【Municipal Level】Chongming Blowing and Percussion Music

2023-10-09 15:20

With a history of over 500 years, Chongming blowing and percussion music,also known as “Qiao Shi Fan”, “Chui Gu Shou” and “Zuo Dao Chang”, is an ancient music genre popular in Chongming and parts of Qidong City and Haimen City of Jiangsu Province, .

 

In the early Ming Dynasty, "Shi Fan" and "Chui Gu" were introduced into Chongming and passed down from generation to generation. Most of “Chongming blowing and percussion music”, with more than 80 tunes, are ancient Luogu and Qupai, and many tunes could not be seen in other genres of traditional blowing and percussion music. There are 23 tunes of gong and drum ensemble music, such as “Lotus Leaves in the Pond”, 27 pieces of gong and drum music, such as. “The Order of General”, 7 pieces of delicate gong and drum music, such as “Meet the Emperor”, 3 pieces of sizu gong and drum music, such as “Suyang Bridge”, and 36 tunes for Buddhist and Taoist rituals, such as “Liu Ju Tou Zan”. Chongming blowing and percussion music is played with two methods: “singles” and “divertimento”. Singles usually begin with a piece of gong and drum ensemble, and then, accompanied by sonata, it will come to an end with gong and drum tunes. Divertimento is usually played with three to five gong and drum tunes. It could also be divided into several types, e.g. “Small Si Tao”, “Middle Si Tao” and “Big Si Tao” according to difficulty and length of the music, and will be played on different occasions. Each band for playing blowing and percussion music is composed of 6 to 16 people. The playing of music could be divided into several types, including “sitting playing”, “standing playing” and “parading playing”. Chongming blowing and percussion music, which retains ancient glamour and style of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, is an original traditional music genre that is rarely seen in other places.

 

At present, only the "Tongjia class" in Chengqiao town and the "Chunyangtan" blowing class in Xinhe Town can present relatively complete performances.


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