String drama related to string drama

Changde Sixian is an important branch of Hunan Sixian, the most developed and influential one in Hunan Sixian, and it has the status of an independent school. Changde Sixian is a popular folk art in Dongting Lake, with stringed instruments such as dulcimer, pipa, sanxian, Jinghu and erhu as accompaniment instruments, so it is called "Changde Sixian". Changde Sixian originated from the popular tunes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, merchants who traded with geisha introduced these tunes into Changde, merged with Changde dialect, and gradually evolved into Changde Sixian. Changde Sixian is a kind of folk rap performance art, which is based on singing and supplemented by speaking, with great capacity. It can sing big stories with characters and plots, or short and pithy jokes.

The traditional singing method of Changde Sixian is sitting singing, mostly singing long-tune Sixian with stories and characters. Generally, there are six singers who play different roles, such as fate, Dan, Jing and Ugliness, and can also play musical instruments. The musical instruments are Bangu, dulcimer, Pipa, Jinghu, Erhu and Sanxian, among which the drummer is also the conductor and grasps the whole singing rhythm. If there are more roles than singers in the singing repertoire, each person will play a main role and then concurrently. Due to the continuous reform and development of the art of Sixian singing, the forms of singing are also diversified, not only solo, duet and group singing, but also on the stage as a Sixian drama. At the same time, there are special bands, and actors are no longer used as musicians. Accompaniment instruments have also increased. In addition to the original musical instruments, Gao Hu, Chang Sanxian and double bass were added, which added color to the accompaniment of Changde Sixian. As for Wugang Sixian, it is an exotic musical variety. After it was introduced into Wugang, it infiltrated and joined the local local voice, thus forming the personality and characteristics of Wugang Sixian.

Wugang is a famous ancient city in the Han Dynasty, and later became a place of governing the country. Tao Yuanming's great-grandfather Tao Kan worked as a county magistrate and built a school palace here. With the development of economy and the influence of foreign culture, it will not be a place of "neither string nor bamboo for a whole year". According to historical research, before the Ming Dynasty, Wugang had rituals and music for offering sacrifices to Confucius, which in itself was a symbol of cultural development. As for when, where and how music was introduced into Wugang, there is no historical data to check. 1960 when I was recording the Sixian sung by Mr. Yang Ruixiang, I asked about the origin of Wugang Sixian, and he couldn't explain why. But from the historical evolution of Wugang, I can make such an analysis and speculation: in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the eighteenth son of Ming Taizu, became the queen of Wugang for more than 200 years, and dozens of Ming royal families who became kings also moved to Wugang from other places. They may bring a group of geisha and musicians to entertain themselves. Over time, the music they sang went from quantity to quality, and finally flowed from the palace to the people, multiplying.

Secondly, during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, social unrest, foreign invasion, and successive years of military disasters caused many businessmen and geisha in small and medium-sized cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to retreat and settle in a mountain city like Wugang, which promoted the development of Wugang Sixian. In addition, due to the vigorous rise of traditional Chinese opera, this ditty of Sixian can't occupy the big stage, but can only take root and sprout in small towns. After the continuous processing and sorting by folk artists, its local characteristics have become more and more rich, and finally it has become a fragrant small jasmine flower in Wugang folk music-Wugang Sixian.

According to preliminary research, the first generation singer of Wugang Sixian was Zhang, followed by Li, Tamazi, Jiao Monk, You Yunlong, Yang Ruixiang. At that time, there was an official named Zhong Zao in the county government, who was very fond of thinking of the virtuous. Together with You Yunlong, he composed some lyrics and songs of Wugang Sixian, from which it is not difficult to see the evolution of Wugang Sixian.

Sixian props are simple, the singing is beautiful, and the performance form is lively, which appeals to both refined and popular tastes. It is not limited by the venue and can be performed anywhere. So by the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Sixian had been widely sung in the streets of Wugang, and even in rural courtyards, or enjoying the snow around the stove in winter, or enjoying the cool in the corner in summer, you can smell the sound of Sixian. For birthdays, weddings and celebrations of rich families, merchants often invite Sixian teams to sing to entertain them. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Tang, the director of Hunan Branch of Central Daily News, sang songs for three days when he was running for the national congress in Wugang, his hometown, and initiated the establishment of the "Four Little Literary Societies". Slowly, Wugang stringed instruments not only spread all over the urban and rural areas of Wugang, but also spread in the surrounding areas of Wugang, such as Longhui, Dongkou, Xinning and Shaoyang.

Judging from the main musical instruments played by Wugang Sixian, dulcimer and harp were popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang before the Tang Dynasty, and did not originate in Wugang or even Hunan and Guizhou. Compared with the rough and uninhibited folk songs of ethnic minorities in Hunan and Guizhou, Wugang's stringed tunes are beautiful, and her singing is euphemistic, which is quite a legacy of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Wuyin soft language. The style of Ci has the characteristics of court literature, which is quite different from the rough and bold singing of Hunan and Guizhou folk songs.

So, how is Wugang Sixian unique? I think, first, the local characteristics formed by Daobai; Secondly, with the progress of the times and the constant innovation of the repertoire, the style of the original silk string has been developed.

As far as the narration in Sixian County is concerned, the narration in Sixian County in Wugang is all Qiyang tune, which is because Qi Opera has a long history in Wugang and has a wide influence. However, both the Daobai of the national opera and the Daobai of Sixian are rhyming, so it is natural for Sixian to slowly move closer to the popular opera and absorb the Daobai form of "drama" in the process of singing.

Later, drama occupied the stage, and Sixian kept pace with the times and made new progress. Modern Sixian dramas such as "Double Coal Delivery" and "A Bucket Valley" have been put on the stage. Wugang Sixian's "Steering Wheel" was well received in Hunan Quyi performance. Zhang Guohui, the composer of Hunan Ancient Painting Theatre (the musician of the ancient painting opera Buguo), chatted with me after watching it and said, "Wugang Sixian is very distinctive, with beautiful melody and great potential for mining." And told me to "study hard." The scene of "The Wind and Cloud on the Gate" in the Beijing Opera "Song of Longjiang" was also transplanted with Wugang Sixian, accompanied by Hunan National Song and Dance Troupe. They are very interested in Wugang Sixian. A female musician named Lu said, "This piece of music is very nice. I must remember it. "