Naxi
Ancient Music
 The
divinity on the plateau fosters the people
living there with artistic quality and poetic
mind. Besides poetry, calligraphy and painting,
the artistic skill that seems to be born
with the people there is music.
Naxi (also spelt Nakhi and Nahi)
ancient music is a kind of classic music
widely popular with the Naxi minority. The
mixture of holy tune of Daoist, Confucians
ceremonies and the literary lyric and topics
from poets in Chinese Tang and Song dynasty
comes as the feature and uniqueness of this
music. It was praised by the contemporary
is the "living fossil of music".
Naxi ancient music is the crystal
of plural cultures, composed of "Baisha
Fine Music" (Baisha Xiyue), "Dong
Jing Music" and "Huang Jing Music"
(the "Huang Jing" music has become
extinct). Taking flute, shawm, Chinese lute,
plectrum, and zither as the main instruments,
Naxi music was regarded as the "typical
Chinese classical music" and "symphonies
of Chinese style" by some foreign experts.
Interestingly, the music from Central Plains
are reserved and kept alive as a result
of geographical isolation while its inland
counterpart was transformed and lost during
the changing history.
Baisha Fine Music: Baisha Fine
Music is one of the few large-scale classic
orchestral music in ancient China. Passed
down as the "Musical Legacy of the
Yuan dynasty", it consists of 24 "qupai"
(music tune), which is antiquated, simple
and elegant in style, lofty and dynamic
in character. It is said that when Kublai
Khan was on his expedition to Dali, he once
got the help from Mailiang, the leader of
the Naxi people in Lijiang. On his departure,
he left to him half a band and the music
score as a gift. So Baisha
Fine Music also name "Honoraria
on Departure".
Dong Jing Music: It is a kind
of Daoist music widely spread among Naxi
people. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties,
it was gradually introduced to Yunnan from
the Central Plains, and deeply root in the
cultural circle in Naxi people. For a long
period of time, the Naxi people have added
some styles and skills for playing their
local folk songs when they played Dong Jing
music, so that the music has "Naxi
musical tone".
After Dong Jing Music was disseminated
to Lijiang, for quite a long period of time,
it was confined to the gentlemen. Only gentlemen
could join the "Dong Jing concert".
But the Naxi people are born with music
nature, such a stereotyped shackle was broken.
Today, folk musicians have already
make Dong Jing Music into folk world. There
are at least four full orchestras of elderly
men in and around Lijiang, and within the
county there are scores of folk bands playing
the ancient music which has been blended
with Naxi flavor.
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