In June 28, the folk songs of northern Shaanxi declared by Yulin City and Yan 'an City in Shaanxi Province were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.
As the folk songs in northern Shaanxi are produced in productive labor, there are many works ranging from the smaller two-sentence structure to the larger multi-paragraph structure. Two-sentence pattern and four-sentence pattern are the most common creative forms of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. The upper and lower sentences form a paragraph, and the two sentences rhyme freely. The basic number of words in each sentence is seven words, such as "Thirty Li Pu", "The Footman's Tune" and "A pair of hairy-eyed brothers", etc. However, due to lyric and narrative needs, the seven-word sentence pattern is sometimes expanded, with more words, and segmented songs with expanded three-sentence or five-sentence structure. Some folk songs in northern Shaanxi have changed in structure and speed to varying degrees with the need of content and lyric language in the repeated use of multi-paragraph words, forming a large structure with rich changes and smooth flow. Such as "Five Brothers Pasturing Sheep" and "Shandandan Blossoms in Red". In short, the structure of folk songs in northern Shaanxi is flexible and rich, eclectic, and the content covers a wide range.
classification of folk songs
I. types of folk songs in northern Shaanxi folk songs can be roughly divided into chant, belief in heaven and minor according to singing content, form and genre.
folk songs in northern Shaanxi
chant
chant is a kind of folk song that is directly accompanied by labor, usually sung during collective labor. The chant in northern Shaanxi mainly includes the Yellow River Boat T chant and the chant of tamping and smashing. The Yellow River originates from Qinghai, flows through Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia provinces, and flows down along the Shanxi-Shaanxi Grand Canyon in Fugu County of northern Shaanxi. Boatman mostly travels to and from both sides of Shanxi and Shaanxi, making a living by ferry and short-distance transportation. The most famous yellow river boatman's song is the yellow river boatman's song.
Tamping and beating (also called beating) are important forms of labor in the northern Shaanxi Plateau. There are many earth-rock works in northern Shaanxi, and it is necessary to lift tamping and beating the stone when repairing kilns and building dams. Therefore, tamping and beating the stone have become more common forms of singing in the labor songs in northern Shaanxi, and these two kinds of songs are only used when hitting the foundation or piling. The representative songs of tamping songs include "Tune in" and "Play Slowly and Gently". The representative songs of playing the bugle are "The Beauty of this melody" and "The eldest sister in the village is delicious".
Xintianyou
Xintianyou is the most important and representative folk song genre in northern Shaanxi. The tune of Xintianyou is composed of two phrases, the first sentence is relatively open, the musical range is relatively high, the musical span is relatively large, the second sentence is relatively closed, and the melody twists and turns downward, showing narrative characteristics. The tunes of Xintianyou can be roughly divided into two types, one is a folk song type with high and open tone and relatively free rhythm, and the other is a minor type with gentle and stretched tone, well-proportioned rhythm and strict structure. The former's representative tracks include The Footman's Tune and Orchid Flower, while the latter's representative tracks include Everyone says that we are both good, Your mother can't beat you up, and so on. Xintianyou is a kind of folk song bred in the Loess Plateau, which is very random, creative, vocal, unrestricted and expressive. Its names are diverse, and it is called "mountain song", "mountain climbing tune" and "traveling along the sky" in different places. Xintianyou is the essence of northern Shaanxi, which can best reflect the gloomy, desolate and magnificent "personality" of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi. Its singing has a strong sense of space, high-pitched and unrestrained, deep and simple, its rhythm is free and simple, and it focuses on the description of inner feelings, simple and sincere, so it can break through time and space, spread like wildfire and be passed down from generation to generation.
minor
minor, also known as ditty, has regular structure, euphemistic and smooth tunes, and is characterized by twists and turns and delicacy. Northern Shaanxi minor can be divided into general minor, Sixian minor, Yangko minor, custom minor and singing key. Minor is a kind of urban folk song that has been artistically processed by folk artists. Its scope is extremely wide and its structure is relatively complete. It is a more artistic type of folk songs in northern Shaanxi. Such as Walking to the West, Sanlipu, Langong Tune, etc. Its language is vivid and simple, its tune is beautiful and tactful, its feelings are deep and sincere, and its feelings are nuanced.