Gongs and drums for weeding in Xingshan

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

Applicant: Xingshan County, 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: Xingshan County, Hubei Province

Protection unit: Xingshan County Cultural Center

A brief introduction to the gongs and drums for weeding (Xingshan gongs and drums for weeding)

Applicant: Xingshan County, 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.

Gongs and drums for grass collection in Xingshan County, also known as "playing gongs and drums", are named for singing while playing gongs and drums during grass collection. It has a history of more than 550 years and is mainly distributed in villages and towns of Xingshan County, Hubei Province.

Xingshan grass collecting gongs and drums are mainly sung in collective production and labor places, such as grass collecting in baogutian, weeding in paddy field, reclaiming wasteland and planting land, and building reservoirs. They can be divided into two categories: one is "flower gongs and drums", which is named for singing flower songs (love songs), with complex musical structure, changeable word structure and rich and colorful tune; the other is "save drums", which is named for singing "thousand hundred save", with complex musical structure and rich tune The theme is mainly historical stories. There are three ways to sing Xingshan gongs and drums: one is falsetto high octave singing, commonly known as "ghost sound", "Heaven sound" or "Ding sound", which is used by three times of gongs and drums; the other is true high octave singing, which is called "full accent", which is used by four times and five times of gongs and drums; the third is true low octave singing, which is called "Erhuang", which is moderately used by singers when they are tired This kind of singing is to adjust.

There are 70 or 80 kinds of gongs and drums in Xingshan, including Qigu, shagu, Caicha Gu, hubaotou and so on. The melody is divided into two types: "Xingshan characteristic three-dimensional system" tone and "general tone". The "Xingshan characteristic three-dimensional scale" retains more Jingchu ancient tunes and has distinctive local cultural characteristics. The tune of Xingshan gongs and drums can be divided into three types: banqiang Haozi, Yangge and ballad Zage. The music structure is similar to rondo form. It is a large-scale suite with a set in it, which is unique in Chinese folk music.

As an important carrier of "Bachu ancient songs", Xingshan grass collecting gongs and drums retain a lot of ancient music and cultural information for us, which has high historical, cultural and artistic research value. Under the situation of rapid social change and the continuous impact of foreign strong culture, the number of gongs and drums team has been sharply reduced to less than 30, and the artists are aging and lack of successors, so it is urgent to protect and inherit them.