The stage language of Gannan tea-picking drama is the local Hakka dialect. It sings and dances, with a relaxed and lively atmosphere and humorous language. It combines local Han folk oral literature, folk songs and dances and lanterns, and has a strong flavor of life. Most of his plays are comedies and burlesque, and there are few plays and tragedies.
The daily life of the masses, especially handicraft workers and craftsmen, is the object of expression, especially the love drama between men and women accounts for a large proportion. Its musical aria belongs to Qupai style, with tea cavity and lamp cavity as the main features, and road cavity and miscellaneous tune as well, commonly known as "three cavities and one tune". Accompaniment are all Han folk musical instruments, mainly hook pipe (erhu), suona, gong, drum, cymbal, flute and so on. The characteristics of his performing arts are mainly manifested in two professions: clown and Xiao Dan. There used to be a saying that "the triangle class, the second small master".
Music cavity:
The music of Gannan tea-picking opera is rich and colorful, with strong plasticity, strong local flavor and distinctive style. According to the different modes, chords and functions, it can be divided into four categories: tea cavity, lamp cavity, road cavity and miscellaneous tune, which is called "three cavities and one tune" for short. "Tea cavity" is the main voice cavity of Gannan tea-picking drama, with lively rhythm, beautiful melody and lyrical, and strong pastoral Shan Ye flavor.
For example, the national famous Turtledove Tune, as well as Peony Tune, Sole and Mountain Tune. "Light tune" is an important tune of tea-picking opera, which is loud and vigorous, rough and enthusiastic, with ups and downs in melody, moderate relaxation and strong opera flavor. Coupled with the close cooperation of suona and gongs and drums, the atmosphere is warm and emotional, just like the upward spirit of the people in mountainous areas; "Road cavity" is named after the tune it sings when walking on the road. Its unique lightness, liveliness and humor provide a broad world for the song and dance performance art of tea-picking opera.
Miscellaneous Tune is delicate, sweet, exquisite and gorgeous. Although it is not the main theme in tea-picking opera music, it is interspersed with it and occasionally embellished with interest, which often plays a strange artistic effect. In the singing of Gannan tea-picking opera, the lining words are widely used, whether it is tea cavity or lamp cavity, or road cavity and miscellaneous tune. Composing and weaving into a jingle to sing: playing yo-yo in into the pit, going out on the road, making shoes, embroidering, and pulling flowers for men and women. It can be said that all singing is inseparable from the lining words, and there are even cases where the lyrics are not enough.
Accompaniment instrument:
The main instrument in the accompaniment is "Gouguan" (similar to the native erhu), accompanied by positive and negative chords, sung in Hakka and Ganzhou Mandarin, with about 300 tunes. The main characters are "two Dan and one ugly" (after liberation, "three small" are pearls, niche and clowns). The song and dance performance began, with rich life and labor, humor and wit, and a strong local flavor of Gannan. Deeply loved by the masses, it is the local opera that the local people like to listen to and watch most.
Form of expression:
Besides music, it can best show the characteristics of Gannan tea-picking drama. At the beginning of its performance, it paid equal attention to song, dance and drama. Its performance characteristics can be summarized as "three wonders and three wonders". The three wonders are: the traditional tea-picking drama shows all the love and labor that the lower-class working people dream of, and there is no court dance and talented person and beautiful woman dance, which is surprising; A large number of performers imitate animal movements and are named after animal movements, which is the second wonder; Song and dance dramas go hand in hand, so that some people think that it is a local song and dance drama, and it is a three-stop.
The three musts are: small step, single sleeve and fan flower.
The basic footwork of small step includes small step, high step, small step stride, shaking step, surprised step, sliding step and shovel step. Short steps are divided into short piles, medium piles and high piles. This is the only small step in the world drama.
Single sleeve, which is necessary again. Generally speaking, the sleeves in the play are paired, but there is only one sleeve left in the tea affair, Gannan. But it created many dance terms. Such as grasping sleeves, draped sleeves, back sleeves, sun-shading sleeves, fan-shaped sleeves, underarm sleeves, phoenix-tailed sleeves, needle-piercing sleeves, flower basket sleeves, throwing, throwing, waist-winding, knee-winding, side-winding ... Beauty is a kind of symmetry, and the single sleeve seems to ignore the law of beauty, but no, there is a reward for the fan flower of the other hand to be symmetrical with it on the stage.
There are many kinds of actions to fan flowers, such as swinging fan, folding fan, avoiding fan, shading fan, overlooking fan, smelling flower fan, covering face fan and so on, which are very expressive. Among them, there are some artistic tricks left by old artists about fan flowers, such as:
Five fingers up, four fingers forward.
Three-fingered flowers are square, and two-fingered flowers shake their chests.
Yun, press, grasp and shake against the abdomen.
The characteristics of three wonders are the product of Hakka people living in the harsh ecological environment in mountainous areas in southern Jiangxi for a long time.
For example, short step, Hakka people live in the mountains, go out to climb mountains, bend over and bend their knees, and tall people become "short people." The clever Hakkas make the short step a unique basic dance step in the world. Clouds and mist filled the mountains with tea. The girl was carrying a tea basket, singing tea songs and dancing while picking tea. The young man was carrying tea on his shoulder and stepping on short piles, middle piles and high piles transformed by dwarfs. Dancing with single sleeve fan flowers has created a unique Hakka tea affair in Gannan.
For another example, there are many performers named after animals, because on the long mountain road, Hakka people are used to interacting with birds and animals, and their endless interest in animal world life has given whimsical Hakka people inexhaustible artistic inspiration. Imitate the actions of animals and simply name them after their actions.
Such as: monkeys wash their faces, wolves feed, lions open their mouths, thrush jumps, turtles climb the sand, lead phoenix tails, dragonflies to play in the water, dogs wag their tails, lazy cats tickle, foxes cross the spot, butterflies collect honey, roosters peck rice, monkeys are frightened, frogs are missing, crows dry their wings, cats explore the night and so on.
The action of animals expressing life consciousness was captured by Hakkas. It is not difficult to imagine that without mountains, there would be no birds and beasts, and there would be no observation and refinement of life. How are these countless stage performances created? [3] The Clown and Xiao Dan
Clowns are divided into two parts: one is "ugly and handsome", which is called "just ugly"; The second is "appreciating ugliness", that is, the so-called "anti-ugliness".
Right ugliness: mainly young men among working people. They are hardworking, simple, bright, optimistic, witty and brave. When singing, the actor wears a "grab" and a "three-flowered skirt", a "white hall skirt" at the waist, bloomers at the bottom, a "fan flower" at the right hand and a "long sleeve" at the left hand. Singing and dancing, lively and relaxed. The performance is dominated by "short steps" and "fan flowers", and the combination of high and low steps is lively and distinctive.
Anti-ugliness: most of them are smokers, gamblers, hooligans and idlers. They often expose their opponents or laugh at themselves with some vivid, implicit, humorous and humorous words and actions. His performances often imitate some animal images, such as monkey washing face, monkey peeing, dragonfly, lazy cat scratching, chicken pecking at rice, thrush jumping, dog wagging its tail, tortoise climbing sand and so on. Facial makeup, white nose, footwork and flower-fanning movements are all similar to the "positive ugliness" performance.
Xiao Dan: Mainly hardworking, simple and smart rural girls and young women. The performance is vigorous and beautiful, concise and generous. Its "fan flowers" are richer than clowns. They can play with flowers with one hand or with both hands. Its body movements include: dressing and picking curtains, picking tea in the garden, umbrella flowers, opening and closing doors, etc. Its basic steps are eight steps, jumping, stepping, grinding, probing and breaking. , can be described as varied.