History of Lu'an Drums

As early as the third year of the Qianlong period in the Qing Dynasty, Lu Zhanyuan, Dong Xiangwu and other famous drum artists in the Shangdang area liaised with more than a hundred artists from eight counties in Lu'an Prefecture to set up the Blind Squad, a performing society for drum artists, which later developed into the guild organization Sanyuanghui. Accordingly, it is generally believed that the Lu'an drums were already formed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty at the latest. In the early days, the performers were mainly blind, but later there were sighted people, and female performers appeared from the 1950s onwards.

In the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Gao Laizhu, a folk artist who lived in Changzhi's West Street, used local operas and folk tunes as the basis for his work, and gradually processed them into a kind of dry-plate cadence with upper and lower phrases that appeared to be sung and spoken. It uses steel plates and flat drums to beat the beat, forming the characteristics of compact rhythm, strong rap and steady performance. The main repertoire includes: Qin Qiong's Night Fighting in Dengzhou Mansion, Luo Cheng's Breaking of Mengzhou, King Yan's Sweeping of the North, The Eight Righteousnesses, and The Eight Lesser Righteousnesses, and so on. In his later years, Gao Laizhu adopted the blind Wei Yindong as his first generation. At that time, the drum book was accompanied by three strings, the steel plate was changed to a satchel, the starting plate and simple interludes were created, and the repertoire was increased to include four long titles, such as Xue Rengui's Conquest of the East. With the help of the Three Emperors' Association, Zhang Yin'e created the board styles such as the Flower Board and the Sad Board, forming the board cavity structure, and added new repertoire such as "Hu Yanqing's Fighting", "Qiao Lianzhu", "Qiao Qifeng", "Three Switches", "Earring Tale", "Golden Bracelet and Jade Ring Tale", "Laundry Tale", "Returning to the Dragon", and "Qinglong Tale", etc. In 1946, Zhang Yin'e and Yu Shutian joined the Qu Qu Opera Propaganda Team, the first professional performance of Lu'an Drums, which was organized by the democratic government. the first professional performance group of Lu'an Drums. Based on the original Lu'an Drum Book, Yu Shutian absorbed the essence of Shangdang Opera music, enriched the flower plate and sad plate, and created the loose plate and the articulated plate styles (also called transition plate styles) of starting, carrying, turning, closing, and planting, slipping, passing, sending, etc. The accompaniment added strings such as the erhu, the banhu, and the low hu, as well as percussion instruments; and the form of singing was changed from a single to a combination of single soloists and many people singing together. At the same time, they added action performances with realistic images of joy, anger, sadness and happiness, which were very popular among the masses. Yu Shutian and others also compiled many new titles, such as "Landlords and Long Workers", "Zhang Fenglan Persuades Her Husband to Join the Army", "Hundreds of Heroes", "The Long March of the Red Army", "Outline of the Land Law", "A Land Certificate", etc.; after the founding of New China, there were "Mutual Cooperation", "Pan Yulin Mutual Aid Group", "A Sugar-coated Cannonball", "Always on the Alert", and "The Little Two Talk About Enlistment".

In 1959, the female artists absorbed by the opera team, Shi Aiyu, boldly reformed the running water and other boards, creating a beautiful singing style suitable for female actors and actresses with a variety of rows, and the key number was raised from G to D, and the musical instruments were increased to suona, sheng, etc., and the percussion instruments were removed from the drums and changed to drums, which was a refreshing change. 1960, Yu Shutian attended the National Conference of Representatives of the Blind, Deaf and Mute and was kindly received by Premier Zhou Enlai. 196016016, Yu Shutian attended the National Conference of Deaf and Mute Representatives, and was kindly received by Premier Zhou Enlai. On October 2, 1964, the People's Daily featured the Lu'an drums and published Yu Shutian's photo.After 1965, the opera team absorbed a lot of sighted people, which fundamentally changed the team and promoted the development of the art of rap.In the 1970s, the art of opera became more and more prosperous, and the folk artists, such as Yu Shutian, Shih Aiyu, Jiao Tianbaoshan, Du Yushan, Li Changsheng and Li Erdog, became very popular among the masses. The folk artists such as Yu Shutian, Shi Aiyu, Jiao Tianbao, Du Yushan, Li Changsheng, Li Erdog and so on were popular among the masses. In the 1980s, new artists, on the basis of the crystallization of many years' work by old artists, reformed the traditional singing of the Lu'an Drums: the drums were sung by the actors themselves in a band, absorbing theater singing such as Yangge and Shangdang Bangzi, and using modern musical instruments such as the electronic piano to set the mood. Nowadays, Lu'an drums are not only richer in plate style, more melodious, earthy and unique in flavor, but also short in length and strong in telescope, suitable for street dining, indoor singing as well as stage performances, and is one of the main types of music in this province and the north of China. Paying for Huizhu and other writers of the song, created a lot of famous sections, such as "Vinegar for Matchmaker", "September 9", "Rebellion of the Wife", "Water", "Fire", "Road", "New Pearls Rolling Back the Curtains", and so on, and has won many awards. Among them, "Vinegar as Matchmaker" won the second prize for composition, performance and music design at the National Quartet in 1986, and Guo Shuangtang and others won the first prize for accompaniment; "September 9th" won the first prize at the National Quartet Competition in 1990. At the same time, Cui Changjuan was regarded as one of the four new flowers in the northern opera performance. 1992 June, China Association of Chinese Opera Artists, Shanxi Provincial Federation of Literature and other jointly held a symposium on Fu Huaizhu's opera works in Changzhi County, which made Lu'an Drums ranked among the national excellent opera types. 1995, after the re-processing of the "New Pearls Rolling Down the Curtains," on behalf of Shanxi Province to participate in the Second Chinese Opera Festival, won the Mudan Award.