North Sichuan grass collecting gongs and drums

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: North Sichuan haocao gongs and drums

Applicant: Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 58

Project No.: Ⅱ - 27

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Qingchuan County Cultural Center

A brief introduction to the drum and gongs in northern Sichuan

Applicant: Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province

North Sichuan grass collecting gongs and drums are mainly distributed in four counties and three districts of Guangyuan City, among which Qingchuan grass collecting gongs and drums are the most representative. Qingchuan county is located at the junction of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces in the northern mountainous area of Sichuan Basin, known as the "hometown of giant pandas".

Generally speaking, gongs and drums for weeding in northern Sichuan are conducted when two grass branches are planted or soybean grass is hoed. One person beats the drum and the other person beats the gong. The person who beats the Gong is Gelang, who plays a commanding role in the weeding team of dozens of people. The process of a day's performance can be roughly divided into the following steps: drawing strings, tying covers (starting or arranging songs), setting up five parties (or worshiping five parties), speaking the main body, playing songs, handing over and so on. The representative repertoire of North Sichuan's grass collecting gongs and drums include biography of Han Xiang, painting of eight immortals, twelve flowers, herding oxen and tigers, and Yanjiu hammer.

There are mainly seven, nine, twelve and flower beats in the beat of drums and gongs. According to the number of words, tunes and librettos can be divided into seven character notation and cross notation. In addition, there are five character notation and other tunes, as well as oral and heartfelt traditional librettos and impromptu librettos.

In the field work, North Sichuan grass collecting gongs and drums play a role in directing labor, activating the scene atmosphere and regulating the mood of workers. It has a frank and simple music personality, has thousands of repertoire of rich reserves, bright and concise music vocabulary retains a lot of ancient physical labor in the music culture information, has high academic research value.

Nowadays, due to the influence of modern production mode, the traditional way of production and life is difficult to keep up with the pace of the times. The living space of North Sichuan weeding gongs and drums is shrinking day by day, and there is a risk of being lost. The old singers have died one after another, the young people go out to work, the labor force has moved out in large numbers, and the singer team has been lost. Therefore, it is a critical moment to protect and inherit northern Sichuan's grass collecting gongs and drums.