Types and characteristics of folk music

Folk instrumental music is divided into "solo" and "suite" according to traditional habits. Singles are mostly singles and independent tunes. The divertimento consists of several tunes or independent paragraphs. For example, North-South school pipa Daqu 13 sets and Northern Shaanxi school 8 sets. According to the types of music structure, there are mainly variations, loops, antithesis and polyphony, among which variations and antithesis are the most common.

Various variation techniques are widely used in creation. Folk artists are good at decorating the melody with flowers by various playing techniques when playing a tune repeatedly, such as Welcome (flute) and Wedding Song (suona). "Slowly adding flowers" is also a common variation technique, which multiplies the structure of the "mother song" and makes it decorated with flowers. For example, Ode to Joy (Bamboo Silk in the South of the Yangtze River), Embroidered Pocket in the South (Song of Two People) and Liu Qingniang (Chorus Poetry in Chaozhou) all put the paragraph "Slow down and add flowers" before the "mother song". Another variation technique is to change the structure of the theme. For example, the theme of Erhu Opera "Two Springs Reflecting on the Moon" expands and contracts at the beginning, middle or end of a sentence in the next five variations. However, the "Voice of the Iron Policy Board" in Pipa's Spring Snow White adopts the inversion of structural order. This structural change is common in gongs and drums.

Since the 1920s, Liu Tianhua and Nie Er have done some work on the inheritance and development of national instrumental music. Since the founding of New China, musicians have been sorting out, processing and adapting various excellent traditional songs, which has improved the original spirit of music and produced a large number of new works. In the aspect of musical instrument reform, great progress has been made in unifying melody, improving sound quality, expanding volume, facilitating modulation and increasing bass. New varieties such as large-scale national orchestra ensemble have been produced, and new development has been made in content and form.