Beautiful and Melodious Chinese Ditty
"What a beautiful jasmine flower..." This beautiful and melodious song called Jasmine Flower is familiar to the world.
According to Qian Renkang, an expert on Chinese music, Jasmine Flower is the first Chinese folk song that spreading abroad. In the summer of 2008, each time when the melody of Jasmine Flower was played at an awarding ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, people would think of the beautiful jasmine flower described in the lyrics and the girl who wants to pick the flower but is afraid of the criticism of the flower guard.
Jasmine Flower is a quintessential folk ditty of the Han Chinese. A ditty is another form of folk song of the Han;all small folk songs sung in daily life are ditties.
The melody of ditties is beautiful and smooth,its rhythm regular,structure strict,seldom impromptu.The content is expressed in an indirect way,often hiding the purpose in telling a story,placing feelings into landscape,or expressing minds through legends.Sometimes string accompaniments are added,making the music of ditties more beautiful and touching.
There is a rich variety of ditties.They can be classified into three types by their historical origin,occasion for singing them and music character:type one are the ditties from folk songs in the Ming and Qing dynasties,such as Nao Wujing,Shua Haier,Yin Niusi,and Die Duangiao;and Jian Dinghua,Yu E Lang,Xianhua Diao,Huguang Diao (Xiu Hebao),in the Qing Dynasty.Some have still retained their originaltitle,some have kept almost the same melody but the name has been changed.For example,the melody of Jian Dinghua is used in many pieces across the country such as Fang Fengzheng,Diu jiezhi Siji Ge,and Xiu Wujing,in total 10 variations.
Type two are local ditties sung impromptu.The melody has regional characteristics,pure,simple and plain,like"Cai Diao"of Yunnan Province is a responsive song sung by children playing games,its lyrics are vivid,its form active,and its melody has thick local characteristics of Yunnan Province.Type three are ditties for singing and dancing at folk festivals in different places with distinct jumping rhythms and smooth melodies,mainly including Huagu Diao,Deng Diao,Huadeng Diao,Caicha Diao in south China and Yang Ge Diao in north China,as well as Pao Hanchuan that were popular nationwide,and so on.The most famous are Fengyang Huagu,a Huagu diao of Anhui,Shi Dajie,a Caicha diao of Yunnan,and Pao Hanchuan of the northern part of Shaanxi,with beautiful lyrical melodies and lively rhythms.
The music and language of ditties are closely combined,and the featured dialects of the different places are fully reflected in the melodies.During the dissemination and passing-down process,an increasing number of people sung them,after professional artists and semi-professional folk artists processed them.In this process,the music and the lyrics were completed continuously,so that many ditties have variants in different places.For example,after Jasmine Flower spread to different places,many variations appeared,in both the north and south of the Yangtze River.In 1804,a British man named John Barrow wrote in his Trip to China that Jasmine
Flower seems to be one of the most popular songs in China."Moreover,Jasmine Flower also spread abroad through the exchange of Sino-foreign culture.Well-known musicians of different countries performed it through different forms.For example,Italian composer Giacomo Puccini used the melody of Jasmine Flower in his opera Turandot;Kenny G,a well-known American saxophone player adapted and performed Jasmine Flower with a lyrical and overflowing fragrance.
In 1982,UNESCO recommended excellent songs to people worldwide,which included Jasmine Flower,this well-known Chinese folk song.
For thousands of years,Han Chinese folksongs absorbed I it to ront nutrition in the soil of different places,emitting diff oren+fragrances. The different landforms and ecological environments of China create folksongs of ditt erent styles.The mountain songs in the western mountains and plateau region are resounding and passionate,while the ditties in eastern plains are fresh,smooth,and delicate,With the change of time,the cultural connotations included in folksongs have gone far beyond the songs themselves. It reflects the ancient oral culture of China and has become the common cultura wealth shared by the world.
