What are the characteristics of Northeast Drum?

The Northeast Drum is a blend of Beijing Opera, Jingyun Drum and some folk vocals in Northeast China, with rich tunes, fluent vocals and strong expressive force. Rap is mainly medium-length and long-length, and its content is mainly operas, novels and legendary stories, which has become an art that people like to see and hear.

Wooden drum, also known as "drum fast book", has a strong local color and is the most popular genre in Shijiazhuang, central Hebei Province. Its date of birth is still unknown. It is understood that there is a famous artist Zhao's creation (stage name "old woman") for nearly a hundred years. This form of quyi is developed by absorbing the characteristics of folk songs in central Hebei and the tunes of "Shouting" by local businessmen. At first, it was popular in the vast rural areas of Shenze, Wuji, Gaocheng and other counties, and later it was widely spread in counties in central Hebei, as well as cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Baoding. Shanxi, Henan and other provinces also have wooden drums.

The lyrics of wooden drums are easy to understand, concise and powerful, and full of healthy and lively local colors. When singing, you can sing alone or in pairs. Accompaniment only uses wooden boards and a small drum, which is more convenient to learn and easy to popularize among the masses.

The traditional programs of wooden drums are very rich, with more than 100 short stories, such as Mice Tell Cats, Persuading People, Flower Lin Ying, Guo Ju Burying Children, Manglietia, Zhao Dancing Maid and so on. There are hundreds of paragraphs in novellas, such as Two Plums, Biography of Xiang Ma, Biography of Song Wu, Maxima, Golden Ring Story, Jiang Gong 'an and so on. There are five spring and autumn annals, such as Zuo Zhuan Chun Qiu, Wu Yue Chun Qiu, Ying Lie Chun Qiu, Zou Qiu and Jin He Chun Qiu, and three cases, such as Xue Jiajiang, Yang Jiajiang, Hu Jiajiang, Bao Gongan, Liu Gongan and Hai Gongan. Its vocal music is banqiang with simple and unique tunes, which has influenced the formation and development of many drum books and songs in the north, such as Xihe drum, Jing Yun drum, JD.COM drum, Laoting drum and bamboo writing, and has very unique artistic value.

Most of the performances of the Northeast Drum are performed by an actor drumming and clapping, accompanied by a band of one to several people. The main accompaniment instruments are Sanxian, Hu Si, Pipa and dulcimer.

The actor's self-drum, also called the book drum, is oblate and covered on both sides. Put it on the drum stand and hit it with a drum arrow (made of bamboo). There are two kinds of boards, one is composed of two boards (mostly ebony); The other is composed of two half-moon copper or steel sheets, commonly known as "Yuanyang board". The musical structure of Northeast Drum belongs to banqiang, and the basic form of lyrics is 7 sentences. There are big mouth adagio, small mouth adagio, adagio 26, Allegro, three boards and so on. In addition, there are some minor tunes such as sad tune, Xicheng tune and qikou tune as their auxiliary vocals.

In the long-term spreading process, the Northeast Drum has formed different schools of hell, customs and human feelings. The Phoenix Carving with Shenyang as its axis is beautiful and lyrical, which is suitable for singing stories such as A Dream of Red Mansions. The "Cheng Nan Tune" centered on Yingkou, Gaixian, Xiuyan and Haicheng is impassioned and suitable for singing stories such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The "Xicheng Tune" with Jinzhou as the axis has a mournful and deep singing voice, which is suitable for dramas of tragic stories such as Meng Jiangnv Looking for a Husband. There is also the "Dongcheng Tune" with Jilin as the axis, and the "Jiangbei Tune" popular in Heilongjiang (also known as "Beicheng Tune").

There are about 200 traditional dramas of Northeast Drum, and now there are about 150. It can be divided into three categories: Zidishu, Sanguo and Caoduan. Most of Di Zi's passages are based on novels and popular operas in Ming and Qing Dynasties, with elegant lyrics and rich literary talent. A few works reflect the real life of the Qing Dynasty. In the Three Kingdoms section, there are songs about Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and generals Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Ma and Huang Wuhua. Caoduan is a popular lyric created and performed by folk artists with a wide range of subjects. After liberation, a large number of modern songs appeared, such as Yang Jingyu's "Big Pocket Array" and "Cabin in Spring".