The relationship between the origin of Han folk songs and folk customs

Folk songs (folk songs) originally refer to the traditional songs of various ethnic groups. Since ancient times, the ancestors of every nation have their own songs. Most of these songs don't know who the author is, but they are passed down from generation to generation. The folk songs we are talking about today mostly refer to the folk songs in the pop music era, which are accompanied by acoustic guitars and sung in a natural and frank way, singing the simple life feelings of everyone. WOODY GUTHRIE, an American folk singer, recorded the earliest folk songs in 1950s, so she is recognized as the founder of modern folk songs. Then pete seeger and The Weaver continued to promote this kind of music. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, anti-war folk singers such as Bob Dylan, joan baez, Peter, Paul and Mary became the voices of the times.

Folk songs, people's songs. From ancient times to the present, regardless of east, west, north and south, every era, every region, every nation and every country; Under the influence of different geography, climate, language, culture and religion, there will inevitably be a kind of self-entertainment, cultural inheritance or catharsis of the essence of life. They will use different colors to convey their history, civilization and love, and folk songs are also an important part of them. Sociology or the public are commonly known as folk songs.

By analogy, I will find that there can be China folk songs, American folk songs, British, Russian, Scottish, Australian or African folk songs and so on. Just like if you go to the Oktoberfest on the roof of the ocean terminal these days, you must have heard a lot of Prussian folk songs played by them with guitars and accordions.

The characteristic of folk songs/ballads lies in whether they can reflect their origin, environment, cultural characteristics/quality, not just the number and weight of instruments used. (Of course, it is undeniable that musical instruments themselves can often reflect the cultural background of folk songs. Today, we live in Hong Kong, and the folk music culture has long been dominated by the western canopy. Most of the folk songs we are talking about today are also western (American) folk songs.

Cultural comparison of the United States (China, Britain, continental Europe, etc.). ) is relatively short; Besides listening to some American sad songs, dance music and jazz music, we will also hear many second-generation American heartsongs, such as Woody Guthrie's This Land is My Land, Oh Susanna, Michael, Rowing the Boat ashore, etc. These are typical American folk songs. And The Weaver (pete seeger), Kingston Trio, Highway Man, etc. It can be said that what I know is the pioneer of American folk songs.

As for being called the father of modern American folk songs (it was called modern in the 1960s, but we were called the end of postmodernism in 2004), it was Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is called "the father of modern folk songs" because he wrote many lyrics for the first time in the 1960s, which can represent the land and culture of contemporary America, the mentality of a new generation of intellectuals and young people, and his typical rebellious, accusing and poetic words. And these words and songs can really influence the culture of the United States and other parts of the world (not just music culture) directly, indirectly and from generation to generation.

Hymns As for other western folk singers you can often hear, PPM's favorites (I believe) are Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and garfinkel, Donovan, Joni Mitchell, john denver and so on.

Cui Yi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Yellow Crane Tower" by Li Bai, and later boarded the Yellow Crane Tower. Facing the beautiful scenery in front of him, he lamented that "there is a scenic road ahead, and Cui Yi can't write poems on it".

Of course I am not Li Bai. I'm just kidding. Originally, I also wanted to write about the topic "What is folk song" from a macro perspective, but Melgo beat me to it (with a smile). We need a dog-tailed mink here to supplement it sporadically.

The meaning of folk songs is a little different from that of folk songs. The word "rumor" in folk songs has the meaning of "emptiness" and "nothingness", that is, rumors and rumors. "Folk songs" refer to ancient folk songs, and the composer is beyond reproach, so we will call them folk songs (of course, we can also call them folk songs), so we will say "songs" of modern people or "songs" of urban people, and there should be no such thing as "folk songs" of modern people or urban people.

As for whether the English word "ballad" is ancient or modern, I am not fastidious and dare not talk nonsense.

In western operas or local operas in China, it is not difficult to find that the music part can fully reflect the color character and cultural tradition of a nation, but we will not call it a folk song, not necessarily because it has rich artistic connotation; However, this kind of traditional music, in the era when there was no phonograph, was the "exclusive product" of court nobles, intellectuals or upper class, and it was not popularized among the people, so "folk circulation" was the most basic condition for becoming a folk song.

Since the last century, English has always been a strong language, affecting the whole world in many fields, and so have folk songs. Our generation has been influenced by European and American folk songs so far. In 1960s, European and American folk songs became diversified and mature under the impetus of market forces. In fact, the musical value and significance of European and American folk songs are worthy of our full admiration and affirmation.

Folk songs are one of the "tools" for people to express their thoughts and feelings. Each nation has its own unique cultural tradition and personality, so the styles of folk songs vary from place to place. I think the key to playing folk songs well is whether you can pop out the true colors and the word "feeling" of that kind of folk songs, which is obvious to folk friends at first glance; But friends who are unfamiliar with folk songs may be unknown so. I can't specify what "folk song feeling" means. Let's sum up with two examples: A friend told me that Tayu Lo is really good at composing music, but he is not good at singing. I smiled and answered him, "What do you think of Tan singing? Can you sing better than Tayu Lo? 」

Types and characteristics of folk songs

Labor songs can be divided into narrow sense and broad sense. In a narrow sense, it refers to the chant, which is characterized by its strong rhythm in coordination with labor movements and has a direct role in promoting labor. Broadly speaking, it includes songs sung in labor, such as grassland pastoral songs and tea-picking songs. The latter kind of songs, some of which are also sung in coordination with the labor movement, can generally play a certain role in encouraging and regulating emotions, but there is no obvious strong rhythm in coordination with the labor movement. Labor songs in a broad sense can sometimes be classified as life songs.

Ritual songs are recited and sung with the folk rituals such as praying for the New Year, celebrating disasters, offering sacrifices to ancestors and mourning, and daily custom activities such as welcoming relatives and seeing friends off. There are three kinds of songs: tactical songs, ritual songs and custom songs. Tactical songs are folk songs and incantations that are considered to have magical effects, such as "Yellow Emperor, Yellow Emperor, there is a crying yelang in my house, and the gentleman passing by sings three times and sleeps until dawn". Ritual songs are songs sung in combination with festivals, celebrations and other sacrificial ceremonies. The main content is to worship the gods and pray for a bumper harvest. For example, the song of blessing sung by Kitchen God and the song of praying for rain sung by Dragon God. Folk songs are used in wedding, birth, birthday, funeral, building and other welcoming occasions, such as accounting songs, crying wedding songs, building songs, toasting songs and so on. This is a part of ritual songs with more quantity, less superstition and higher literary value.

The main content of current political songs is to reflect people's understanding and attitude towards certain political events and figures. It has high literature value. In ancient China, many political ballads appeared in the form of nursery rhymes, and their written records were mostly found in the Five Elements Records of historical books of past dynasties. Political ballads can be roughly divided into three categories: ① Exposing ballads satirizing rulers, with the largest number of such works; (2) Songs praising the patriotism of honest officials; (3) The songs of peasant uprisings in past dynasties reflect the most full awakening of peasants and the strongest political color.

Life songs reflect all aspects of people's general social family life and daily working life, especially the lives of farmers and women. Farmers' life songs reflect the inhuman life of farmers in the old society and expose the cruel exploitation and greed of landlords. The popular song "Long-term Workers in December" reflects the sharp contradiction between long-term workers and landlords. Women's life songs are mostly from the mouth of folk women. Women are discriminated against from birth and married like commodities; From the life of a battered daughter-in-law to the miserable life experience of being a woman without happiness, it is all reflected in the life songs of women. In a large number of bitter love songs, there is often a yearning for a happy life. In the modern ballads after the rise of capitalism, there are often strong voices against the times.

Love songs, according to some scholars, probably originated from the alternation of husband and wife monogamy. They are the most numerous and widely circulated folk songs, and occupy a very important position in the love life of working people, especially ethnic minorities. It can be roughly divided into the following categories: ① those who confide in each other's love and show the criteria of mate selection, such as "silk thread approaches the bridge" and "gold and silver are unhappy"; and (2) those who express their feelings of parting, such as "you are in the picture" and "harmony is one person". (3) Express faithful love that will never be separated, such as "I would rather be beaten than lose my job" and "Go out to the yamen and hold hands". (4) Complaining love songs warning criticism, such as: "Learn from amaranth, never learn from pepper" and "Miss Lang lost her heart". ⑤ A large number of derailed songs, such as "Home flowers are not as good as wild flowers", although they contain some unhealthy thoughts and feelings, often show the yearning and pursuit of a happy life for people deprived of a normal love life.

The word nursery rhymes was not widely used until after the May 4th Movement in China. In ancient times, they were called "songs of obedient children" and "children's songs". Children's songs can be divided into narrow sense and broad sense. In a narrow sense, it refers to songs created by children themselves and taught by adults, but the content conforms to children's physiological and psychological characteristics and understanding ability. Broadly speaking, it also includes songs taught by mothers and grandmothers, which reflect the feelings of adults, especially women, in the old society, but are sung by children. The so-called "nursery rhymes" with the nature of current political ballads are generally not real nursery rhymes. Children's songs can be roughly divided into three categories according to their functions: playing children's songs, teaching children's songs and tongue twisters to train language skills.

China has not only different nationalities and regions, but also different folk songs. Even if it is the same nation and the same region, there are often many styles.

Sentence pattern: For example, in Han folk songs, there are three, four, five, six, eight or as many as a dozen words besides seven words. Naxi folk songs and Miao ancient songs are almost five-character sentences, while water songs are mostly special complex sentences with the first three words and the last four words.

Chapter structure: the first four sentences are the most. Five sentences are popular in southern Shaanxi, western Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Sichuan and other provinces. There are two sentences: northern Shaanxi Xintianyou, Inner Mongolia mountain climbing song, northwest Shanxi folk song, Zhuang "teacher" style song. Tibetan "Lu"-style songs are composed of three to five chapters, with three chapters as the head, and sentences paying attention to correspondence. Songs in the "harmony" style are mostly four sentences, and some begin with six or eight sentences. Yi folk songs are sung in two sentences, which are divided into the upper sentence and the lower sentence, and the upper sentence and the lower sentence require confrontation. The lyrics of minor songs circulating in different parts of the Han nationality have their own styles, such as four seasons, four paragraphs, five paragraphs, ten paragraphs for free, and twelve paragraphs on December. Hehuang, Tao Min and Longzhong in the "Hua 'er" in the northwest have different formats. There are still many chapters, paragraphs and sentences in folk songs of various nationalities that are not fixed.

In terms of rhyme, kotaro oshio is the majority of Han folk songs, with four rhymes of one, two and four, and five rhymes of one, two, four and five, each of which has rhyme. Mongolian folk songs mostly rely on alliteration. In most folk songs with four acts and one chapter, the upper and lower chapters form a song, and each line generally requires rhyme. Folk songs of all ethnic groups also have rhymes of waist, waist and feet, head and feet, or waist and tail. The Zhuang people's "Happy Calling Huan" and the northwest nationalities' "Hua Er" all have special rhyming methods.

In the way of expression: metaphor, exaggeration, overlapping and homophonic are often used in folk songs. Exposing critical political songs is usually homophonic and argot. Puns are widely used in love songs. Personification is very common in children's songs. Naxi people's homophones, while using a lot of homophones, personify things from beginning to end, such as bees meeting fish, which is a metaphor for the love between men and women. The style of folk songs varies from region to region and from nation to nation. Dai folk songs are lively and beautiful, while Hezhe folk songs are rough and bold. Han folk songs are mostly bold in the north and graceful in the south. But both are southern folk songs, and Wu Ge is more delicate than Chu songs. The same flower, different nationalities or regions, also have their own characteristics.

CCTV has a special program about folk songs called Charm 28, hosted by Dong Qing. This program will interpret a folk song in various ways and also tell the origin of this folk song.