A talking instrument (in a story)

Bawu is a single-reed musical instrument of Hani and Yi people. Hani language called Gebi, Meiba and Niuba. Yi language is called Feili, Jifeili, Biru and Houlle. Chinese is called Bawu. Popular in Honghe, Yuxi, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Lincang, Dehong and other areas in southern Yunnan Province.

There is a magical and wonderful story about Bawu. A long time ago, in Ailao Mountain area on the south bank of the Red River, there was a pure, beautiful and kind girl Mei Wu of the Hani nationality who fell in love with a handsome, brave and hardworking young man Ba Chong. They vowed to stay together forever like branches and green leaves, and everyone in the stockade admired and envied them. When the greedy devil in the deep mountain knew about this, he drove the girl away with a gust of wind while people were singing and dancing, forcing her to marry him. The girl was unyielding and never said a word, regardless of the devil's intimidation and inducement. So the devil became angry from embarrassment, cut off her tongue and threw her into the deep forest. The girl misses her lover, wandering among the mountains all day, suffering, and time passes day by day. One day, the fairy bird in the forest brought the girl's tongue and a piece of bamboo, told her to put her tongue in the bamboo tube and told her that "bamboo will help you speak". So the girl blew the bamboo and made beautiful music, expressing her thoughts for her lover and her accusation against the devil. The music reached Ba Chong's ear, and the young man went through hardships and dangers, rescued the girl, returned to his relatives and regained happiness. Later, people used their names to pick the beginning and end, and named this talking instrument Bawu. Since then, Bawu has been circulated in Hani Shanzhai for generations.

among Niesu people, a branch of Yi people in Gejiu, there is a legend that in ancient times, there was a deaf-mute who died of his mother. He was extremely sad, but he could not express his sorrow in words. One day, he found a piece of bamboo with insect eyes, put it in his mouth and blew it, making a deep and sad sound. He thought, a bamboo tube can make a worm's eye sound. How many more holes should be dug? So he used a sharp knife to dig several equidistant holes in the bamboo tube, and sure enough, he made a cadence sound. He listened and blew, and finally blew out his feelings of missing his mother with a loud bamboo tube. Since then, this ringing bamboo tube, which is called Feili musical instrument in Yi language, has been handed down.

Bawu is composed of a tube body and a reed. The tube is made of bamboo. The Hani people mostly use green bamboo to make it. Because of the mild and humid local climate, it generally does not crack and deform. After being slowly dried, the bamboo skin will be white. Yi people often make thin bamboo tubes. The upper end (or left end) of the pipe body is closed by a bamboo joint or a cork, the middle bamboo joint is open, and the lower end (or right end) of the pipe body is open. Due to the different length and thickness of bamboo tubes, the specifications can be divided into three types: treble, alto and bass. The tenor and alto Bawu are 3 cm ~ 5 cm in length and .8 cm ~ 1.4 cm in inner diameter, and the bass Bawu is 6 cm ~ 8 cm in length and 1.6 cm ~ 2 cm in inner diameter. A rectangular blowhole with a length of 2.4 cm ~ 3 cm and a width of .7 cm ~ 1 cm is opened on the pipe wall 1.5 cm ~ 2 cm away from the closed end. Flatten the edges around the blowhole and stick a copper reed with beeswax. The size of the blowhole depends on the size of the spring frame, and generally it should be slightly smaller than the spring frame. In order to protect the spring tongue, two thin bamboo sticks are often embedded on both sides of the spring frame, leaving only a gap as a blowing hole. Some also use thin bamboo strips to weave a movable ring sleeve to protect the reed tongue, and remove it when playing. The pipe body is provided with eight (front seven and back one) circular sound pressing holes. In Bawu, the sound hole and the blowing hole are not in a straight line, but at an angle of 45. Some Bawu have a tail sound hole at the end. Reed is an important part of Bawu. Bamboo reed was first used by the people, and later it was improved to be made of brass (62 or 68 musical instrument copper), and it can also be made of alloy copper, phosphor copper or shell copper. The thickness of copper reed is particularly important, which should not exceed .3 cm. If it is thick, it must be hammered thin. Cut the copper sheet into a rectangular blank with a length of 2.5 cm and a width of .8 cm, and then carve a sharp triangular tongue on it with a sharp knife. The size of the spring tongue depends on the height adjustment. Take the F key as an example, the length of the tongue is 1 .7 cm, and the width of the tongue base is .25 cm. After carving, the spring tongue is leveled, the bottom surface is ground with water sandpaper to remove burrs, and then the tip of the tongue is lifted up to make it about .15 cm high, so that the gap between the spring tongue and the spring frame is small and free to vibrate smoothly. The tuning of reed is the most important. The root of reed tongue is thick, and the middle and tip are thin. It should be put on Bawu for audition while scraping, with high sensitivity, beautiful tone and color, and coordinated pronunciation of each hole as the best. The reed itself has a pitch, and the pitch of the reed used in Bawu with different heights is also different. Usually, it should be the lower fifth tone with a high pitch, such as Bawu in F, and the reed should sound bB. The pitch of the reed is allowed to have a swimming range of two degrees. If the reed sound is raised to the lower fourth degree, it is necessary to misplace the pitch hole or use the nozzle to make the pronunciation sensitive and bright. Bawu and Sheng are both musical instruments with reed-tube coordination system, but their reeds are different. Sheng is a sound produced by a spring in each tube, and the spring tongue is rectangular; Bawu is a pipe with a spring that makes nine sounds. The spring tongue is sharp triangle, and the tip of the tongue is tilted. Although everyone can vibrate freely, the timbre is fundamentally different. If Bawu is replaced with the reed of Sheng, it will not produce a strong and soft timbre.

when playing, those with thin and short pipes blow vertically, while those with thick pipes blow horizontally. When blowing vertically, you hold the reed near the top with your mouth, and when blowing horizontally, you put the reed part between your lips. The air flow vibrates the reed tongue part and excites the air column in the tube to sound. When all the sound holes are closed with your fingers, the air column formed in the tube is the longest, and it emits the pitch, but it is generally not used when playing. When playing low-pitched Bawu, your lips and muscles should be relaxed and your breath should be slow and even; When playing alto and treble Bawu, the cheeks are slightly tightened. Play with the method of spitting sound, and you can also play long-lasting notes with the method of cyclic ventilation. Through flat blowing or over blowing, the vocal ranges are respectively: high-pitched Bawu f1-g2, alto Bawu b-c2, and low-pitched Bawu f-g1. The timbre is soft, the treble is slightly sharp, the alto is round and beautiful, and the bass is generous. The playing skills are basically the same as those of the flute, and all the skills commonly used in the flute can be used in Bawu.

Many ethnic minorities in our country have a tradition of expressing their feelings with things and songs, and some musical instruments have become the "second language" of some ethnic groups. Miao people have lusheng, Dai people have cucurbit silk, Buyi people have pen tube ... Among all these musical instruments, only Bawu is unique in timbre and emotional expression, so some people call Bawu a "talking instrument"

Bawu is the most widely spread folk instrument of Yi, Hani, Dai, Wa and Brown, and there is also a touching legend about its origin: Suddenly one day the devil on the mountain took her away and forced her to sing for the devil's pleasure. The girl refused, and the devil flew into a rage and immediately cut off her tongue. From then on, the girl became mute and in great pain, and could no longer sing. So she went into the deep forest. Although the butterflies in the flower tree danced for her and the birds in the tree sang for her, it still could not relieve her sorrow. Her only wish is to find something to replace her tongue to sing again. Finally, it is good to choose a thin piece of bamboo and embed it in a bamboo tube with a rectangular gap as a tongue spring. When it is gently blown, it suddenly makes a beautiful and mellow sound. This is the musical instrument that people later called "Bawu".

It is difficult to verify the age of Bawu in historical materials, but it is at least 2, years old according to the production of Bawu and the pipe shaped like Lusheng. Nowadays, most of the Bawu, which is circulated among the people, is a bamboo tube, and the upper end has a node to dig holes and embed reeds, and the number of holes varies. In the past, many bamboo springs were embedded, but now most of them are embedded with a sharp triangular copper reed with eight holes (front seven and back one), which have three specifications: high, medium and low, or horizontal or firm blowing.

Bawu has a soft and warm timbre, and is good at lyricism. It is a color melody instrument. In recent years, in order to meet the needs of professional performances, many performers have made bold improvements to it, some have changed bamboo pipes into plastic pipes or mahogany pipes, some have added horns to the end of pipes that blow Bawu vertically, and some have added keys to finger holes. In addition, the pitch was fine-tuned, the pipe body was inserted, and the mouthpiece was added with a lip support, which not only increased the volume, but also expanded the range, and it was able to turn four to five keys.

In addition to solo, Bawu is often used for accompaniment, ensemble, etc. Its unique voice can be heard in many movies and TV shows.