贵州彝族传统情歌（曲谷）的音乐特色

Being one of the most ancient eth-nic groups in China, the ‘Yi’ have a long history and an abundant culture. Yi folk songs, which are widely sung in many regions of China, have vari-ous forms and styles. These folk songs reflect the lengthy history of the Yi society; indeed they ex-press the happiness and misery, the dreams and desires of the Yi people. Within this context, this article focuses on‘Qugu’ which is a unique type of music belonging to the Yi people. In fact most Yi people of Guizhou live in the Wumeng Mountains. In their quest for survival, over time the Yi had developed a series of natural worship rites which became one of the sources of their traditional mu-sic. In addition, Yi people formed a unique way to express their love: in times past they developed a tradition of singing in the mountains and forests as to convey their love to their beloved;the‘Qugu’ is one of these Yi’ s traditional love song genres.‘Qugu’ means ‘singing’ and this genre has its own social functioning. According to traditional Yi culture and habits, a ‘Qugu ’ should not be sung in front of parents, brothers, or other rela-tives;instead it should only be sung in a place sur-rounded by mountains and forests and on certain singing sites, called ‘Guji’(in Yi language). In most of the Yi settlements, such ‘singing sites ’ were placed far away from the villages, sometimes on flat areas and sometimes in the remote wilder-ness, in forests or caves. The singing activities on those special sites took place according to specific rules and calen-dars. During the so-called ‘singing festival’ peri-od ( from the 1 st to the 15 th day of the 1 st lunar month and on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month), the singing performances were particularly magnifi-cent. People of all ages, young and old, would gather together from all directions and would sing without interruption for several days. Moreover , the singing festival also had certain traditional rites ( ceremonies ) . For example, at the very beginning, certain clan elders or prestig-ious singers would offer wine and water to the‘heavens and earth ’ . After this offering, ‘the soul of the song’ was invited. The Yi people tradi-tionally worship nature and believe in animism, so indeed a ‘Qugu’ also has its own ‘soul’ . There-fore, when the singing festival would commence, they would invite the ‘soul of the song’ to come;this custom is called ‘Guyexi’ in the Yi language. The nextritual would be the ‘Guyidai ’ ( in Yi) , which means‘the settling down of the soul of the song’ at the particular singing site. There are lyrics like:‘If there is no settling down of the soul of the song, then when the next spring comes the sil-ver flowers will sever their roots, the golden flowers will sever their roots, and the singing sites cannot be set up ’ . After the settling down of the soul of the song, the next ceremony would be the ‘Gukoupu’ ( in Yi) or ‘opening of the mouth of the song ’:this basically means the ‘opening of the door of love’ and also indicates the formal beginning of‘Qugu’ activity. All of this shows indeed that the rite of‘Qugu’ is not as solemn as other rites, as in fact the lyrics of ‘Qugu ’ are mostly about love af-fairs and romance. When the‘Gukoupu’ ends, the young people can start to freely sing. There are indeed lyrics like: ‘Three young chaps brought three axes and went into three directions of the universe; they chopped three pine trees, sawed off three boards, made three chairs, and placed these facing three di-rections. They invited girls to take a seat; the girls sat down and sang. The girls invited the chaps to take a seat;the chaps sat down and sang’ . When this‘free singing’ begins, an ‘antiph-onal group singing’ starts at the singing site (‘Gu-ji ’ ); males and females take part in this and stand/sit separately as they all sing in antiphonal style. In the middle there is a ‘go-between ’ in charge of coordination, judging, and passing on information. The males and females sing and ob-serve back and forth. During this process, affec-tions may emerge between a certain male and fe-male. If indeed a guy or young lady takes a fancy to another person, he or she will ask the go-be-tween for help. If the counterpart gives a positive response, then the two will leave the group and go elsewhere to talk and sing. During this ‘antiphonal group-singing’ , each group can allow a certain ‘representative ’ to sing solo;this solo should not be a repeat of some song performed by someone from another group. The young males and females thus can each show off their voices by singing songs with free rhyme, sweet melodies, and serious or deep topics. It is easy to see that this ‘antiphonal group singing ’ provided a major means of romantic communication between young Yi men and women. In fact, the number of songs they could sing as well as the technique used in singing these significantly deter-mined one’ s ability to attract the opposite sex. As a consequence, both males and females were strongly committed to learn to sing, trying their best to master more and better songs. Through learning from their predecessors, they made an ef-fort to improve their singing abilities. As said, traditionally at the beginning of the singing festival, ‘the soul of the song’ would be invited; well, likewise at the end of the festival‘the soul of the song’ should be sent away again. The Yi people believed that if they would not send the soul of the song away, the young would be ob-sessed by affections all the time and even lose their minds. Finally, Guizhou Yi ’ s folk music-generally speaking-has a great variety in content, perform-ance locations, forms, and genres. Moreover, due to the regional differences music styles also vary geographically. All of this makes the multi-colored Yi music even more delightful and appealing. Unfortunately, the entire tradition ( ceremo-nies) of the‘Qugu’ as described above, no longer exists today. The singers who still know these pro-cedures are getting old and eventually will forget these rites. This is a big loss for the living tradition of the Yi culture, and it is a source of grief for those who study Yi culture, in China and abroad.