Multi part folk song (Miao multi part folk song)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: multi voice folk song (Miao multi voice folk song)

Applicant: Taijiang County, Guizhou Province

Item No.: 61

Project No.: Ⅱ - 30

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Guizhou Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Taijiang County, Guizhou Province

Protection unit: Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Taijiang County

Introduction to multi part folk songs (Miao multi part folk songs)

Applicant: Taijiang County, Guizhou Province

Polysyllabic folk songs refer to folk songs with polysyllabic structure. Chinese polysyllabic folk songs are mainly concentrated in more than ten ethnic minorities, such as Zhuang, Dong, Buyi, Gaoshan, Maonan, Jiajia, Miao and Yi. Most of them adopt two part form, and a few are three part and four part art.

Miao multi part folk song is a kind of original ecological folk song which is popular in Taijiang county and Jianhe County of Guizhou Province. According to the calculation of old singers, this kind of folk song sung by young men and women has a history of more than 700 years. It is mainly composed of Gong, Shang, Yu, Zheng and Jiao. The harmony is pure fifth, eighth, third and sixth. The rhythm is relatively free. It is mostly mixed with 3 / 4, 4 / 4, 2 / 4 and 6 / 8. The melody is beautiful and moving, showing obvious national and regional characteristics.

There are two kinds of singing methods of Miao multi part love songs: the main melody male and female duet and the main melody male and female chorus, which have distinct national characteristics. A complete multi part love song generally ranges from six to sixteen sentences. Take the eight sentence love song as an example, the first to six sentences are male monosyllabic parts. From the seventh sentence, the female part adds harmony to form the multi part. After the male part sings the eighth sentence, the female part sings the second paragraph, and the male part forms polyphony. From the third sentence, the female monosyllabic part begins to form the second stage In the seventh sentence, the male part joins the harmony to form a polyphonic part. Such repeated harmony constitutes the embryonic form of Miao polyphony music.

The content of multi part love songs mostly reflects the process of young men and women from contact to marriage, including "meet song", "praise song", "single song", "youth song", "courtship song", "love song", "separate song", "get married song", "escape marriage song", "divorce song", etc . The representative works of Miao multi voice folk songs include "if you are a flower", "beautiful scenery in March".

The multi part folk song of Miao nationality is the most important part of the existing traditional culture of Miao nationality. Its emergence, development and final formation are closely related to Miao's national history, cultural history and folklore. Under the impact of modern economy and culture, the production and life styles of Miao villages in Guizhou are changing. Fewer and fewer people can sing multi voice love songs. The ancient art is on the verge of being lost, which urgently needs rescue and protection.