Purple water used to be a river on which Meishan people lived and developed. On this river, the ancestors of Meishan lived for generations. Zishui is one of the four major water systems in Hunan, namely, Hunan, Guizhou, Yuan and Li. It flows into Dongting Lake through counties (cities) such as Wugang, Longhui, Shaoyang, Xinshao, Lengshuijiang, Xinhua, Anhua, Taojiang and Yiyang in Hunan. Endowed water has two sources, namely, rich water and clear water. Fuyishui, named Luojiang and Fuyishui, originated in Mu Tong at the northern foot of Yuechengling in Ziyuan County, Guangxi Province, and then entered Hunan from Shi Yao in Xinning County in the south. At Shuangjiangkou in Shaoyang County, it merged with the water from Huangma Street in Qingjieshan, Chengbu County, which is called Zishui. Zishui, out of Tangshan, southeast of Suining County, Jingzhou [1]. Ban Gu said: Zi Shui goes out of Douliang Road Mountain. Li Daoyuan said: It was the Tang Dynasty that rectified the mountains. Zishui flows from the east to the north, passes through the north of Wugang House in Baoqing, and then passes through the north of the house, so Shaoshui will be astringent, or Shaojiang. It flows northward to the east of Xinhua County, enters Anhua County of Changsha Prefecture, passes through the west of the county, leaves Yiyang County in the northeast, reaches Ningxiang County in the north, enters the southwest of Yuanjiang County of Changde Prefecture, and empties into Dongting Lake.
Zishui Beach is steep, with 72 dangerous beaches, including 53 dangerous beaches in Xinhua County. Zijiang river basin is isolated from the world because of its high mountains and deep valleys. In the era when there was no expressway, people on both sides of Zishui River communicated with the outside world through river transportation. During the days and nights of sailing and returning, boatmen need to sing their courage under the threat of death. The fatigue and loneliness on the water road, the boatman needs to sing to dispel; Homesickness and affection on the way home, the boatman needs to sing to express; I saw on the road that when I went out to create the world, the boatman needed to sing to record it. Thus, folk songs were born. First, a sentence or two, the longer you sing, the best is Zishuitan song. From Shaoyang to Wuhan, it is by boat along the river, and vice versa. Therefore, Zishuitan songs are divided into two parts: Xiatan songs and Shangtan songs.
Formal Beauty of Zishuitan Songs
Zishuitan Song, also known as Zishuizhouzi Song, has dense forests and blocked traffic in Meishan area, and river transportation has become an important economic lifestyle in Meishan area. In order to make a living, many Meishan people make a living by sailing. Zishui Beach Song is an improvisational song written by Qi Xin in the name of each beach when he was sailing in Meishan to fight against dangerous beaches. Beach songs have both relaxed and slow paddles and high tension, which is similar to shouting. And with the change of the boatman's mood, there are both folk songs and high notes, as well as crazy shouts with or without lyrics that are enough to compete with the wind and waves. Rhythmic pedals and songs are integrated into one, giving a powerful voice of "sailing in the air", which has a unique taste and gives people endless aftertaste.
(A) vivid and diverse structural beauty
Zishuitan songs are rich in content and can be created orally at any time. The boatman's horn is compact in structure and consists of five basic numbers: boarding, rowing, rowing and rowing. They described different labor scenes in rowing. Its artistic beauty is first reflected in the rigorous and lively form, and its formal beauty is first reflected in the complete formal structure:
1. "Boarding cell". When sailing, the lead singer greeted his companions with a long and slow tone and set sail. The boatmen also responded in a calm tone, depicting a moving artistic conception of the ship offshore.
2. "Paddle angle". When the boat is sailing in the calm and slow-moving pool water, the boatman glides happily with paddles and paddles at the same time, singing beautiful paddles, and the songs come and go, which is full of fun.
3. "reminder". When the ship entered the dangerous beach, waves of evil waves rushed to the bow, like a gale howling, and the boat was teetering in the wind, waves and whirlpool. At this time, the boatmen were not afraid, under the lead of the lead singer, singing songs, urging the trumpeter, fighting the wind and waves, and bravely broke into the dangerous beach. The scene was tragic and spectacular, giving people a strong shock.
4. "get up." When the ship sails against the current, in order to speed up the sailing, a group of boatmen go ashore to pull the fiber, and a group of boatmen paddle and pull the bow, and the shore and bow echo each other. In the high-pitched and unrestrained singing, the boatmen strode forward with firm steps, thus forming a swaying song.
5. "Slow down and paddle". When the boat came to the finish line and was getting closer and closer to the dock, the boatmen looked at their homes with great excitement, ended their hard and long voyage with a boundless and slow song and went ashore to reunite with their families. That long tone is like calling the person you love in your heart.
The complete form of Zishuitan Song describes the whole process from sailing to triumphant return, vividly shows the process of boatmen from calm sailing to encountering storms, crossing dangerous beaches and finally overcoming the wind and waves, depicts a magnificent picture, and also embodies the formal beauty of Zishuitan Song's rigorous structure. (B) the impromptu beauty of singing form
The form of collective labor determines the singing form of Zishuitan songs. The boatmen achieved Qi Xin's concerted efforts through the chant, with the same rhythm and unified strength. Its singing is varied and improvisational, and the improvisational beauty of singing forms is thus formed. It includes solo, duet and chorus. Usually there is a lead singer, the main sentence sings lyrics, the sentence sings function words, and there are few languages; The lead singer is the trumpeter, and many boatmen sing in harmony, forming a singing form of "one call and one response, one question and one answer, one question and one answer". Common singing forms are: "half-sentence cavity", "one-sentence cavity", "one-paragraph cavity", "couplet cavity" and "overlapping cavity". For example, paddle, sometimes the horn is long and the sentence is slightly short, sometimes it sings high and sometimes it shouts loudly. The harmony part always inserts harmony from the weak voice, which is short, urgent and powerful, neat and unified, improvising and lyrical on the spot. Especially in the fast-flowing waters, the leading numbers and sentences of the urgent horn are slightly shorter, and the rhythm is clear and short, which is in contrast with the dense and sparse, creating a tense atmosphere, encouraging boatmen to brave the dangerous beach.
The Linguistic Beauty of Zishuitan Songs
Zishui River runs through Meishan (Xinhua County and Anhua County), the hometown of folk literature and art. The people of Meishan express their feelings with songs, speak for themselves with songs, and sing their ambitions with songs. Zishuitan song is a beautiful pearl in Meishan folk songs, and the beauty of qu is inseparable from the beauty of ci. So its artistic beauty lies in the improvisation of lyrics, which contains the beauty of artistic language. Lyrics include both long narrative poems and short colloquial life songs. A long narrative poem is extended by seven words and four sentences, and a short story is extended by seven words and four sentences and seven words and six sentences. Lyrics pay attention to rhyme and sense of rhythm, and often use metaphor, exaggeration and personification to vividly express the geographical features, customs, bitter life of boatmen and yearning for a better life. The unique style exudes fragrance, showing the open-minded, simple and tenacious character of Meishan man in front of us.
(A) the language beauty of the image
Hegel said: "Beauty can only be seen in the image." [2] Sincere feelings are difficult to express with abstract concepts. Only concrete, vivid and vivid language can express abstract inner feelings. Without language, there would be no literature, and there would be no deep and simple Zishuitan songs. The beauty of language is manifested in the use of language, and highly visualized language is an important feature of its artistic beauty [3].
Clever use of analogy is one of the most important expressive methods of language visualization. Clever expression of unspeakable feelings, unspeakable appearances and implications give people vivid images and rich connotations. For example, a long narrative poem derived from seven words and four sentences, which has been widely circulated in Xinhua County so far-four lyrics in "Shake the Melody":
Hairboard boat, disaster; The import is Lotus Beach; In a garden; The beautiful woman is sitting on the comb stone.
On the surface, this word only describes the specific location where the ship is traveling. "Lotus Beach" and "Jiguanyan" actually have deep metaphorical meanings. The singers here are picturesque, but actually lyrical; There is no word "love" in the whole story, and there is no such thing as "the seas run dry and the rocks crumble". However, with the help of the metaphor of "beautiful", "lotus" is compared to "beauty", which vividly depicts the deep and warm feelings of Meishan men in love.
In Zishuitan songs, singers often use empathy and personification to strengthen the image of language, which is also one of the commonly used expressions of language beauty. For example:
The boss's boat is near Huang Gui Ao. Everyone is here to eat tea soup. Don't get hurt because of buying food. There is a pair of Yuanyang Rock in front.
Yuanyang Rock is a heartless thing, without sadness or love. Here, the singer gives emotion to the rock, empathizes with things, makes the rock have people's joy, anger, sadness and joy, embodies the boatman's Chun Qing, moves the heartless things, and shows the sadness of his feelings. Clever use of empathy personification makes the words of the boatman's chant vivid, thus greatly enhancing the language appeal.
(B) the lyrical beauty of language
1. Visual exaggeration is an important expression of lyrical beauty of language.
In the oral improvisation of Zishuitan's lyrics, the singer's profound understanding of life is reflected, which flows from the depths of the singer's soul. Singers often use vivid exaggeration to enlarge or narrow things, thus deliberately highlighting some characteristics of things and implicitly expressing the singer's strong inner feelings. Between the lines, it is the simple and noble feelings of Tujia working people. For example:
Don't be hurt by the brothers on board, the first ship has gathered the old worm (tiger) rock; Lao Zhongyan, Buffalo Beach, Tiger King sitting in Maoershan.
You are not hurt by the brothers on the boat, and the yellow dog loves to scream in the nest; Ships gather in Leigong Rock, and Jiutianjun is in Jiangkou.
The word is narrative on the surface, but it is lyrical in fact. "Ai" is Meishan dialect, which means "wait, slow, dawdle and endure". "Laochongyan" and "Buffalo Beach" are the names of Zishui River rapids. The boatman compares himself to a "buffalo dog" and his daughter-in-law to a "king of tigers and nine kings", which implicitly and vividly shows his feelings of missing his family and achieves a subtle, euphemistic and thought-provoking effect. It deeply permeates the hardships of boatmen's life and reminds people of the image of a thrifty and energetic Meishan woman.
2. The beauty of typical language is another important expression of the lyrical beauty of language.
The typical beauty of language is discussed from the aspect of material selection, that is, the material selection is single and specific, and the design of artistic conception and the galloping of association are all centered on basic feelings, which is a single theme, but it can often vividly reflect the singer's thoughts and ideas, concentrate on one thing and one chant, so that the language has ideological and emotional weight, complete structure, vivid image and far-reaching artistic conception. This is the typical beauty of Zishuitan songs' success from content to form, and the characteristic of language is its directness. For example:
The boatmen are full of courage, not afraid of rapids and dangerous beaches, making contributions to the construction of the motherland and braving the wind and waves forever.
This is a short colloquial life song composed of seven words and four sentences, which pays attention to phonology and rhythm, takes the motherland as the basic emotion and shows the boatman's praise for a better life. The language of direct narration embodies the simplicity of language and the typical lyrical beauty.
Musical Beauty of Zishuitan Songs
Zishuitan songs are rich in content and lively in form, and their artistic features are beauty in form, language and music. Lyrics are very particular about rhythm and rhyme. It is not only a poem, but also a song, which can be sung and read, catchy and has the characteristics of lively rhythm and beautiful melody. The development of melody revolves around five tones: Gong, Shang, Jiao, Yu and Zheng. The material is simple but has strong local characteristics and aquatic life. It is a musical language, so the beauty of music is one of the main characteristics of Zishuitan songs. This paper mainly discusses the musical beauty of Zishuitan songs from two aspects: sound structure and melody.
(A) the melodic beauty of music
Zishuitan songs are mainly composed of five tones and four tones, supplemented by palace tones, and lack of business tones. The musical forms are diverse, and the common one is the four-sentence structure; In singing, the whole single is repeated, expanded, compressed and expanded into a paragraph, and the theme music image is deepened by repeating the lead sentence. Liner words are often added at the beginning or end of a sentence, with a front cavity before it and a back cavity after it, forming a complete musical structure. Characteristic sound series is the basis of melody beauty.
Characteristic syllables are the carrier of the language beauty of lyrics and one of the main contents of melody beauty. Basically, it is the following three types.
The first category consists of (la, do, mi, so) four-tone system, which consists of primary, middle and primary degrees. Boarding, sculling, starting and slow oaring are all composed of this type. This type is most used in Zishui Boatman Song, which has the characteristics of simple and simple melody and colloquialism, smooth descending, narrow range and narrow phonology; There are often four or five degrees of melodies jumping in, without big jumps, and the ending sentences all end in the tonic, giving people a calm and firm aesthetic feeling. The falling tone skillfully renders the feelings and adds a lot of color to the melody. The language is concise and beautiful, and the melody is beautiful. The second is (la, do, mi, fa, so) a pentatonic structure composed of juniors, seniors, juniors and sophomores. It often appears in the paddle angle. Such as spectrum example (1)[4]:
This bugle song has rigorous language, syllables one after another, closely linked, rhyming to the end, and smooth tone, thus making the melody of the song swing back and forth, forming a thrilling melody beauty. The third is a series of (re, mi, so, la) four tones composed of sophomores, juniors and sophomores. The horn of Zishui belongs to this type. The song has no lyrics, only four function words (oh, ha, ah) are similar to shouting, just like the boatman shouting in the waves. Such as spectrum example (2)[4]:
* * * The table shows more than a dozen intervals in the score (1) and the score (2). The tune has no minor degree, which is a typical national pentatonic scale. It has four-tone structure and five-tone structure, among which five-tone structure is the most common in songs, which shows the uniqueness and diversity of Zishui boatman's tune.
(B) the beauty of the rhythm of music
The melody beauty of Zishuitan songs is also reflected in the rhythm of typical structure, which is an important content of melody beauty. Take Zishuitan boatman's chant with a seven-character and four-sentence structure as an example. Every sentence is neatly worded and the beat is roughly the same. Generally, there are eight beats per sentence and two beats per bar. The rhythm varies in various forms according to the syllables of seven lyrics, so it can be summarized as the following rhythm types:
1. Average average type. This rhythm is reflected in the spectrum example: for example, in the spectrum example (2), the horn call completely reflects this rhythm. The boatman likes to pedal this rhythm, which combines the labor intensity of paddling and paddling. Strong sense of rhythm, regular rhythm, even and accurate alternation of strength and weakness, and even syllable rhythm. This type of rhythm is often found in Zishui Boatman's Song, while syncopation and other complex rhythms are rarely used.
2. short and long type. Structurally, it is free, flexible and has a distinct rhythm. Singing cadence, high and low, embodies the typical rhythmic beauty of changeable rhythm. For example, in the music score (1), this rhythm appears in the paddle number. Of course, there are also individual types, so I won't give examples here. The change of rhythm is inseparable from the composition of song melody, and they are organically integrated to form the structural framework of the musical beauty of Zishui Boatman.
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Zishuitan song is the spiritual product of the collision between Meishan people and nature. Its artistic beauty comes from folk labor creation. It has the aesthetic characteristics of literature, aesthetics, labor aesthetics and musicology, and has interdisciplinary cultural and artistic research value. With the progress of social civilization, people pay more and more attention to the cultural inheritance of national folk music. With the increasingly developed traffic and shrinking shipping in Meishan mountain area, Zishui has evolved from the Silk Road on the Water in Meishan to an important tourism development project in Meishan area. However, the ancient Zishui boatman's bugle is gradually lost, so it is urgent to protect and carry forward Meishan's excellent musical and cultural heritage. Studying the artistic beauty of Zishui boatman's chant will help more people to understand it, explore it and make it a treasure of China and even the world's music and cultural heritage.
Precautions:
[1] "Reading Historical Records"? 75 volumes? Hu Guangyi
[2] Hegel: Aesthetics Volume I, People's Publishing House 1990.
[3] Zhang Qian and Wang Ci: Fundamentals of Music Aesthetics, People's Music Publishing House 1992.
[4] The spectrum example is selected from Meishan Cui Wen edited by Wu Zhuxian, Xinxiang Wenzhunzi (1999)No. 14No. 1997.
Yang Jiannong: Music Department of Hunan University of Humanities and Science.
Shen lve: Music Department of Hunan Institute of Humanities and Science.
Editor in charge: Zhang