Instruments Seen In Dunhuang Music And Dance Frescoes

The clappers discussed in this paper are a kind of cord-on clappers,the dunhuang cave frescoes from the early tang dynasty to the song dynasty(and in the same period of xixia)have a large number of such images,it provides valuable image data for us to deeply study and analyze the shape,structure,playing,function of clapper,and tell us the history of clappers in the past dynasties.The current academic research on this instrument mainly includes three types: performance in the band,spread and evolution and percussion instrument in Dunhuang caves.However,there is still a lack of confirmation on the combination of images and historical materials of clapper.For this reason,the author relies on the clapper images in dunhuang grottoes,uses methods such as art archaeology,music graphics,music literature and music history to enrich our understanding of clapper.This paper is entitled "Instruments seen in Dunhuang music and dance frescoes——the form and significance of clappers",taking the clappers seen in dunhuang frescoes as the foothold,trying to reveal the significance of clappers in the development of ancient Chinese music culture from a new perspective by combining the records of clappers in the documents and historical materials while sorting out,classifying and analyzing the information revealed by the clappers images.The text is divided into three parts.In the first chapter,briefly summarizes the origin of clappers and other clapper images outside the dunhuang grottoes,and then according to Niu longfei's "general record and research on the musical history of dunhuang frescoes" to sorted out the distribution of clappers in mogao grottoes and interpreted the existing forms of clapper.By comparing a phenomenon that a large number of clapper images are painted in dunhuang frescoes but Sui and tang dynasty palace "Yanyue" without record of clapper,to point out a view that the dunhuang music and dance frescoes are only the imitation of the form of tang “Yanyue” but not completely reproduced.In the second chapte,firstly analyzed the collected clapper images,then discussed the clapper wood material,the combination way,the number of the board and the posture,location,gesture of holding the board when playing the clapper.The third chapter,in order to illustrate the view that clappers are gradually valued in the band under the change of times,the author firstly analyzed the combination forms of clappers in the dunhuang frescoes,and then researched the changes in the use of percussion instruments in the clappers' band and the forward position of clappers.Secondly,collected the images ofpeople who singing with clapper in dunhuang frescoes,and then discussed the relationship between "who singing with clapper" and "who singing with Jie".Finally turns out that the former is the product of changes in the latter.At the end of the paper,briefly discussed the function of clappers controlling the rhythm and conducting in the band and the development of clappers in court music and folk music after tang dynasty.Therefore the conclusion is that clap-making is the "carrier" and "historical witness" of the development of ancient Chinese music culture.