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Local Ditties

Song and Dance duet

Local ditties are also called "local tunes", which come from local cultures and have local flavors and styles. There are a variety of local ditties, which spread in their original forms. They fall into two categories: one is shidiao, the other is folk. Shidiao local ditties include Beijingshidiao;Tianjinshidiao; taipinggu of Heilongjiang,Jilinand Liaoning;Shaoxingpinghudiao ofZhejiang;Ningbozoushu; Jiangsu xuanjuan; Anhui flower-drum opera; Shandong liqu; Fujian ditty; errentai of Shaanxi, shanxi and Inner Mongolia; Guangdong yuequ; Nanping tanchang of Sichuan. Folk ditties include Shibuxian lianhualuo of Beijing; Cangzhou mubanshu of Hebei; Qinzhou sanxianshu and Wuxiang sanxianshu of shanxi;Shanghaibozishu; Wuxi xiaorehun ofjiangsu;Suzhouwenshu; Shaoxing lianhualuo of Zhejiang; menge and sijutuizi ofAnhui; Xiangqu shuochang (singing and story-telling) and zhubange of Fujian; Hubei sanbanggu; Lianxiang and chedeng of Sichuan; Ningxia ditties; Ningxia qingqu; Hezhou xianxiao of Gansu; Xining xianxiao of Qinghai.

As the history of their existence varies, the aforementioned local ditties are at different stages of development. Some are mature such as Guangdong yuequ; some are more primitive with simple tunes. Nonetheless, all of them have taken deep root in the local cultures and are popular among the people.

Quyi Music of China's Ethnic Groups

Tuole'ao of Hasake Ethnic Group

China is a country of multi-ethnic groups. Its 55 ethnic minorities are diverse and colorful due to their different history, physical environments, ethnic cultures, linguistic rhymes, and folklores and customs. The popular ones are dabenqu ofBai Ethnic Group; gesa' erzhong, lama mani and zhege of Tibetan Ethnic Group; wuliger, and haolaibao of Mongolia Ethnic Group;dasitan, kuxiake and laipair ofUyger Ethnic Group; kesa, ayitesi and tie5 ermai of Hasake Ethnic Group; pansuoli of Korean Ethnic Group; molun, changshi and buya ofZhuang Ethnic Group; yimakan of Hezhe Ethnic Group; junpipa ofDong Ethnic Group; gabaim and guoha of Miao Ethnic Group; fenpengrao ofBuyi Ethnic Group; ganhaganpai of Dai Ethnic Group; and Jiasu of Yi Ethnic Group. Among these diverse genres, some have some have existed for a long time and have their own traditions; others come into being under the influences of the opera music of Han people or other Minorities.

Ouyi music of minorities is characterized by strong local flavors and ethnic cultures. Some of them are about stories of the minority and sometimes the lyrics are ethnic epics. They are characterized by recitability, bright calm rhythms and local styles. Some of them come from sacrifice ceremonies and are connected closely to local with strong rhythms and melodiousness. They are performed in the form of singing and dancing or playing instruments while singing. Some of them come from folktales, myths or folklores and the tunes mainly come from folk songs. They are characterized by beauty and passion. Some lyrics come from inprovisational eulogies or praises and are characterized by smoothness, liveliness and humor, and are very popular among their own ethnic groups.

Dagu Lyrics

Xihe Dagu

It is also called guci or dagushu which is mainly popular in northern China. Dagu has a long history and is somewhat influenced by guzici of Song Dynasty. The performers beat the drum while singing. The main accompanimentmusical instrumentsare sanxian, sihu,pipa, dulcimer. Genres of dagu are many such as muban dagu, jingyun dagu,Xihe dagu,Leting dagu,meihua dagu, tiepian dagu, jingdong dagu, dongbei dagu, Lu' an dagu, Xiangyuan dagu, Shandong dagu, Jiaodong dagu, Anhui dagujingdezhen dagu, Heluo dagu, Hubei dagu. The early dagu titles are mostly long and performed with ballad singing and story-telling; while the later ones are short and performed mainly or solely with ballad singing.

Music or dagu belongs to banqiang-style music. Their tunes are based on lyrics and full of changes depending on the emotion of the plot and the words used in the lyrics. The performance in highly expressive and variable gestures is catered to both nobility and commoners.

Qinshu

Shandong Qinshu

The accompaniment instrument of Qinshu is dulcimer. Qinshu is popular in China and has formed different schools such as Yicheng qinshu and Quwo qinshu ofshanxi, Shandong qinshu,Xuzhouqinshu ofjiangsu, Anhui, qinshu, Enshi dulcimer of Hubei, Sichuan dulcimer, Guizhou dulcimer, and Yunnan dulcimer. Some of qinshu tunes come from local music and some are transplants and then managed to take roots in the host regions. Qinshu tunes are characterized by its beauty and melodiousness and have strong local flavors.

Qinshu music is structured in either joined tunes or mixed tunes. Qinshu can be performed by a standing performer or more than two sitting performers or in the form of aria-singing without make-up.

Daoqing

Sichuan Zhuqing

Daoqing comes from the story-telling of Taoism priests and can be dated back to "Jiuzhen"and "Chengtian" of Taoism lyrics of Tang Dynasty. They are also called yugu or zhuqin or daoqingyugu because their percussion instruments are mainly yugu or clappers. They are widely popular in China and there are about dozens of different kinds of them, among which, the most famous ones are Huaibei(North ofHuaihe Region) daoqingjinbei (North shanxi) daoqing, Chang'an (Xfan)daoqing, Longdong (East Shaanxi) daoqing, Hubei yugu, Hunan yugu, and Sichuan zhuqin.

The tunes and accompaniment music of daoqing are rich and mainly performed in the form of repetitive singing of two lines or four lines of its basic tunes, and sometimes in the form of a single tune or joined tunes. At its early performance, it was performed in the form of aria-singing with beats. In the recent decades, the number of singers of each performance has increased and more instruments such as erhu, pipa, bo, etc. have been introduced to daoqing.

In the course of its spreading and inheriting, daoqing has taken in different tunes from folk songs, local operas, and integrated with dialects of the regions in which it was established.
As a result, daoqing often exhibits a strong recital or chanting style and gives a great emphasis on expressing emotions.

Quyi music is colorful and diverse. More than 80 percent of over 500 quyi genres are in the form of ballad-singing or singing-and-talking. Quyi music is one of the important components of traditional Chinese music and one of representatives of China's oral cultural heritage.

Collection of Chinese Quyi Music, is a publication that combines quyi music, social life and cultural traditions. The Collection integrates sound, music scores, text, graphs and pictures, and is logically and systemically organized and lucidly classified. As a whole, it reflects the evolution, development and current state of quyi music with its accurate and full music scores, general introduction and music text.

Collection of Chinese Quyi Music fully demonstrates China's ancient historical traditions and rich collections of quyi music, It becomes fully evident how splendid and rich quyi music is through 509 genres of opera music identified for Han People alone, such as paizi music, dagu lyrics, tanci, qinshu, daoqing, local ditties, etc. The Collection consists of 29 volumes, one for each province or municipality or autonomous region (except Hainan), with a total of over 43,500,000 words. Each volume has about 1,500,000 words augmented with over 2,000 illustrations of stage performances, representative actors or performers and their relevant historical materials.

Twenty-two volumes of The Collection of China's Quyi Music have already been published and the rest will be completed by 2005.

Paiziqu

Paiziqu is a story-telling and ballad-singing opera using its basic, either using the repetition of one tune name or the joining of a number of tune names. It is popular all over China such as Danxianpaiziqu inBeijing, bajiaogu in Henan qu in Henan, Shaanxi qu in Shaanxi, Lanzhou guzi in Gansu, Qinghai pingxian in Qinghai,Yangzhoudagu in Jiangsu, Jiangxiqingyininjiangxi, Fujian nanyin in Fujian, Sichuan qingyin in Sichuan, Hubei ditty in Hubei, Changyang nanqu in Jiangsu, Hunan sixian in Hunan,Guangxiwenchangin Guangxi, and song-and-dance duet of HeilongjiangJilin, and Liaoning.

Having roots in changzhuan and zhugongdiao of Song Dynasty andYuan Dynastyas well as and folk songs ofMing and Qing Dynasties, Paiziqu has developed into a genre with a multitude of scores and a rich repertoire of tune names. At the time of staging, the number of tune names utilized is determined depending on the story content and length. Every qu music enjoys a unique local flavor and style.

Tanci

Suzhou Tanci

Tanci has been very popular in southern China since Ming and Qing Dynasties. The singers play a minature sanxian or pipa while singing. There are diverse kinds to Tanci such as Suzhou tanci ofjiangsu,Shanghai and Zhejiang;Yangzhoutanci and Qihai tanci of Jiangsu; Siming nanci and Shaoxingpinghudiao of Zhejiang; Fujian nanci; Guangdong muyuge; and Changshatanci.

Tanci music is composed of basic tunes and tunes of different singing schools. Most of the tunes are melodious, delicate, beautiful, exquisite, clear and smooth; therefore they have strong artistic appeal. There are many fine actors or performers of different tanci schools of different times. The performances are in different forms, of which, the traditional ones are performed by one performer, two performers or three performers.