The Music of Jingyun Dagu

The music of Jingyun dagu has a rich variety of banqiang (tunes), complete structure,beautiful melody,distinctive rhythm,and very expressive. It is good at significant interval jumping,and utilizing multiple decorative sounds to enhance the tunes.The basic pattern of the lyrics is a seven-character sentence,and each lyric is around 140 to 150 sentences. Basic tunes include manban (slow tunes) and jinban (quick tunes). It is a mixture of singing and narrating, so the yunbai (narrating, including the yunbai with banyan thythm and yunbai without banyan rhythm)and singing are equally important. Yunbai emphasizes tone and style,half narrating and half singing,naturally connecting with the singing tones.

The performing style of Jingyun dagu features one man standing and singing. The actor controls the rhythm himself by hitting the guban (drum-board). Three people typically perform the musical accompaniment, and the musical instruments used are the dashanxian,sihu, and pipa, and are sometimes accompanied by the dihu. In terms of schools,Jingyun dagu has three major genres-"Liu," "Bai" and “Zhang" with Liu Baoquan,Bai Yunpeng,and Zhang Xiaoxuian as representatives. Among them Liu Baoquan made the highest artistic achievements and the largest contributions. At that time he was called the "King of the Jingyu dagu Field," and respected as a master of the generation. Jingyun dagu emphasizes singing, especially in short pieces.Liu Baoquan was good at singing the "Three-kingdom" stories,such as Changban Po,Zhaoyun Blocks the River,and Borrowing Arrows with Grass Boats.Bai Yunpeng was good at singing A Dream of Red Mansions stories,such as Memorizing Qingwen,Daiyu Feels Sad in Fall,and Baoyu's Wedding. After these masters,Xiao Caiwu excelled beyond them. In her years of artistic practice, on the basis of the "Liu School,"she integrated the strengths of the"Bai School" and "Young Bai School,"by using her sweet voice and broad vocal range,especially her natural vibrato, creating the "Luo School" Jingyun dagu that was loved by audiences.She was good at singing,especially the strong and loud "Ga Tones" are most compelling, so she was called the "Golden Throat Singer." The classic pieces of Jingyun dagu not only have singing with stories, but also picturesque passages purely for expressing feelings, such as Chou Mo Ying Chu, and Bai Shan Tu (Picture of a Hundred Mountains).