The Content and Genre of Miao Songs of Xiangxi Miao Songs

The Miao songs of western Hunan are rich in content and diverse in genre. As far as the singing style of Miao songs is concerned, most of them belong to or are close to the mountain song genre.

The contents of western Xiangxi Miao songs are mainly:

1. Expressing the love between young men and women and reflecting the daily life of the Miao people.

2. Sacrifices, sacrifices to the gods, but also Nuo wish to pay God.

3. Daughters get married, crying marriage.

4. Narrative of Miao heroes, telling folk tales.

5. Dancing cattle, customary sacrifices.

6. Hospitable Hmong people, stopping the door to eat sprinkles.

7. Carrying the immortal sacrifice, to remove the disease and subdue the devil.

8. Miao people celebrate the harvest and wish for good weather in the coming year.

The genre of Miao songs in western Hunan is very complex, the author according to the singing occasions and singing forms, the Miao songs are divided into two categories: "shao-wu" (high voice) and "shao-sa" (flat voice), some of the domestic researchers of folk songs, according to the characteristics of the singing of the Miao songs. Some domestic folk song researchers have also regarded "Shao-wu" as a lyrical song and "Shao-sa" as a "declarative song" according to the singing characteristics of Miao songs. The melody of "Shao-wu" has a big undulation, strong lyricism, high pitch, and beautiful lyricism. The melody of "Shaosha" is straight, and the tune is clear and melodious, belonging to the recitation tune. In the Miao song, genre classification is very strict, in different occasions, need to use different cadences and categories of singing. In the singing of "rituals, crying marriage, cattle, jumping incense, carrying fairy" five types of songs, you must use "Shaosha" (flat accent) singing.

In the lyrics of Xiangxi Miao songs, I found that in addition to expressing the moral of the songs, it can also be used as a liner, that is, in the singing of songs, in order to strengthen the "harmony" of the songs, some liner notes are used in the songs, mixing the liner notes with the main words. In other words, in order to strengthen the "harmony" of the song, they use some liner notes in the song, mixing the liner notes with the main lyrics, and sometimes using the liner notes as a separate vocal part. In this way, Miao songs become more colorful and thicker under the effect of liner notes and cadences. According to the author's rough statistics, there are four main types of this kind of multi-voiced Miao songs with liner notes and cadences. Firstly, the liner notes and cadences enter behind the main words or phrases, and then seep into each other, with interwoven and clear melodic lines. Secondly, the melody of the liner notes and cadences starts first, followed by the main words and phrases, and then seeps in. Thirdly, the liner notes and cadences enter at the same time as the main words and phrases, and the two different melodic lines bleed into each other, imitating and echoing each other. Fourthly, the liner notes and cadences are inserted in the middle of the phrases, twisting the melodic line of the main phrase, so that the polyphonic effect appears and disappears. Due to the diversity of Xiangxi Miao songs, the original kind of square monophonic music thinking was broken, a new, three-dimensional, polyphonic aesthetic consciousness of Miao songs came into being.