Miao folk songs (Xiangxi Miao folk songs)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Miao folk songs (Xiangxi Miao folk songs)

Applicant: Jishou City, Hunan Province

Item No.: 608

Project No.: Ⅱ - 109

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Hunan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Jishou City, Hunan Province

Protection unit: Jishou Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Introduction to Miao folk songs (Xiangxi Miao folk songs)

Applicant: Jishou City, Hunan Province

Miao people mainly live in Southeastern Guizhou, Guangxi damiaoshan, Hainan Island and the border areas of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces. Miao folk songs are folk music forms created by Miao people in their long-term production and life. According to their contents, they can be divided into traveling songs (love songs), drinking songs, bitter songs, anti songs, funeral songs, labor songs, current political songs and children's songs And riddle songs, with different tunes. All kinds of folk songs have both traditional lyrics and improvised content. Among them, Miao's flying songs are characterized by high pitched, bold and unrestrained tunes, which are sung in the form of solo, duet and chorus, and are deeply loved by Miao people.

Xiangxi Miao folk song is one of the most popular singing art forms of Miao people. It spreads in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan Province, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province, Xiushan County of Chongqing City, Songtao county and Tongren City of Guizhou Province. It has a long history of development. In yongsuitingzhi written by Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, it has been recorded that "gucang dances until Xu Shi" and "men and women gather in different categories and sing Miao songs with each other".

The folk songs of Miao Nationality in Western Hunan are beautiful and pleasant. Their music can be divided into "five tunes and ten Tunes", including high pitched and exciting "Gaoqiang", melodious and pleasant "pingqiang", lyrical and exciting "Bagu tune" and "Gelao tune", "feiqiang tune" and "jieqin lanmen tune", "songqin tune", "yaoho tune", "love song tune", "Gongfu tune", "nursery rhyme tune", "crying tune", etc "Laosi song tune", "Qianxian song tune" and other tunes. There are four forms of lyrics: seven character, nine character, ten character and thirteen character, and they are often accompanied by drum, bamboo watchman, suona, ox horn and other musical instruments.

The tunes and singing methods of Miao folk songs in Western Hunan are very unique and have high artistic research value. As early as 1956, Yang Yinliu, a famous musicologist, led more than ten researchers from the Central Music Research Institute to collect Miao folk songs in Xiangxi and published a survey report. Modern composers often use Xiangxi Miao folk songs as their creative materials. For example, Tan Dun's map not only uses Xiangxi Miao folk song materials, but also keeps its original ecological high tune intact. Therefore, we can know the charm of Xiangxi Miao folk songs.

Xiangxi Miao folk songs are special in form and rich in content. They have been spread in Xiangxi since ancient times. They are important reference materials for the study of Miao history, primitive religion and folk customs. At present, some Miao ancient songs have not been thoroughly excavated. At the same time, with the gradual Sinicization of the national language and the death of old singers, the number of Miao singers is decreasing year by year. In this situation, it is necessary to invest more efforts to do a good job in the excavation, collation, protection and rescue of Miao folk songs in Western Hunan.

Chinese PinYin : Miao Zu Min Ge Xiang Xi Miao Zu Min Ge