Forest songs (forest songs in Xing'an Mountains)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Forest songs (forest songs in Xing'an Mountains)

Applicant: Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province

Item No.: 599

Project No.: Ⅱ - 100

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Heilongjiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province

Protection unit: Yichun Mass Art Museum

Brief introduction of forest chant (forest chant in Xing'an Mountains)

Applicant: Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province

Forest chant is a chant sung by forest woodcutters in the process of cutting, transporting and building trees. It is mainly spread in Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, big and small Xing'an Mountains, Northwest China and South China. Because of the different ways of labor, it has formed a variety of names. For example, in Changbai Mountain area, the number of transporting wood includes mushroom number, daqiezi number, dragline number, Liao number, waqian number, Liusong number, etc. There is also a kind of "raft chant" in the forest areas of central and South China, which is sung by workers when they put "rafts" into the river. Due to the high labor intensity and high risk of forest operation, the chant also has the characteristics of high pitched, extensive, heroic and overwhelming style.

Forest chant in Xing'anling is a kind of folk song sung when transporting timber in Songhua River Basin, which is widely spread in Daxing'anling and Xiaoxing'anling areas of Heilongjiang Province. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the northeast forest area was developed intensively. The forestry workers devoted themselves to the production, and used the number to carry the wood in a unified way, helping to complete the loading, returning, transportation and other operations. As a result, the systematic forest number of Xing'anling was formed, which was widely spread in the northeast, especially in Yichun forest area.

The tune of forest songs in Xing'anling is ups and downs, rough and unconstrained, which has the typical characteristics of Northeast Folk Music. It can be roughly divided into logging songs, lifting songs, rolling songs, flowing songs and so on. Among them, the logging chant is relatively simple, with only four sentences of "down the mountain", "up the mountain", "down the mountain" and "down the mountain". It is mainly used for transporting wood on the flat ground and returning wood. The rolling number is divided into dragline number, waqian number, Liao number and Yaoyi number, while the flowing number is divided into dragline number, destacking number, Yanggong number, Yanggong number and Shanzi number. In the middle of the 20th century, forest songs in Xing'anling played a role in unifying pace, promoting production and enhancing cohesion in the production practice of local forest areas. They became the spiritual symbol of the working people in forest areas and had research value in forest culture and folk music.

With the mechanization of forestry production and the sharp reduction of wood resources, the types of forest songs in Xing'anling are becoming less and less. At present, the only forest songs circulating in Yichun forest area are harrowing registration, dragging rope registration and so on. The forest songs in Xing'anling, which has been prosperous for nearly a century, are in an endangered state and need to be protected.