Dong Pipa Song

The Dong pipa is a plucked string instrument. In Dong language, it is called Gaheiyuan, Ga pipa, Ga bomb. It is popular in Rongjiang, Congjiang and Liping in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province, Sanjiang and Rongshui in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Dong Autonomous County in Hunan Province. The Dong songs in this area are called "pipa songs" instead of "big songs" because the singers have to play the pipa to accompany the songs, so they are called "pipa songs". The pipa is not a common type, but a self-made one with a round sound box, a long neck, and four strings made of steel wire, and the sound is clear and melodious.

Legend has it that in the ancient times, the floods were so great that they submerged the whole human race, and only Zhang Liang and Zhang Mei, the brother and sister, sat in a gourd and let it drift with the water, and survived, and the brother and sister got married and reproduced the human race. In order to honor their ancestors, their descendant Pengzu gathered 800 youths and sang beautiful and harmonious tunes while playing the pipa, which moved the seven fairies in the heavenly palace to play and sing every day, and their songs covered the whole Dong tribe, thus teaching the whole Dong family and forming the perfect Dong pipa songs nowadays.

The Dong people call the songs accompanied by pipa as "pipa song". In the vast Dong area, everyone can play pipa and sing pipa songs. Pipa song is a treasure of Dong culture, and it is said that it has more than a hundred kinds of tunes, including major tunes and minor tunes. In addition to the traditional tunes, most of the songs are lyrical songs about love, and most of the lyrics are made up on the basis of the tunes. In addition to accompanying the songs, the pipa also plays the introductory notes and introductory notes, which are improvised, and although they can be short or long, excellent pipa players can play extremely magnificent and moving introductory notes and introductory notes.

When playing the pipa of the Dong ethnic group, the pipa is mostly played in a sitting position, with the instrument case placed on the right leg, the head of the instrument angled to the upper left, the left hand holding the instrument and pressing the strings, and the right hand holding the bamboo or cow horn plectrum. It can also be played while marching. The Dong medium pipa is set an octave higher than the large pipa. The sound is bright and round, and the tone is soft and sweet. It can be used to accompany the beautiful and lyrical love songs and ditties in pipa songs, as well as the narrative pipa songs of the Dong ethnic minority, which is quite popular among the young people of the Dong ethnic minority, and can be played and sung by both men and women, and is especially suitable for women's voices to play and sing, or to accompany women's voices in the chorus. It can also be used for solo performance or as an accompaniment for Dong opera. In some areas, the pipa is accompanied by the ox-legged zither to enhance the harmonic effect of the accompaniment.

Not only the stepping song is sung in the hall, but after dinner, we sit around the door of the village committee and sing with male and female singers until late at night.

Classification of Dong pipa

Due to the different areas of transmission, the shape of Dong pipa is not uniform, mainly divided into three kinds of pipa: large, medium and small.

Due to the different areas of circulation, the shape of the Dong pipa is not uniform, mainly divided into large, medium and small three kinds. Big pipa, *** sound box is inverted peach shape, the head of the instrument is larger. Zhang four strings, the middle two strings of the same degree, sounding (d1, e1, e1, b1) or (d1, e1, e1, a1), soft and low tone.

The medium pipa has a rectangular, inverted trapezoidal or inverted peach-shaped case, with four or five strings, four strings tuned to (d1, e1, e1, b1), and five strings tuned (two alto and soprano strings at the same degree) to (d1, e1, e1, b1, b1), and the tone is bright and sweet.

The small pipa, with a length of about 60 centimeters, is mainly used to accompany small songs, with three or four strings, three strings (f1, g1, d2), or (f1, g1, g1), and four strings (f1, g1, g1, d2), and a clear and pleasant tone. When playing, the left hand holds the instrument and presses the strings, while the right hand holds a small bullhorn or bamboo plectrum to play the strings and pronounce the sound, so it can be used as solo, ensemble or accompaniment for Dong songs and dances.

The songs accompanied by pipa are called "pipa song" by the Dong people, which is a treasure of Dong culture, and it is said that there are more than one hundred kinds of tunes. In addition to the traditional tunes, most of them are lyrical songs about love, and the lyrics are mostly improvised according to the tunes. In addition to accompanying the songs, excellent pipa players can also play extremely magnificent and moving passages and introductions.