Wennan Ci

Wennan Ci

Wennan Ci, also known as Wenci opera and Wenci opera, is an ancient traditional opera, and is praised as the "living fossil" of Chinese opera. It is popular in Dongzhi County and Susong County of Anhui Province. In 2006, Wennan Ci was listed as the first batch of drama projects of intangible cultural heritage in Anhui Province.

On June 7, 2008, the "Wennan Ci" declared by Susong County of Anhui Province was listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council. Heritage serial number: 712 IV-111.

historical origin

In the 36 years of the Republic of China (1947), Hu Jinshan, a blind artist from Huangmei County, Hubei Province, lived in Qingshan Meitang, which was originally located in Dexian County. He lived first by fortune telling and then by herding cattle. In the cattle ranch, a local group of young people were taught to sing part of the opera. Ho Zhiyuan, an amateur drama troupe from Jinfeng, Yangzi Township, Jiangxi Province, came to Meitang to preach and premiered the large-scale ancient costume drama series Su Wenbiao borrowed clothes. In 1958, an amateur literary drama troupe was formally established in Meitang Village, Qingshan Township, Dexian County. A number of traditional literary dramas such as "Three Qis, Zhou Yu" and "Biography of White Snake" were staged. In 1959, Qian Yihe, a opera musician of the county opera troupe, provided by Liu Rumin, a folk artist of Qingshan Commune, further excavated and sorted out "Wenci" and "Nanci" from a musical point of view, rehearsed the traditional Folk Opera of "Fireworks Woman's Complaint" and "Three Opera Peony" and participated in provincial, local professional and amateur performances. In 1978 and 1982, the rehearsal of the newly created drama "Carpenter Robbery" participated in provincial and local performances, and won music awards and performance awards. It was also called "Wennan Ci". Later, it was gradually replaced by the melodious and melodious Huangmei Opera.

Opera is popular in Anqing, Susong, Dongzhi and other places in Anhui Province. Originally from Huangmei, Hubei Province, fishing drum tune was introduced to Anhui by desert sellers in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Influenced by Raohe Diao in its development, it absorbed and merged the folk songs, folk songs and ten gongs and drums of southern Anhui. It has a history of nearly one hundred years to walk from the floor stall to the stage. There are dozens of singing tunes, such as Nanci, Wenci, Zhengbang, Ping Ban, Si Ban, Allegro and so on. Therefore, "Nanci and Wenci" are combined into one, which is collectively called "Wennan Ci". The accompaniment is mainly four-hu. There is no professional theatre troupe. The Huangmei Opera Troupe in Dongzhi and Susong counties also performs Wennan Ci. There are more than 30 plays such as "Fireworks Women's complaint" and "Su Wenbiao borrowing clothes". In 1795 (Qianlong sixty years), the collection of popular songs "Nei Shi Xuan Pu" included "spring tone" and "spring tone of Southern Ci", which is one of the main voices of Wennan Ci. Around 1850, there appeared lantern songs and dances in Susong, which later evolved into lantern opera. The lantern opera was the initial prototype of Wennan Ci and opera, and Wennan Ci was developed on the basis of the combination of this kind of opera and local lantern opera.

According to records, Xie Jingren, a talent of Yangjiaqiao in Dongzhi County in the late Qing Dynasty, wrote poems in "The Incidental Meeting of Poetry Grass in Nanxiang Province" (Nanxiang is now Dongzhi County Qingshan Township): "Under the four-hu osmanthus trees, Weng Cao, Shulang, fishing drums, singing"thinking about marriage". Women and children are fascinated by the mysterious Southern Ci and do not return home when the moon falls. This poem describes the performance form of Wennan Ci at that time, accompanying musical instruments and the extent to which the audience liked it .

In 1947, Hu Jinshan, a blind artist from Huangmei County, Hubei Province, was living in Meitang, Qingshan, Dexian County. He first lived by fortune telling and then by herding cattle. He taught a local group of young people to sing part of the opera in the cattle ranch. Ho Zhiyuan, an amateur drama troupe from Jinfeng, Yangzi Township, Jiangxi Province, came to Meitang to preach and premiered the large-scale ancient costume drama series Su Wenbiao borrowed clothes. The development of Wennan Ci was influenced by Raohe Diao, which absorbed and integrated the Southern Anhui folk songs, folk songs and ten gongs and drums. From the floor to the stage, there are dozens of Southern Ci, Wenci, formal, flat, four-board, fast board and so on. Therefore, "Southern Ci, Wenci" is taken as one, collectively known as "Wennan Ci".

In 1958, an amateur literary theatre troupe was formally established in Meitang Village, Qingshan Township, Dexian County. A number of traditional literary theatres such as "Three Qis Zhou Yu" and "White Snake Biography" were staged. In 1959, Qian Yihe, a opera musician of the county theatre troupe, provided by Liu Rumin, a folk artist of Qingshan Commune, and from a musical point of view, further excavation and arrangement of "Wenci" and "Nanci" were performed. The traditional Folk Opera of Flower Women's Complaint and Three Opera Peony participated in provincial and local professional and amateur performances. In 1978, Modern Opera "Happy Events" and "Seal" won awards for music creation, performance and director in Anqing Opera Concert. In 1982, the modern drama "Grabbing Carpenters" won the Music Award and Performance Award in provincial and local meetings, and called it "Wennan Ci".

Classification of Plays

Wennan Ci singing can be divided into two categories: the main tune of the original opera and the minor tune. The former is similar to the plate cavity, and the latter is a conjugate. The main tunes of the original opera are divided into three categories: Wenci, Nanci and Pingci. The melody of "literary style" is plain and fluent, which is suitable for narrative lyrics; the melody of "literary style" is euphemistic and expresses emotion more smoothly than that of "formal style", which is often used in tragedies.

Wennan Ci Zhengban has less words and more tunes. It has beautiful melody and is better than lyricism. There are more than 50 kinds of music cards, such as "Overlapping Bridge", "Viewing Flower Tune" and "Picking Flower Tune", which are the key tunes in the early sitting and singing stage of Wennan Ci, including folk songs, folk songs, tea songs and so on.

Singing features

Wennan Ci absorbs the excellent folk song material along the Yangtze River and is full of local flavor. It has rich details and beautiful melody. Wennan Ci is rich in melodies and rich in earthy fragrance. It has nine tunes and eighteen tunes. There are more than 120 kinds of small and medium-sized Qupai, with complete voice and wide spread. The development of vocal tune of Wennan Ci has generally undergone "single repetition" and "multi-tune conjunction" in sitting and singing period, forming a body after the original opera. The vocal tune is divided into three parts: minor tune, literary Ci and Nanci. After entering Susong, the literary words gradually became "masters of the family". There are "righteousness", "adagio", "crying board", "on board", "music board" and so on. After liberation, it was sorted out and perfected by musicians, and divided into five categories: old-fashioned words, young-fashioned words, danjiao words, clown words and flower-face words, each with its own characteristics of embellishing tone and tone.

On the phonetic range, it is divided into "male words" and "female words" according to the difference of four degrees. The male voice is high and steady, and the female voice is euphemistic and jumping. Especially, the alternation of the modes of "Shang" and "Zheng" breaks through the limitation of "Zheng" in the local language, thus greatly increasing the color. In the past, Nanci was mostly used by immortals, monks and ghosts, and its tune was complemented by "palace" and "feather". Therefore, the tune was elegant and refined, with unique charm .

The performance of Wennan Ci mainly focuses on the true voice (natural voice area), which requires "crisp", "sweet", "round", "moist" and natural fluency. In terms of style, Wenci is more radical, Nanci is more elegant and Pingci is more simple. In singing, according to the line of words, the pronunciation of words is highlighted. The first word of each sentence appears with stress. The words in the sentence are mostly tremolo, and the words at the end of the sentence are mostly downgraded. Susong's Wennan Ci is mainly composed of literary accents. After entering the stage of development and prosperity, there are many folk troupes, many folk artists and outstanding characteristics. The tune has been added to local folk minor, drawing on the performance form of traditional lamp song and dance. The accompaniment has joined the "broken strings" Gong and drum, which has been basically formed as a local opera. The emergence and development of Wennan Ci fully reflects the local customs, customs and prosperity of regional culture in each historical period. In each historical period of modern times, Wennan Ci poems gathered a lot of cultural information, involving history, folklore, music, drama and other disciplines, with rich connotations in many fields.

Form of performance

Wennan Ci derives from the native land and is close to the folk. Wennan Ci preserves a large number of popular folk songs in the border area of Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces, such as "melon seeds", "Wanlang", "playing cherries" and so on, which are popular in the local countryside. The reason why Wennan Ci is popular and enduring among the people is that blind artists often sing in villages and towns, which is inseparable from its widespread dissemination.

When entering the village community to set up "sitting and singing", a relatively complete form of folk art has been formed. One person (mostly blind artists) plays the four hu, one person (mostly girls) sings as the lead singer. The drummer and Gong beaters sit on both sides. They use complex sentences to help interpret some folk tales and legends. When they are interested, the audience will echo with the voice and the atmosphere is very warm. Especially the incorporation of broken strings enriches its manifestation. The formation of Susong's "broken silk string" Gong and drum coincided with Wennan Ci. People especially liked "broken silk string". Artists integrated it into Wennan Ci and gradually eliminated the accompaniment forms of Hu and Yigu, which greatly increased the artistic effect of stage.

Main repertoire

Wennan Ci has different representative repertoires in different periods. When Wennan Ci was popular in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the plot was simple and the means of performance was single. At this stage, it was mainly composed of small operas, mostly adapted on the basis of sitting and singing. Its creation material is from the folk, and its aria is mainly in minor tunes. It is very beautiful, appreciated by ordinary people, and has a strong vitality. The remaining dramas include "Prodigal throwing ball", "Selling Maotai firewood", "Na Li Yi", "Selling Groceries", "Selling Grass Piers", "Spinning Yarn", "Making Fishing Net" and more than ten. Among them, "Wanglang", "You Jiang", "Songjiang Kill Cherish", "Chen Gu chase boat" and other Wennan Ci operas are still popular among the people.

After Wennan Ci became a local opera, it mainly performed the original opera. Its repertoire is expanded from opera and opera, with rich plots and more social life content. There are more than 80 representative dramas, among which four fold dramas such as "borrowing clothes", "ordering drugs", "lyric courtyard" and "Qiujiang" have been adapted into more complete original dramas. On the eve of liberation, there were more than 50 plays such as Peony, Yutang Spring and Cloud Tower Club. Among them, Su Wenbiao borrowed clothes was revised and polished by artists of Susong County in past dynasties. From script to singing, it had strong local characteristics. It was still prevalent in urban and rural areas in the 1980s.

Inheritance and Protection

The second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list is officially publicized to the society, among which Wennan Ci, a traditional folk art with strong local characteristics, is listed. This not only marks the improvement of the protection level of this exotic flower of art, but also provides an opportunity for the revival of Wennan Ci.

Wennan Ci is an ancient traditional opera. Wennan Ci, also known as Wenciqiang, is popular in Susong, Dongzhi and other places. The name of the opera is composed of the first words of its main voice, "Wenci" and "Nanci". Originally a small tune of fishing drum in Huangmei area of Hubei Province, it was introduced to our province in the late Qing Dynasty. After liberation, it gradually developed into a form of opera.

Wennan Ci has a beautiful singing voice, rich and unique forms of expression, which has long been rooted in the folk and is deeply loved by the people. In 2006, Wennan Ci was listed in the first batch of drama projects of intangible cultural heritage in our province.