Research On The Funeral Music Culture Of Xianggui Corridor

Xianggui Corridor which runs through the Five Ridges is a vital communication passage connecting Central Plains, Xiangchu and south of the Five Ridges. The cultures of Central Plains, Xiangchu and Baiyue are met and exchanged here. The funeral music here is a whole-sound, including voices, sounds of instruments and implements, natural sounds and environmental sounds, and can be classified into four kinds, i.e. Xiaoge, Ritual Music, Crying and other sounds. They have many secondary classifications by the folk people according to their different points of view.The typical composing rules of the funeral music in Xianggui Corridor are:variants of skeletons of melody, such as Re—Do—La Three Sound Skeleton, Re—sol mi re do la sol Skeleton, Mi re do—mi sol la—re do la sol Skeleton and Sol do la sol—do mi re do Skeleton; changing mode freely, alternately, and by means of "turning Qingjiao to Gong, turning Biangong to Jiao", modes superposition; musical rhymes connected, stringed, correlated and unified; dividing a period into sentences,then putting them together in other ways, putting periods together to make a big period; various forms to combine words with melody; composing period according to tone colour; one divertimento includes many divertimentos, making a movement by putting divertimentos together, linking divertimentos up to compose a cyclical form. The four big cyclical forms, Xiaoge, Ritual Music, Crying and Other sounds, are superposed together to build the whole magnificent structure of the rite music. The distribution of the rite sounds over the three dimensions of time, space and behaviours builds its 3-D structure and the 3-D structures of the four cyclical forms together make up the whole framework of the rite music. These are the common structural rules of the national rite music."Time-space-sound-act-stave" can note down the whole-sound of rite and show the whole framework of the rite music. The stave is composed of Time group, Space Group, Sound group and Act group, each can note down time, space, sound and act, and also the sounds' structure and show that how the sounds distribute over time, space and behaviours. Their secondary structures are called Space parst, Sound parts and Act parts. Taking down the sounds and behaviours of whole rite, puts time, space, behaviours and the process of rite in the rite structural style and rite music style, so as to form a whole 3-D structure system.There are close link between the funeral music in Xianggui Corridor and other music. Other formative folk songs are the building material of funeral music. Love songs, folk songs sung in the fields, children's songs, folk rhymes, riddles can be turned into funeral songs. Funeral music shares source materials and structural elements with other rite music. Ditty can be turned into "Qupais" of instrumental music. Taoism funeral music has a common core with "Yugu" in Guangxi and Hunan province, and with the ditty song of "Mengjiangnu ". They belong to the same music tribe. The means used in Gui Opera,Caidiao Opera and Huagu Opera to make melodies more beautiful and the singing skills used in opera are used in funeral music, so that the funeral music has some features of drama. Funeral music shares "Qupais" with operas, music for voices in operas can be turned into funeral "Qupais", even sections of operas take the place of funeral sections directly. Funeral rite's song, dance and instrumental music itself also has some dramatization. Most of the same items of the funeral music procedure can be found in Xiangchu area. Re—Do—La Three Sound Skeleton which exists in a great quantity among the folk songs in Hubei province may take shape by the influence from the Three Sound Skeleton in Hubei province. The expanded forms of Longsong Pattern are also found in large numbers in Xiangchu area. The Baichan Pattern, which exists extensively in Xiangchu and Baiyue area, the music elements of Xiangchu and Baiyue. The funeral music in Xianggui Corridor has the power to contain, and always absorbs the elements of other kinds of music to enrich oneself. It is a witness that Xianggui Corridor, as a vital passageway for population migration and cultural exchange, brings about multi-culture crashes, exchanges and then accumulates during a long period of time.Facing death and taking the problem of where people will go as the center, funeral rite gives answers to the questions such as" What are men? Where are men? Where do men from? Where are men going?" by setting up the three worlds (creatures, spirits, souls).The local residents are explaining the realities of the surrounding world by using their own modes of thinking and terms, hoping to get the co-ordination between man and nature and to achieve "the unity of the heaven and humanity", which suggests the great difficulties of the mankind in their endeavor to discovering themselves and the world around.