The Basic Classification of Tujia Music

1. Weeping wedding song: Tujia people have always had the custom of "singing funeral songs". On the eve of a girl's wedding, she must sing a wedding song. There is only one Changle sentence, and the tune goes up and down. At the last sentence, she naturally jumped up six or seven degrees with tears and cried repeatedly. The crying wedding song in Maodong, Laisu County has strong melody, regular rhythm and euphemistic feelings. The lyrics are mostly seven words, 1 sentence, two sentences at a time, and pay attention to rhyme. There are two kinds of wedding songs, one for the bride and the other for the bride, also called "crying sister". The bride sings first, and the clause with the weeping person is inserted at the end, which naturally forms two parts. It is a rare folk polyphonic song in Tujia folk songs.

2. Filial Piety Song: According to Tujia custom, the night before the old man died and was buried, people should be invited to sing filial piety songs, accompanied by drums, which are also called "knocking funeral drums" and "beating gongs and drums at night"; There are two forms: sitting around the table in front of the sacrificial tent and walking around the coffin. Songs and drums vary from place to place, and the contents are basically the same, such as Twenty-four Filial Pieties, Pregnant in October, and Life of the Dead. There is an eight-character filial piety song in lichuan county, which is also called "seven words are bright and eight words are dark", that is, only seven words are sung in each sentence, and the eighth word is hidden. The tune goes up and down, the feather falls in the previous sentence and the sign falls in the next sentence. The funeral drum in western Hubei has developed into a kind of song and dance activity, with singers beating gongs and drums to lead the singing, two people supporting, singing and dancing.

3. Wave songs: During large-scale sacrificial activities, Tujia people should dance and sing wave songs. Wave songs have a wide range of contents, including ethnic migration and settlement, self-defense against the enemy, land reclamation and production. Different places have different tunes and forms. Yongshun county is a single sentence pattern, Longshan county is an up-and-down sentence pattern, and Baojing county is a free sentence pattern. In addition, there is a free sentence pattern of reciting which is popular in various counties.

4. Ma Ti Song: "Ma Ti", also known as "Tu Laosi", is a religious professional. Horse body songs are used in religious activities, such as exorcism and evil spirits. Horse body will sing this song when it invites God. He sang and danced with a bell and a knife. Baojing's "Wandering God", "Dragon Boat" and "Sending the Son to the Goddess" all belong to this kind of songs.