FOLK MUSIC OF , VOL. 16: FOLK SONGS OF THE DONG, GELAO & YAO PEOPLES DONG 19 Song of Offering Tea 敬茶歌 - 1:13 1 The Song of Cicadas in May 五月禅歌 - 3:13 20 A Love Song about Rice Fields 辰时调 - 1:36 2 The World is Full of Love 天地人间充满爱 - 3:02 21 Song of Time 有歌不唱留干啥 - 5:21 3 Settlement of Ancestors 祖公落寨歌 - 2:20 22 Weeding First 薅草排头号 - 4:08 4 Think of My Beau 想情郎 - 2:03 23 Chinese Hwamei Tweeting Happily 5 I Miss You Song 思念歌 - 0:49 on the Mountain 高山画眉叫得乖 - 1:12 6 Cleverer Mind and Nimble Hands 24 A Boy Walks into a Garden 小哥进花园 - 0:49 心灵手巧赛过人 - 1:58 25 Visit My Girl 双探妹 - 1:40 7 In Praise of New Life 歌唱新生活 - 7:02 26 Shuo Fu Si 说伏似 - 1:41 8 The Song of Cicadas in March 三月禅歌 - 3:32 27 A Cowboy Song 放牛调 - 3:59 9 Vine and Tree 滕树情 - 3:06 28 A Mountain-Climbing Tiger 上山虎 10 Duet at the Drum-Tower Excerpts - 1:00 鼓楼对唱选段 - 5:51 YAO 11 A Duo 二人大歌 - 1:15 29 Multipart Folk Song 1 大歌(一) - 0:51 12 Good Days 美好时光 - 1:31 30 Multipart Folk Song 2 大歌(二) - 0:55 13 Frog Song 青蛙歌 - 1:47 31 Multipart Folk Song 3 大歌(三) - 0:56 14 Yellow Withered Leaf 黄叶已枯 - 2:07 32 Multipart Folk Song 4 大歌(四) - 0:52 15 Play Folk Song 玩山歌 - 1:03 33 Multipart Folk Song 5 大歌(五) - 0:45 GELAO 34 Folk Tune 1 小调歌(一) - 0:46 35 Folk Tune 2 小调歌(二) - 0:47 16 Love Song 1 情歌(一) - 0:58 36 Folk Tune 3 小调歌(三) - 0:40 17 Love Song 2 情歌 (二) - 0:59 37 Folk Tune 4 小调歌(四) 18 Red Plum Blossom (work song) - 0:44 桃花溜溜红 (劳动号子) - 3:03

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 76:59 min. FOLK MUSIC OF THE DONG, GELAO AND YAO PEOPLES The Dong people call themselves Gan or Jin, and more than half of the minority live in province in Southwest China. The songs of the Dong in this album were recorded in Qian Autonomous County, located on Guizhou’s southeastern border, neighboring both and provinces. The landscape includes many mountains, waterfalls and rivers. Drum towers are also a prominent feature throughout the county. This is where the Dong come to learn and perform their folk songs. The drum towers are made of wood and are built in the shape of a cedar tree. Each village has a specified number of towers based on how many clans live there, as they each build their own as a monument to their family. In smaller villages, with only one clan, there is just one tower and all of the villagers share the same family name. The location and layout of the villages are based on geomancy; the Dong people mainly believe in the worship of nature, ancestors and spirits. The Dong language, including both northern and southern dialects, is known as a musical language as it has various vocabularies and tones. The written language of the Dong was created using the Latin alphabet in 1958. The majority of the Gelao people live on the Yun-Gui plateau, which is formed of mountainous farming areas, depressions, flatlands, rivers and paddy fields. Most of their work is agricultural based and the women are specialists in textile making and cloth dyeing. The term Gelao first appeared in Chinese medieval books. However, various other self-designations such as Ha ge and Bu Gao are used throughout the different branches, of which there are more than ten. The Gelao write in Chinese; however, they speak a language that has no determined categorization. They mainly worship ancestors and nature, and often practice divination in various ways. The Yao population are dispersed over six different Chinese provinces, among which Guangxi accommodates more than half. The Yao songs on this album were recorded in of Guizhou, which borders Guangxi province. The minorities, including the Yao, dominate the population of Libo; they mainly live in karst terrain. There are as many as twenty-eight different self-designations of Yao, and other ethnic groups have more than a dozen other names for them too. The Yao language includes three dialects. Their written language, which uses the Latin alphabet, was created in the 1980s. The Yao follow elements of both Daoism and Taoism; their traditional folk beliefs include the worship of nature, sorcery, ancestors and spirits.

THE FOLK SONGS OF THE DONG PEOPLE Hundreds of years ago, the musical culture of the Dong was described by the Han as ‘well-developed and delicate’. Due to the various collective choral occasions still held today, singing continues to be an essential social skill, taught by the elders. They use the well-known idiom ‘rice nourishes the body and songs cultivate the heart’. Musical Categories and Features Folk songs, instrumental music, dance music and operas all form the music of the Dong. In addition, the musical styles from the southern and northern dialect areas contain their own features. The southern style tends to maintain more characters of the Dong music, while the northern style entails elements of both Dong and Han influence. The three counties where the Dong songs in this album were recorded mostly belong to the southern dialect area. The folk songs in this area include grand songs, small songs, ballads and costume songs. Grand songs are unaccompanied multi-part choruses sung by either all men, all women or all children, to ensure an equal tone. These songs have a history going back more than two thousand years. The heterophonic grand songs usually employ drones, which play the tonic or mediant note. According to their contents, grand songs are classified into drum tower, sound, children or narrative categories. The drum tower songs are sung for guests in front of the tower, where the Dong villagers hold their public affairs. The lyrics under this sub-category are often about love, as heard on track 10.

Narrative grand songs are usually titled after family names and describe the history of the Dong. Track 3 falls into this sub-category. The grand songs of the sound category highlight the beauty of certain sounds and tunes, with melodies often imitating natural sounds such as water and the chirping of cicadas. For example, tracks 1 and 8 both imitate the chirping of cicadas with a series of repeated short notes. Tracks 6 and 13 feature the last sub-category – the grand songs sung by children, which are themed around games or lessons for the children.

The small songs of the Dong are monophonic and can be both unaccompanied or accompanied. For example, track 4 uses a Dong lute as an accompaniment and track 9 uses a bowed lute.

Track 15 features Wanshan songs, meaning ‘playing at the mountain’, a typical genre of love songs from the northern dialect area. The young people of Dong sing Wanshan songs when they join for a gathering in the mountain. There is a fixed procedure at Wanshan gatherings, according to which the songs are divided into more than ten types.

Instruments The Dong people play more than twenty types of instrument, among which the plucked lute, bowed lute and mouth organ are the most popular. The plucked lute is made in three sizes and has either three or four strings. The lutes accompany different genres of folk songs according to their size. The wooden bowed lute, which is shaped similar to an ox leg, is also an accompaniment instrument. Mouth organs play a significant role in celebrations. Here, more than ten organs of different ranges are placed in an ensemble. The sympathetic pipes of the Dong mouth organ create a harmonious effect. THE FOLK SONGS OF THE GELAO PEOPLE Musical Categories and Features Gelao folk music, adopting the Chinese musical system, includes folk songs and instrumental music. The Gelao folk songs are often syllabic and include mountain songs, working songs, wine songs and ritual songs. Love songs are considered a type of mountain song. This is because during the first month of the Chinese lunar year, Gelao girls gather in a cave to learn embroidery while the older women teach them to sing love songs. Tracks 16, 17, 20 and 25 are all love songs. Chants that are sung while working, or songs that describe various working scenes, are called ‘working songs.’ Tracks 18 and 22 are both rhythmic labour chants. Track 19 is an excerpt from San Yaotai, which is a custom of banqueting guests with three steps – tea, alcohol and a meal. Song of Offering Tea is sung while offering friends Gelao tea and various vegetarian snacks.

Instruments Like other southwestern minorities, the Gelao people also blow leaves and mouth organs. The most characteristic mouth organs are made of Paulownia. Young people often use them to blow the tunes of folk songs.

THE FOLK SONGS OF THE The Yao people have adored singing for hundreds of years, developing various collections of different tunes for numerous ethnic branches. These traditional tunes can be divided into two-voice and monophonic songs. The Yao folk songs on this album come from Libo County in Guizhou, where three branches of the Yao people live. They are all two-voice songs. The harmonic intervals between the two voices are usually a major third, a minor third or a perfect fourth. The Yao people mainly play blown and percussive instruments. Blown instruments are used for both solo pieces and ensembles, and the percussion instruments accompany various dances. Because of the dispersed residence and various branches, the musical features of the Yao vary according to different areas. In general, Yao folk songs seldom adopt pentatonic scales, instead they use scales of three or four notes.

References Du Yaxiong 杜亚雄 2014, Zhongguo ge shaoshu minzu minjian yinyue gaishu 中国各少数民族民间音乐概述, Shanghai, Shanghai yinyue chubanshe.

Yang Shengmin 杨圣敏 (ed.) 2003, Zhongguo minzu zhi 中国民族志, Beijing, Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.

DONG 1. The Song of Cicadas in May 五月禅歌 (multi-part) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, , S.E. Qian of Miao and Dong. In this song, sung on May 5th, cicada insects emerge from the grass and from tops of trees to sing. They sing persistently for a whole day and night. As an indication of warm sunny days ahead they are believed to bring good luck. 2. The World is Full of Love 天地人间充满爱 (multi-part) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, Congjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Against the birds’ pleasant chirping sounds in the forest, the singing of the Dong people rises high in the sky. During the harvest season, the field becomes a sea of rice, filling the air with a pleasant aroma. In the Dong villages, people are hopeful of a great harvest; the young and old respect each other and live together in harmony. The Dong people sing out their heart-felt emotions and the world is full of love. 3. Settlement of Ancestors 祖公落寨歌 (multi-part) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, Congjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Displaced from their home, our ancestors travelled along the Rong River despite great hardship. There was nowhere to settle along the river bank so they came to Xiaohuang to start a new life. 4. Think of My Beau 想情郎 (accompanied by Chinese lute) Singers: Villagers from Dimen Village, , S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “When the night comes, how I wish that my beau could be at my side. My longing for him is so intense, especially when I see other couples in love. I will find my beau, even if it means the pain of hunger.” 5. I Miss You Song 思念歌 (solo) Singer: Villager from Yandong Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “If one doesn’t sing or make witty remarks, he grows old even if he is only thirty or forty years old. If you don’t sing, the blooming flower will lose the meaning of life and its red luster. I can see the high slopes of the mountain, but not my family. I miss my husband and children when I go up the hill and also when I return home. With only the high mountain slopes in sight, I don’t know where you are.” 6. Cleverer Mind and Nimble Hands 心灵手巧赛过人 (multi-part, sung by children) Singers: Children from Zaidang Village, , S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “At home I follow my parents’ words and learn needle work from my mother. At school I study hard and strive to master all skills. I will have a clever mind and nimble hands.” 7. In Praise of New Life 歌唱新生活 (multi-part, sung by the elderly) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, Congjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “We now live in a new and wonderful world. Thanks to the Communist Party of China, the hardworking masses are freed from oppression.” 8. The Song of Cicadas in March 三月禅歌 (multi-part) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, Congjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “Allow me to sing a song of cicadas for you. Cicadas begin to sing in March and keep the music flowing all the way until September, on the eve of their death. Cicadas’ songs can be heard everywhere, but the cicadas themselves are nowhere to be found. I love to follow their songs but I don’t have their sonorous voice.” 9. Vine and Tree 滕树情 (accompanied by bowed string instruments) Singers: Villagers from Dimen Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “In the forest, the vine twines around the tree and the tree cuddles the vine. No matter how hard you try, you will not find a beau like me.” 10. Duet at the Drum-Tower Excerpts 鼓楼对唱选段 (multi-part duet) Singers: Villagers from Yandong Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Grand song excerpts: 1. Lover; 2. Why Not Sing in Spring Time; 3. Chestnuts on the High Mountain; 4. Parents Bring up the Son; 5. I Miss You; 6. Words for Those Who Cheat Parents. 11. A Duo 二人大歌 (duet) Singers: Villagers from Jiulong Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Eighteen is the best age to be. 12. Good Days 美好时光 (multi-part) Singers: Villagers from Yandong Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Everything in nature springs to life like a fish racing upstream. Men and women seize the good days and work hard on the land. In August, when everything is harvested, all hardship will turn into bliss. 13. Frog Song 黄叶已枯 (multi-part, sung by children) Singers: Children from Zaidang Village, Rongjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. This song, sung on March 3rd, is about frogs who sing together in high and low pitches. The days that have gone will never return again, so seize the time now for a good harvest. 14. Yellow Withered Leaf 黄葉已枯 (men chorus) Singers: Villagers from Xiaohuang Village, Congjiang County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “Life will pass me by anyway, even if I don’t sing. Think about it. Life is short. Why not throw away all your worries and sing your soul out loud.” 15. Play Folk Song 玩山歌 (solo) Singer: Villager from Jiulong Village, Liping County, S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. Lyrics: “Today, we went to the mountains and saw a lot of scenery. I heard you calling my name, but you called the wrong one.”

Recording date: May, 2010 Recording location: S.E. Qian Autonomous Prefecture of Miao and Dong. GELAO 16. Love Song 1 情歌 (一) Singer: Tang Dingwu Lyrics: “The sun is out and shines on the white rock. Gold and silver flowers roll down, but I don’t adore them at all. I only love my girl.” 17. Love Song 2 情歌 (二) Singer: Tang Dingwu Lyrics: “Imperata buds in March and starts growing in April. The transplanting of rice seedlings happen in Xiaoman (May) and the rice is ready to be harvested in Autumn. My lover girl is like a sweet peach. Others want to steal it even when it’s not ripe.” 18. Red Plum Blossom (work song) 桃花溜溜红（劳动号子） Singers: Shen Maoting and others A song sung while doing hard-working labour. 19. Song of Offering Tea 敬茶歌 (excerpt from San Yaotai) Singer: Shen Maoting A song sung when offering tea to friends from afar. 20. A Love Song about Rice Fields 辰时调 Singers: Shen Xiaolin, Yang Fuying Lyrics: Man: “Working in the rice fields, from one hill to another, I found a margarya (snail) and threw it onto the side of the field. It’s sticking out of the shell because the sun is grilling the ground. My lover girl gets tanned by working under the sun.” Woman: “Working in the rice fields, from one row to another, I saw a pair of snails fly out somewhere, one following the other. I will follow you, my lover boy.” 21. Song of Time 有歌不唱留干啥 Singer: Tang Dingwu A song sung when one misses his or her lover in the morning. 22. Weeding First薅草排头号 Singers: Shen Maoting, Tang Dingwu When local farmers pick corn cobs, they sing this song for fun while getting ready. 23. Chinese Hwamei Tweeting Happily on the Mountain 高山画眉叫得乖 Singers: Liu Lianjuan, Fu Yuzhen, Shen Jinxiu, Yang Fuying Lyrics: “Chinese Hwamei, lei hei, on the mountain, lo wei, yo he yi he yo he he wei, are tweeting, yo, happily, yo ho lai ye, shuttles are, ye hei, rolling, wei, yo yo ye yo ou wei, yo he he yi yo he wei, fast la yi ya he, or slowly la yi ya he lo wei, let’s compete, yo he, let’s compete, yo wei.” 24. A Boy Walks into a Garden 小哥进花园 Singer: Shen Maoting The Lunar New Year is in January. A boy walks into a garden and shouts that the flower is sweet. He spreads the flower seeds on the farm. 25. Visit My Girl 双探妹 Singer: Tang Dingwu Lyrics: “I visited my lover girl in January and celebrated the Lantern Festival with her as well. I love her, for she is such a beauty with great a personality. Her hands are soft and the way she walks is charming.” 26. Shuo Fu Si 说伏似 Singer: Shen Maoting A song about building new houses and climbing on the beams. 27. A Cowboy Song 放牛调 Singers: Tang Dingwu and others Lyrics: “I woke up this morning and opened the cattle shed. The big cows went out first followed by the calves. I happily jumped on the back of a cow quite easily.” 28. A Mountain-Climbing Tiger 上山虎 Singer: Shen Jinxiu A song to sing when going to pick firewood on the mountain.

Recording date: June, 2011 Recording location: Wuchuan Gelao Autonomous County, , Guizhou Province YAO 29. Multipart Folk Song 1 大歌(一) Singers: Wei Musi, Wei Xuemei Lyrics: “The rain is causing a flood and we are failing to pull the cattle to safety. Washed away by the torrent, the poor cattle lost its life.” 30. Multipart Folk Song 2 大歌(二) Singers: Wei Musi, Wei Xuemei Lyrics: “We sing the song to thank them for preparing food for us at home.” 31. Multipart Folk Song 3 大歌(三) Singers: Wei Musi, Wei Xuemei Lyrics: “Some kids are playing at the doorstep. After we have finished our meal, we shall ask them to come in and dine. The kids are more than happy to see so many people around.” 32. Multipart Folk Song 4 大歌(四) Singers: Wei Musi, He Yinli Lyrics: “We went to the river to catch carps, without success. In the end, we captured mudfish so as not to worry about coming home empty-handed.” 33. Multipart Folk Song 5 大歌(五) Singers: He Jiangmei, He Yiyi Lyrics: “You have come all this way from Beijing. But as the host we have little to offer because we are very deprived. It is the first time we meet and you have been so considerate.” 34. Folk Tune 1 小调歌(一) Singers: He Jiangmei, Ou Lixiang Lyrics: “I wanted to live with my grandfather but he didn’t like the idea. We are separated like farmland divided into four parts.” 35. Folk Tune 2 小调歌(二) Singers: He Guniang, Ou Lixiang Standing on opposite mountains, a boy and girl sing together. They then go down the hills and join hands. They stay together and later create a family. 36. Folk Tune 3 小调歌(三) Singers: He Guniang, Ou Lixiang Lyrics: “In the past, we saw people dressed in black, so we bought cloth and dyed it black too.” 37. Folk Tune 4 小调歌(四) Singers: He Meiniang, He Lihua Lyrics: “The sunrise is a feast to the eyes. We wish to catch up with the sun in the day but we fail. When we see tender grass on the hillside, we wish to cut it off, but we fail.”

Recording date: October 2012 Recording location: Banzhan Vill, Dongtang Country, Libo County, Guizhou Province.