Dong Grand Song

Dong grand song is unaccompanied polyphony without a conductor, its high and low parts interlocking in imitation of cicadas and streams.

Related

ModeScaleOrnaments

Time and place

Dong grand song belongs to villages in Liping, Congjiang and Rongjiang in Guizhou, Sanjiang in Guangxi and Tongdao in Hunan. Choirs sing in the drum tower and the song hall at festivals, on greeting guests, at rituals for the ancestor goddess and in the slack season. UNESCO listed it in 2009.

Musical features

A grand song is choral, divided into a high and a low part. One or two leads take the high line, high in range and freely ornamented, while the rest hold long notes below to make the polyphony. There is no conductor or instrument; the lead signals entries, breaths and closes. Words are in Dong with strict rhyme, and sound songs imitate cicadas, streams and birds. Smaller songs, ye dances and narrative songs exist alongside.

Repertoire

Cicada Song and the various ceremonial and narrative songs are most often named, and each village choir keeps its own list.

What to listen for

Begin with the long note in the lower part, like water that never stops. Then hear the upper line enter and leave above it; the parts do not sing in unison but overlap. In the sound songs, listen to the exchange between lead and chorus as the cicada is imitated.

Common misunderstandings

Grand song is often read as simply loud singing, or taken for monophonic folk song. The name translates the Dong term ga lao and points to polyphony and the choir. Nor is it only love song; ritual, narrative and nature all enter the repertoire.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 条目与年代核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework and dates checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.