Daocao gongs and drums (Yichang daocao gongs and drums)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: daocao gonggu (Yichang)

Applicant: Yichang City, Hubei Province

Item No.: 58

Project No.: Ⅱ - 27

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Hubei Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Yichang City, Hubei Province

Protection unit: Yiling District Cultural Center, Yichang City

A brief introduction to the drum and gongs (Yichang drum and gongs)

Applicant: Yichang City, Hubei Province

As a popular form of folk songs in Tujia inhabited areas, the drum and Gong for weeding grass is also known as "Da Nao song", commonly known as "Da Nao". During the weeding season, Tujia people gather dozens or even hundreds of people to work together. At this time, they often invite two singers to perform in front of the weeding crowd. One is beating drums, the other is beating gongs. They sing and dance with the sound of gongs and drums, while the weeding crowd sings from the side. Most of the lyrics are rhymed to the end, and the content is divided into "Song head" (commonly known as "Introduction"), "please God", "Yang Song", "send God" and other parts. When dancing, the hands swing with the steps, the left hand with the left foot, and the right hand with the right foot. It is light and lively, soft and firm. The music is flexible and diverse. The singers can change their lyrics according to the time sequence and the weather, so as to activate the atmosphere and turn the monotonous and hard-working farming into a lively collective activity.

As an important part of Yiling folk songs, Yichang grass collecting gongs and drums are mainly distributed in sub townships, xiabaoping, wuduhe, Longquan and other townships in Yiling District, Yichang City, Hubei Province, with a history of more than 150 years.

Yichang grass collecting gongs and drums can be named according to different farming activities, such as "seedling planting gongs and drums", "grass pulling gongs and drums", "firewood cutting gongs and drums", etc.; they can also be named according to the number (establishment) of gongs and drums, such as "one gongs and one drum" or "single gongs and drums", those with two gongs and one drum or three gongs and two drums are called "jiagongs and drums", and those with two gongs and two drums are called "duizi gongs and drums", which are composed of gongs, cymbals, horse gongs The composition of drums is called "four kinds of gongs and drums" or "playing four pieces". On the basis of "one kind of gongs and drums" or "four kinds of gongs and drums", a suona is added, which is called "blowing gongs and drums", and so on. The large-scale percussion group composed of 8 people and 10 kinds of musical instruments is known as "Sixian gongs and drums". It is a rare variety of daocao gongs and drums. It is popular in yaqueling, Longquan and other places in Yiling.

Because the local people in Yiling are used to the two singing methods of "following CI with tune" and "matching music with Ci", four different "musical dialects" have been formed in Yichang's caochao gongs and drums: intonation melody, rhyme melody, melody with tune and melody with tune. Yichang haocao gongs and drums belong to banqiang Lianqu style, which is generally composed of more than ten singing tunes and Qupai. Most of them have more than 80 singing tunes and Qupai. It is said that "nine tunes, eighteen boards, thirty-six numbers and seventy-two kinds of Tunes". The single three tone tune song has three structural forms of "561, 612, 613", commonly known as "three tone song". In particular, the three tone song composed of two small third intervals has the legacy of ancient Chu songs.

Yichang grass collecting gongs and drums are inherited in two ways: apprenticeship and village continuation. It is of great significance to further explore and sort out the local folk customs, language and literature, folk music and so on. Due to the change of modern production mode, the aging of artists and the general indifference of the younger generation to the tradition, the survival of the drum is facing a crisis, which needs urgent rescue and protection.