Xingjie

Introduction

A tune for playing on the move; its original score was printed in the 1919 Guosheng Ji.

Xingjie, also known as Xingjie Sihe, is one of the Eight Great Pieces of Jiangnan sizhu. Its title means walking along the street and refers to music played while moving in procession. The original score of Xingjie Sihe appears in the Guosheng Ji, compiled and printed in 1919 by Zhou Shiseng, a music teacher at the Meixi Primary School in Shanghai, and one of the earliest notations of Shanghai folk sizhu. The piece falls into a light and graceful slow part and a lively fast part that speeds up in stages to a festive climax. Built from several linked tunes, it lets each instrument ornament the shared melody in the heterophonic manner typical of the genre.