Chinese Folk Music
The tradition of music is as old as the Chinese civilisation. Several instruments were excavated from various sites, and they date back to the Shang dynasty. These artefacts reveal a lot about the Chinese music. They show that way back then; the society had already advanced their musical instrument. The artefacts were advanced. While the European music was just at the toddler stage, the Chinese were well developed. The Chinese music dates back to the era of Confucius who advocated that music was one of the ways that one can get calmed and even dispel lust and unrest. By the time the Han dynasty was ruling over the country, the emperor had Set up a Music bureau that was responsible for collecting and editing folks and ancient melodies. There was also commercial contact between Central Asia that helped to introduce a new aspect of music in the Chinese culture.
There are several folk music within the Chinese society. The most outstanding is the Han folk music, but there is still other ethnic folk music that includes the Dong, Uighur and Tibetan. The Chinese society is made up of about 92% of the Han. The diversity within the Han people leads to the emergence of several types of Han folk music. However, the folk music is much prevalent among the people that live in the countryside. Just a few years ago the most of the Chinese people were living in the rural areas, and through this, the folk music had taken deep roots. Though the movement to the urban areas has slightly affected the folk music, there are still deeps roots to this music. The Han people have several dialect and languages, and as a result, there are several styles of folk music (Ren). The folk music also depends on the region that it exists. Over the years the Chinese people have lived a life of peasants. It is common thus to hear the folk music being played in funerals, festivals and weddings. The New Year’s celebrations are one place that people can commonly experience the folk music (Jones). While civilisation and the influence of other culture seem to be pushing the folk music to the corner, there are still people that prefer this music. It is common to hear the people plying the music in wedding dinners. The culture of folk music has not thus left the Chinese people.
There are several local types of the Han folk music. In northern 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China, the folk type is often associated with wind and percussion instruments. The musicians play mouth organs called dizi, Sheng and gongs and drums. In North central 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China the most common music that the Han people played composed of using dizi and sheng. There is quite a difference with the people living in Eastern 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China and the choice of the instrument they use for folk music. The more prosperous provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang often use tools such as gaohu, erhu, and the gu. In the Fujian province the people use the device such as the Nanguan a Nanyin. However, one unique thing about the people in this province is that women sing the music. They use traditional instruments accompanied by the pipa and xiao. They often sing in melancholic tones. In south 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China, the provinces that are common with folk music are Guangxi and Guangdong. These are the provinces that have the largest population of people that speak the Cantonese language. They also have a distinct culture and unique folk music tradition. The music is commonly rhythmic (Jones).
There is also something unique about the Tibetan folk music. The Tibetan lives in the Tibet region and most of the western and southern provinces. For the Tibetan, their fold music is more of religions. The chants and the song are often about religious topics. The people are used to reciting and teaching their religious values through the folk music. Apart from their religion they also have a classical tradition known as the Uyghur Muqam. The uniqueness of this music was in the way that the music was played. In this case, the orchestra could play different traditional instruments. The instruments are not similar to the Chinese instrument. They are thought to have come from central and western Asian. Even at the times that the music is played, one can easily see that it suits mostly the Uighur musicians.
The dong folk music has something unique from the other type of music. The Dong villages are smaller as compared to the Tibet and the Xinjiang. They live in the southern part of 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China and the regions between Guangxi and Hunan and Guizhou. The choirs of these people are mostly polyphonic. The uniqueness of their performance has also been listed in the UNESCO in 2009 as a world-class intangible cultural heritage. During the festival, the villagers come together to perform their music accompanied by flutes dance and sing. One can get time to enjoy such grant orchestra during the Bull Fighting Festivals.
One thing that is important to understand is the uniqueness of the beat, rhythm tone and quality that is found in the Chinese folk music, which is quite different from western music. The Chinese have a unique sound of playing their traditional instruments. The uniqueness comes from the use of the bowed strings and the way they are modelled into the wood. There is also the other category of apparatus that includes plucked strings. In this case, various types of folk instruments comprise the dulcimers, harps and flutes. The uniqueness of the apparatus of comes from the kind of material they are made of (Xing, Baixi, et al. 620).
The Chinese society, society has several unique things that one can learn from. While the community might have developed over the past few decades, there are still many things that always bring about their cultural roots. The Chinese music is one of the things that have helped to perverse the Chinese culture. Their folk music brings about the critical aspect of the culture of the Chinese and how they used to value music. Although the music might have changed over the past few years are a result of the fusion with other Asian cultures, but it is still clear that they have more of the ancient Chinese culture. The folk music can be said like one thing that preserves and presents the Chinese folk culture. Today, people can still attend these ceremonies and have a good feeling of the music and the culture that it represents.
Works Cited
Jones, Stephen. In search of the folk Daoists of north 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China. Routledge, 2016.
Jones, Stephen. Ritual and Music of North 论文帮助/论文写作服务/负担得起我及时提交我最好的质量 – China: Volume 2: Shaanbei. Routledge, 2016.
Ren, Iris Yuping. “Closed patterns in folk music and other genres.” (2016).
Xing, Baixi, et al. “Emotion-driven Chinese folk music-image retrieval based on DE-SVM.” Neurocomputing 148 (2015): 619-627.
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