Li Music

Li music carries island memory through antiphonal songs, ancestor epics and bamboo-pole dance.

Related

Elephant-foot drumGong

Time and place

The Li live in Wuzhishan, Baisha, Qiongzhong, Ledong, Lingshui, Changjiang, Dongfang and Baoting in Hainan. The Wuzhishan and Limu ranges form the core. Li belongs to the Kam-Tai branch of Kra-Dai, with dialects such as Ha, Qi, Run, Meifu and Sai; there was no traditional script, and a Romanised Li orthography was created in 1957. The third-day-of-the-third-month festival is a major occasion, and weddings, trips into the mountains, harvest and house building also bring song. Bamboo-pole dance is common at festivals and in tourism.

What happened

Li music is centred on song. Li songs include mountain songs, love songs, work songs, wedding songs and children's songs, sung antiphonally by men and women with refrain syllables such as li. Ancestor songs are sung at weddings, festivals and rites, recording creation, migration and family origins; Ganggong Bird is a legend song about a marriage between a person and a bird. Bamboo-pole dance uses two long poles opening and closing while dancers step between them, with drum and gong holding the pulse. From the late twentieth century Li songs were recorded, and the Wuzhishan song Chairman Mao Came to Wuzhishan used Li melodic material and became widely sung.

Musical features

Li songs have a wide range, high openings, much falsetto, falling ends and fine ornament. Words are often five or seven syllables with rhyme, and refrains such as li and luo stretch the phrase. Ancestor songs move in a narrow range with much repetition, close to chant; love songs are lighter and shorter. Instruments include the nose flute, mouth bow, dingdong bamboo percussion, bronze gong and oxhide drum. The nose flute is quiet, blown through the nose; the dingdong is clear bamboo percussion; gongs and drums are grouped at festivals.

What to listen for

Hear the high opening and the li refrain, then how an answering phrase picks up the question. Chinafolk-002099 is an ancestor song with long phrases and repetition; chinafolk-002113 is a Li mountain song with high register and refrains; chinafolk-002102 is Ganggong Bird with narrative roles and phrasing. Essen-008814 is a composed song using Li material, useful for hearing how the material was arranged.

Common misunderstandings

Li music is often reduced to bamboo-pole dance, or all Hainan music is assumed to be Li. Li song has a full system of genres, and ancestor songs differ from love songs; Hainan also has Han, Miao and Hui music. Li music is not only for tourists; it is still sung at weddings, festivals and small village rites.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 黎族民歌与乐器条目核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework checked, not quoted

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