Research On The Funeral Music Of South Guanyang County, The Northeast Part Of Guangxi Province

This paper focuses on the funeral music of Shangxiang in South Guanyang County in Guangxi Province and expounds on its geographical and cultural background, music forms and the culture contained by studying music in terms of its cultural background and understanding culture in terms of music.The funeral music of South Guanyang County survives the relatively geographically isolated environment which used to be part of the culture of Hunan and Hubei provinces. There are three types of the music (Three Music for short), that is, Xiaoge, Taoism Music and Crying."Xiaoge" is sung by singers at night in the mourning hall. Its melody is composed of speaking-type skeleton and singing-type skeleton.Taoism Music, which is composed of Ritual Music and Xiangyeshi Music, is played by the Taoists. The Ritual Music is classified into three types, namely, Chanting Daoism scripture, Singing Daoism scripture and Playing instrumental music. The scale of chanting Daoism scripture is the extension of a mode made up of three notes. The scale of Singing Daoism scripture is descending from la to sol (that is la, sol, mi, re, do, la, sol). Playing instrumental music is similar to Singing, but is less plaintive and lovelier. Xiangyueshi music is Qupai.Music.The skeleton of Crying, which is sung by female kinsfolk of the dead, is sol, mi, re, do, la, sol and it belongs to Mode Zhi.Though the three types of funeral music are played by different people, they are performed simultaneously at the same place. The paper points out the phenomenon of simultaneous sounding of original Three Music in the funeral rituals, and demonstrates the great power arisen from the space and time shift of man, spirit and ghost. The concept of Three Spaces (spaces of man, spirit and ghost) is put forward in this paper, so is the concept of Three Time (time of man, spirit and ghost). In addition, this thesis explains the transcending effect of the Three Spaces and Three Time caused by the simultaneous sounding so as to find out the local people's notion of space and time and that of morality.What is mentioned above is hoped to make up for the research on the funeral music of Guanyang County or even of China and hence to contribute to the construction of the theory of folk music.