Performance content of Hengshan Storytelling

The traditional performance form of Hengshan Storytelling is for the artist to use the northern Shaanxi accent and hold a sanxian or pipa to narrate the story by playing, singing, and alternately rapping. Depending on the accompaniment of the instrument, it is either called "Sanxian Book" or "Pipa Book". By the 1930s and 1940s, under the transformation of famous artist Han Qixiang and others, storytelling in northern Shaanxi developed into a situation where one person could simultaneously play the big sanxian (or pipa), wake wood, play board, and use knotted wood pieces called "Ma Cha Cha" and It is a storytelling form of folk art accompanied by five musical instruments: small gongs (or cymbals).

The lyrics of Hengshan Storytelling are popular and smooth, with strong local characteristics. Except for the artists' unique opening remarks or specific lyrics, there are almost no restrictions and the artists can express themselves arbitrarily. Good folk artists quote a lot of tunes from Northern Shaanxi folk songs, Northern Shaanxi Daoqing, Northern Shaanxi Yangge Opera, Northern Shaanxi Wanwan Opera, and even Qin Opera, Meihu, Pu Opera, Jin Opera, and Peking Opera in their lyrics, which can be said to be a collection of Various singing styles are mixed together, refined, and then formed into a unique libretto.

The tunes of Hengshan storytelling are relatively rich, and the style is exciting and rough. It is known as the "nine tunes and eighteen tunes". Among them, the commonly used ones are single tune, double tune, Xiliang tune, Shandong tune, Ping tune, Crying tune, Dui Dui tune, Wu tune, etc.

The structure of Hengshan storytelling consists of four parts: starting board, transition scene, original text, and falling board. The beginning of "Qi Ban" is usually a greeting and auspicious phrase improvised by artists according to the occasion or the host, and then "Play the three strings to set the right note. Dear sirs, please sit still. Today I will not talk about anything else, but just talk about the previous chapter." "The Ancient People" story-telling officially begins. A cut scene is a short humorous joke that is rapped to attract the audience. Start talking about the original text in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. The original text is usually some ancient books and biographies with certain educational significance, as well as newly compiled new people and new stories. Finally, it is called the falling board. There is particularity in when to drop the board. Usually, it is stopped suddenly at the critical moment of the storyline, so that there will be more listeners in the next scene. "If you want to know what happens next, please listen." back to decomposition".

The basic sentence patterns of Hengshan storytelling include four-character sentences, seven-character sentences, nine-character sentences, cross sentences, etc. The tones include male voice, female voice, true voice, falsetto; bitter tune, music tune, singing tune, killing tune, Jijifeng tune, etc. Techniques pay attention to single saying and joint singing, and follow the twelve-character policy of "emotion, anger, sadness, joy, tightness, levelness, slowness and speed, men over women".

Its performance format was originally just a solo rap. The artist sat on a stool, tied a three-layer playing board to his right calf, wore a string of machacha on the back of his right hand, and rapped with a three-string string in both hands. A small cymbal is tied to the knee. When rapping, we follow the traditional "words are straight, the tone is round, and the words are clear", and the singing method of combining true and false sounds and suppressing the scene is adopted. It is particular about the vocalization, articulation, accent and the use of words. It rhymes with harmony and is beautiful and catchy.

The repertoire of Hengshan storytellers used to be mostly adapted from classic historical novels, such as "Da Ba Yi", "Xiao Ba Yi", "New Tang Dynasty Biography of Five Women", "Double Rings", "Lian Lian Ji", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", etc. Most contemporary works reflect the characteristics of the times, praise the revolutionary spirit, and spur and inspire people's lives. Such as "The Great Victory of Yichuan", "The Story of Anti-Witch", "The Situation is Good", "The Story of Turning Over", etc. There are also those that describe the sorrow of separation and the love between men and women, such as "Liu Qiao Reunion", "Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang", "Li Shuangshuang" ", etc., and repertoire about some popular Han folklore stories such as "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Zhang Sheng Plays Yingying", etc. In addition, some repertoires are derived from local folk songs such as "Walking on the Western Mountain", "Five Songs to Herd Sheep" ", "The Little Widow Goes to the Grave", etc., there are also some humorous passages to adjust the atmosphere and attract the audience, such as "The Third Son-in-Law Pays Attention to the Father-in-law", "The Young Couple Carrying Water", etc. Incomplete statistics: there are nearly a hundred traditional books and nearly 50 Singing styles and tunes.

The traditional storytelling instruments in northern Shaanxi mainly include Sanxian, Shuban, Ma Cha Cha, Xing Mu, copper cymbals, etc. After the 1980s, storytelling changed from single-person rapping to joint rapping by multiple people. The instruments also included banhu, erhu, flute, suona, four pieces of tile, etc., and some also added electronic keyboard accompaniment.