1. Locality

The so-called locality is also called locality or regionality. China has a vast territory, covering an area close to the whole of Europe (China covers an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, while Europe covers an area of 1.16 million square kilometers). Topographically, there are plateaus, mountains, hills, plains and basins; In terms of climate, there are four distinct temperate zones, subtropical zones that are evergreen all year round, and tropical zones in the southernmost part; In terms of economic production methods, there are different types such as industry, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing. Therefore, the geographical climate, natural production conditions, social changes, cultural traditions, dialect sounds, etc. in different regions have different characteristics under the same sex of big nations and cultures. People's lifestyles, customs, temperament and aesthetic tastes are also different. Moreover, the degree of this feature and difference is inversely proportional to the developed traffic situation and the frequency of foreign exchanges: the more developed the traffic, the more foreign exchanges, and the more blurred the regional characteristics; On the contrary, the more blocked the traffic, the less contact with the outside world, and the more distinctive the regional characteristics. Therefore, the prominent regional features of folk music in remote and inaccessible mountain villages are often enough to make newcomers unacceptable and incomprehensible. And this is precisely the reason why the music produced in too closed environment is difficult to spread abroad.

The regional features of folk music are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

① Linguistic features

There are many ethnic groups in China. According to statistics in 199, there are 749, people who have not identified their ethnic affiliation. Among the 56 ethnic groups, except the Hui people who use Chinese, all other ethnic groups have their own languages, belonging to 11 language families in 5 language families. Some ethnic groups, due to historical migration and other reasons, have complicated situations in which their national languages belong to the same language family but different language families. For example, the Yugur people living in northwest China belong to Altaic language family, but the Yugur language in the west belongs to Turkic language family and the Yugur language in the east belongs to Mongolian language family. The genealogical classification, which divides all the languages in the world into language families, language families and language branches, classifies languages according to the phonetic, grammatical and lexical * * * homonyms of a certain mother tongue. Language family is the general name of languages with the same origin, and it is subdivided into language families and branches according to the degree of language novelty. The further down, the closer the kinship of its members. Every nation's language has its own phonetic system. From nation to branch, language family and language family, the higher up, the greater the difference between phonetic systems. There are four elements in pronunciation: pitch, timbre, sound length and sound intensity. They are also the four elements of music. Phonetic features affect the pitch, timbre, rhythm and strength of music through the lyrics in songs, and influence the musical vocabulary and the way of moistening the cavity in instrumental music works by taking vocal music works as a bridge. In addition, within a larger nation, there are differences in dialects. Dialect is the regional variation of the language within a nation. Take Chinese as an example, there are seven dialect areas, namely, Mandarin, Wu dialect, Gan dialect, Hakka dialect, Xiang dialect, Min dialect and Cantonese. Under each dialect area, dialect pieces, dialect pieces and dialect points can be further divided. Generally speaking, the differences between dialects are smaller than those between national languages. However, the differences between some dialects of Chinese, such as Beijing dialect and Cantonese, are greater than those between some national languages, such as Russian and Ukrainian. As far as the restriction of pronunciation on music is concerned, the greater the difference of pronunciation, the greater the difference of music between different nationalities and regions. Therefore, folk music that uses national languages or dialects is much more distinctive than professional music that uses the same language.

There are many dialects in Chinese, and there is a saying that there are different sounds in ten miles. This makes the same folk song change in tone because of the different pronunciation in different areas. The following examples are two variations of the folk song Meng Jiangnv in Jiangsu and Hebei. On the basis of keeping the basic musical tone unchanged, some subtle changes in pitch movement lead to the differences in personality and temperament between the two tunes. To sum up, Jiangsu's tunes are soft and euphemistic, while Hebei's tunes are vigorous and full of edges and corners:

After the unification of China, Qin Shihuang unified laws, weights and measures, currency and characters throughout the country in order to establish centralized rule and communicate with other regions. But he only solved the problem of "writing in the same language", but he couldn't solve the problem of "homophony", so he left rich and colorful folk music for later generations.

② Personality characteristics

With regard to the role of geographical model, Hegel once summarized three aspects, namely, the role of geographical environment on economy, social relations and political system, and human character. Geographical environment determines people's way of life, but also imbues people's personality and temperament. People who have had some travel experiences often feel that people in different regions have different personality tendencies. Generally speaking, northerners in China are rough and straightforward, while southerners are delicate and gentle. Writer Shen Congwen once said: "Clouds are local: the clouds in northern China are heavy, and people are just as heavy. The clouds in the south are lively, and people are just as lively. " Feng Zikai also said: "The surrounding landscape has a great influence on people's character. The strange mountains in Guilin give Guangxi people a strange character, which is brave and indomitable, and is straightforward and straightforward. " The Yangtze River in Sichuan is mighty and swift, and the mountains are steep and steep. People there are open-minded and tenacious, with strong vitality, and folk music is also witty, brave and humorous; Northwest Loess Plateau is arid and desolate, and the yellow land sets off the blue sky and white clouds above the plateau. The wind and sand are everywhere, where people's personalities are simple and deep, and folk music is somewhat desolate in its long and distant course. Jiangnan region is beautiful in mountains and rivers and rich in products. The people here are smart and witty, the folk music is delicate and euphemistic, and the tunes are beautiful and moving. Northeast China has a cold climate and fertile black land, where people are frank and extensive, and folk music is crisp, agile, lively and interesting ...

The geographical environment has created people, and people have created a culture that is in harmony with the environment with their own cultivated character, and culture has further strengthened the environmental atmosphere. In the long run, people of different nationalities and regions in China have formed their own distinctive cultural types under the influence of geographical environment, cultural atmosphere and historical traditions. This cultural type is particularly manifested in local operas with larger space, more tolerance and more expressive power. For example, Pingju is good at expressing the worldly wisdom of parents, Yue Opera is good at expressing the joys and sorrows of talented people and beautiful women, Qin Opera is good at expressing passionate and tragic grievances, and Beijing Opera is good at expressing the achievements and struggles of emperors and princes, and so on.

③ Musical characteristics

Due to the different cultural development and traditions, there are also differences in the musical elements of folk music in different regions. Generally speaking, northern folk music mostly uses seven tones, while southern folk music mostly uses five tones; The melody tone of northern folk music is larger, and the melody movement jumps into it, while the melody tone of southern folk music is smaller, and the melody movement advances in multiple stages; The melody line of northern folk music is angular, while that of southern folk music is tortuous. Northern folk music is full of narrative characteristics, while southern folk music is full of lyrical characteristics; Wait a minute.

Through Wuxi folk song "No Tin Scene" and its northern variant "Exploring Qingshui River", we can see the differences in the characteristics of folk music between the north and the south:

2. Improvisation

The basic mode of transmission of Chinese folk music is oral instruction. Old singers, old artists or masters perform by singing when passing on the art, while new singers, young artists or apprentices rely on hearing and memory when learning the art, and basically do not adopt the way of inheriting written music scores. On the one hand, there is no perfect notation method for folk music in China; on the other hand, all outstanding singers and artists have the opportunity to develop their talents in the inherited folk music and process and adapt it. The achievement of folk music is the crystallization of people's collective wisdom for thousands of years. The way of word-of-mouth inheritance has caused the uncertainty and variability of folk music, providing conditions for collective processing; And the continuous collective processing has made the folk music spread from generation to generation more and more perfect. With this development, the improvisation of folk music in singing and playing has become the standard to verify the accomplishments of singers and artists. In the duet activities in rural areas of various ethnic groups and regions, the winners are singers who are good at improvising the learned tunes and lyrics. In the ensemble of Jiangnan silk and bamboo, the fixed score is only the basic framework, and each performance is different. It depends on the improvisation ability that musicians have developed in long-term practice for on-site processing. In order to cooperate with the tacit understanding, musicians summed up a set of cooperation methods, such as you are complicated and simple, you move and I am quiet, you cut me off, you are superior to me and so on. In the past, old opera fans or amateur opera actors often went to the theater not to "see" the opera, but to "listen" it. They can listen with relish and shake their heads with closed eyes under the stage. They are familiar with the stories that are staged on the stage, and they can almost recite the words and songs of the aria. They came to listen to the impromptu changes of famous actors. When actors don't sing in a certain place according to the convention, but do live performance, and this performance is more conducive to the performance of the characters' personality and the progress of the story, they will applaud.

Improvisation is a creative way of folk music, and the creator is the performer. Although improvisation is only a partial change in a relatively fixed tune, it has promoted the development of folk music through the accumulation of generations. In this kind of creation, the audience is both an appreciator and a judge, and they don't have to wait for the actor's curtain call to give them approval, encouragement or respectful applause. The noise, cheers and boos on the field express their likes and dislikes in time, and also reflect the closer relationship between the audience and the actors (creators): in addition to the relationship that the audience is the food and clothing parents of the actors in commercial performances, the actors in folk music have a more harmonious, equal and direct relationship with the audience, which may be one of the reasons why folk music is more vivid and lively than professional music.

3. Variability of circulation

The spread mode of folk music from mouth to heart, as well as the local and improvisational characteristics, have led to its variability in the process of circulation. This variation can be roughly divided into the following categories:

① Regional variation

When a folk tune spreads in a different place, it will change its melody due to the change of the dialect of the lyrics. There will also be emotional changes in tunes due to the different personality characteristics of people everywhere. The Meng Jiangnv (Example 1) in Jiangnan and Hebei cited above actually includes these two changes. Look at the evolution of the same embroidered purse in central Shanxi and northern Shaanxi:

The lyrics and tunes of these two embroidered purses are basically the same, but there are only a few subtle differences, but they show the emotional differences between them: embroidered purse in Shanxi is bright, beautiful and full of joy; The embroidered purse in northern Shaanxi is simple and depressed, revealing a sense of desolation. In addition, the singer of Shanxi Embroidered Pocket uses bright and sweet timbre, while the singer of Shaanxi Embroidered Pocket uses hoarse and sluggish timbre, which highlights the contrast between the two. When singing the second, fourth, sixth and eighth bars of Embroidered Pocket in northern Shaanxi, the combination of hoarse timbre and descending melody caused a weeping effect.

② Emotional Rendering Variation

Some relatively simple and straightforward tunes (such as Example 6) which are neutral in emotional expression have a distinct and meticulous emotional tendency after being processed and adapted in the process of circulation (Example 7). The former is simple and straight, while the latter is hot and enthusiastic, which vividly expresses a girl's excitement before going to the theatre:

③ The performance function is broadened and varied < P > Folk music has a tradition of multiple uses. It is a common creative way of folk music to change the tune of a certain theme into the lyrics of other contents and modify the tune to adapt to the new content. For example, some tunes in folk songs were originally used to describe the sad content in folklore (such as Meng Jiangnv in Example 1), and later used to express love (seeing the lover off) or heroes in romance novels (Sighs of Three Kingdoms); With the same tune, "Broken Bridge" can not only show the lingering of women's lovesickness and sadness ("Heart-piercing Tune"), but also show the joy of the bride when she gets on the sedan chair ("The sedan chair comes to the door"), or sing the busy production and labor of the four seasons ("Four Seasons Song"); Wait a minute. Some tunes or accents in traditional Chinese opera and Quyi music are smooth at medium speed, lyrical at slow speed, lively and enthusiastic or intense at fast speed. Of course, in addition to changing the speed of these tunes, the complexity of the melody has also been added or deleted, and the lines of the tunes have to be changed accordingly.

④ Cross and infiltration variation among genres

Some folk tunes have absorbed the expressive techniques of Quyi music, and enhanced the expressive function of telling stories and unfolding plots; Some Quyi music absorbs the expression of traditional Chinese opera music and expands the ability to express dramatic conflicts and intense emotions; Some folk instrumental music, from the plot of the track to the structure of the music, is strongly influenced by the opera; Some instrumental music or vocal music, when playing and singing, absorb each other's ways to moisten the cavity, which broadens the expression technique and scope. And so on.

in a word, the variation of folk music in the process of circulation is a means of its development and richness, which makes folk music full of life and vitality.

4. Popularity

From the book of songs "National Style", folk music has shown the joys and sorrows of ordinary people, which are different from the ruling class, such as praising labor, hating and laughing at those who are rich and heartless, resisting the dark rule of the government, sympathizing with the unfortunate experiences of the poor, praising pure love and longing for a better life, and so on. Because the content of folk music is often out of step with the requirements of feudal rule, many emperors in history have ordered it to be banned. For example, during the period from Wuzong to New Year's in Yuan Dynasty, singing and dancing were forbidden in Ming Taizu, and yangko and lotus drop were forbidden in Kangxi, Tongzhi and Daoguang in Qing Dynasty. In the face of the emperor's ban, the people did not show weakness. A folk song in northern Shaanxi sang: "The big stars in the sky control the small stars, and the platform on the ground controls the military gates. Only the magistrate controls the magistrate, which can control the singer." (Selected Folk Songs in Northern Shaanxi edited by He Qifang) Another Fujian citizen sings: "The new official has many things to do when he takes office, regardless of money and food. If folk songs are banned, the civil and military scholars will be cut off." The contempt for the government and the literati, as well as the confidence and pride in the intelligence of the working people, are greatly shocking.

due to thousands of years of feudal rule in China, as well as the rulers' constant prohibition and transformation, the rebellious and other positive factors in folk music are different in different regions. Generally speaking, this positive factor is greater in rural areas than in cities and towns, and in remote areas than in the mainland. The genres and varieties rarely performed in big cities are greater than those often performed in big cities.

5. Multifunctional

The function of professional music is to entertain others and perform for the audience on the stage. Folk music is multifunctional. It can be self-entertaining, singing a song to vent strong feelings when it is extremely sad or joyful; It may also be his entertainment, showing off his ability to control music in front of everyone and getting the appreciation and admiration of others; It can be used as a medium to convey the feelings between young men and women, and can also be used for weddings and funerals. It can be the organization and commander of collective labor, and it can also be a means to impart knowledge of production and life; It can be used in illiterate laborers