurbit silk originated from life is delicate and gentle, which just shows this artistic beauty.
1. The beauty of sound form
Music is an art of expressing with sound, and sound is the material basis for carrying music, and it is the means for composers to think artistically, shape musical images and express their ideas; It is the basis for performers to transform musical works into sound forms and convey them to the audience; It is an audio intermediary for the audience to perceive the artistic beauty of music through hearing. Hulusi is often used to play folk tunes such as folk songs, and it is most suitable for playing music or dance music with smooth melody. Generally, there are many long tones in the tunes, and the music is soft and harmonious, which can better express the thoughts and feelings of the players. Hulusi is very popular with people because of its smooth breath, soft and delicate tone, mellow and simple performance. At present, the cucurbit silk used is divided into single tube and double tube. In addition to the main tube, the single tube cucurbit silk is designed with a "3" sound on the right attached tube, which is usually plugged with a soft plug, and the soft plug can be pulled when it needs to be pronounced. In addition to the main pipe and the "3" sound attachment pipe, the double-tube cucurbit silk is designed with a "6" sound attachment pipe on the left attachment pipe, and two soft plugs can be opened at the same time when necessary. Although the range of Hulusi is very narrow, it has a certain harmony effect, and can express a perfect musical image within a limited range. Compared with other traditional Chinese musical instruments, its unique timbre is very fresh and has a strong and mellow local flavor. With the development of the times, some Hulusi musical instruments and modern electronic musical instruments can also reflect the perfect combination of tradition and modernity, giving people a new feeling.
2. The theme and content are beautiful
The visual images in paintings and sculptures can directly show the characteristics of certain shapes and colors of objective objects. Music indirectly reflects the complex relationship between social life and people's ideological and emotional changes by using the corresponding relationship between sound changes and emotional ups and downs, arousing the appreciation of aesthetic feelings and arousing certain emotional images. Hulusi is the most popular among Dai, Achang and other ethnic groups. Young men and women express their feelings or people walk on the road and work in the fields, and they often play Hulusi, which adds a lot of joy to people's lives, such as "Wedding Vow": Brother and sister have a long affection, as if the running water rings day and night, and the running water will sometimes run out, and Brother will always be by my side ...; Butterfly spring Edge: Dali has a beautiful scenery in March, and butterfly spring is good for dressing. Butterflies come to collect flowers and honey. What is the reason for A-mei to comb her hair? Butterflies come to collect flowers and honey, and what kind of pile is A-mei combing her hair for … etc., all of which are well-known Hulusi famous songs. Hulusi music has a wide range of performances, with rich themes, such as the sincere love of young men and women, the beautiful bamboo forest scenery, the charming moonlight night scene, and the national customs of festivals ... The themes expressed by Hulusi music are soft and beautiful, which makes people feel relaxed and happy, and reflects the people's pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty.
3. Intrinsic emotional beauty
Music is not a simple imitation of natural sound. Music works must be combined with special subjective feelings in order to have meaning, and it should reflect the beauty of external skills and the beauty of thoughts and feelings. Music should not only be "musical", but also "emotional", which is the inherent beauty of music. Due to the limitation of the structure itself, the performance of cucurbit flute is somewhat simpler than that of bamboo flute, suona and other national wind instruments, and there are not so many complicated techniques, but it is an emotional instrument with a sweet timbre that is very expressive. For example, "Love Song of Bamboo House" is a musical work with strong national charm, which shows the sweetness of love between young men and women of ethnic minorities. The introduction part: young men are waiting for their sweetheart under the bamboo house, and beautiful girls are dressing up; The first part: Echoing from top to bottom, two people cling to each other and tell each other their heartfelt feelings; Intermittent and the second part: faster, lively and cheerful, singing and dancing; The epilogue: The changes in the first part are repeated, the music is weakened, and the two are reluctant to part. The beauty of music not only has the rhythm of notes, but also contains emotions. The music of Hulusi is not only the rhythm, melody, harmony and the interweaving of voices, but also enables people to understand the emotions contained in it through the effects of melody, rhythm and harmony, and deepen their feelings about the connotation of music.
In a word, Hulusi is a traditional national musical instrument in China. Its origin can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. It not only permeates the national cultural connotation for hundreds of years, but also has distinctive local characteristics and strong national artistic style. It has high artistic aesthetic value both in timbre and external structure, and is an important part of China traditional culture. After the founding of New China, Chinese national musicians have continuously reformed the Hulusi, and a large number of famous folk music creators and performers of Hulusi have emerged. China has a profound history and culture for thousands of years. With its unique historical origin, profound cultural connotation and broad mass base, Hulusi still occupies an important position in modern culture. With the progress of the times, we should continue to carry forward the national music culture, so that Hulusi can move from folk to society, from domestic to international, and become a bright pearl in Chinese national culture.
Zhang Jianzhuang: Hunan Women's Vocational University
Zhang Kuikui: Hunan Women's Vocational University
Editor: Zhao Zhuo.