The Historical Development of China National Music

The Historical Development of China National Music

Folk music generally refers to various music genres formed and spread among the people, such as China folk songs, folk song and dance music, folk instrumental music, folk opera, rap music, etc. The difference between it and professional music mainly lies in the way of creation, that is, the oral way of folk music and the written way of professional music, as well as the different creative techniques, styles and characteristics produced by different creative ways.

On the other hand, due to China's long cultural tradition, professional music creation started late (at the beginning of this century). Besides folk music and professional music, there is another kind of music in China? Traditional music? The concept of. The so-called traditional music refers to non-contemporary music that has been circulating for a certain time. In China, music formed before the Qing Dynasty is usually classified as traditional music. Traditional music includes folk music, court music, literati music and religious music handed down from history. Specific to 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 complicated than that between folk music and professional music. First of all, many court music, literati music and religious music are closely related to folk music. They either originated from folk music and entered other social classes, resulting in various changes in musical temperament and style; In other words, it has not undergone a lot of processing and transformation, showing a strong folk music imprint. Secondly, many creative methods of literati music, court music and religious music still retain the characteristics of oral creative methods of folk music as their source. For example, on the basis of written music, there is a lot of room for improvisation, the emergence of regional genres, a multi-purpose creative way of a song, and so on.

Take guqin music as an example. Guqin is an important musical instrument in China's ancient cultural life. Confucius, Sima Xiangru, Cai Yong and Ji Kang are all famous for playing guqin. During the 3000-year-long artistic development, many literati pianists have devoted themselves to this and created brilliant achievements. They have formed a series of self-contained piano schools from the aspects of music inheritance, learning from teachers and playing styles, and have special scores. This music score is called. Subtraction spectrum? Founded in the Tang Dynasty, it has been in use ever since. Moreover, with the creation and performance skills of guqin music, there is also the theory of guqin music. Cai Yong's Cao Qin in the Han Dynasty is a book that explains Qin Le. In the book, 47 piano pieces are classified and recorded, and their authors, fate, creative background and stories related to the works are described. During the Song Dynasty, Zhu wrote The History of Qin Dynasty. This book, consisting of six volumes, is a commentary and monograph on the musicians of past dynasties. On the basis of continuous accumulation of several generations, Jiang Keqian edited The Complete Works of Qin Shu in Ming Dynasty. There are 22 volumes in the book. The first 20 volumes are records of Qin studies in past dynasties, and the last 2 volumes contain 62 pieces of Qin music? That is to say, today's Guqin music art includes not only music scores that have been handed down and accumulated from generation to generation, schools with different inheritance relations and different performance styles, but also theoretical achievements that collect, summarize and promote the further development of Guqin art, which are very different from folk music.

In the long historical development process, there is no special music score, and there is no book published with music score. Folk music has no special position in the music historical documents hosted by the court and compiled by literati, and there are few records, so it is difficult to see its development from ancient documents; Due to the mode of oral communication, folk music constantly produces new creations, but also loses with the historical turmoil, lacking solid accumulation and innovation like guqin music in previous dynasties; Because folk music has no proper place in the hearts of the court and literati, few people have made theoretical research on it, and the musical artistic creation of great folk artists in past dynasties has drifted with the tide in the long river of history. It is conceivable that the phenomenon that folk music is broken due to disasters or no successors often occurs in history. These situations are quite different from the development of Guqin art, but Guqin music has its own characteristics of improvisation and local genre, although it is spread and discussed, and its performers are mainly literati. For example, as the ancients described:? Wu sheng is quiet and graceful, and if the Yangtze River flows widely and endlessly, it has the wind of the country; The voice of Shu is impatient, and if the torrent rushes to thunder, it will be handsome for a while. ? ([Song] Zhu's "Qin Shi" contains the words of [Tang] pianist Zhao) These characteristics are similar to folk music that has been passed down from mouth to mouth and developed within a certain geographical scope.

Another example is Kunqu Opera. Kunqu opera originated from the music of Nanxi Opera, which spread all over southern China since the Southern Song Dynasty? Nanqu, which originated from folk songs and dances in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Nanqu is one of the earliest operas in China. As a traditional opera tune, it is not enough to use folk songs only, so Nanqu absorbed a lot of Song Ci and traditional music on the basis of folk songs and dances. In Song Ci and traditional music, there are both elements of literati music and folk music. In the process of folk spread, Nanqu was combined with local folk music in various places, resulting in a variety of traditional opera tunes. Like a claim? Four major tunes in Ming Dynasty? Haiyan cavity, Yu Yaoqiang cavity, Yiyang cavity and Kunshan cavity are all due to this.

At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Southern Opera flowed through Kunshan in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, and was sung and promoted by local musicians in combination with local language and music, so it was called Kunshan Opera in the early Ming Dynasty. Later, Wei Liangfu and other artists living in Taicang reformed and absorbed the advantages of music from other regions, summed up a series of singing theories, and formed a euphemistic and exquisite Kunqu singing system. During the Wanli period, Kunqu Opera spread from Wuzhong to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and then to Beijing and Hunan, which quickly replaced Yiyang Opera prevailing in Beijing at that time. In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Kunqu Opera spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong. After Kunqu Opera was introduced to various places, it was combined with local dialects and folk music and evolved into many schools, forming a colorful Kunqu Opera system. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, Kunqu opera gradually declined, and there were still Nankun, Jingbei Kun, Yongjiakun in Wenzhou and Xiang Kun in Hunan in the south of the Yangtze River.

During the development and prosperity of Kunqu opera, most of them were scholars, from the creators of scripts to the reformers of music. For example, Wei Liangfu, who played an important role in the formation of the music style of Kunqu Opera, and Liang Chenyu, who wrote "Huansha Ji", are all talented people. In addition, the lyrics of Kunqu opera are gentle and sincere, and some of them are even obscure. The music of Kunqu Opera is euphemistic and delicate. Strictly speaking, it should be regarded as the music of literati. However, from the formation of Kunqu opera, we can see that it is inextricably linked with folk music in many aspects. Moreover, the Kunqu music developed so far also has multi-purpose and local characteristics. In some districts and counties far away from big cities, Kunqu opera there is more simple and closer to folk music. In addition, Yiyang tune, which is one of the four major tunes in Ming Dynasty together with Kunqu Opera, has also developed to this day. Although it has been produced and circulated for as long as it has, and legendary scripts such as Kunqu tune have been used, it has retained more folk traditions in music.

In addition to the complex relationship between literati music and folk music, court music and religious music are also inextricably linked with folk music. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court formed a tradition of collecting folk music and set up a special music institution. After entering the court, folk music, as a ritual music inside and outside the court, was adapted by government officials and artists to varying degrees. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court abolished the institutions specialized in collecting, sorting, training and playing music, and basically adopted the method of recruiting folk artists to perform in the palace. On the one hand, the use of folk music by the court changed the original appearance of folk music, on the other hand, it promoted the development of folk music through the power of the government.

There are also a lot of folk music elements in religious music. For example, the wind music of Buddhist monasteries in Beijing, the Taoist cave classics music circulating among different ethnic groups in Yunnan, including Ming and Qing tunes, various traditional operas and folk instrumental music.

Zheng Zhenduo, a famous literary theorist in China, said: What is the development of orthodox literature? Popular literature? Closely related to the development of. ? Like five-character poems, Yuefu in Han Dynasty, Yuefu in Six Dynasties, words in Tang and Five Dynasties, songs in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and Gongdiao in Song and Jin Dynasties, which new style did not come from the people when folk songs gradually died out, but this kind of folk songs became owned by literati. ? (History of China Popular Literature, Writers Publishing House, February 1954)

In addition, folk music itself has different components and different stages of development. For example, the main creators and singers of labor songs, folk songs and rural tunes in folk songs are basically farmers. These songs are mostly used as a way for singers to entertain themselves, and they are rarely processed in tune, and their feelings are sincere and simple. Singers of urban minor belonging to folk songs are often professional artists or semi-professional artists engaged in agriculture and handicrafts. These songs are mostly used in the streets, restaurants and teahouses, and many ordinary citizens or rich people listen to them. In exchange for reward and catering to the audience's interest, these tunes have been processed by artists, artistically and commercialized in form, secularized and complicated in content and form: sincere and frank, breaking the shackles of old ethics, seeking individual liberation, and showing the narrow, weak, negative and even low-level interests of small producers. The same is true of China traditional opera and Quyi (rap). According to statistics, there are more than 300 kinds of modern Quyi and traditional operas in China. Among the numerous operas, some with high cultural and artistic standards are often or mainly performed in big cities, while others with relatively low cultural and artistic standards are rarely or basically not performed in big cities. Those varieties that are often performed in big cities, such as Beijing Opera and Jingyun Drum, are all created and performed by literati in history, so there are more opportunities to observe and learn from other sister arts in big cities, so as to be eclectic and develop more from content to form. On the other hand, relatively speaking, it also expresses and spreads the artistic taste, moral concept and code of conduct of the ruling class, literati and citizens.

In the development of modern music life, more professional writers and artists participate in the performance, adaptation and creation of folk music varieties. The folk music that developed and prospered after the founding of the People's Republic of China is inseparable from the creation of professional writers and artists. However, this kind of creation is not divorced from the foundation, nature and traditional accumulation of national music, nor from the long-term characteristics of China national music. Therefore, this kind of creation is essentially different from professional music creation.

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