Multi-part folk songs of the Jianhe Miao people

Guizhou
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Polyphonic folk songs refer to folk songs with polyphonic textures. Chinese polyphonic folk songs are mainly concentrated in more than ten ethnic minorities such as Zhuang, Dong, Buyi, Gaoshan, Maonan, Tijia, Miao, and Yi. Most of them adopt two-part form, and a small number adopt three-part and four-part art. Miao polyphonic folk songs are a kind of original folk songs circulated in Miao villages in Taijiang County, Jianhe County and other places in Guizhou Province. According to the calculation of old singers, this folk song sung by young men and women has a history of more than 700 years. It uses Gong, Shang, Yu, Zheng, and Jiao as the main series of notes, and the harmony is pure fifth, pure octave, major third and major sixth. The beat is relatively free, mostly mixed with 3/4, 4/4, 2/4 and 6/8. The melody is beautiful and the emotion is delicate and moving, showing obvious national and regional characteristics. The singing methods of Miao polyphonic love songs include two types: main melody male and female duet and main melody male and female chorus, which have distinct national characteristics. A complete polyphonic love song generally has six to sixteen phrases. For example, an eight-phrase love song has a male voice monophonic part from the first to the sixth phrases. From the seventh phrase, the female voice joins the harmony to form a polyphonic part. After the male voice sings the eighth phrase, the female voice sings the second part, and the male voice joins the harmony to form a polyphonic part. From the third phrase, it is a female voice monophonic part. In the seventh phrase of the second stage, the male voice joins the harmony to form a polyphonic part. This repeated harmony constitutes the prototype of the Miao polyphonic music. The content of polyphonic love songs mostly reflects the process of young men and women from contact to marriage, including "meeting songs", "praise songs", "single songs", "youth songs", "courtship songs", "love songs", "parting songs", "marriage songs", "escape songs", "divorce songs", etc., each with a different tune, and the singers are generally two men and two women or more. Representative works of Miao polyphonic folk songs include "If You Are a Flower" and "Beautiful Scenery in March". Miao polyphonic folk songs are the most important part of the existing traditional culture of the Miao people. Its emergence, development and final formation are closely related to the ethnic history, cultural history and folklore of the Miao people. Under the impact of modern economy and culture, the production and living styles of Miao villages in Guizhou are changing. There are fewer and fewer people who can sing polyphonic love songs. The ancient art is on the verge of being lost and urgently needs to be rescued and protected. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)

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