Folk songs, or folk songs for short, are songs created and sung by the working people themselves in their life and labor. In the long process of historical development, traditional folk songs have survived in folklore by way of oral creation and oral circulation, and in the process of circulation have continued to undergo the people's collective screening, transformation, processing and refining. Therefore, the folk songs passed down to the present day have gathered the collective wisdom and emotional experience of the people of different periods, different regions, different identities, different experiences, and have become more and more perfect, and have become the crystallization of the expression of the people's thoughts and feelings.
Folk songs are the earliest form of music in the life of human society, and have given birth to other folk music genres and professional music forms. It can be said that folk songs are the foundation of all musical art.
2, the multi-functionality of folk songs In addition to the role of entertainment, folk songs also have a variety of social functions:
1, education and inheritance function. Some ethnic minorities in China have passed down folk songs that sing long narrative poems and historical poems, which record the origin of mankind, the development and change of the nation, heroic epics, production life and ritual knowledge, and so on.
2, life ritual function. In the birth, adulthood, marriage and death of the four important stages of life, folk songs are often accompanied by ceremonial activities, becoming an important program.
3, rituals and exorcism. Some ethnic groups often sing in the rituals and exorcisms hosted by sorcerers and goddesses.
4, social function. Including love, exchanges, and the fight of songs, etc., often sung in traditional singing festivals or daily life.
5. Expressing the people's voices. Folk songs are the voice of the working people, and many traditional folk songs express the people's resistance to the unreasonable system of the old times.
3. Historical Poems and Heroic Epics of Ethnic Minorities Among some ethnic groups in China, folk songs singing historical poems have been passed down, such as the "Meiguo" of the Yi, the "Ancient Songs" of the Miao, the "Pan Wang Song" of the Yao, the "Songs of the Opening of the Sky and the Earth" of the Hani, the "Mu Nao Zhaiwa" of the Jingpo, and the "Creation of the Book of Genesis" of the Dulong, etc. These folk songs recount the stories about the universe and the world, which have been widely recognized by the Chinese people. These folk songs recount ancient myths and legends about the universe and the origin of mankind, as well as the ancestors' knowledge of some natural phenomena. Most of these songs are sung by shamans or respected elders during festivals, sacrifices or wedding and funeral ceremonies, and the atmosphere is solemn. Their tunes are close to the spoken language, and the chanting is strong; the lyrics are long, some of them up to tens of thousands of lines, and it takes hours or even days to sing them all.
Heroic epics were developed on the basis of folk songs and ballads and myths and legends, a little later than myths. Heroic epics depict the wars that took place during the formation of clans, tribes and nations, and the exploits created by the heroic figures in the wars. Examples include the Mongolian "Jangal", the Kirgiz "Manas", and the Dai "Zhaoshutun".
4. Traditional Singing Festivals Many ethnic groups in China have their own traditional singing festivals, such as the "Song Market" of the Zhuang, the "Touring Party" of the Miao, the "Walking Slope" of the Mulao, the "Flower Festival" of the Tu, Hui, Salar, Dongxiang, Baoan, and Han in the Northwest China, etc. On the day of the festival, hundreds of people will be invited to participate in the festival. On the day of the festival, hundreds of young men and women gather to play and sing songs on the outdoor singing ground specially set up to show their talents on the one hand, and to look for a compatible partner of the opposite sex during the singing activities on the other hand.
5. Tang Dynasty Songs The Tang Dynasty Songs came out of the primitive folk songs, but they were detached from the primitive form of folk songs. It is a selection of especially favored tunes among the many folk songs that have been passed down. People processed and adapted these tunes, filling them with a variety of lyrics and handling them carefully in their singing. In the Song Dynasty, these tunes became even more popular, and became the basis for many forms of folk music, such as opera and rap. The literati of the time also imitated the form of the tune to write lyrics, which became the lyrics. This pathway of Tang Dynasty tunes, which developed and mutated from primitive folk songs and was absorbed by opera and rap music, is similar to the folk songs and time tunes after the Ming and Qing dynasties.
6, the genre of folk songs China's Han folk songs have a variety of categorization methods, the genre division of folk songs is one of the methods of categorizing the artistic style of music. This classification method divides Han folk songs into three main categories: labor trumpets, mountain songs and ditties. The formation of the genres of folk songs is related to different scenes of life and labor, and these background factors determine, to a certain extent, the basic methods of expression and artistic characteristics of the various genres of folk songs. For example, the intensity and rhythm of labor make the labor horn form a firm and powerful character; the vastness of the fields and mountains makes the singers raise the pitch and widen the rhythm for the sake of the distant transmission of the songs; the singing in the city or indoor, as well as the accompaniment of musical instruments, make the singing rhythm of the minors more standardized; and the professional singing of the artists makes the minors more delicate in their lines. But on the other hand, the practical application of folk song genres is not entirely constrained by the scenes of life and labor, and people often sing different genres of folk songs in the same life and labor occasions, as a spice for the labor process and to enrich the cultural life.
7. Labor Horns Labor Horns are folk songs produced and applied to labor, with the practical function of coordinating and directing labor. In the process of labor, especially the collective collaborative labor, in order to unify the pace, regulate breathing, release the pressure of the body weight, the workers often issued yells or hoots. These yells and hoots were gradually embellished by the working people and developed into the form of songs. From the simple, rhythmic hooting in the initial labor, it developed into the form of songs with rich lyrics and complete tunes. The labor hooting reflects the wisdom and strength of the laboring people, and shows the optimism and fearless heroism of the laboring people through the labor hooting.
8, the dual function of the labor trumpet The dual function of the labor trumpet is the practical function and artistic performance function. In the labor, the dual function of the labor trumpet is manifested in: on the one hand, it can inspire the spirit, regulate the mood, organization and command of the collective labor; on the other hand, it also has a certain artistic performance value. The relationship between these two is mutual constraints, mutual exclusion, the greater the intensity of labor, the greater the constraints on the musical performance of the labor horn. On the contrary, the labor intensity is small, the labor horn singer can have a larger margin to deliberate and play the labor horn music artistic expression.
9, the types of labor trumpet labor trumpet there are the following categories:
(1) handling trumpet, in loading and unloading, carrying, picking, carting and other labor singing;
(2) engineering trumpet, in ramming, ramming, felling, quarrying, and other labor singing;
(3) agricultural trumpet, agricultural labor singing, such as beating wheat, pounding rice, car water, grass-gathering, etc.
(4) Boat and Fishing Horns, accompanied by water transportation, fishing, boat work and other labor.
10. Rhythmicity Rhythmicity is a typical rhythmic pattern in the music of labor bugles, and it is also one of the main characteristics of labor bugle music. The constant repetition of labor movements and its rhythmic sense, gives the rhythm of labor horn rhythmicity. The so-called rhythmicity refers to a kind of fixed and repeated rhythmic patterns that often appear in the music of the bugle. These rhythmic units not only have roughly the same time value, but also often have a relatively uniform arrangement of melodic material.
There are three types of rhythmic patterns in the labor bugle:
1, long rhythm, the length of the rhythmic unit is generally equivalent to a musical phrase;
2, flat rhythm, the length of the rhythmic unit is generally equivalent to a musical section;
3, short rhythm, generally one beat for a rhythmic unit.
11, a leader of the crowd and a leader of the crowd and is another major feature of the labor horn music. Labor horn singing form of solo, duet, sing, etc., but a leader of the crowd and is the most common, the most typical way of singing. The leader is often the conductor of the collective labor. Leader part is often the main statement of the lyrics of the part of the music is more flexible, free, tune and lyrics often improvised changes, melody often up, or more high-pitched loud and clear, there are call, call characteristics; and sing the part of the part of the mostly liner notes or repeating the lead singer in the fragments of the lyrics, the music is more fixed, fewer changes, rhythmic strong, often using the same musical repertoire or the same rhythmic repetitions.
There are three main types of one-lead congregation and in labor horn singing: 1, alternating echo type; 2, overlapping type; 3, integrated type.
12, mountain song mountain song is the working people free expression of emotions of folk song types. The most common contents of traditional mountain songs are love and suffering. Mountain songs are often sung outdoors, the tunes are high and loud, the rhythms are free and long, and the lyrics are mostly improvised. The lyrics of the songs are characterized by pure emotion, bold imagery and clever metaphors, and are vivid and touching. Shan songs often begin with the highest note of the song, which is full of emotion and strong expression. In the high register, the songs often have free prolongation. Some songs are sung in falsetto or a combination of falsetto and falsetto because of their high register.
13, the song type of mountain song song type is a different region of the local folk song of the unique title, such as the northern Shaanxi Province, "Albatross", Shanxi, "mountain song", Inner Mongolia, "climbing the mountain tune", Qinghai, Gansu and other places of the "flower", "young", Hubei, "to catch up with the five sentences", Sichuan, "morning song", Anhui, "earn the neck of the red," and so on.
14, "head and tail Qi", "two loads of water", "broken waist" "head and tail Qi", "two loads of water" and "broken waist" is popular in Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, the mountain song "flowers" lyrics structure form." There are two main types of structures for the lyrics of "Hua'er". One is the "head and tail Qi" style, consisting of four lines of lyrics, that is, two pairs of upper and lower sentences composed of the same number of words in each sentence, but the upper and lower sentences of the lyrics of the phrase structure in the rhythm of the formation of the effect of mutual interlacing, a single digit or phrases and double-digit phrases; the second form of lyrics structure by the local people figuratively known as the "two quintals of water" or "break the waist" is a six-sentence structure, which is in the "head and tail Qi" type of each pair of sentences, plus a three to five words in each pair of sentences, and then a three to five words, and a three to five words, and a three to five words.
For the first time in the history of the Chinese opera, the Chinese opera has been written in the style of a six-paragraph structure, that is, between each pair of upper and lower lines of the "head-tail-qi" style, there is a three- to five-word half-paragraph, which not only increases the capacity of the lyrics, but also brings about changes in the rhythm, making the song catchy.
15, plus stacks The stacks are often used in folk songs. The stacks of sentences are generally dense rhythm, often a word, a tone, melodic, rhythm is handled neatly and consistently, staccato and powerful, similar to the recitation style of the number plate. Instead of pursuing melodic ups and downs, the palletizing phrase emphasizes the dynamism of the rhythm. The phrase is often inserted in the middle of the section of a folk song, and its resounding rhythm contrasts sharply with the stretching melody before and after it, while at the same time expanding the capacity of the words. It also serves to build up the momentum for the subsequent stretching melody.
Adding stacks is also called "clip stacks". It is a part added to the structure of a folk song, and it is often sandwiched in the middle of a passage.
16. Lian Bajie Lian Bajie, also written as "Lian Bajie", is a type of mountain song structure, popular in Sichuan and southern Shaanxi. Its structure is as follows: before and after the two up and down phrases, the second phrase is the first phrase of the repetition or change of the repetition; in the middle of the insertion of a section of the nature of the counting board, the rhythm than the two before and after the two phrases are relatively dense, the sentence length is compact. The whole piece has one ****8 lines. In some cases, even the middle section of the eight sentences constitutes a complete four-sentence section, which forms a three-part structure with a recapitulation.
17, five-sentence song Five-sentence song is also a structural type of mountain song, popular in Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan and southern Shaanxi and other regions. Its structure is as follows: the 1st and 2nd lines are a corresponding section of the upper and lower phrases, the 4th and 5th lines are the repetition or variation of the 1st and 2nd lines, and the 3rd line in the middle is either a variation of the 1st line (i.e., a change in the end of the phrase), or a synthesis of the 1st and 2nd phrases (the head of the 1st line and the end of the 2nd line are more common), or the use of new material. At the same time, the falling note of the 3rd phrase is often the tonic dominant, sometimes a second or fourth above or below the tonic dominant. In this way, the fall of the five stanzas of the song develops the following pattern: fifth - dominant - dominant (or diatonic or quadratic) - fifth - dominant.
18. The Free Rhythm of Mountain Songs The free and long rhythmic pattern is characteristic of the typical mountain song genre, and it is mainly manifested in two interdependent aspects. First, in the part of the statement of the lyrics, the rhythm of the music of the mountain songs is close to the rhythm of natural language, the purpose is to speak directly and clearly from the heart; secondly, in the words of the lyrics of the phrases or sentences (dòu), that is, the end of the melodic sections or phrases, the mountain songs are often free prolongation of the sound, in order to express the feelings of the heart to the fullest. The regular and dense rhythm of the statement part of the lyrics and the free prolongation of the emotional aria form a sharp contrast between density and relaxation, regularity and freedom, and because of the frequent and diversified alternation of the two, the rhythmic layout of the songs is enriched, and the expressive power of the music of the songs is strengthened.
19, ditties The ditties, also known as ditties, common songs, etc., are folk songs widely circulated in rural areas and urban towns. The differences with the labor horn and mountain song are:
1, the circulation and development of the ditty, reflecting the interactive influence of urban and rural music and culture and close contact. The circulation of ditties spread to different classes in urban and rural areas, and a wide range of social classes directly or briefly involved in the creation and processing;
2, ditties have fixed lyrics and singing books;
3, in addition to the general public, ditties are sung commercially by professional and semi-professional artists in bustling public **** venues, and often accompanied by musical instruments.
Small tunes are often linked in the form of four seasons, five shifts, and twelve months as multi-section songs. Its tunes are highly melodic, rhythmic, structural
regular and well-proportioned, artistic techniques are rich and varied, and the expression of emotions is more euphemistic, sending lyricism in the narrative.
20, the corresponding two-sentence body in folk songs and its changes in the form of the so-called corresponding structure in folk songs, that is, the two phrases constitute the musical section, also known as the upper and lower sentences. These two phrases respond to each other, complement each other, **** the same expression of a musical content. In the corresponding two-sentence structure, the end of the upper and lower phrases often form a relationship of four or five degrees.
Most of the northern mountain songs have a two-sentence structure, such as the "Albatross" of northern Shaanxi, the "Mountain Song" of Shanxi, and the "Flower Children" of Gansu and Qinghai, etc. In the south, the four-sentence structure is common, but in the south, it is not. Southern mountain songs have a common four-sentence structure, which is also closely related to the two-sentence structure. Some of them are repetitions of the two-sentence structure or repetitions with slight variations, and some of them have more variations in the third sentence. The "five-sentence song" and "eight-sentence song" popular in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and southern Shaanxi are also based on the two-sentence structure.
There are also a lot of corresponding two-sentence phrases in minor keys, and there are also variations of these phrases. For example, the structure of an upper and lower sentence plus their changes and repetitions, forming a four-sentence counterpart structure; the structure of an upper sentence and two lower sentences; the structure of two upper sentences and one lower sentence, and so on.
21, the folk song and its changes in the form of the beginning of the beginning of the folk song has the following characteristics:
1, the landing: the second and fourth sentence end of the same landing, the first sentence and the second and fourth sentence of the end of the landing of the fourth and fifth degree of the corresponding relationship, the third sentence landing and the other sentences are different;
2, the melody: between the second and fourth sentence or repetition (including changes in repetition). Melody: the 2nd and 4th lines are either repetitive (including varied repetition) or have some identical or similar tones. The 3rd phrase has a certain contrast with the preceding and following phrases in terms of melodic line and rhythm.
There are also sections in mountain songs, such as the zheng-type mountain songs of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This structure is even more common in minor keys, and there are
variations of this structure.
22, the flow of folk songs The flow of folk song variation is very common, in all categories are widely available. In the minor key of the time, the variation is more prominent, including: regional variation, emotional rendering variation, performance function broadening variation, genre cross-penetration variation and so on. These categories of variation are specifically expressed in music by the following techniques:
1, addition;
2, reduction;
3, expansion;
4, change of musical structure;
5, change of tonality or modulation;
6, change of genre or interpenetration of genres, etc.
These are the most important factors in the development of music.
23. Time Tune Time Tune is the most standardized and mature type of folk songs in the minor key category. It has the following characteristics:
1. It has been in circulation for a long time and is widely sung.
2, not only the general public singing, there are professional or semi-professional artists in the lively public **** place for commercial singing.
3, due to the long time of circulation, wide range, the same song has a variety of lyrics. In order to adapt to different themes,
different musical characters and different local styles, the time tone in the basic melodic framework on the basis of the general stability of the other elements of the music to be adjusted and adapted to the changes. Some of the variants of the time signature are more varied than others. Therefore, a time key often has the function of flexible expression.
4, due to the commercial singing of artists, in order to strive for efficiency, artists work on the time tune processing and transformation, so that it has a rigorous and regular structure, rich changes in rhythm and tone, detailed and elaborate embellishments and so on.
5. Because of the above reasons, time tunes are often absorbed by opera, rap and folk instrumental music, and become tunes.
24, long and short tunes Long and short tunes are the traditional genre classification of Mongolian folk songs. Long key folk songs are the pastoral style reflecting the nomadic life of the Mongols
These songs have a long length, free rhythm, wide breath, deep emotion, and unique and delicate vibrato decorations. The short-keyed folk songs are shorter in length, with compact tunes, neat and distinctive rhythms, and relatively narrower ranges. Whether it is a long-toned folk song or a short-toned folk song, there are a large number of big jump intervals that are characteristic of Mongolian music.
25, the Kazakh playing and singing songs Playing and singing songs is one of the forms of Kazakh folk songs, with the Kazakh plucked instrument Dongbula as accompaniment, by the singer
singers play and sing. There are no fixed lyrics for the songs, which are improvised by the singers. Its tunes are longer in length, the musical structure is not very regular, the rhythm is more complex, often using a mixed beat of 3/8 beat, the tunes of the language, narrative strong.
26. Neutral tone The neutral tone, also called 3/4 tone or "live tone", is one of the characteristics of the typical Persian-Arabic music system in Uyghur music. Due to the complexity of the historical development process, Uyghur folk songs include three major music systems in the world, namely: the Chinese music system, the European music system and the Persian-Arabic music system. Among them, the Persian-Arabic music system is its most important and representative music system.
Neutral tones are raised or lowered by 1/4 from the usual whole tone, while moving up and down in the range of 1/4-2/4 whole tone.
27, Tibetan wine song Tibetan wine song is a folk song sung when drinking and toasting, sometimes accompanied by simple dance movements, is the Tibetan urban and rural people very favorite art form. During traditional festivals, gatherings of friends and relatives, or weddings, people sit around a Tibetan-style square table in order of seniority. The wine-pourer is usually a woman, who takes turns pouring wine for each person according to age, and sings and dances. The drinkers are required to follow the songs and words to complete the procedures of receiving the wine cup, flicking the wine to the sky three times with their ring fingers, drinking three mouthfuls of wine, and drinking a toast.
28. The "Four Great Cavities", which originated in the Nisu branch of the Yi people in Yunnan, is a form of folk song that is closely connected with the traditional customary social and love activities of young men and women. This customary activity is called by the Nisu people "eat fire grass smoke", usually held in the evening in the countryside, temples, ancestral shrines or the village head public housing, *** there are three contents: money vernacular, singing songs, jumping string. One of the songs, that is, the "four cavities".
The "Four Cavities" is a general term for the "Sea Vegetable Cavity", "Yam Cavity", "Four Cavities" and "Five Mountain Cavity", which have been passed down in the four regions of the Nisu people's settlements, and are four different kinds of vocal and suite forms, characterized by their long lengths, rigorous structures, deep tunes, and higher singing skills.
29, multi-voice folk songs of ethnic minorities From the information collected so far, China's multi-voice folk songs of ethnic minorities are more concentrated in the south, such as the Zhuang, Dong, Maonan, Tujia, Miao, Yao, She, Yi, Naxi, Gaoshan and so on. Polyphonic folk songs are mainly produced in traditional group labor and group customary gatherings (e.g., song meetings, sacrificial dances, accompanying marriages, etc.). The weaving structure of these polyphonic folk songs includes five types: the wheel-singing type, the combination of the main melody and the imitation melody, the combination of the sustained bass or fixed tone pattern and the main melody, the combination of the branching melody and the main melody, as well as the harmonic and counterpoint types.
30, huomei huomei is a special kind of Mongolian folk songs in the multi-part singing, that is, by a person singing two parts at the same time. At the same time the vocal cords continue to emit solid tones, through the impact of the breath and then emit high vocal overtones, and adjust the breath so that the overtones form a melody, and the solid tones are sustained bass. Hula singers with high skill can sing melodic and rich overtone tunes on the basis of their own sustained bass notes.