Story telling in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment

Story telling in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment

Jingyun Dagu is one of the Chinese folk songs. Developed from the popular wooden drum in Cangzhou and Hejian of Hebei Province, it was formed in Beijing and Tianjin. After the introduction of Hebei wooden drum into Tianjin and beijing, Liu Baoquan changed his pronunciation to the voice and intonation of beijing, absorbed some singing methods of shiyunshu, horsehead tune and Beijing opera, created new tunes, sang short songs, called Beiyun drum, which belonged to the category of drum music.

Beijing rhyme drum is mainly popular in North China and Northeast China, including Beijing and Tianjin. It is a kind of music with high artistic achievements in rap music in North China. It also plays an important role in rap music in the whole country.

Evolution of development

Jingyun drum was developed in the late Qing Dynasty by artists after the reform of the popular wooden drum in Cangzhou and Hejian of Hebei Province.

In the process of reform and development, the wooden drum, or "timid drum", has been called many names: in Beijing, it has been called "big drum in Beijing tune", "big drum in small mouth", "big drum in rhyme", "big drum in civilization", "big drum in flat rhyme". In Tianjin, it has been called "big drum in Wei tune", "big drum in Wei tune", "big drum in Wenwu" and "big drum in Beijing tune".

After the introduction of wooden drums into Tianjin and Beijing, Liu Baoquan changed his pronunciation to Beijing's voice and intonation, absorbed some singing methods of Shiyunshu, Ma Tou and Peking Opera, created a new tune and sang a short repertoire. After the establishment of the Quyi Association in Beijing in 1946 (the thirty-fifth year of the Republic of China), the name was formally unified as "Jingyun Dagu".

During the Xianfeng Period of the Qing Dynasty (1851-1861), Jin Degui, an artist of flag origin, developed a slab drum with obscure boards into a slab with one eye, called double boards, and changed its pronunciation to a pronunciation close to Beijing. He was once named "Jingqi Dagu", but it did not spread. People still call him a timid drum.

During Tongzhi and Guangxu years (1862-1908), Hu Jintang (Hu Shi), an artist living in Beijing Stone Hutong, began to transplant his pupil's book "Changbanpo" to sing timid drum in order to improve the quality of timid drum lyrics and meet the needs of urban audiences. His singing voice is crisp and clear, and he is praised as "a line" and his reputation is gradually rising. His representative repertoires include Fan Jinding's Cursing the City and Gao Huaidi's Farewell Girl, etc.

Hu is also famous for his short story of "Three Kingdoms". Huo Mingliang, who was originally a businessman, has also transplanted some children's words such as "Single Knife Club" and "Battle Changsha" into his timid drum singing. His voice is strong and bright, and he is good at singing martial arts. Later, they went to Tianjin for performing arts, and together with the local Qumu artist Song Yukun (Song Five), they were known as Hu, Song and Huo, collectively known as timid drum.

The twenties of the twentieth century was the heyday of the development of Jingyun Drum, which formed three schools represented by Liu Baoquan, Bai Yunpeng and Zhang Xiaoxuan. Among them, Liu Baoquan has the highest attainment and is known as "King of Drum". Later, female artist Xiaocai Dance (Luo Yusheng) rose up in the drum altar. She was compatible with Liu and Bai's strengths, combined with her own characteristics, and created her own artistic style. Especially in bass, she pronounced words sincerely and had a clear voice, which was beyond the average female artist. As a result, she became the queen of drums in music circles.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to show new life, shape new characters and express new thoughts and feelings, Tianjin's Jingyun Dagu actors, musicians and new musicians have devoted themselves to reform work, such as Luo Yusheng's "Everest Red Flag", "Glorious Voyage", "He Shibi", Xiao Lanyun's "Force Up Liangshan", Yan Qiuxia's "Yugong Moving Mountains" and so on. Based on the original characteristics and genre style of the songs, some innovations have been made. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jingyun Dagu has been greatly developed and has trained generations of young actors. These young and middle-aged actors inherit the tradition and innovate boldly, which makes the art of Jingyun Dagu develop continuously.

Artistic characteristics

After the development of wooden drum into Beijing rhyme drum, accompaniment instruments were added on the original basis, such as three strings and four hus, and accompaniment was combined with singing to keep the tune precise and free; Hejian dialect was replaced by Beijing dialect, using four tones of Beijing phonology (Yinping, Yangping, Shangsheng, Qusheng) to speak Beijing Bai, sing Beijing rhyme and sing short pieces of music; absorbing the tunes of various operas and miscellaneous songs, Absorbing the pronunciation, pronunciation and part of the singing tone of Peking Opera, drawing lessons from the performance program of Peking Opera, using eyes, facial expressions, raising hands and feet of the knife and gun rack, forming a set of performance stature; and using a large number of "children's books" of music. Beijing rhyme drum has the following characteristics: elegant and popular form, rigid and soft style, the method of combining rap and singing, a versatile singing tune and expressive performance.

The basic sentence pattern of Jingyun Dagu lyrics is seven-character sentences, some of which include inlay, interlining and stacking sentences. Each lyric is about 1450 sentences. The rhyme is based on the thirteen ruts of Beijing, and most of the arias are in the final rhyme. Its basic aria includes Adagio and adagio. Beijing rhyme drum is a combination of singing and speaking, and rhyme and Bai pay attention to the tone and charm. The performance form is standing singing by one person (after liberation, double singing form) and playing drums by oneself; the main accompaniment is generally three people, the instruments used are big three strings, four hus, pipa, and sometimes accompanied by low hu.

The singing tune of Jingyun Dagu belongs to the board cavity body, which can be divided into adagio, fastboard, stacking board and boarding board. The basic tones are starting cavity, flat cavity, falling cavity, high cavity, long cavity, sad cavity, etc. Plain voice is suitable for narration, high voice expresses intense mood, falling voice expresses gentle and relaxed mood.

Jingyun drum has the characteristics of half-talking and half-singing. It can be said in singing and sung in speaking. Therefore, lyrics also play an important role in singing. Lyrics are basically seven-character sentences and cross sentences, most of which are repetitions of the upper and lower sentences, and pay more attention to the flavor of the tone, which is naturally connected with the aria. The main accompanying instruments are the big three strings and the four hu, and sometimes the pipa. The actors beat their own drums to master the rhythm.

The accompaniment music of Beijing rhyme drum can be divided into "over board music" and "singing accompaniment music".

(1) Overboard music: It is a simple instrumental music paragraph, which is used between the "over board" sentence at the beginning of the paragraph and the voice of the paragraph and the middle tone or amusement of the sentence. It is called "pad" when the "over door" is smaller than the "over door".

(2) Singing accompaniment can be accompanied by singing and basic accompaniment points can be used. The accompaniment melody is the lengthening of the melody of the same aria, the freedom of continuity and fun, and the accompaniment of the aria. In addition, it also uses some atmosphere to show the accompaniment passages of specific plots, such as "beating drums and scolding Cao" in the middle of the night "Qupai".

Inheritance situation

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the early 1950s, the Central Radio Rap Troupe and Beijing Quyi Troupe, which were established in Beijing, have successively made remarkable achievements in promoting the old and bringing forth new ideas in Jingyun Drum. The first innovative track in terms of lyrics, singing and performance was Huang Jiguang, sung by Sun Shuyun, in which the insertion of music recitation was successful. It was popularized to Beijing and Tianjin in a short period of time and recorded for distribution throughout the country. Then came a number of excellent songs reflecting modern life, such as "Luo Shengjiao", "Xu Xuehui, the Party's Good Daughter", "Fishing Song on the Sea", "The Party's Good Daughter to Beautiful", "Deep Wave Danxin", "Han Ying Seeing His Mother" and the newly compiled historical works "Wild Boar Forest", "Taohua Zhuang", "Yingtai Crying Tomb" and so on. Actors Sun Shuyun, Liang Xiaolou, Bai Fengyan, and Han Defu all participated in the artistic practice of renovation and innovation. The performance form is also sung by one person beating drums during the festival, and the double singing form is introduced again. In this period, besides a group of old actors such as Liang Xiaolou, Sun Shujun, Ma Shulin and Xin Lanyun, a group of young and middle-aged actors such as Ma Jingyi, Meng Zhaoyi and Mo Qi were also trained.

In the early 1980s, there were successors such as Yujie and Wang Yulan.

In 2008, Jingyun Dagu was selected as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Lu Yiqin and Liu Chunyai, excellent heirs of Luo Pei Jingyun drum, were identified as the heirs of the heritage.

Representative repertoire

The traditional repertoires of Jingyun Dagu include "Single Sword Club", "Battle Changsha", "Bowangpo", "Zhaoyun Jiejiang", "Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows", "Laojiangzhou", "Daxixiang", "Sacrificing Qingwen", "Daiyu Beiqiu" and so on.

There are Changbanpo, Baidicheng, Tanqingwen, Fan Jinding and Cursing the City, which are arranged by Liu Baoquan, Baiyunpeng and others according to their children's books. There are also some scenery Lyric passages, such as Ugly Last Yinchu, Wind and Rain Back to the Boat, and so on.

After liberation, Jingyun Dagu has made remarkable achievements in promoting the old and bringing forth new ideas, and has carried out new reforms in both singing and performance. The excellent repertoires reflecting modern life include Huang Jiguang, Glorious Voyage, Han Ying Seeing His Mother, Liu Hulan and the newly compiled historical works Yu Gong Moving Mountains, Man Jianghong, Lie Wage Taste Gallbladder, etc.