Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs

18.Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs

Nominating Unit: City of Foshan

As a special kind of instrumental music in Guangdong Province, Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs has three performing patterns, namely, wind and percussion music, Singing Xiqin, and Ka Drama. Introduced by Xiqin Drama troupe from East Guangdong Province at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was later integrated with the tune of Cantonese Opera and Cantonese Music. Therefore, it is also called “singing Xiqin”, or “listening to Xiqin”. Now the music is popular in the Pearl River Delta, covering the whole area of City of Foshan.

Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs is characterized by an elaborately decorated gong-and-drum cabinet. Any troupe to stage a performance is forever equipped with a big wood cabinet to hold all kinds of percussion instruments. Carried by two to four persons, the cabinet follows the troupe wherever they go. Another characteristic of Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs is that it employs suona(trumpet) of different sorts to mimic the sound of Sheng (young male) and Dan (young female), accompanied by stringed instruments. Its repertoire includes Conferring of Prime Minister for the Six States, Xianji Giving up Her Son, Eight Immortals Congratulating Longevity, etc. Since the music is mimicked by real actors, it is called Ka Drama among the people. Other works, such as Ascending to the Throne, Heralding Spring and ditties like Revel at the Flower Pavilion and Fresh Flowers, exhibit strong artistic charm for their simple, unsophisticated, rustic but ardent style. And the cabinet, easily moved around, stands out for its function as a mobile stage.(https://www.daowen.com)

The types of instruments applied are percussion, wind and string. Percussion instruments include sand drum, wood block, war drum, top cymbal, and high-edged gong; the wind type refers to big suona, small suona and horizontal bamboo flute; the last type consists of Nigenkin, two-stringed bamboo violin, and moon-shaped violin, etc., and later expands to Yehu (made of coconut), Qin stringed instrument, Bianzu (from ethnic minorities) and saxophone. Feats are indispensable to the performance, for instance, to produce seven tunes from one suona, to play two or even four suonas simultaneously or to play suona via the nose; to play two flutes at the same time with one on the left and the other on the right; to play plucked instrument by placing it behind the head; to play stringed instrument mid-air or overhead, and so on. All these feats make the performance more entertaining.

Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs from Xingtan Town is the most well-known among all with a complete range of performance styles and a few exquisitely made and decorated Gong-and-Drum cabinets that are over one hundred years old. Hence, it is valuable to the study of Eight-Tune Drums and Gongs’s development, of the cultural relics derived from it, and of wood-carving art in Guangzhou and Foshan at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Despite that, the practice suffered a long period of discontinuity in history and most of those highly-skilled artists have passed way with few successors to carry on the torch. At present, players of wind and percussion instruments could hardly reach the historical level; and it is even harder to find someone who can play while singing Xiqin Tune. More importantly, the feat of mimicking Sheng, Dan and other instruments via various suonas risk getting lost. Apart from this, the repairing and making of Gong-and-Drum cabinets is rarely heard of for its complicated craftsmanship. In light of this situation, protection measures from relevant departments are urgently called for.