The Salar people have a unique literary art. Folk rap literature is the main. Said, including stories, myths, legends, fables, proverbs and jokes. Very rich, and the language is humorous and subtle. Singing, including Salaqu, feast songs and flowers and other folk songs. "Salaqu" is a kind of lyrical folk songs sung by Sala people in their own language. It consists of many short poems with independent meanings. Popular tunes such as "Brazil ancient yo-yo", "Salar Saibuga" and so on. "Feast song" is a kind of wedding traditional singing. Salar "flower child" is a kind of Chinese singing songs, lyrics are generally four lines. Influenced by the Tibetans, its tone is generally with a trill, and it is very melodious. The only Salar musical instrument is the "mouth string", generally made of copper or silver, shaped like a horseshoe.
The Salar people will also be divided into two categories of folk songs, "home song" and "wild song". "Home song" and "wild song" has two meanings, one is the form; the second is the content. The limitations of the difference in form are slight, while the limitations of the difference in content are strict. For this reason, the "wild songs" can only be sung in the open air and avoided by elders and relatives.
According to the content and musical characteristics of the Salar folk songs can be divided into labor songs (horn), Yul (traditional love songs), flowers, feast songs, religious songs, children's songs. One of the "family song" category for the labor songs, feast songs, religious songs, narrative songs, children's songs.
The Salar song is a long lyric sung by the Salar people in their own language, each of which consists of a number of short poems with a complete meaning, or recounts a story, or expresses a certain feeling, or portrays an image. The content of most of the performance of young men and women on the pursuit of love and the desire for a full and happy life, the melody with rap, and other local ethnic groups singing folk songs have a big difference, unique style.
The Salar Banquet Songs are the customary folk songs and dances sung in Chinese by the Salar people in their wedding ceremonies whenever they have a full house of guests, laughing and celebrating, and are an overall reflection of the culture, religion, living customs and national identity of the people, and are an important basis for the study of the material and spiritual forms of the nation. Feast songs are sung in a free form, with rich lyrics and beautiful tunes, some of which are improvised and sung, and some are traditional songs passed down from generation to generation, most of which are equipped with simple dance movements. Sarah feast song in addition to the "Saheshi" is a girl married to the singing of the crying tune, the rest are men singing songs, women are not singing the feast song.
Sala "flower" is the Sala people sing in Chinese a kind of mountain song, mainly popular in the Methodist Sala Autonomous County, Hualong County, Gansu, Gan Du, Dahejia, Liu Jiaji and other areas are also very prevalent. Sala "Hua'er" is bright, free and unrestrained. The internal organization of Sala "Hua'er" modes is diversified, and the layout of modes is quite logical, very artistic, and rich in expressive meaning. Salar "flowers", by the influence of Tibetan folk songs, extremely melodious, singing with a common trill, and most of the sentence in the Salar language and local dialects, forming a unique style.
The Salar labor songs are produced by the Salar people in the process of long-term collective labor, with the characteristics of the labor rhythms closely match the melodic nature is not strong, most of them are in the form of a leader of the crowd and the combination of forms, the tone of voice is high, bright and bold Northwest Plateau style, the atmosphere is vibrant, and play a role in helping to relieve boredom and eliminate fatigue. There are mainly wood pulling horn, logging horn, ferry horn, harvest horn, even yoke horn, playing wall horn, playing tile horn, etc.
Saracenna is the most important and the most important of all, it is the most important of all.
The Salar children's songs are sung in a lively and interesting form, mostly related to children's lives and games. Through singing, so that children indirectly or directly recognize the surrounding environment, develop children's intelligence, can be described as intellectual songs, and its art is characterized by a short melody, singing lyrics easy to understand.
"Yul" is a traditional love song sung by the Salar people in their own language. Because of the taboo of feudalism and opposition, this love song in the field, the field, the mill and other back people sing, strictly prohibited in the village house. "Yul" centrally reflects the pursuit of free marriage between young men and women of the Salar tribe.