Research For The Musical Culture Of The Ba Nationality

In this paper, mainly regwarding the musical culture of the ancient Ba Nationality as the research object according to its background of history and culture. the writer has primarily discussed the music of the Ba Nationality form geography, nation, development, tradition, musical instrument, musical factors, musical quality and others based on lots of good and clear literature and materials of archaeology in order to more clearly show the spiritual face of the Ba Nationality, an ancient southern-western nationality.This paper has six chapters.The first chapter is an introduction about the aim and method of writing this paper.The second chapter is the study of "Yushui" and "Congren". This chapter has two parts. The first part is about the study of "Yushui" from the angle of musical geography and the second, about the study of "Congren" from the angle of the study of musical nationality Study of "Congren" from the angle of the study of musical nationality.The third chapter is the tradition and development of the music of the Ba nationality. It has described the historical trace of the tradition and development of the music of the Ba Nationality. This chapter falls into two sections. In the first section the writer has discussed the course of tradition, development and disappearance of the palace music of Ba and Yu during the periods of Pre- Qing, Qing Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin Kingdoms, Southern and Northern Kingdoms, Sui and Tang Dynasty. The second section is about the tradition and development of the folk music of the Ba nationality, describing the songs of the Ba Nationality during the period when Wu Emperor fought against Zhou, Xialibaren (a popular song), Zhuzhi verse(a kind of verse)and Tati song(a kind of military songs), to the "shaking-hand dance" in the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties. All these show the continuity of the tradition and development of The songs and dances in the changing course of history and their vitality.The fourth chapter is the musical instrument of the Ba Nationality. This chapter has four sections. In the first, second and third sections, the writer has discussed the striking musical instruments typical of bronze in the music of the Ba Nationality-Chunyu, Bi an bell and Bian bell among which Chunyu was typical. The writer has discussed its distribution, making mode, origion, popularity, the use in the war or the music of songs and dances and others. The Bian bell of the Ba Nationality was influenced by the culture of The Zhou, Qing and chu dynasties. The writer has explained the strata owning the Bian bell, its decoration, the rise and fall of tone and others. The Bian bell belonged to the instrument of the warring kingdoms, being unearthed and found regionally, without fixed pitch of sounds, mainly used in ordering the army in fight or in musical dances or in sacrifices. In the fourth section the writer has discussed the used of drums in the music of the Ba Nationality, including two parts. One is the use in folk music and the other is the use in palace music.The fifth chapter is the musical factors of the Ba Nationality. This chapter Has three sections. The first is the musical rhythm. The Ba Nationality Paid great attention to the expression of music. The most obvious features of their musical rhythm are swift, clear, violent, gallant, changeable but in order, full of cooperative spirit. In order to meet the needs of the ruling class, it also shows the characters of being tender, soft tranquil and enjoyable. The second is melody. The early impression of the musical pitch of the Ba Nationality is with few words of a song but repetitions of tots of meaningless exclamations. And then two materials from Liu Yu-xi' s《Nine Zhuzhi Verse and an Introduction》and《On Iron and Salt: Ciquan Chapter》further show us the tonal melody of the Ba Nationality, including two kinds: one is pattern, the other, Shangdian pattern. The writer has analyzed the reasons why they had formed and then disappeared. The third is the disorder and harmony.The writer has analyzed the use of "disorder" in the music of the Ba Nationality in different periods of history and then pointed out that the "disorder" was not only the high tide of music, but also the high-tide part of sacrificial rites of the whole religion in ancient times. The harmony in their music was actually their chorus part in singing, or called as Dianci or Chenci in Chinese, with the feature of temporariness and arbitrariness. "Zhuzhi" and "Daughter" in Bayu' s survival song《Zhuzhi Verse》are harmonies.The sixth chapter is the musical quality of the Ba Nationality. In this chapter, the writer has discussed the sacrificialness, militariness and amusement of the music of the Ba Nationality. Sacrificialness and militariness were the main function of their music in ancient times. After the Han Dynasty, the amusement in their music was gradually strengthened. The nature of their music in the folks was greatly changed in the advancing course of history, i. e., from the songs and dances of amusing gods to the folk songs and dances amusing people or self-amusement.