(New Year's walk to the grassroots) Aba, Sichuan: Plateau "singers" rescue precious Tibetan folk songs
Chinanews.com, Chengdu, January 21st, title: Aba, Sichuan: Plateau "singers" rescue precious Tibetan folk songs
Author Shan Peng Anyuan
Recently, melodious folk songs were heard from the Northwest Folk Song Institute of Rangbalachuan, Rangtang County, Aba, Sichuan. This was the last rehearsal of the Huake Art Troupe before the Spring Festival.
In order to catch up with this rehearsal, 40-year-old Dawa Jiangcan made a special trip from a pastoral area dozens of kilometers away to the county seat.
If it is said that herding yaks is a down-to-earth life, then singing folk songs entrusts Dawa Jiangshen's musical dream.
Shaqiong Nima and Tonga, who are in their 20s, are also members of the Huake Art Troupe.
The mandolin and dragon head qin played moving melodies in their hands, and they played and sang ecstatically, immersed in the world of music.
The common instructor of these three singers is Hua Ke.
Hua Ke, who is nearly 50 years old, is a well-known local singer, the founder of the Hua Ke Art Troupe, and the director of the Zangbalachuan Northwest Folk Song Institute.
On the day of the rehearsal, he guided Dawa Jiangshen's singing, and taught Shaqiong Nima and Tonga the skills of playing the piano, and demonstrated it himself.
"Tibetans have integrated the praise of a happy life, the yearning for free love, the awe of the miraculous nature, the worship of heroes, and the thoughts and feelings of life into folk songs." Hua Ke said.
Hua Ke learned guitar since he was a child, and developed a strong interest in music.
In 1994, Huake was assigned to Rangtang County to become a teacher.
In his spare time, he devoted himself to literary and artistic creation, and took time to study recording, writing lyrics and composing.
Later, Hua Ke was transferred to work in a local TV station, where he set up a column called "Songs of Every Week" to explore local folk songs.
In 2014, Huake was transferred to the local cultural work site to study folk songs in Northwest Balachuan.
Since many folk songs and Guozhuang in Rangtang County have been forgotten, Huake devoted himself to the collection and protection of folk songs in Northwest Sichuan without hesitation.
Hua Ke (left) instructs student Dong Jia (right) to play a musical instrument.
Photo by An Yuan
According to Hua Ke, folk songs in Northwest Sichuan have a long history and can be divided into two forms: folk songs and playing and singing.
The folk songs are bold and unrestrained, like pastoral songs circulating in the pasture, and high-pitched chant during farming. Some of the folk songs have been sung for six or seven hundred years.
Playing and singing are as tender as water. With the help of instruments such as mandolin, dragon head fiddle, and matouqin, the singing is soft and melodious. Compared with the original ecological characteristics of folk songs, playing and singing are more popular.
At present, Tibetan folk songs in Northwest Sichuan have been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
There are 11 towns under the jurisdiction of Rangtang County. In order to collect folk songs handed down by word of mouth as soon as possible, Huake took his students almost all over Rangtang.
"We have no funds, so we can only bring our own dry food when collecting folk songs. Once, the car broke down in Gaka Ridge, which is more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Hours later, a car finally arrived. In the end, we were dragged all the way to Namuda before we could continue collecting wind.”
From the start of the collection and protection work in 2015 to the completion of the first set of "rescue" materials, it took Huake 3 years.
In 2020, the second set of "rescue" materials has also been completed.
Today, Hua Ke leads the students of the Institute to collect hundreds of folk songs from all over the world every year.
He will also adapt some of the collected folk songs and create new folk songs by converting popular stories or current policies into easy-to-understand sentences.
Under the promotion of Huake, folk songs in Northwest Sichuan became popular again in Rangtang.
The 29-year-old Dongjia released his first album after studying at the Northwest Folk Song Institute of Rangbalachuan for many years. The 9 songs in this album were written and composed by Dongjia himself, which is quite popular among young people in Rangtang. Sing.
21-year-old Shaqiong Nima came to the Institute last year to learn Tibetan folk song singing.
He said that during his studies, he followed Teacher Huake to perform in various places, accumulating experience and earning living expenses at the same time. "I hope I will become a singer and spread the Rangbala culture with singing."
"This year we will continue to go to the countryside to perform, so that more people can enjoy the 'cultural feast' brought by the actors of the art troupe." Hua Ke said that this year we will take students to Sichuan Ganzi, Qinghai and other places to collect more Tibetan Folk music, let the folk songs that exist in the mouths of the people continue to be sung, "We want to 'rescue' those beautiful tunes and characteristic folk music, and make them into audio or video, so that the essence of these scattered folk music can be better preserved ."(Finish)