China’s story： Xi ‘an drum music： inheriting the thousand-year legacy in innovation
"From a distance, it looks like a mural of the Tang Dynasty, and it sounds like a fairy music. This is back to Chang’ an!" Looking at musicians in round neck robes and well-developed ladies with high-heeled dresses, beating drums, blowing sheng flutes, and knocking on cloud gongs, they played a series of Xi ‘an drum music tracks with great charm. The audience in the comment area left a message saying.
In April this year, Xi ‘an Dongcang Drum Music Society started live broadcast on the short video platform. In just three months, the number of account fans increased to 420,000, and the search volume of the whole network reached 160 million times. More and more audiences all over the country and even overseas are beginning to pay attention to Xi ‘an drum music — — The "China Ancient Symphony" thousands of years ago.
The stage play Drum, which was shot in Xi ‘an Datang Furong Garden, is an innovation of Datang music and dance and Dongcang drum music. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
Xi’ an drum music sounds from Datang.
Drum music in Xi ‘an originated from Sui and Tang Dynasties and spread in Guanzhong Plain with Chang ‘an in Tang Dou as the center for thousands of years. It is a typical representative of traditional instrumental music culture in China and is known as "the living fossil of ancient music in China". Because of the large number of performers, including more than 20 kinds of percussion instruments, wind instruments and stringed instruments, it is also called "China Ancient Symphony".
In 2006, Xi ‘an drum music was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, and in 2009 it was included in UNESCO’s "Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".
According to research, drum music in Xi ‘an was born out of the court banquet music in the Tang Dynasty, and it flowed into the people during the Anshi Rebellion. Later, it was divided into three schools: monk, Taoist and vulgar because of different playing styles. In the long history, court music has been influenced by folk culture and changed several times, but it always contains the connection with the music of Tang and Song Dynasties.
The music score written by Xi ‘an Drum Music Society in the Song Dynasty. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
"The music structure of drum music in Xi ‘an is very similar to that of Daqu in Tang Dynasty, and the way of notation follows the half-character notation of folk music in Song Dynasty, ‘ Sit music ’ And ‘ Carpe diem ’ Two ways of playing and ‘ Satabe geisha ’ With ‘ Libu geisha ’ Similar, at the same time, it also preserves more than a thousand songs of various genres since the Tang and Song Dynasties. " Deng Meng, vice president of Shaanxi Academy of Art, introduced.
Originated in Sui and Tang Dynasties, it flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Temple fairs, festivals and other activities have provided a platform for the survival and inheritance of drum music clubs. In its heyday, more than 100 drum clubs were active in Chang ‘an, forming a grand scene all over urban and rural areas.
Every year in June of the lunar calendar, after the wheat harvest is busy, from the south Wutai Mountain in the Zhongnan Mountain of Qinling Mountains, the Drum Music Society will appear on stage inside and outside the city to open the annual "Folk Music Festival". The sheng pipes are ringing around the clock, and the music clubs are "fighting music" on the same stage, and one drum is finished and the other is bulging.
On June 23rd, Fan Bingnan (first from left), president of Xi ‘an Dongcang Drum Club, communicated with the musicians. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
The lingering sound of the Millennium Sheng drum sounds is the same.
For thousands of years, the live transmission of drum music in Xi ‘an has continued. However, due to various reasons, the development of Xi ‘an Drum Music Society was difficult at the end of last century, and it was almost endangered. So far, there are only six, and Dongcang Drum Music Society is one of them.
Fan Bingnan, the 76-year-old president of Dongcang Drum Club, recalled, "I was born in Dongcangmen, Xi ‘an, and I watched drum performances since I was a child, blowing and beating with old artists. When I was in my 30 s and couldn’t hear the drums, I always felt that something was missing. "
In 1978, Fan Bingnan studied with Zhao Gengchen, a master of drum music in Xi ‘an, and together with his master, he visited drum artists, searched for musical instrument scores, restored Dongcang Drum Music Society, and began to teach drum music among neighbors.
"Different from the musical notation and staff notation, the musical notation of Xi ‘an drum music continues the folk character spectrum of the Song Dynasty. Even if you know the score, you don’t know the melody. For thousands of years, the charm of music has been taught by the older generation. At present, there are more than 3,000 pieces of drum music preserved, and experts have sorted out more than 1,000 pieces, and only two or three hundred pieces can really be played. " Fan Bingnan said.
On June 23rd, the musicians of Xi ‘an Dongcang Drum Club were giving the musicians the rhyme "Looking at Hometown". Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
With the old artists getting older and dying one after another, the neighbors moved and scattered, and the Dongcang drum music was once lacking in successors and was on the verge of being lost. In 2004, Dongcang Drum Music Society broke the rule of Xi ‘an drum music for more than a thousand years, and enrolled children in the surrounding villages of Xi ‘an free of charge, and enrolled more than 100 male and female students in two years. In the end, 18 people persisted.
As Xi ‘an drum music has become an intangible project, it has been paid more and more attention. Local government departments actively build a drum music literature database, establish drum music workshops, carry out drum music activities on campus, organize drum music clubs to participate in various performances at home and abroad, and constantly promote cooperation between drum music clubs and cultural tourism enterprises.
In 2006, Dongcang Drum Music Society settled in Ziyun Building of Datang Furong Garden and began to perform regularly. Thousands of years later, this melody from the court of the Tang Dynasty once again returned to the location of the famous royal garden. Day after day, year after year, the sound of the legacy of the Tang Dynasty penetrated the garden.
The stage play Drum, which was shot in Xi ‘an Datang Furong Garden, is an innovation of Datang music and dance and Dongcang drum music. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
Drum music has a new biography and shares Chang ‘an rhyme.
Over the years, Dongcang Drum Music Society has been learning and interpreting ancient music in the traditional way. However, times have changed, and the original form of drum music performance has been difficult to attract modern audiences.
In 2021, the innovative stage play Drum, which combined the music and dance of Tang Dynasty and the drum music of Dongcang, broke the monotonous expression of drum music. The repertoire takes the traditional Xi ‘an drum music as the "soul", supplemented by dazzling stage effects and gorgeous makeup costumes, and makes the "Millennium Living Fossil" glow with new life through a new way of presentation.
In April this year, due to the epidemic, the offline audience decreased. The young musicians of Dongcang Drum Music Club chose to live online on the short video platform.
On June 23rd, the musicians of Xi ‘an Dongcang Drum Club performed live online. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yushe
"The standards of online performance and offline performance are the same. Every day before the live broadcast, musicians spend a long time making up and modeling to show the audience the best state." Qi Xingfeng, director of Dongcang Drum Club, said.
The online performance of Guleshe also has some innovative tracks adapted from the inherited tracks, such as "Jin Ting Le", "Da Tang Li Zan" and other film and television dramas and game episodes. "The innovation of online live broadcast should interest the audience." Qi Xingfeng said.