The unique culture of eastern Hubei folk songs

The tones of the folk songs of Eastern Hubei come from the dialect of Eastern Hubei, so it is the Eastern Hubei dialect that determines the musical characteristics of Hubei folk songs. The simple and plain Hubei dialect makes the tunes of Hubei folk songs full of wild mountain scenery and earthy fragrance. Different from the masculine folk songs in northern my country and the feminine and graceful folk songs in southern my country, the folk songs of Eastern Hubei are a kind of Han folk music that integrates hardness and softness, and blends yin and yang.

“If words are insufficient, sing them.”——Our ancestors from eastern Hubei sang loudly when they were moved by their feelings. The folk songs they created together penetrated time and space and have been passed down to this day. The singing reproduces the voices and smiles of our ancestors in eastern Hubei, embodies their intelligence and wisdom, and displays the local customs and customs of that time. It once brought endless joy to our ancestors, and it will also bring us great surprises. It is a precious folk cultural and artistic heritage left by our ancestors to our descendants. We should cherish it and pass it on.

Eastern Hubei folk songs include chants, folk songs, field songs, pastoral songs, minor tunes, custom songs, lantern songs, etc. Focus on the folk songs, field songs and pastoral songs in the folk songs of eastern Hubei.

Folk songs

There are three types of lyrics in folk songs: four-sentence style, five-sentence style and fish-biting tail style.

The four-sentence formula is as follows: It is difficult to sing a folk song, it is difficult to start it, it is difficult for a carpenter to build a phoenix tower, it is difficult for a blacksmith to strike an iron lion, and it is difficult for a mason to strike a stone hydrangea.

The five-sentence pattern is as follows: There are many things to do when you get up early in the morning. First clean the stove and then wash the pot. The husband wants to eat when he comes back. When the baby wakes up, he wants to rock the nest. How can he have time to sing folk songs. This is a unique sentence pattern that appears in folk songs. It is followed by another sentence immediately after the four-sentence pattern, breaking the even and symmetrical form and forming an asymmetrical rhythmic beauty. This is closely related to the dynamic working life in the wild.

The way the fish bites its tail is like: The sun in June looks like frying, and there is a female lotus drying outside. Brother Qing has seen it and was displeased. He took it up seven miles, down eight miles, seven, eight, fifteen miles, Bring it to the lotus mound, the Thoreau tree, the ya'er, the sesame leaves, or the Huolonggang to enjoy the shade, just like the Weaver Girl and the cow. The sentences in this form vary in length, and the loops between sentences are connected and coherent. This sentence pattern, which is like a string of fish biting each other's tails, is called "fish biting their tails" among the people in eastern Hubei.

There are three types of folk songs in Eastern Hubei: regular folk songs, slow folk songs and fast folk songs. Most of the lyrics in the 360 ??tunes are sung to the tune of formal folk songs; slow folk songs are generally used to sing lyrical lyrics. Allegro folk songs are used to express bright and enthusiastic content. The Allegro folk songs in the Zhudian area of ??Xishui are unique and full of original musical beauty.

"Folk songs were originally left by the ancients to relieve the worries of future generations. If you don't sing the songs for three days, your three-year-old child will turn gray. Remember not to throw away the ancients." This folk song is popularly said. Beyond the functions and effects of music, it is to adjust one's mood, resolve bad emotions, and make people happy and fulfilled. Historically, when Confucius heard Shao music, the lingering sound lingered in his ears, and he did not know the taste of meat in March, so he sighed, "How great is music education!" This means that music education is great! In fact, a world without music is unthinkable. The first cry that each of us cries from the mother's womb is a kind of wonderful music. What follows is babbling, and innocent giggles, which are all original singing. In this sense, every child is a singer. However, as I grew older and was restricted by various reasons, I gradually became alienated from this beautiful voice. That’s why our ancestors warned us that if we don’t live without beautiful music for three days, our hair will turn gray! Although it is an exaggeration, it is not unreasonable. Therefore, the songs passed down by our ancestors cannot be thrown away, and the words we say should be carefully thought about.

The melody of this folk song gives people a sense of profound and vast space, as if the mountains, rivers, clouds and sky are all contained in it. As long as you open your mouth to sing, you will feel like you are flying to the top of the mountain. You can listen to the sound. It echoes in the valley for a long time, traveling through time, space and history. It evokes some wonderful emotion deep in our souls. In the 2006 Huanggang Folk Song Competition, the singer who sang this song won the gold medal. People generally feel that this song gives people an indescribable and unclear feeling. In fact, the mystery of this song is mainly to allow us contemporary people to have a spiritual dialogue with our ancestors, so this kind of touching is a root-seeking complex that comes from the depths of our lives.

Because the rhythm of this song is relatively free, it is difficult to sing. You can learn to sing it under the guidance of a music teacher.

Field songs

Edong folk songs also include field songs. Farmers have been engaged in heavy physical labor in the fields for a long time. In order to relieve the monotony and boringness of field work, refresh their minds, relieve fatigue and relieve their worries, field songs such as "Planting Rice Drum" and "Ploughing Yangge" were produced. Later, gongs and drums were added. A group of people were working in the fields, and a few people were beating gongs and drums on the bank of the fields, forming a rhythmic, comfortable and joyful labor scene. This scene gradually evolved into a collective ritual for farmers to pray for a good harvest.

The Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo's "Notes on the Forest" contains: "When I came to Huangzhou, I heard that in February and March, the Huang people all lived in groups and sang songs. The words were incomprehensible, and the pronunciation was not in the rhythm. But it was euphemistic. The charm and custom of "chirping, going back and forth, like a chicken singing," vividly records the scene of farmers singing field songs in eastern Hubei at that time.

The characteristics of the Luotian Fan tune in eastern Hubei and the Xishui Hehu tune are like the crowing of a rooster, with a high, thin and long pitch, so it is also called the rooster crowing tune. The Huagu opera in eastern Hubei is mainly developed from field songs.

Field songs can be divided into paddy field songs and dry field songs: paddy field songs include planting yangge, plucking yangge, carting yangge, pulling yangko, etc.; dry land songs include paddy yangge, plucking gongs and drums, and playing single drums.

Pastoral Songs

Mountain people say that folk songs are shouted by cattle herders, which is not unreasonable. On the hillside facing each other, the shepherd boy on one side whistled and the shepherd boy on the other side whistled, and the two sides started singing to each other. In order to be heard by the other party, the voice should be prolonged, the tone should be exaggerated, and the emotion should be amplified. In this way, the intonation becomes the pitch. If it is beautified a little more, it will become the tune of a folk song. Because it is shouted out, it determines the high-pitched and distant style of the folk songs of Eastern Hubei.

The lyrics of the shepherd boy's antiphon are either in 360 tunes or improvised. The contents include those showing love between men and women, as well as making jokes and making fun of each other. Mountain people all like to listen to the shepherd boy's antiphonal singing. The loud and rough singing echoes in the mountains, making the life of the mountain people full of vitality and fun.

This shepherd boy’s duet is about questioning each other’s knowledge. One side sang: Who planted the Thoreau tree in the sky, who opened the Yellow River underground, who guarded the three passes, who went to practice and never returned? The other party answered and sang: The Thoreau tree in the sky was planted by the Queen Mother, the golden horns of the Yellow River are blooming underground, Yang Liuyang is guarding the three passes, Han Xiangzi went to practice and never came back. In ancient times, poor children had few opportunities to study. They could rely on these lyrics to acquire various knowledge. This is the educational auxiliary function of folk culture and art.

Eighty-Eight Lines

Eighty-Eight Lines is a self-entertaining square art popular in eastern Hubei. Because it is sung during the Lantern Festival, it is also called Lantern Festival. Drama or lighting. Eighty-Eight Lines probably originated during the Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty, became popular during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and has a history of more than 200 years.

There are many industries in the eighty-eight industries, some of which represent agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline fishery, some of which reflect handicraft labor, some of which perform business activities, and some of which promote myths and stories. Because the industry is complex and diverse, it is named Eighty-eight Lines. The eighty-eight-line repertoire is rich in ideological content, has healthy tunes, beautiful melody, and lively rhythm; the performance is simple, natural, and humorous. Whether it is language, music, or performances, they all have a strong local flavor and local characteristics.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, political corruption was dark and people's livelihood was in decline. The people were displaced and had no intention of enjoying themselves. In addition, the 88 Bank's organizational work is voluminous and the team is huge, and the human and financial resources are difficult to cope with. In particular, the rise of semi-professional and professional lantern opera and flower-drum opera troupes almost replaced the Eighty-Eight Lines, causing the Eighty-Eight Lines to decline for a time. Except for Xinzhou, all other counties in eastern Hubei are basically extinct.

Xinzhou Eighty-eight Lines, the plays are divided into two categories, one is one-sided plays, that is, one-legged plays; the other is small plays, that is, excerpts. There are more than 200 one-sided plays. Common ones include "Flower Selling", "Tea Selling", "Tea Picking Tune", "Push Cart Tune", "Ten Branch Plum Blossoms", "Lotus Blossom", "Tooth Picking Worm", etc. . There are more than 150 short plays, such as "Mending Bowls", "Little Cowherd", "Selling Cotton Yarn", "Playing Tofu", "Playing Flower Drum", "Playing Haba", "Eighteen Pulls", "Couples Watching Lanterns", etc. . Most of the short dramas mentioned above have been absorbed into Chu Opera, Huangmei Opera, Dongluzi Huagu and other operas.

The existence of Xinzhou Eighty-Eight Lines not only preserves an artistic variety of folk singing for us, but more importantly, it allows us to study and explore the relationship between Eighty-Eight Lines and Chu Opera and The origin and evolution of Chu Opera has left a precious legacy and reliable evidence. The Xinzhou County Cultural Center excavated and organized nearly a hundred scripts, and wrote papers such as "A Preliminary Study of the Eighty-Eight Lines" and "The Eighty-Eight Lines and Chu Opera". In order to explore the artistic rules of the Eighty-Eight Lines and return Chu Opera to the people, A lot of work was done.

On November 2, 2006, "Xinzhou Eighty-eight Lines" was included in the "Wuhan City Officially Announced the First Batch of Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage List".

Eastern Hubei folk songs have strong folklore and inclusiveness. After continuous development, in addition to passing down history and imparting knowledge about production and life, there are also folk custom songs: there are "Tab Tent Song" and "Weeping Song" for weddings and happy events, "Weeping Song" for funerals, and "Dragon Boat Tune" for Dragon Boat Festival. ", "Bang Bang Song" to celebrate a good harvest, "Liang Qi Song" to celebrate the success of building a house, etc. Most of them are sung by one person and supported by many people, with different tunes and styles.

Eastern Hubei folk songs were once brilliant. The helmsman and the tracker beat the oars and sang loudly, and the woodcutter and the mountain girl sang and conveyed their love. Folk songs accompany people through difficult times, and they inspire people to resist and fight. The folk songs of Eastern Hubei nourished Han opera and Chu opera, forming Huangmei opera. During the Agrarian Revolution, "Osmanthus Blossoms Bloom Everywhere in August", which was born in eastern Hubei, became an immortal red classic.

During the Cultural Revolution, folk songs in eastern Hubei were banned as the "Four Olds". A number of excellent folk songs such as "Three Hundred and Sixty Tune" were denounced as "obscene minor tunes", and folk singers were criticized. As silent as cicadas, people's expressions changed as they talked about folk songs. Later, with the popularity of movies and television and the influx of pop songs, Eastern Hubei folk songs faded out of people's lives. Nowadays, the number of old people who can sing folk songs is decreasing year by year, and young people are not familiar with folk songs. Folk songs in eastern Hubei are on the verge of being lost, and their inheritance and development have become urgent tasks.

It is true that due to the limitations of the times, the lyrics of many folk songs are both refined and popular, good and bad, and some are vulgar and even feudal dross. But its flaws do not hide its merits. It has integrated the fine traditions of eastern Hubei regional culture for thousands of years with its own distinctive characteristics, leaving a deep historical imprint and having high historical and social value.

At the same time, the cultural value of these gushing folk songs cannot be underestimated. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are a treasure house of literature and language arts. There is every reason to believe that people can use the local sounds, local people, local things, and local feelings reflected and refracted in folk songs to create a wonderful local textbook to inspire people to love their hometown and be enthusiastic about building their hometown.

Inheriting the folk songs of eastern Hubei

Xinzhou was called Jiuzhou in ancient times and was originally affiliated with Huangzhou. In 1951, Xinzhou County was separated and placed under the Huanggang Administration. In August 1983, Xinzhou County was placed under the jurisdiction of Wuhan City and later changed to Xinzhou District. Although Xinzhou folk songs have their own unique regional and cultural characteristics, on the whole, Xinzhou folk songs still belong to the Edong folk song series. Xinzhou people have made arduous efforts to inherit the folk songs of Eastern Hubei.

In recent years, the Xinzhou District Publicity and Culture Department has relied on rich folk cultural resources, innovated carriers, and built platforms to build Eastern Hubei folk songs into a bright business card for Xinzhou's opening to the outside world and a cultural brand for the tourism economy.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Xinzhou County Cultural Center organized Ye Wenfang, Zhang Youde, and Ma Liuchun to collect and organize Xinzhou folk songs. It took three years to compile the "Xinzhou Folk Song Collection" for us A batch of valuable information was left behind.

Liu Yanting, a farmer from Old Street, has collected and compiled more than 200 folk songs in the past thirty years and composed more than 30 new folk songs. The years were hard and life was poor, but he never changed his infatuation and pursued tirelessly. "Taoguan River Love Song", which he composed, has been sung in Xinzhou for five years as a repertoire of Xinzhou folk songs. It won the first prize in the 7th "Golden Autumn Songs" Rural Arts Performance in Wuhan City. In June 2008, it was broadcast on CCTV's " "Place of Passion" performance.

In recent years, the Xinzhou folk song inheritance and creation team has continued to grow, and a group of cadres, employees, teachers and farmers have joined the ranks of song creation. "Beautiful Yangluo Port" composed by Huang Xiaoxia, director of the District CPPCC Cultural and Historical Committee, "Our Xinzhou" composed by Li Zhongping, director of the District Civilization Office, and "Home in Xinzhou" composed by retired cadre Ye Wenfang, praised Xinzhou's reform and opening up. and the great achievements of construction and development; "The Road" written by teacher Zhao Jianjun praised the fruitful results of new rural construction; "Man" written by teacher Mei Shengping praised the hard-working and brave people of Xinzhou. A large number of new folk songs including "Ten Persuading My Brother", "Balad Pole Man" and "Push Cart Ballad" also spewed out.

Xinzhou’s inheritance of Eastern Hubei folk songs has attracted the attention of all walks of life and attracted the attention of provincial and municipal media. "Hubei Daily" "The Sixty-year-old Xinzhou Folk Song King Finds His Teacher at the Provincial Art Museum", "Changjiang Daily" "Reverse Grandma "More Like a Grandma than a Grandma"", "Changjiang Business Daily" "Love Song Maniacs Are Obsessed with Hubei Folk Songs 30 Years Collection" Created More than 400 Songs", "Wuhuang Netizens Jointly Created "The Ballad of Lifting Water"", "Experts from the Academy of Social Sciences Investigate Xinzhou Folk Art", "Chutian Metropolis Daily" "Musical Dreams of Farmers", "Rural "Meilan" "Fang"", "Chutian Golden News" and ""Hillbilly" Art Troupe Sings on CCTV" all used a lot of space to report on the exploration and efforts of Xinzhou people to inherit the folk songs of eastern Hubei and promote regional culture.

Since 2005, Xinzhou *** has organized three "Double Hundred Cup" literary competitions and three "Folk Art Festivals", with the theme of performances of Eastern Hubei folk songs and Eastern Hubei folk customs. Folk songs from Eastern Hubei and original songs from Xinzhou are required.

Reshape the Old Street Huachao Cultural Festival. Mobilize folk art teams, set up multiple booths, perform folk songs and folklore programs in Eastern Hubei, showcase regional culture in folk economic and trade events, and fully demonstrate the cultural connotation of the ancient festival.

In June 2008, on the occasion of the "Construction Workers' Day" held in Xinzhou, CCTV was invited to Xinzhou to record the "Passion Square" program and rehearsed the songs and dances "Taoguan River Love Song" and "Home in Xinzhou" ” and “Man.” Using the CCTV platform, we promote the folk songs of Eastern Hubei and Xinzhou original songs to the whole country.

In October 2009, Wuhan TV's "Recording Wuhan" column produced an 8-episode documentary "Songs for Farmers" that reflected Xinzhou's work in inheriting folk songs from eastern Hubei. It will be broadcast on Wuhan TV on November 3 Channel 6 broadcasts continuously. The film vividly records the Xinzhou people's hard work in inheriting the folk songs of Eastern Hubei, and praises the Xinzhou people's unremitting pursuit of promoting regional culture. It is truly touching and has a strong social impact. With the promotion of the Internet and the publicity of the media, the folk songs of Eastern Hubei have also begun to stride out of Xinzhou, out of Wuhan, and to the whole country.

The waves of the Yangtze River push the waves, and the Yangtze River is thousands of miles long.

There is a Yangluo Port on the Yangtze River.

The romantic strings on the river play a water town city

The gentle lakes and mountains describe a dream water town

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On a moonlit night at Wu Lake, willow silk grows along the embankment

The scenery at Yangluo Harbor is beautiful.

Yangluo Port, the beautiful Yangluo Port

Yangluo Port, the Yangluo Port in my heart

That is the place where I release my hope

...

This is the "Beautiful Yangluo Port" song recommended to the society by Xinzhou District as a "red song".