Chapter 114 Cantonese music

Before introducing Guangdong music, we must first introduce a few characteristic musical instruments to you. In Cantonese music, the early "hard bow band" included Erxian, Violin, Sanxian, Yueqin, Hengxiao (dizi), throat pipe, Yehu, etc.; the later "soft bow band" included Gaohu, Yangqin, Qinqin, Ruan, Sanxian, Houguan, Hengxiao, etc.Some of these instruments are almost exclusively used in Cantonese music, such as the violin, throat pipe, Yehu, etc., while others are gradually adopted by other music types, such as Qinqin and Gaohu. The violin used in Cantonese music is not the large, medium and violin among Western instruments, but a stringed instrument with a shape similar to the banhu. It appeared in the Ming Dynasty. There is a picture of a violin in the middle. From the picture, it is a four-stringed stringed instrument similar to Jinghu.Later, the violin used in Guangdong music was made of bamboo or coconut shell, and then inlaid with thin paulownia wood boards.The violin is a medium instrument with a mellow and melodious sound. It is called the "music gall" in the hard bow band.

Qinqin is originally a unique instrument in Guangdong music. Because of its beautiful sound, it is used in Chaozhou drum music, many local operas and national orchestras.Qinqin, like Yueqin, was developed from Ruan. However, the pole of Yueqin became shorter and shorter, while the pole of Qinqin became longer and longer, while the box became smaller.Qin Qin's piano case is generally round, but also plum-shaped, hexagonal and octagonal.There are frets on the bar of the Qin Qin, mostly two or three strings, and there are also four strings, but the most commonly used is the three-string Qin Qin, which has nineteen frets and is tuned to a pure fifth interval.The timbre of Qinqin is bright and soft, very beautiful, and it can blend well with other instruments.In Cantonese music, it has become one of the essential instruments.

There is also a kind of Qinqin. Instead of Mongolian paulownia boards, the Qinqin is covered with python skin, cowhide, or sheepskin, and the piano horse is used.This kind of qinqin has a loud sound and a long reverberation time, which is very distinctive and is also very popular in Guangdong. The throat pipe is a wind instrument developed on the basis of pipes.At first, it was a musical instrument played by street vendors in Guangdong. In the late 1920s, it was adopted by Cantonese music and Cantonese opera, and soon became popular in Guangdong and Guangxi. The throat pipe was originally made by adding a bowl under the pipe, which consists of three parts: the whistle, the pipe body and the bowl.The shape of the whistle is similar to suona and pipe, and it is made of reed.The tube body can be made of bamboo, ebony, mahogany, miscellaneous wood or even plastic and metal, but the sound quality made of bamboo is the most beautiful.The bowl is made of thin copper sheet.The timbre of the throat is bright and thick. In the early 1950s, the tube body was thickened and lengthened to make alto and bass tubes.Since the early throat pipes could not be overblown, the vocal range was very narrow, only one octave, which limited the expressive force of the throat pipes. In the 1960s, a breakthrough was made in the development of the larynx. The keyed larynx was successfully developed, which can play semitones freely, and the range is expanded to two octaves, which enriches the expressive force of the larynx.

The predecessor of Cantonese music is the cut-scene music and ditties played during the action performance of Cantonese opera and Chaozhou opera, also called "banben" or "cut-scene music" and "cut-scene score". Cutscenes", such as the famous "Liu Qingniang", "An Ingot of Gold", "Dressing Table", "Crying for the Emperor" and so on.By the 1920s, it had developed into an independent form of instrumental music performance, mainly playing "little songs".Because of its unique artistic charm, it soon spread to the whole country, and was called "Guangdong music" by everyone.

In the early Cantonese music, the instruments used mainly include Erxian (also known as "head frame"), violin, sanxian, yueqin, and horizontal flute (di), commonly known as "five frame heads". Laryngpipe (commonly known as "long tube" or "short tube"), big flute or small flute (big suona or small suona), and pipa or dulcimer for solo performances.The performance style of this kind of band combination is relatively majestic and rigid. The two strings and the violin are thick and the bow is hard, so it is called "hard bow band". Its performance has a very strong color of Guangdong local music.

In 1926, Lu Wencheng, a musician from Guangdong, because the python skin on the erhu collapsed due to damp, covered it with a new python skin and tightened it, and then replaced the silk strings with steel strings, thus making Gaohu.Its appearance immediately caused a revolution in Cantonese music. It soon replaced the two-stringed harpsichord and the violin as the main instrument in Cantonese music. The composition of the band also changed accordingly. Adding Qinqin, known as the "Three Pieces", together with Yehu and Dongxiao, formed the distinctive features of modern Cantonese music. Later, Western instruments such as violin, cello and even saxophone were added.Because of the soft and beautiful sound of this band combination, and the soft erhu bow used by Gaohu, it is called "soft bow band".

Cantonese music was very popular in modern times. In the Pearl River Delta, there are bands playing Cantonese music in both urban and rural areas. , Cantonese music will be played after the harvest or when meeting to celebrate the New Year. In the 1920s, silent films were still shown, and many movie theaters had bands that played Cantonese music before and during screenings.This kind of music played by bands is also known as "eight tone" or "street music" and "court music", and it soon became popular all over the country and had a great influence among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.