Talk about your knowledge of folk music (about 500 words)

Folk music generally refers to a variety of musical genres formed in and circulated among the folk, such as China's folk songs, folk song and dance music, folk instrumental music, folk opera and rap music. The difference between it and professional music lies mainly in the way of creation, i.e. the difference between the oral way of creation of folk music and the written way of creation of professional music, as well as the different creative methods, creative styles, and creative features that are born out of the different ways of creation.

On the other hand, due to the long history of China's cultural tradition and the late start of professional music creation (early this century), there is still a concept of "traditional music" in China's music, in addition to folk music and professional music. The so-called traditional music refers to music that has been in circulation for a certain period of time and is not a contemporary creation. In China, music that has been formed before the Qing Dynasty is often categorized as traditional music. Traditional music includes folk music that has been passed down through history, as well as court music, literati music and religious music. Specifically for folk music, traditional music includes traditional folk music, but does not include emerging folk music.

The distinction between folk music and non-folk music in traditional music is much more complex than the distinction between folk music and professional music. First of all, many court music, literati music and religious music have affinities with folk music. They either originated from folk music, or were taken from folk music, and produced various changes in musical temperament and style after entering other social strata; or they did not undergo much processing and modification, and showed a strong imprint of folk music. Secondly, the compositional methods of many literati, court and religious music retained the characteristics of the oral compositional methods of folk music as their sources. For example, on the basis of written scores, there was room for greater improvisation, the emergence of regional genres, and the multi-purpose composition of a single piece of music, and so on.

Taking the guqin music as an example. In China's ancient cultural life, the guqin is a musical instrument that occupies an important position. Confucius, Sima Xiangru, Cai Yong, Jikang, etc., are known for playing the guqin. In the art development process of up to 3000 years, many literati qin masters have paid their efforts and created brilliant achievements, forming a series of qin schools from the transmission of the spectrum, division to the style of playing each into a system with a special music score, which is called "minus the word spectrum", which was created in the Tang Dynasty, and has been in use to the present day. Moreover, along with the development of guqin music creation and performance techniques, there is also the theory of guqin music. In the Han Dynasty, Cai Yong's book "Qin Cultivation" is a work on the interpretation of qin music. In the book, 47 pieces of qin music were categorized and recorded, with their authors, intended meanings, backgrounds, and stories related to the pieces. In the Song Dynasty, Zhu Changwen wrote the History of the Qin. The six volumes of the book contain reviews and special commentaries on qin artists of different generations. In the Ming Dynasty, Jiang Keqian edited The Complete Book of the Qin on the basis of the accumulation of several generations. The whole book has 22 volumes, the first 20 volumes are the records about qin science in the past generations, and the last 2 volumes contain 62 qin songs. ...... That is to say, the musical art of the guqin that has been developed so far not only has the qin scores that have been passed down from generation to generation and accumulated, but also has schools with different inheritance relationships and different playing styles, and there are also the theoretical constructions that have been collected, summarized, and pushed forward the further development of the art of the guqin. There are also theories that collect, summarize and promote the further development of the guqin art. All these are very different from folk music. During a long period of historical development, there were no specialized music scores, not to mention the books that collected the scores. In the music history and literature compiled by the court and the literati, folk music had no special status, and the relevant records were negligible, so it was difficult to see its development from the ancient literature; due to the way of oral and heartfelt transmission, folk music constantly produced new creations, and constantly dispersed along with the turmoil of history, and lacked the solid accumulation and innovation through the generations as the guqin music did; due to the lack of a due status for folk music in the court and the literati's hearts, folk music had not been recognized as the most important art in history. Since folk music did not have its due position in the hearts of the court and the literati, few people carried out theoretical research on it, and the creation of music and art by the great folk artists of the past generations went with the current in the long river of history. It is conceivable that the phenomenon of folk music forming a fault line due to disaster or lack of successors is a frequent occurrence in history. All of these situations are very different from the development of the art of the guqin. However, despite the fact that guqin music has a genealogy and theory of transmission, and that the performers are mainly literati, it is also characterized by improvisation in performance and the vernacular nature of the genre. For example, as described by the ancients, "The sound of Wu is clear and graceful, like the Yangtze River flowing widely, stretching and passing slowly, with the wind of the country; the sound of Shu is restless and anxious, like the torrent of rushing thunder, and is also a moment of handsome speed." ([Song] Zhu Changwen "qin history" in the [Tang] qin master Zhao Yeli words) These characteristics, and oral transmission, and confined to a certain geographical scope of the development of folk music has similarities.

Then there is Kunqu. Kunqu originated from Nanqu, the music of the Southern Opera, which had been circulating throughout the South since the Southern Song Dynasty, and Nanqu originated from the folk songs and dances around Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Nanqu is one of the earliest vocal cadences of opera folk in China. As an opera voice, it is not enough just to use folk songs and dances, so Nanqu absorbed a lot of Song lyrics and traditional music on the basis of folk songs and dances. Song lyrics and traditional music contain both literati music and folk music. In the process of spreading in the folk culture, Nanqu was combined with local folk music to produce a variety of opera voices. For example, the Haiyan cavity, known as the "four great voices of the Ming Dynasty", the Yuyao cavity, the Yiyang cavity, the Kunshan cavity, are all out of this.

Late in the Yuan Dynasty, the Southern Opera flowed through the area of Kunshan in the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province, combining with the local language and music, and through the singing and promotion of the local musicians, the early Ming Dynasty came to be known as the Kunshan Cavity. Later, Wei Liangfu, who lived in Taicang, and some other artists reformed and absorbed the strengths of other regions' music, summarizing a series of singing theories and forming a gentle and delicate singing system of the Kunqiang. During the Wanli period, the Kun Opera expanded from Wuzhong to all parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and spread to Beijing and Hunan, quickly replacing the Eagle Yang Opera, which was then prevalent in Beijing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Kun Qiang spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong. After the introduction of the Kun Cavity to various places, it combined with the local dialects and folk music to develop numerous genres, constituting a rich and colorful Kun Cavity family. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Kun Cavity gradually declined, and those who still exist today are the Southern Kun of Jiangnan, the Northern Kun of Beijing, the Yong (Jia) Kun of Wenzhou, and the Xiang Kun of Hunan.

In the development and prosperity stage of the Kunqu opera, from the creator of the script to the improvement of the music, most of the literati were scholars. For example, Wei Liangfu, who played a pivotal role in the formation of the musical style of kunqu, and Liang Chenyu, who created the "Raccoon Sand Tale," and a number of other playwrights, were all men of the cloth with talent but without merit. In addition, the lyrics of Kunqu are gentle and elegant, and some of them are even obscure and remote. The music of Kunqu is low and gentle, delicate and lingering, which, strictly speaking, should be regarded as the music of the literati. However, from the formation process of Kunqu, it can be seen that it is inextricably linked with the folk music of many regions. Moreover, the development of Kunqu music to date is also characterized by the multi-purpose and local nature of a song. In some districts and counties far away from big cities, the Kunqu opera there is more simple and closer to the style of folk music. In addition, the Yiyangqiang, one of the four major vocal crescendos of the Ming Dynasty, which has developed into the Gaoqiang, has retained more folk traditions in its music, although it was created and circulated in the same time period and has adopted legendary scripts such as the Kunqu opera.

In addition to the complex relationship between the music of the literati and that of the folk, court and religious music were also intricately linked to folk music. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the collection of folk music by court officials formed a tradition, and specialized music institutions were established. After folk music entered the court, it was adapted to varying degrees by officials and artists in the government, and was used as ceremonial music inside and outside the court. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the court abolished the institutions specializing in collecting, organizing, training and performing music, and basically adopted the method of recruiting folk artists to perform in the palace. Palace use of folk music, on the one hand, changed the original appearance of folk music, on the other hand, through the power of the government on the development of folk music has played a role in promoting.

Religious music also has a large number of folk music components. For example, the pipe music of the Buddhist temples in Beijing and the Taoist cave music circulated among many ethnic groups in Yunnan, which includes the time-key songs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a variety of opera tunes and instrumental tunes circulated in the folklore.

China's famous literary theorist Mr. Zheng Zhenduo said: "The development of orthodox literature and the development of 'popular literature' are closely related. ...... Like the pentameter poems, the Han Lefu, the new music of the Six Dynasties, the lyrics of the Tang and Five Dynasties, the songs of the Yuan and Ming, and the zhugong tunes of the Song and Jin dynasties, which new literary style did not occur from the folk?" "When the folk songs gradually died out, and such folk songs became the property of the literati and scholars." (A History of Chinese Popular Literature, Writers' Publishing House, February 1954 edition)

In addition, folk music itself has different compositions and different stages of development. For example, the main creators and singers of the folk songs, such as labor horns, mountain songs and rural ditties, are basically peasants. These songs are mostly used as a means of self-entertainment for the singers, with less processing of the tunes and sincere and simple emotions. The urban ditties, which also belong to the category of folk songs, are often sung by professional artists or semi-professional artists working in agriculture or handicrafts. These songs are mostly used as the content of street and alley, restaurant and teahouse singing, the audience for the general public or the rich. In order to get paid and cater to the interests of the audience, these tunes were more processed by the artists, and the form was more artistic and commercial, and from the content to the form became secularized and complicated: there was sincerity and frankness, breaking through the shackles of the old rituals and pursuing the liberation of the individuality, but also showed the narrowness, weakness, negativity, and even low-grade interests of the small producers. This is also the case in opera and song (rap). According to statistics, there are more than 300 types of modern Chinese operatic songs and operatic dramas in China. Among the many varieties of operas and plays, there are varieties that are often or mainly performed in big cities and have high cultural and artistic standards, and there are also varieties that are rarely or basically not performed in big cities and have relatively low cultural and artistic standards and are more crude. Those varieties that are often performed in big cities, such as Beijing opera and Jingyun drums, have historically involved literati in their creation and performance, and have more opportunities to observe and learn from other sister arts in big cities, allowing them to be absorbed and integrated, and to develop more in terms of both content and form. But on the other hand, it also expressed and spread the artistic tastes, moral concepts and behavioral rules of the ruling class, literati and citizens.

In the development of modern musical life, there are more professional literati involved in the performance, adaptation and in some sense creation of folk music varieties. And in the People's Republic of China after the establishment of the people's **** and the development of folk music, flourished, it is even more with the creative labor of professional art workers are inseparable. However, this kind of creative labor has not been separated from the foundation, nature and traditional accumulation of folk music, and has not deviated from the characteristics of folk music that have been formed in China for a long time. This creation, therefore, is fundamentally different from professional music creation.

So what are the characteristics of China's folk music?

2. Characteristics of China's Folk Music

1. Vernacularity

The so-called vernacularity is also called locality or regionality. China is a vast country, with an area close to that of the whole of Europe (China covers an area of about 9.6 million square kilometers, while Europe covers an area of 10.16 million square kilometers). In terms of topography, there are plateaus, mountains, hills, plains and basins; in terms of climate, there are temperate zones with four distinct seasons, subtropical zones that are evergreen all year round, and tropical zones in the southernmost part of the country; and in terms of the mode of economic production, there are different kinds of industries, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. Therefore, under the ****similarity of large ethnic groups and cultures, each region has different characteristics in terms of geography and climate, natural production conditions, social changes, cultural traditions, dialects and phonetics, and so on. People's lifestyles, customs, personalities and aesthetic tastes are also different. Moreover, the degree of such characteristics and differences is inversely proportional to the state of developed transportation and the frequency of external exchanges: the more developed the transportation, the more external exchanges, the more blurred the regional characteristics; on the contrary, the more closed the transportation, the less interaction with the outside world, the more distinctive the regional characteristics tend to be. Therefore, those in the poor countryside, inconvenient transportation in the mountain villages of folk music, its regional characteristics of the prominence, often enough to make the first-time outsiders can not accept, can not understand. And this is precisely the reason why music produced in too closed an environment is difficult to spread outward.

The regional characteristics of folk music are mainly manifested in the following aspects:

①Language Characteristics

China has a large number of nationalities, in addition to 56 recognized nationalities, according to 1990 statistics, there are still 749,000 people who have not yet been identified as belonging to a nationality. Among the 56 ethnic groups, except for the Hui, who use Chinese, the other ethnic groups have their own languages, which belong to 11 language groups in 5 language families. For some ethnic groups, due to historical migration and other reasons, their national languages also belong to the same language family but different language groups. For example, the Yugu people living in the northwest of China, their language belongs to the Altaic language family, but the western Yugu language belongs to the Turkic language family, and the eastern Yugu language belongs to the Mongolian language family. The genealogical classification of the world's languages into language families, language groups, language branches and other levels is based on the phonological, grammatical and lexical ****similar components of a ****similar mother tongue retained in the process of differentiation to classify the language. A language family is a general term for languages of ****similar origin, and under the family it is subdivided into clans and branches according to the degree of linguistic newness or sparsity. The lower down the scale, the closer the kinship of its members. The language of each ethnic group has its own set of phonological systems. The higher you go from ethnicity to language branch, language group, and language family, the greater the difference between the phonological systems. There are four elements that make up speech: pitch, timbre, duration and intensity. They are likewise the four elements that make up music. Phonetic features influence the pitch, timbre, rhythm and intensity of the music through the words sung in the song, and use the vocal work as a bridge to influence the musical phrasing and the way the embouchure is used in the instrumental work. Additionally, within a larger ethnic group, there is the distinction of dialects. Dialect is the regional variation of language within a nation. In the case of Chinese, for example, there are seven major dialect areas: Guanhua, Wu, Gan, Hakka, Xiang, Min, and Cantonese, and under each of these areas, the dialects can be further divided into dialectal pieces, dialectal sub-pieces, and dialectal points. Generally speaking, the differences between dialects are smaller than the differences between national languages. However, the differences between certain dialects of Chinese, such as Beijing and Cantonese, are greater than the differences between certain national languages, such as Russian and Ukrainian. In terms of the constraining effect of speech on music alone, the greater the difference in speech, the greater the difference in music between different ethnic groups and regions. Thus, folk music in national languages or dialects is much more distinctive than professionally composed music in ****analogous languages.

The number of Chinese dialects is so great that there is the saying "ten miles of different sounds". This makes the same folk song circulate in different regions, due to the difference in the voice and the changes in pitch. The following examples are two variations of the folk song "Meng Jiangnu" produced in Jiangsu and Hebei. While the basic musical notes remain the same, some subtle changes in pitch movement lead to differences in the character and temperament of the two tunes. To summarize, the Jiangsu tune is soft and gentle, while the Hebei tune is strong and angular:

After the unification of China, Qin Shihuang unified the laws, weights and measures, currency, and writing throughout the country in order to establish a centralized rule and to communicate between regions. However, he only solved the problem of "books with the same text", but could not solve the problem of "language with the same sound", and left a rich and colorful folk music for future generations.

② Character traits

Hegel summarized three aspects of the role of geographic patterns, namely, the role of geography on the economy, the role of social relations and the political system, and the role of human character. Geography determines the way of life of a person, and it also inculcates the temperament of a person's character. People who have had some traveling experience often feel that people in different regions have different character tendencies. Roughly speaking, people in the north of China are rough and brash, while people in the south are delicate and gentle. Writer Shen Congwen once said: "Clouds have cloudy localities: the clouds in northern China are thick, and people are equally so thick. The clouds in the south are lively, and so are the people." ("Cloud Watching in Yunnan") Feng Zikai also said, "The surrounding landscape has a great influence on people's character. The peculiar mountains of Guilin give the people of Guangxi a peculiar character, courageous and indomitable, but also short and straightforward, straightforward and painful." The Yangtze River in Sichuan is vast and turbulent, and the mountains are strange and steep. The character of the people there is open-minded and tenacious, with exuberant vitality, folk music is also through the wit, bravery and wit; northwest Loess Plateau region of drought, little rain, desert and desolate, the yellow land against the blue sky and white clouds over the plateau, the sandstorms, a pale, the character of the people here is rustic and deep, folk music is also in the long and long with a few points of bleakness; Jiangnan region of the mountains, water and water, rich in produce, here The people here are smart and talented, folk music is also delicate and gentle, beautiful and moving tunes; the Northeast has a cold climate and fertile black soil, the people here are fast and loose, folk music is also dry and sharp, lively and fun ......

The geographic environment created people, people with their own character created to harmonize with the environment and culture, culture further strengthens the environmental atmosphere. In the long run, people of different nationalities and regions in China have formed their own distinctive cultural types under the influence of geographic environment, cultural atmosphere and historical traditions. This type of culture is especially well expressed in local operas which are larger in length and more inclusive and expressive. For example, the appraisal of opera is good at showing the shortcomings of the family and the world, the Yueju Opera is good at showing the sadness and joy of the talented and beautiful people, the Qin Opera is good at showing the bitter and tragic injustice, the Peking Opera is good at showing the achievements and struggles of the emperors and generals, and so on.

③ Musical Characteristics

Due to the different course of cultural development and traditions, there are differences in the composition of folk music in various regions. Generally speaking, the northern folk music mostly uses the seven-tone scale, the southern folk music mostly uses the five-tone scale; the melodic intervals of the northern folk music are larger, and the melodic movement is more jumping in, while the melodic intervals of the southern folk music are smaller, and the melodic movement is more gradual; the melodic line of the northern folk music is more angular, and the melodic line of the southern folk music is more zig-zagging; the northern folk music is rich in narrative features, while the southern folk music is rich in lyrical features; etc.

During this time, the folk music of different regions has different musical components. characteristics; and so on.

Through the Wuxi folk song "Wuxi Scene" and its northern variant "Exploring the Clear Water River", we can see the differences between the characteristics of folk music in the south and the north:

2. Improvisation

The basic way of spreading folk music in China is to teach it orally by heart. Old singers, old artists or masters play by virtue of singing when they pass on their skills, and new singers, young artists or apprentices learn their skills by virtue of listening and memorization, basically not using the written sheet music as a means of transmission. On the one hand, there is no perfect notation method for folk music in China, and on the other hand, all outstanding singers and artists have the opportunity to utilize their talents in the inherited folk music and process and adapt it. The fruits of folk music are the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the people over the centuries. The way of passing on folk music by word of mouth creates the uncertainty and changeability of folk music, which provides the conditions for collective processing; and the continuous collective processing makes the folk music passed on from generation to generation perfect day by day. As a result of this development, the improvisation of folk music in singing and playing has become the standard for verifying the attainments of singers and artists. In the singing activities in the rural areas of various ethnic groups and regions, the winners are those singers who are good at improvising the tunes and lyrics they have learned. In the Jiangnan silk and bamboo ensemble, the fixed score is only the basic framework, and each performance is different, relying on the musicians' ability to improvise and process on the spot, which they have practiced for a long time. In order to work together, the musicians have summarized a set of cooperation methods, such as you complex and I simple, you move and I static, you break and I connect, you high and I low. In the past, when old opera fans or amateur opera performers went to the theater, they often did not go to "see" the opera, but to "listen" to it. They could listen with their eyes closed under the stage, shaking their heads. They were very familiar with the stories performed on the stage, and they could almost recite the words and songs of the operas by heart. They came to listen to the improvisational changes of the famous actors. They applaud when an actor does not follow the customary singing at a certain place, but makes a live play, and this play is more conducive to the expression of the character of the play and the progress of the storyline.

Impromptu changes are a form of folk music composition in which the creator is the performer. Although the improvisational changes are only localized changes in relatively fixed tunes, they have been accumulated over long periods of time by generations of ancestors, promoting the development of folk music. In this kind of creation, the audience is both the appreciator and the judge, and they don't have to wait until the actor's curtain call to applaud with approval, encouragement, or respect. The clamor, applause and booing on the stage expresses their good and bad feelings in time, and also reflects a closer relationship between the audience and the performers (creators): in addition to commercial performances, where the audience is the food and clothing of the performers, the performers of folk music have a more harmonious, equal and direct relationship with the audience, which may be one of the reasons why folk music is more vibrant and more lively than professional music. This may be one of the reasons why folk music is more vivid and lively than professional music.

3. Variability in transmission

Folk music's oral and oral transmission, as well as its vernacular and improvisational characteristics, have led to variability in the process of transmission. There are several types of variations:

1) Geographical variations

When a folk tune is passed on in a different place, the melody will change due to the change of the square sound of the lyrics. The mood of the tune will also change due to the different character traits of the people in different places. The "Meng Jiang Nü" (Example 1) from Jiangnan and Hebei, cited above, actually contains both of these changes. The same "Embroidered Lotus Bags" in central Shanxi and northern Shaanxi:

The two "Embroidered Lotus Bags" are basically the same in terms of lyrics and tunes, with only a few subtle differences, but they show a difference in moods: Shanxi's "Embroidered Lotus Bags" is bright and playful, and carries a feeling of joy; Shaanxi's "Embroidered Lotus Bags" is simple and depressing, and reveals a sense of bleakness. In addition, the singer of Shanxi's "Embroidered Lotus Bags" uses a bright and sweet tone, while the singer of Shaanxi's "Embroidered Lotus Bags" uses a raspy, astringent tone, which accentuates the contrast between the two. In the second, fourth, sixth and eighth bars of "Embroidered Lotus Bag", the combination of the hoarse tone and the downward melody creates a sobbing effect.

② Emotional rendering variation

Some relatively simple, plain and straightforward tunes that are neutral in emotional expression (such as Example 6) have been processed and adapted in the process of circulation, and have a distinctive and detailed emotional tendency (Example 7). The former tune is simple and straightforward, while the latter tune is fiery and passionate, expressing the excitement of a girl before she goes to the theater in a vivid way:

3) Expression of the function of the broadening of the variation

Folk music has a tradition of multi-purpose songs. Expressing the content of a certain theme of the tune, replaced with other content of the lyrics, and modified to adapt to the new content of the tune, this is the folk music used to create. For example, some tunes in folk songs were originally narrated in folklore sorrow content (such as Example 1 "Meng Jiangnu"), and later used to show love ("Send a Lover") or heroes in novels ("Three Kingdoms Sighs Ten Voices"); the same tune tune of the same tune of the time, "stacking the broken bridge" can be expressed in both the women's lovesickness and grief of the lingering ("through the heart of the tune"), but also can be expressed when the bride went to the sedan chair of the joy ("Sedan Chair to the door"), or Singing about the busyness of production and labor in the four seasons ("Song of the Four Seasons"); and so on. Some tunes or cadences in opera and opera music are smooth and fluent at medium speed, slow and lyrical at slow speed, and lively and enthusiastic or intense at fast speed. Of course, these tunes in addition to changes in speed, the melody of the complexity of the increase or deletion, the line of the tune should also be changed accordingly.

4) Genre cross, penetration of the variation

Some folk tunes absorbed the expressive techniques of opera music, enhancing the storytelling, plot development of the performance of the function; some of the music absorbed the expressive techniques of opera music, expanding the performance of the dramatic conflict and the ability to express the tension of intense emotions; some folk instrumental music, from the plot of the repertoire to the structure of the music, have been strongly influenced by opera; some of the instrumental music or the music of the opera, and the music of the opera is also a strong influence on the performance of the music of the opera. Some folk instrumental music, from the plot to the structure of the music, is strongly influenced by opera; some instrumental music or vocal music, when playing and singing, absorbs each other's way of embellishment, and widens the range of expressive methods and expressions.

All in all, it's not just about the music, it's about the music.

In short, the variation of folk music in the process of circulation is the means of its development and enrichment, which makes folk music alive and full of vitality.

4. People's nature

From the beginning of the "State Wind" of the Book of Songs, folk music has expressed the joys and sorrows of the common people, which are different from those of the ruling class, such as the glorification of labor, the hatred and ridicule of those who are unkind to the rich, the indignation and resistance against the dark rule of the government, the sympathy for the misfortune of the poor, the praise of innocent love, and the longing for a better life, and so on. The music of folk music is often associated with the feudalism and the rule of the government. Because the content of folk music is often out of tune with the requirements of feudal rule, many emperors in history have ordered a ban. For example, the Yuan Dynasty, Wu Zong to the big years of the ban on singing "cargo", Ming Taizu ban on song and dance, the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Tongzhi, Daoguang ban on singing rice-planting songs, Lotus Flower, and so on. In front of the emperor's ban, the people do not show weakness. A folk song in northern Shaanxi Province sings: "The big star in the sky tube small star, on the ground Fudai tube military door, only the governor tube county, which tube singers." (He Qifang's "Selected Folk Songs of Northern Shaanxi") Another Fujian folk song says: "The new official is in charge of a lot of things, no matter how much money and food is managed by the mountain songs, if the songs are banned, the civil and military talents will break off." The contempt for the government and the literati, as well as the confidence and pride in the talents of the laboring people expressed in this song, gave people a great shock.

Due to the thousands of years of feudal rule in China, and the constant banning and reforming by the rulers, the degree of defiance and other positive elements in folk music varies from region to region. Generally speaking, such positive factors are greater in rural areas than in towns, in remote areas than in the interior, and in genres and varieties seldom performed in big cities than in those often performed in big cities.

5. Multifunctionality

The function of professional music is to entertain the audience on stage. Folk music, on the other hand, is multifunctional. It can be self-indulgent, in the sorrow or joy of the extreme, sing a song to vent strong feelings; it may also be other entertainment, in front of the crowd to show off their ability to master the music, to get other people's appreciation and adoration; it can be used as a medium to transmit the feelings of young men and women, but also used for red and white wedding ceremony; it can be the organization of the collective labor, conductor, but also to teach the means of production and living It can be a means of teaching production and life knowledge; it can be used as a history book among the illiterate working people to record the changes of the years and as a textbook to promote the glorious achievements of the national heroes; it can be a game for the children, but also for the elders or the chiefs to the people to agitate and call on them; and so on. The multifunctionality of folk music makes it closely related and inseparable from all aspects of people's lives, making it a folk encyclopedia.

Third, the understanding and evaluation of folk music

According to the way of creation and inheritance, music can be divided into two kinds: oral and written. Of course music is different from literature. While "oral literature" and "written literature" can be clearly labeled literally and conceptually as the state of their creation, existence and dissemination, written music still needs to be transformed into living music through performers and singers. This process inevitably involves a second creation by the performers and singers. Even so, oral music is very different from written music. In short, oral music gives the performer a great deal of leeway in terms of improvisation, but on the other hand, oral music does not allow for the same kind of reflection and repetition that written music does, because it is anchored to the score by paper and pen.

The special way of creating and passing on music has brought the following results to the development of folk music--

First of all, there exists a lot of "ready-made ideas" and "ready-made patterns" in folk music.

First of all, there is a great deal of "ready-made thinking" and "ready-made patterns" in folk music. For example, the repeated use of the same vocabulary, the same metaphorical techniques in the lyrics, the consistency of the pattern of melodic movement, the structure of the musical sections, and the way of embellishment within a region; (in other words, folk music reflects only the local styles) without reflecting the personal style; the sameness of the cadences and the singularity of the techniques of structuring the music in the operatic and rap styles; etc.

The first is that there is a great deal of use of "ready-made ideas" and "ready-made patterns" in folk music.

Secondly, although there is no lack of highly developed techniques in folk music, these techniques remain at the stage of oral theory and cannot be widely disseminated and practiced more generally to carry them forward as written theory can. Moreover, due to the inconvenient transportation for a long time, many regions in China are isolated from each other, and the folk music varieties seldom get the opportunity to communicate with the outside world and learn from other art varieties, so that many highly developed skills in folk music are in a single and scattered state, for example, a certain region's mountain songs have rich timbral variations, and another region's songs have complex and expressive vibrato skills, and another region has beautifully developed techniques in folk music, but these techniques are only at the stage of oral theory, but they cannot be widely disseminated and practiced more generally like the written theory in order to carry them forward. There is also a region of mountain songs have beautiful, moving words and phrases,...... skills and achievements in a state of dispersion, greatly weakening the degree of development of folk music.

Third, although the origin of folk music is earlier than that of professional music, objectively speaking, its development progress is slower than that of professional music. Professional music not only has the foundation of a well thought-out score, but also has the ability to receive feedback and comments from critics after a performance in front of a large audience, is accompanied by technical theories that are constantly being summarized, and, more importantly, has the economic conditions that enable its creators and performers to engage in music professionally, which ensures the quality of professional music. These are all things that folk music lacks. Except for those folk music varieties that can occupy a place in big cities or palaces, which can get part of the development conditions of professional music as mentioned above, the vast majority of folk music in the countryside villages and towns are in a state of self-generation for a long period of time. Because of the lack of timely summarization and organization, the talents and achievements of countless outstanding folk artists are like shooting stars in the air, whose light is fleeting. Some folk music varieties, before they are fully developed, decay prematurely. Without financial, material and human support, folk music involuntarily rises and falls in the passage of time.

Like those folk music varieties that can live in big cities or palaces, although superior to country music in terms of material and artistic exchange, but because of being under the strict rule of the government, the independence of its spirit and the purity and freshness of its temperament have been lost, and some of them contain vulgar and low-grade content, and have even become a tool to defend the ruling class regime and propagate the feudal moral concepts.

Despite all these limitations, folk music, as the voice of the working people, is essentially the most colorful aspect of the people's spiritual outlook. Although folk music develops slowly in terms of skills due to the way of creation and inheritance, it has been refined and sublimated through the accumulation, processing and screening of people's collectives for thousands of years, and its artistic standard and expressive power have become perfect day by day, becoming the most true, the most good and the most beautiful music in the world. It is the best part of human cultural achievements. It can purify the human soul, improve the human realm and sentiment, cultivate and improve the human artistic feeling and discernment. It has immortal artistic vitality.