Yangge
Yangge is popular in the Han area in the north of China and is mainly performed in squares on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunar New Year when the Lantern Festival is celebrated, and it is a kind of comprehensive art form integrating songs, dances and plays. There are two general forms of Yangge performance, namely, the ground Yangge (migratory steps on the ground) and stilts (feet on wooden stilts bound to the legs). Rice-planting songs are performed by a team of ten to dozens of people. The dancers dress up as characters from life or myths and legends, and carry props such as fans, handkerchiefs, drums, sticks and umbrellas. There are two types of Yangge dances: big and small. Daba is a collective dance, in which 1-2 leading dancers lead the rice-planting team to dance and walk in various formations. The big field is used for the beginning and the end of the rice-planting song, while the middle is a dance performed by 2-3 people and a small opera called small field.
The music of the rice-planting songs generally has three parts:
1. The singing of the small field consists of "leading the rice-planting songs" and "walking opera tunes". The former by a rice-planting song head in the opening into the singing, not combined with the dance; the latter even dance while singing. The tunes sung in the small field are mostly transplanted from the folk songs in the ditties, and join the gongs and drums through the door.
2. Drums and gongs are mainly used as dance accompaniment.
3, suona blowing mainly used as dance accompaniment
Range songs are widely popular in the northern provinces of China, representative of Hebei's Jizhong Yangge, Jidong Yangge; Shandong's Drums Yangge, Haiyang Yangge, Jiaozhou Yangge, Shanxi's Qitai Yangge, as well as the Shaanxi Yangge, the Northeast Yangge and so on. In addition to suona, gongs and drums, there are also erhu and flute.
Flower lanterns
Flower lanterns are mainly popular in China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan and other provinces. In addition to the Han Chinese, they are also popular among the local Xian, Miao, Buyi, Tujia and other ethnic minorities. In the process of development, the lanterns have formed two main types: and class favors dance, by young men and women singing and dancing or singing and dancing; the other class favors storyline and characterization, and develops towards folk drama.
The lanterns and tea picking in the south, like the rice-planting songs in the north, are mainly performed during the first month, with the Lantern Festival being the climax. The main forms of performance are:
1, Lantern Dance This is the earliest form of performance. Performers holding beautifully crafted colorful lanterns, singing and dancing. Sometimes there are big-headed monks, fishermen and other characters with the dance.
2, collective song and dance
The number of participants is large, and there is a strong self-indulgence. People hold the same props, such as lanterns, fans, scarves, or flower baskets, etc., and dance while singing, and come out in various formations.
3, small song and dance men and women two or three people, performing a simple plot of small song and dance, the content is labor or love. Often improvised lyrics and dances.
The music of the lanterns is adapted and developed on the basis of mountain songs and ditties from all over the world, which are generally short and lively tunes. In the performance of more complex programs, often several tunes are linked together. There are also a number of Ming and Qing dynasty songs and minority music in lantern music. The lanterns are accompanied by musical instruments such as huqin, yueqin, sanxian, flute and gongs, drums, cymbals and so on.
Tea Picking
Tea picking is spreading in the tea picking areas in the south of China, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, etc. The usual form of the performance is a man and a woman or a man and two women, with the man holding a money ruler (whip) to simulate the lentil, hoe, or support the boat pole, etc. The woman's hand fan, simulating the bamboo, the bamboo and the bamboo lantern. Female hand flower fan, simulation of bamboo baskets, umbrellas or tea utensils, and sometimes also take a variety of lamps on behalf of the paste, singing and dancing. The content of the performance is the whole process of tea farmers' labor, from planting tea, picking tea to making (fried tea) and selling tea. Some areas in the performance is also interspersed with folklore stories, absorbing more folk tunes, performers have increased to several to dozens of people.
The tea-picking song and dance forms have three stages of development, at first simple "tea song", that is, the tea farmers labor songs, songs, songs, horns, ditties have; later developed into a song and dance "tea lights", that is, the tea farmer's labor action slightly processed, accompanied by song and dance, while singing and dancing.
The tea light is a song that is accompanied by a song and dance, and is sung while dancing.
The accompanying instruments of tea plucking are erhu, flute, suona and gong, cymbals, etc., and suona is the main music of the door or field.
Flower Drums
Flower drums are mainly popular in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other provinces. During the Lantern Festival or other festivals, flower drums are often performed together with rice-planting songs, lanterns, and tea picking. The main form of flower drums is a man and a woman, with the man holding a gong and the woman carrying a drum, singing and dancing to the accompaniment of the gongs and drums. The tunes sung are formed on the basis of local ditties and mountain songs, characterized by distinctive rhythms and smooth melodies. Among the flower drums of various regions, the more representative ones are the Fengyang Flower Drum of Anhui, the Shandong Flower Drum, the Hunan and Hubei Flower Drums, and the Jinnan Flower Drum of Shanxi.
Since the Qing Dynasty, the flower drums have gradually increased their storylines, and in addition to being widely circulated as folk songs and dances, the flower drums in various regions have further absorbed folk songs and opera cantatas and performed them on the stage, becoming small local operas, such as the Hunan Flower Drum Opera and the Hubei Flower Drum Opera.
Anhui Flower Drum Lanterns
Anhui Flower Drum Lanterns were developed from local lantern festivals and social fires, and were perfected during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. It was very popular in the rural areas around Huaibei.
Flower Drum Lanterns are performed at annual festivals, temple fairs and winter holidays, and are often performed together with dragon lanterns, lions, horse lanterns and other folk prop dances. Flower Drum Lantern consists of three parts: dance, singing and opera, and there is no dance when it is sung, and no song when it is danced. It is characterized by a combination of self-indulgence and performance. The tunes sung are flower-drum songs formed on the basis of mountain songs and local ditties, such as "Seller of Goods" and "Meng Jiangnu", etc. The accompaniment is mainly percussion instruments, such as big gongs, flower drums, small cymbals and small hand gongs, etc. The gongs and dances work well with each other. Drums and dances work well together, and it is said that "half a gong and half a play".