The Changde Silk String is an important branch of the Hunan Silk String, which is the most developed and influential among the Hunan Silk Strings, and has already gained the status of an independent musical genre.
Circulating in all parts of Hunan, it is sung with the accompaniment of Yangqin, Pipa, Sanxian, Huqin and other silk-stringed instruments and is called silk string, and it is also called Changde Silk String because it is sung in the dialect of Changde.
Changde is one of the important birthplaces of the Hunan and Chu cultures, and since ancient times, the winds of song and dance have flourished, as well as being a place where celebrities and elegant people gather, and is known as the "State of Cultural Relics" and the "Abode of Humanities".
The local culture has always been influenced and nurtured by literary giants. Qu Yuan, Wang Anshi, Lu You, Yuan Hongdao and others have left many heirloom works here, adding brilliant colors to Changde's culture, and elevating local singing and dancing customs to a higher level.
According to Changde Prefectural Records, since Tao Yuanming's The Story of Peach Blossom Garden in Jin Dynasty was published, literati such as Liu Yuxi in Tang Dynasty and Su Shi in Song Dynasty have also gathered in Peach Blossom Garden for many times, and their poems and writings are very similar to the singing of Changde silk strings. Since then, "The Story of Peach Blossom Garden" has been regarded by the artists of Changde Silk String as the prototype of the early singing lyrics of Changde Silk String.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the city of Changde further prospered economically, and merchants and businessmen from all over the world gathered together. The musicians and singers from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who came along with them traveled to and from Yuan and Li, and the seasonal tunes they brought with them were also spreading gradually in the coastal lake area.
The end of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of outsiders flocked to Changde, so that the folk art of various places widely exchanged. The entertainment activities of the royal family undoubtedly also had a significant impact on the development of folk songs, dances and tunes.
In such an environment, the Changde Silk String, a unique local song, was gradually formed. It inherited the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, the form of speaking and singing, and drew on the musical patterns of the palace tunes, Yuan miscellaneous operas and Kunqu Opera, and absorbed nutrients from the local and provincial folk songs and seasonal tunes, which were all-inclusive and sung in the easy-to-understand Changde dialect.
After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, due to the prosperity of commerce, the culture and art of Changde also developed greatly, and the singing activities of the Changde silk string gradually went to the market from the self-entertainment of the literati and the elegant people, together with the habit of the Changde people to drink tea in big bowls, and thus, the Changde silk string found a breeding placenta in the tea house. In order to solicit business and liven up the facade, merchants and business owners invited silk string artists to sing as a sign of congratulations.
With the growing popularity of the art of silk string, during the Daoguang period, there have been to sing a small song for the profession of courtesans. Silk string classes have appeared in various parts of the world, and a number of silk string artists have emerged, they and the literati together with the preparation of silk string singing book. One of the most influential is He Xiaokun, by his rectification and passed down the traditional repertoire of "double down the mountain", "two degrees of plum", "Daiyu buried flowers" and so on more than 10.
The end of the Qing Dynasty, the silk string of the wood engraved books have been introduced in Changde Xiao Fuxiang business, Changde, Li County and other places to form a workshop engraved and printed books of a street, the engraved books of the "Meng Jiangnu looking for a husband," and other tracks and a number of minor tunes, which engraved books are called "tune book" or "class tunes. These engraved books were called "tune books" or "tangban tunes". From then on, the Changde silk-string song has been circulating in the streets and alleys.
Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, the introduction of Western music and Peking Opera had a certain impact on the development of Changde silk-string music. At this time, silk string singing activities radiated from the city to the countryside.
In order to adapt to the needs of long performances, silk string artists looked to the opera, they transplanted the repertoire, and borrowed the singing techniques of the opera plate cadence, forming the Changde Silk String "old way", singing long stories with ease.
Silk-string master Xu Meiqing and others transformed the tunes from Sichuan and created a new "Sichuan Road" after the "Old Road", which made the silk-string music more perfect and popular in Yuanli.
The completeness of the structure of Changde silk string music, the uniqueness of the singing method, the flexibility and freedom of the performance form, and the richness and colorfulness of the accompanying techniques have given it a unique charm and touching appeal, which makes it everlasting and popular among the people.
Changde Silk String Music has a relatively complete system, and its musical function is also unique, which is characterized by a combination of narration and lyricism, and is able to express historical stories as well as rap about folk customs.
And in the singing and singing to convey the meaning of the main, pay special attention to the "said in the singing, singing in the said, cavity from the word out, the sound with the rhyme to turn" method of Run Cavity, in the emphasis on oral, rap at the same time, pay attention to the melody of the beautiful, playful and lyrical.
There are more than 300 tunes in the traditional Changde silk-string music, most of which are based on historical stories and folklore. It is categorized into three kinds of tunes, plate cadences and hybrids.
The songboard body, also commonly known as the plate silk string, is a kind of music that connects many songboards with complete and independent contents to reflect a ****same theme of the suite, and it is the most basic and common form of Changde silk string singing.
There are more than 100 tunes in common use, and these tunes with different contents, styles and techniques have fully demonstrated their own characteristics and elegance through long-term singing practice.
Some of these tunes can be combined with other tunes and can be sung alone, some are only suitable for singing alone, but the vast majority of the tunes are combined with other tunes and play a good overall function.
Because of the use of a number of different melodies, different structures, different rhythms, and even different tonality of the tune to sing, greatly enriching the musical expression, so as to achieve a more perfect artistic effect.
Banqiangshi, also known as Banzi Silk String, is a kind of banqiangshi music which is not limited by tunes and has the characteristics of opera music, and is an important part of Changde Silk String music. It is an important part of Changde silk-string music. It has a systematic and complete singing style and has the infectious power of sincerity and sincerity, which is the essential music for singing large-scale silk-string operas.
Banzi Silk String consists of two kinds of voices: "Old Road" and "Chuan Road". Most of the "old road" is deep and thick, strong and stirring; "Chuan Road" is generally bright and broad, strong and powerful.
In addition to this, there is also the hybrid, which refers to a piece of music in both the music of the song, and the music of the plate, or the song and a mixture of plate, or "old", "Chuan" and other road of a variety of plate and one or more song mixed. This kind of structure is mostly used in the middle and long repertoire.
In Changde silk-string music, whether it is short, medium or long, whether it is a tune, a plate, or a mixture, the structural principle of "starting, leveling, and falling" is very much emphasized. Its melody is characterized by five degrees of span.
The sentence structure of Changde Silk String is composed of two sentences, four sentences and long and short sentences. The two-sentence form is very common in the tune, and the board cavity form is composed of the upper and lower sentences as the basic structural principle. The four-sentence form usually constitutes musical passages according to the principle of succession and transition, and is a more common structural form in the tune. The length of the phrase varies with the structure of the tune.
The Changde Silk String has a variety of modes and colors. The music of the tune is characterized by 徵调式, 商调式, Gong tone and 羽调式, while the horn tone is less common.
The Changde Silk String is sung in the Changde dialect centered on Changde's old Gaoshan Street, which is not only clear to southerners, but also understandable to northerners. Its singing is not only in line with the aesthetic habits of the general public, but also unique.
The people of Changde speak their own dialect as if they were singing, especially the women, whose tone is gentle and graceful, like a breeze on the face. Therefore, it has been said that "the music of Changde silk string is the music of language, and the language is the language of music". The two familiar phrases "ee-er-yo, ah-ee-yo" seem to label the Changde Silk String and are easily recognizable wherever they are placed.
Changde silk string in the emphasis on spoken word, rap at the same time, pay more attention to the melody of the playful, lyrical and musical, so that the line is soft, beautiful, gentle, or cheerful, jumping, witty. Artists believe that "the bite of a thousand pounds, the listener automatic tolerance". Artists pay attention to "the cavity from the word out, the sound follows the rhyme," so that the melody is more lively and dignified.
Because of the dialect and the artists' hobbies and interests and the development of the plot and other factors, the same brand of the same repertoire, different artists will sing a different flavor, resulting in the same song with a different effect; and even the same brand of the same repertoire, sung by the same artists, may also be in the word line cavity with a different staccato approach, through the embellishment of the cavity, to seek melodic variations of the tunes. The different singing characteristics of the artists gradually formed different styles and genres.
The traditional singing method of Changde Silk String is very concerned about self-playing and singing, and one person has many roles, which requires the actors to have a sweet, crisp and mellow voice, coupled with the characterization of the characters in the plot to adapt to the Run Cavity technique, to tell and sing the story through the change of the vocal cavity, and to portray various characters.
According to the needs of rapping and storytelling, the actor should be able to enter the role at any time, i.e., "in and out", sometimes as a rapper, and sometimes as a character in the play.
The Changde Silk String has always had a lot of singers with profound skills, and through their continuous inheritance and development, the Changde Silk String has become catchy, easy to sing, easy to remember, and easy to learn, and is loved by the masses.
The traditional singing form of Changde silk string is sitting singing, mostly singing a long section of silk string with stories and characters, and the singers are usually six people. The performance is very concerned about the sitting position, artists have "Yangqin on the drum plate, the high-hu on the erhu, the three strings on the pipa," said. Performers should be able to play and sing by themselves, and use their voices to portray all kinds of characters and tell stories.
If there are more roles in the repertoire than there are singers, each of them takes on a major role and then another one. Changde Silk String is usually sung in houses, halls and teahouses.
The main accompaniment of Changde Silk String is the huqin, whose barrel is larger than that of the general Jinghu and smaller than that of the erhu, and the Li County area uses the sihu as the main instrument. Sometimes to the needs of the program, but also with the Jinghu or Gaohu.
The traditional drum used for the Changde silk string is a special small drum, which is shaped like an upside-down rice bowl and made of a large bamboo pocket. Later, the silk strings were added to the percussion of the gongs and drums of Han opera and flower-drum opera, and were used in transitional music to enhance the atmosphere.
In the accompaniment of silk string singing, there are often five basic methods, such as supporting the cavity, wrapping the cavity, lining the cavity, cushioning the cavity and adding flowers.
The Changde Silk String has more than 100 traditional repertoires, among which the excellent traditional repertoires such as "Baoyu Weeping", "Lu Zhishen Drunkenly Beating the Mountain Gate", "Double Descending from the Mountain", "Wangwu Cursing the Chicken", "Zhaojun Going Out of the Frontiers", etc., have all along been favored by the general public.