First, how to evaluate the role of music in the rap art of Gesar?
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the attention of the state and the long-term efforts of many experts and scholars, amazing achievements have been made in the rescue, collation and research of the world-famous epic Gesar. However, as the main art form of this epic, music's rescue, arrangement and research are very weak.
As we all know, content plays a leading role in any artistic work, but form is by no means dispensable. An appropriate and perfect art form can spread the artistic content of truth, goodness and beauty widely and profoundly, and produce profound and lasting social effects. The music of Gesar played such a typical role in spreading the basic content of this epic.
1, the relationship between content and form If the basic content of Gesar is the soul of art, then music is its body or flesh and blood, so there is an inseparable relationship between the two. According to the intonation style, rhythm and structural format of the literary lyrics and music of Gesar, it is not difficult to see that they all have obvious characteristics from the same regional culture and art, that is, they are formed by absorbing and drawing lessons from the contents and forms of folk songs, pastoral songs and robber songs widely circulated in Kangqu and pastoral areas of Tibet, and have strong regional characteristics. They not only have the same intonation style, but also have two words at the beginning and end of each lyric, and there are three rhythm rules in the middle. At the same time, they are all in the structure format of eight characters, one sentence and four sentences, which shows the origin relationship between music and epic. Sing a Tibetan lyric "Du Fu in the Forest" in Changdu folk song.
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Door, the first door is called religious door. I robbers won't enter this door, and I won't open the door without offerings. "All kinds of lyrics like this abound, countless. Obviously, this is exactly the same as any lyrics in Gesar. As far as the rap music of Gesar is concerned, rap music is different from folk songs and pastoral songs, so although it does not directly absorb folk songs, pastoral songs and other music materials, it still draws on or absorbs other traditional folk music in this area. For example, take Changdu folk song "Good Wine as the Head" as an example:
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The following is a special aria for characters sung by a herder named Cournot in the Daling War-"Grazing with the Wind":
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If we make a comparative study of the basic artistic style, scale rotation, mode tonality and rhythm form of the above two songs, we can clearly realize that they are not only sister arts in the same area, but also their origin in artistic practice. Although these two songs are very different in structural form, for example, Wine is a good start is a relatively primitive song with eight words and one sentence, while Pastoral and Pastoral Style is a song with eight words and one sentence and four sentences, which tends to be a complete aria. However, this difference between the two just shows the historical age of their respective emergence and the basic inheritance of mutual absorption and reference; The common features of scale rotation and rhythm form are obvious at a glance, especially the mode and tonality, which are the same song. In the melody of Gesar rap music, such a situation can be found everywhere.
2. The colorful music of Gesar has played an irreplaceable role in the spread and development of epic content. Some people will ask, "What is the richness of Gesar music? No matter what kind of people, men or women, people or animals, no matter the changes of environment and feelings, don't they all use those limited vocals? " Actually this is a misunderstanding. According to the written records in the epic, Gesar's vocal music was originally colorful, but it was completely preserved in the original oral form among the people and could not be recorded in written form, which made it lose many vocals. However, there are still many similar vocals among the general public. Judging from the rap performances of many "Zhongkan" ("Gesar" rappers) in modern times, in order to tell more and longer epics, they focused on the content, and the use of musical vocals was far from meeting the basic requirements for special songs for characters, so there were situations in which various characters shared several vocals, but this was by no means the real situation of Gesar music. According to all the rap records of this epic at present, in order to better shape and express the artistic image and thoughts and feelings of many characters, not only the title of the aria is clearly defined before each key aria, but also some characters have made various explanations or praises for their own aria. For example, in the Battle of Holling, when King Gelsall returned to Guo Ling from Qiangtang, Lan Ying sang in "Aria to the King": "I really want to sing a white six-tone song, but my mouth is hard and I can't sing it. I am singing everything that happened at home with Falcon Six. " We can further explore this phenomenon. For example, the book "The King of Horse Racing" consists of 56 arias, 36 of which are theme songs dedicated to specific people; The book Holling War consists of 233 arias, 46 of which are theme songs dedicated to specific characters, and so on. If we use this method to count all the musical vocals in Gesar, we can be sure that the musical vocals in Gesar are not only rich and colorful, but also numerous, which is a very large tune group. In Gesar, the problem of different characters using songs with special titles is briefly explained. For example, in the Daling War, Mi Qiong, an important figure in Ling State, sang: "Deep Ming Dow is a living Buddha song, and Da @ ① Jiu Yin is a mantra song; The tigress's roar is an official song, and the auspicious eight treasures are monk songs; I sing magpie. " It reflects the habits of different characters using songs with special titles. In addition, with the change of the plot, each protagonist has many specific opening vocals, which become different kinds in order to express different feelings. King Gelsall used dozens of different voices in The King of Horse Racing and The Battle of Hollin, such as The Gulu Quo on the Sea and The Gulu Quo of King Kong. , showing the special status of the characters. Love Song, Life-long Song and Lucky Babel Song are songs that express the love of characters. "Calling Heaven and Earth" and "Calling God's Arrow" are kinds of music used for sacrifice; The special kinds of music that publicly display the narrative examples of characters are "Slow River", "Slow Flow Gathering" and "High-pitched Wandering Songs". The special songs to express the fighting passion of the characters include six million dollar man Ziming Qu and Weizhen Dida Qu, etc. A similar situation can be seen everywhere in the rap art of Gesar. All these fully show that music, with its unique artistic means or functions, has shaped the artistic images of many different characters, added incomparable brilliance to the contents of the epic and played a great role in the spread and development of Gesar.
Second, the comparative study of national classical music and Gesar music in Tubo period.
The rap music of Gesar is a unique "named" national folk art rap music art work, which is one of its characteristics. In order to facilitate the discussion, firstly, the basic meaning of title music and the relationship between national music and national music are briefly explained.
Throughout the development history of national music at home and abroad, the special name "title music" appeared in the works of western musicians in the19th century, which is one of the genre names mainly used to explain the contents of instrumental music. Every movement has a subtitle-these titles are to provide or guide the audience to explore their inner meaning. Take Beethoven's Sixth Symphony as an example. The first movement is "Prosperity upon Arrival", the second movement is "Scenery by the Stream" and the fourth movement is "Thunderstorm".
In the colorful Tibetan folk music, although there are no title music works, there are still many vocal music works that use various special titles as the specific names of songs to explain the melody content of songs. For example, the title of music in Gesar is a very obvious example. Regarding the relationship between national music and folk music, national music is the crystallization of people's collective wisdom, and folk music is the innovation and development of national music. In other words, folk music is the foundation of folk music, and folk music originates from folk music. Gesar music is folk rap music specially created by some people. If you want to ask where the specific title of Gesar music comes from? As long as we make a comparative study of the national classical music and Gesar music in the Tubo period, we can find the answer.
Tubo Zampa Chisong Dêzain (730 ~ 797) was a period of unprecedented development of Tibetan culture. According to the records of the King of Tibet, when Sanye Temple was completed in 787, everyone from the king to his subjects sang a song, King Chisong Dêzain sang "The King's Joy Song" ... Prince Muny Zampa sang "The Light of the World", Prince Moody Zampa sang "The Pride of the Snow Lion", the queens sang "The Song of Turquoise Leaves" ... Master Lotus Peanut sang "The Ghost of Weizhen". Young women sang "Colorful Garland Songs" ... "Five Legacies" also divided the songs performed at that time into "four kinds of enchanting songs, 13 kinds of leader songs, and". Therefore, the unique Tibetan title music has a long history. The well-known "Gollum" is a kind of poetic art dedicated to Zanba during the Tubo period. According to records, this kind of poem is accompanied by musical melody, which is called "Gollum" in Tibetan and is one of the classic songs of Tibetan vocal music. Among Gesar's rap music, the singing methods such as "Gulu Qu on the Sea" and "Jingang Gulu Qu" are regarded as unique singing methods in King Gelsall, which reflect the inheritance relationship between Tibetan classical music and Gesar's music. For example, the Song of the Ghost in Weizhen sung by Master Lian Peanut and the Song of Soft Green Leaves sung by the Empresses are related to the basic form and style of Song of the Folk in Weizhen, one of King Gelsall's special vocals, and Six Poems of Du Fu, one of Empress Zum's special vocals. It is a pity that the melodies of these national classical music have not spread to later generations, so that people today can't hear the beautiful melodies of ancient national music.
Third, the artistic characteristics of the rap music of Gesar
The rap music of Gesar has a very strong national style and strong artistic expression ability, and it is particularly general and concise. This shows that its composer has a deep ability to observe life, express life and shape the artistic image of characters with highly concentrated artistic techniques. Art should use images to express content, which is a special means for art to reflect life. If there is no image that reflects the content, art itself cannot exist. The rap music of Gesar has many originality in shaping the artistic images of many characters. King Gelsall is the first hero in this epic. How to shape the basic image of this hero in a highly summarized and concise style? This was a difficult problem for composers at that time. And those unknown songwriters have expressed the richest content comprehensively, highly summarized and emphatically with the least material. For example, in King Gelsall's special vocals, whenever he fights the enemy face to face, there are several vocals, one of which is called "six million dollar man's self-singing". The basic melody of this song is:
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Although the overall scale of this song is not large, it succinctly and accurately shapes a heroic image of a commander in chief. We know its rich content from the following aspects. First of all, it can be clearly seen from the basic rhythm that the composer has carefully designed a rhythm with great impetus for it, which has laid a solid foundation for the success of this concert, because rhythm is the soul of music. In these four arias, the first beat rhythm of each sentence is extremely prominent, and the syncopation rhythm is extremely flexible and unique, and it can burst into flash, making it seem to play a driving role in the melody of the whole music. In order to meet the special needs of rap music, the music melody is particularly smooth only in the range of ten degrees (@ ②-@ ③). When the whole song is sung at the marching speed of a specific beat, the momentum of the music, such as overwhelming and devouring mountains and rivers, shows a magnificent battle picture scroll, and with the help of music, it creates a tall artistic image of King Gelsall leading the soldiers to forge ahead courageously. This famous musical aria is still circulating today.
One of Queen Zum's special vocals is affectionate and beautiful, which is called "Six Poems of Du Fu". This song belongs to one of the most typical vocals among many female characters in Gesar, and its basic melody is:
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Tibetans believe that cuckoo is the messenger of spring, the season when the earth recovers, everything grows and spring blooms. It is very appropriate to describe or shape the gentle and affectionate Queen Zum with the melody title of Music in Spring. Whenever people hear this crystal clear, shining, affectionate, beautiful and elegant music melody, they can't help but bring it into the beautiful mood of spring, and the beautiful music melody deeply touches people's hearts. This is a pentatonic and feathered singing method, and the whole song is only played within the range of 10 degrees. Its smooth and catchy melody, circuitous twists and turns, cleverly echoed phrases, and the change and treatment of the ending sound make people feel ups and downs, showing Zum's dazzling and graceful image.
Fourthly, it is urgent to rescue, sort out and study the music of Gesar.
Gesar rap music, as a huge melody group, has a special and important position in many Tibetan music categories, and has gradually declined for various reasons in the long years. The main reasons are as follows:
1. Although the Tibetan people who were good at singing and dancing in ancient times created a rich and colorful national music culture, many precious national traditional music could not be handed down because there was no clef or written form that could properly record the melody at that time. Many classical music of the Tubo period that has been lost today is a typical example. Although the rap music of Gesar has been passed down from mouth to mouth among the general public, the names of arias also appear well in the epic, and many of its aria tunes are gradually lost.
2. Before Tibet's peaceful liberation, the ruling classes in past dynasties lacked the minimum protection consciousness for traditional folk culture and art, and many ethnic folk culture and art were always in a state of self-destruction, which is also the main reason why Gesar music was rich in the past and poor in the present.
3. After liberation, various new cultures and arts at home and abroad were introduced into our region, which greatly enriched and satisfied people's spiritual and cultural needs. On the other hand, due to the introduction of new culture and art, the traditional culture and art of our nation have suffered an unprecedented impact. The interest of the new generation of Tibetans who enjoy modern cultural and artistic life in ancient traditional culture is declining day by day, and the situation of "people dying and art dying" of traditional culture and art is more serious.
According to the above situation, it is urgent to rescue the musical heritage. To rescue, sort out and study the music of Gesar, we must first do a good job in the rescue of musical aria. Only in this way can rescue and research be carried out, otherwise it will still be in a particularly weak link in the field of epic research. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the state has paid special attention to the rescue of national traditional cultural heritage, adopted various major measures and invested a lot of manpower and material resources, which has made amazing achievements in the rescue, collation and research of epics. However, there are still many shortcomings in the music rescue work of great value in the overall art of this epic, which are mainly manifested in insufficient attention from leaders, lack of due funding and lack of special personnel to be responsible for management. If this "three shortages" problem is not well solved, then the rescue work of Gesar music is undoubtedly impossible and accomplished nothing.
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According to my long-term personal experience in collecting Gesar rap music, combined with the analysis and research of the music in the epic, Gesar music is not a patchwork of several tunes, but a traditional rap music with a specific title, that is, a huge singing group with a unique artistic form, specializing in singing people's songs and special songs. It absorbs or draws lessons from the national classical music in the Tubo period, and embodies the special talent and wisdom endowed by the Tibetan people in music. By analyzing the music of Gesar, we can see that it has always used the inherent special functions of music to shape the artistic images of many characters and made great contributions to the spread and development of epic. In order to continue to carry forward the excellent traditional culture of our nation and fully display its artistic characteristics, it is an important task for us to rescue, sort out and study the rap music of the epic Gesar.
I hope my answer is helpful to you!