Ode to the Clear River

Introduction

A standard piece of the Lantian water-assembly music, played on the march in rain-prayer processions

Ode to the Clear River is a standard piece of the water-assembly music of Puhua in Lantian, Shaanxi, and it heads the list of pieces in the national heritage description. Water-assembly music is the folk wind and percussion music of the Puhua area, used only for Buddhist rites, charitable occasions and sacrifices, and because those occasions are solemn it is never played at weddings. It falls into marching music and seated music, and the marching music is played by the procession as it walks to fetch water in a prayer for rain. In that suite Ode to the Clear River and the Little Tune for the Road are usually slow and melodious, and the faster Ganzhongsha closes the suite at a climax. The band is led by flute, vertical flute and mouth organ, and the hand-copied scores, written in the half-character notation of Tang banquet music, once held more than eighty labelled tunes. The music entered the first national intangible heritage list in 2006 as item II-62.