Stage · ST103

Songs

Songs passed on by voice across regions and peoples: work chants, mountain songs, ditties and art songs.

14works

13entries

Sung Shijing and Chu Verse

1 works

Sung settings of the Book of Songs and Chu verse, revived today from old scores and living traditions.

Song · Kaiyuan reign of the Tang (per the Twelve Scores of Feng and Ya transmitted by Zhao Yansu)

The Deer CryOne of six Lesser Odes in the Twelve Scores of Feng and Ya passed down by Zhao Yansu and kept by Zhu Xianonymous musicians of the village drinking rite in the Kaiyuan reign of the TangSE10108

Work Chants (Haozi)

1 works

Call-and-response chants of boatmen, haulers and porters, their beat rising and falling with the work.

Song · Arose in the mid-Qing period

Chuanjiang Boatmen's ChantsCall-and-response work songs of the Chuanjiang boatmen, sung as upstream and downstream chantsboatmen of the Chuanjiang riversSE10075

Yuefu Songs

2 works

Song lyrics of the Han to Six Dynasties music bureau, heard today in chanting and reconstructed performance.

Song · 546 (sung by Hulü Jin for Gao Huan after the Battle of Yubi)

Song of the Chile PlainsSung by Hulü Jin for Gao Huan after the defeat at Yubi in 546; first sung in a Xianbei tongueanonymous Chile singers of the Northern DynastiesSE10109 Song · Eastern Jin to the Southern Dynasties (by tradition already sung in the Taiyuan era of the Eastern Jin)

Midnight SongsA Wu song of the Jiangnan region from the Eastern Jin onward, by tradition created by a woman named Ziyeby tradition a Jin woman named Ziye; the authors of the song texts are anonymousSSET10208

Mountain Songs (Shan'ge)

1 works

Songs sung out across hills and fields, free and high-voiced, often traded in improvised verse.

Song · 1947 (written by Yin Yigong from the Shepherd's Tune and published)

The Flowing StreamAdapted by Yin Yigong from the Midu folk song Shepherd's Tune and published in 1947Yin YigongSE10110

Songs of Tibet and the Northwest Peoples

1 works

Highland songs, drinking songs, love songs and the great Uyghur muqam suites.

Song · Summer 1939 (per Wang Luobin's tombstone; 1940 and 1941 are also given)

In That Faraway PlaceA northwestern folk song arranged by Wang Luobin from a Kazakh melody, first heard in Xining in 1940Wang LuobinSE10111

Tang–Song Sung Lyrics

1 works

Most Tang–Song ci singing is lost; today the lyrics follow surviving old scores or new settings.

Song · Winter solstice, 1176 (Southern Song)

Slow Tune of YangzhouA song tune Jiang Kui created on passing Yangzhou at the winter solstice of 1176, with its notation preservedJiang Kui · Yang YinliuSE10079

Grand Song of the Dong

1 works

Polyphonic choral songs of Dong village choirs, some imitating cicadas and birds, others telling stories.

Song · Date unknown; sung in Paris in 1986

Song of the CicadaA celebrated Dong sound song in which the lead singer imitates cicadas with a trilled tongueDong village song troupesSE10078

Qin Songs and Chanting

1 works

Poems sung by players to their own qin, together with traditional chanting of classical verse.

Song · Southern Song (by Jiang Kui, in the Songs of the Whitestone Daoist)

Old GriefJiang Kui's own qin song, the earliest surviving qin song score written with fingering notationJiang KuiSE10112

Songs of the Southern Peoples

1 works

Love songs, antiphonal songs and epic ancient songs of southern peoples, sung through festival nights.

Song · Traditional narrative song (collected in 1953)

AshimaA long narrative poem the Sani people sing in their own Yi language, in five-syllable linesSani Yi folk singers of ShilinSE10113

Mongolian and Northern Peoples' Songs

1 works

Mongolian long songs, throat singing and songs of northern hunting and fishing peoples.

Song · 1930s

Gada MeirenA long Mongolian narrative song of Horqin, transcribed and set to four Chinese verses by An BoAn BoSE10080

Ditties and Popular Tunes (Xiaodiao)

1 works

Short, lyrical tunes sung in towns and villages, mostly about love, seasons and local life.

Song · 1793 (noted by John Barrow, published 1804)

Jasmine FlowerA Jiangnan folk song, reworked by He Fang from the Liuhe flower tune and given its present form in 1957He FangSE10076

Hua'er

1 works

Mountain songs traded at northwest hua'er fairs by many peoples, their tunes named as ling.

Song · 1950 (first sung in public by Zhu Zhonglu)

Climbing the High Mountain to View the PlainA classic of the Hezhou da ling tune, arranged by Zhu Zhonglu and first sung by him in public in 1950Folk singers of QinghaiSE10077

Chinese Art Song

1 works

Solo songs composed to poems, with piano accompaniment, for the concert stage.

Song · 1926 (set by Zhao Yuanren; the poem dates from 1920)

How Can I Help Thinking of HerZhao Yuanren's 1926 setting of a 1920 poem by Liu Bannong, drawing on the xipi interludes of Peking operaZhao Yuanren · Liu BannongSE10114