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Yunnan                                                                            To Top of Page
Lijiang Recordings       Lijiang Photos       Dali Recordings       Dali Photos

Lijiang Recordings  
  Naxi Dongba Orchestra Music
  Sugudu Stringed Instrument
  Qusha Pipa Stringed Instrument 
  Naxi Dongba Folk Ensemble Music

  In Lijiang, one of the highlights when tourists visit the city is to go and hear the nightly concert 
  of Naxi Orchestra music. The Naxi orchestral music is significant because it represents not only
  a fusion of Naxi Dongba folk tradition and Daoist ritual music, it is also a tradition with notation that
  goes back to the 12th century in Song Dynasty. Notation that is used today to perform traditional
  Chinese music (including guqin) began to appear during this time.

  One unique instrument in the large Lijiang-Naxi orchestra is a stringed instrument called 'Sugudu'. 
  During the Tang Dynasty, many instruments and music traditions came from outside of China and
  influenced Chinese music in a lot of ways. Sugudu originated from Egypt and came to China through
  India. It reached Yunnan and Lijiang but never moved past this area. So today, Lijiang is one of the
  very few places in China that Sugudu can be heard. It is a unique instrument because it plays only an
  accompaniment role in Dongba folk music, playing melodic fragments that interlock with important notes
  in another instrument's melody. These melodic fragments are used to improvise an accompaniment and
  although simple, can be used in quite interesting and inventive ways. 

  I was lucky enough to have a couple of lessons with one of the Sugudu players in the Naxi orchestra.
  He also taught me to play the Qusha Pipa, another stringed instrument. I also visited his house a couple
  of times to listen to and ask questions to a group of Naxi folk musicians. I brought my guitar as an 
  icebreaker and played some Brazilian music, which they liked. I'll return to continue to study the Sugudu
 in Lijiang some time in early 2008.

Lijiang Photos    Back To Yunnan         To Top of Page


old streets of Lijiang, Yunnan


Lijiang Folk musicians playing traditional Naxi Dongba folk Music. I am
most interested in the Sugudu tradition in Naxi folk music (player in the
red jacket).


 

Naxi Traditional folk dance, in the market square, Lijiang

 
North of Lijiang, an old Naxi farming village (used to be
the center of Naxi culture back before Gengis Kahn). This is
a group playing traditional Naxi Orchestra music (a combination
of Naxi folk melodies and drum and gong music from 
Daoist Ritual Music.




The old scores from Song Dynasty period (around 12th century)
       
Dali Recordings      Back To Yunnan         To Top of Page
  Yi Ethnicity Folk Dance      (scroll further down to listen to Yi zhu San Xian)

      These recordings and photos were actually made in villages several hours west of Dali. The dance
      pictures below were actually taken in a Hui zhu town. The Hui are musulim and don't celebrate
      the same new year. But the town was alive with Yi and Miao ethnicities who all came to dance
      their traditional dances.

      Yi Folk dance accompanied by string and wind instruments. The power and energy of the is music
      is really amazing. The dance looks simple, but, as my friend Chen Yu and her mother (both
      from the Yi ethnicity) showed me how to dance on Chunjie night (New Year's night, when people
      gathered after a big dinner to dance) it is subtly tricky to get even the basic steps. It is interesting
      because the leg swings out in front of you on the strong beats when you feel you should put your
      foot on the ground. You actually step on syncopated beats. This is what gives he music and the
      dance its amazing forward moving energy. In the first picture Chen Yu's mom joined in the dance
      while we were on our way to a Taoist temple (she is in the back of the circle in the red coat.

 
photos courtesy of my friend Mike 

  

Yi Ethnicity San Xian Improvised Tradition
      The Sanxian tradition in the village I visited is a very unique. The music is improvised and is
      used only in a solo setting as part of the courting process between a man in a woman. It is a
      very quiet and intimate sounding instrument and is used by the man to express his feelings to
      the women. 

      . . . pictures to come soon. . .

Guizhou                                                                           To Top of Page

Eastern Guizhou Villages
     Miao Ethnicity Lusheng Maker  (video)        Paika
        Lusheng is a mouth organ central to the Miao culture. It is used in many dances, festivals and
        ceremonies (weddings, funerals) and at times large orchestras of 20 or more perform during
        festivals. They range in size from 1 foot to over 12 feet high. There are also modern Lushengs
        capable of performing a solo folk repertoire. I had the great opportunity to spend an afternoon
        with a well known Lusheng maker in the small village of Paika. I was shown how the instrument
        was made and one of his students gave me a demonstration of different techniques and folk
        music. Click on the link above to view a video of a performance on a modern Lusheng.
  
          
        Lusheng in the process of being made

      
       Different sizes of Lusheng under a drum tower in the
       village of Zhaoxing.

     Miao Ethnicity Reciting/singing                   Langde
        Lang de is a Miao village that has been put on the tourist map and is very well maintained and
        many visit during festival time to view the amazing music and dance. I arrived the DAY AFTER
        it all ended and was left to a very quiet, 'back to normal' life village. I would have liked to see
        the festival dancing and music but I also was able to see an 'everyday life' view of the village and
        came across some very interesting things, some of which I don't know the meanings of. The
        recording above is of a group of men and women in a central gathering place. Where the men are
        reciting something that, every once in a while spurs the women to sing. I have to do some more
        fact finding on this one to get an understanding of the meaning.

        
         The village of Langde with its 'wind and rain' bridge over the river.

         
        Rice terraces around Lang de.
          
     Young girl singing a Dong folk melody         Zhaoxing
     Dong Ethnicity Traditional Music                 Zhaoxing
     Dong zhu culture is famous for its Lusheng and also for its tradition of singing in everyday conversation
     as a way to communicate feelings and ideas. I heard a little of this walking through the streets - hearing
     a short sung melody coming from inside a home or down a narrow alleyway. I also heard a group of
     young girls singing to each other like a sort of play. At one point one of the girls started teaching the 
     girls a song, repeating it over and over until they imitated her correctly. This is the first recording above.

     The second is a folk song in a beautifully lyric style that I didn't quite expect to find here. But after 
     hearing this along with the everyday singing in Zhaoxing, it made perfect sense that they would also
     have a more formal folk song tradition like in the recording above.

     Some pics of Zhaoxing. . .
    
   

     Dong Ethnicity Suona Ceremonial Music     Jilun
     I came across a number of processions of Dong people walking outside of the villages with
     music from the Brass instrument 'Suona' being played. When I eventually made it up to the
     Village of Jilun, in the mountains south of the large Dong village of Zhaoxing, I found that there
     were many different groups of people, each with their own instrument groups. It seems that the
     processions were made up of family groups and maybe it was a ritual related to worshiping 
     ancestors after the start of the new year. In Zhaoxing, there were just Suona players with the groups 
     but in the village of Jilun, after the group returned from its pilgrimage to some important site, gongs and
     chimes were added to the music, once back in their central house.

     

Tianlong Tunpu (early ming dynasty outpost)
     Folk song                                                 
     Warrior Opera / Theatre
    Tianlong Tunpu was an outpost established in the early Ming Dynasty (15th century). Soldiers were
    stationed as sentries to protect the newly established kingdom. Along with the soldiers different
    traditions from the eastern part of China were brought. One was a somewhat simple (when compared
    with other Chinese opera traditions) style of opera music. It is more like a dramatic play. While
    actors at times sing, it is often like spoken word not melody and only percussion instruments
    were used to accompany the actors/singers. The plays were used to entertain the troops and often
    used stories of war from the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese History. Today a traditional culture
    still remains in tact and is now being consciously preserved. One of the women from this village guided
     me around the area to explain the historical sites. She also sang a folk song from their folk music
      tradition.


  

   
    

Guangdong                                                                     To Top of Page

Guangzhou
      Cantonese Opera Aria