Types of Percussion & Wind Music (One Hundred Birds Serenade the Phoenix)

These are the most pervasive of Chinese musical forms. All important events in the lives of the ordinary people, for instance, a marriage, a funeral, or a festival, would be complete with the blowing of flutes and the banging of gongs and drums. The suona (Fig. 2-5) is the most widespread and popular folk instrument. It is commonly called a trumpet. In shape, the suona is conical, with eight holes (seven forward and one at the back). The body is made of wood. At one end is a thin brass tube with a reed attachment, and the other end flares like a trumpet.

The best-known piece of suona music is called One Hundred Birds Serenade the Phoenix, which is particularly common in the provinces of Shandong, Anhui, Henan and Hebei. After a spirited introduction, the orchestra settles down to a fixed accompaniment mode. With this as background, the suona section plays a vigorous, piping tune in imitation of the chirping of birds in flight. The closeness of the mimicry expresses the people's love for nature and the intense scrutiny of ordinary life by folk artists, as well as their virtuosity in performance. Such beautiful and auspicious tunes help to account for the popularity of this instrument.

A traditional tune revealing another aspect of the suona is the Sprig of Blossoms. This is a mournful piece from the repertoire of southwest Shandong percussion and wind music, and borrows the "wailing tone" of clapper music. Finally, the allegro period in the qu tune Ruddy Small Peaches amply demonstrates the style of rapid clapper playing and slow piping in this type of music, using a long-drawn-out series of slow notes and giving full play to the versatility of the performers.

Because of the close connection between sheng and flute music with religious music, we will introduce this in the relevant section; here we will confine ourselves to describing some famous flute tunes. According to musicologists, Yang Yuanheng, the leading performer of folk flute music of this century, plays the northern folk music piece Eternal Joy in much the same way as it was played during the Tang Dynasty. The solemnity and simplicity of the melody, the frequent transpositions and the stress on the change of notes in the middle section all have the distinct flavor of the pitch change style introduced during that dynasty.

Pasturing Donkeys, a bassoon tune from central Hebei, is typical of the northern style. The slow clapper section in this piece expresses the exuberance and optimism of the farmers, and their warm and open character. Its stimulating rhythmical style is full of life. In addition, the rapid clapper section of the melody is vigorous and cheerful, while the tune is relaxed and harmonious. The bassoon achieves its effect by a series of techniques, including leaping periods and trilling. This tune is a representative piece of Hebei folk instrumental music. Another one of this type, River Waters, was adapted by Wang Shilu and others in the early 1950s from a wind orchestra qu tune of the same name from Liaoning Province. This moving and understated composition is performed as a solo piece by two flutes.

Welcome to China2Go, the talking Chinese phrase book for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Palm OS. Featuring crystal clear voice recorded by a real person, this product is a great travel companion and an ideal tool to learn Chinese! With our cutting edge voice compression technology, this product includes more than 1000 phrases, their Chinese translation, and the voice in only a few megabytes. Supports all Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. H&H China2Go Talking Phrase Book for Windows Mobile