Shennongjia Yulin Class Music Research

Shennongjia district,with its unique ecological environment has bred a great deal of colorful and mellow folk music,among which the representatives are Dahuopao(setting off firecrackers while performing piping and drumming music),beating drum at a funeral,Haocaoluogu(weeding while performing beating and drumming music),Xiagutang opera(a local folk opera named after Xiagu village,Shennongjia district),Folk song by a would-be bride(nearly half a month before wedding date),Chuanghaozi love song(a folk song similar to a duet,sung by lovers),and so on.Such types of folk music can't last and be inherited from generation to generation without having local rituals as its living carriers,not to mention those folk musicians and bands as its bearers.This paper takes Yulin band as a subject,attempts to make an observation aboutit under the circumstance of local customs.Therefore the music performed by Yulin band and the particular scenes of rituals would be displayed thoroughly and practically from an integrated view.The paper consists of three parts: the introductory remark,the body writing comprised of 4 subtitles,and the conclusion.The introductory part is mainly the general introduction about the author's intention to focus on this topic,the objective and meaning of the research,the techniques adopted by the author,and the process of field survey.The body writing is comprised of 4 sections.Section 1 is the general introduction about the survival background of Yulin band.Section 2 is the basic description about Yulin band,which includes its setup,management,the performance characteristics of each members and the way that it is inherited by young generation.In section 3,while making the on-the-spot observation,the author selects some typical cases and records the process in which Yulin band usually performs at wedding and funeral ceremonies,and the Dragon Lantern dancing party.This recording is conducted synchronously and “dynamically”,in which music is performed by Yulin band and its activities would be put under the circumstance of the whole ceremony.In Section 4,a “static analysis” would be made about the forms of music performed by Yulin band,as mentioned early,in factual and documentary activities,of which such elements as node,series of sound,tone,melody and drum plate mouth should be taken into account.In the conclusion part,on the ground of both the dynamical recording and the static analysis,an interpretation would be made about this band's social influence and cultural connotation in local customs and rituals.