Qiang Music

Qiang music joins double-pipe flute, choral polyphony and the Wal'ezu festival in the highland villages of western Sichuan.

Related

Qiang fluteKouxian (jaw harp)

Time and place

The Qiang live in Mao County, Wenchuan, Lixian and Heishui in Aba Prefecture, and in Beichuan in Mianyang, Sichuan, with highland villages along the upper Min River as the core. Qiang belongs to the Qiangic branch of Sino-Tibetan and has two major dialect groups but no traditional script. Wal'ezu falls around the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and is a women's festival; mountain sacrifices, vow fulfilments and weddings are led by ritual specialists called shibi. After the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake many villages were rebuilt, and transmission adjusted with them.

What happened

Qiang music lives in ritual and work. Shibi chant at mountain sacrifices, vow rites and healing, wearing a monkey-head cap and beating a sheepskin drum while walking. Polyphonic songs are sung at weeding, carrying manure, weddings and festivals, with a lead voice over a low part. During Wal'ezu women gather flowers on the mountain and sing ritual songs while men handle accompaniment and logistics. From the late twentieth century the qiangdi and polyphonic songs were recorded, and qiangdi playing and making entered the national intangible heritage list in 2006. Full ritual texts are mostly oral among shibi, and published records are limited.

Musical features

The qiangdi is a vertical double pipe with double reeds; both pipes sound together, the range is about one octave, and circular breathing sustains a phrase for a long time. Its bright, mournful tone carries tunes such as Zhe Liu Ci, Si Nian Qu and Sha Lang Qu. Polyphonic songs are mostly high-register: the lead starts, a low voice holds one note, upper voices ornament, and phrase ends often fall together. Drinking songs are loud, work songs are short and rhythmic, and Salang is circle dance with steps locked to the song.

What to listen for

Hear the slight mistuning of the two pipes sounding together. Then listen for how the low part steadies the texture and where the lead takes breath at phrase ends. Essen-009699 is a Sichuan mountain song and essen-000496 is Kangding Love Song, regional references only; chinafolk-008875 shares a title with the qiangdi piece Zhe Liu Ci and is an association, not a qiangdi recording.

Common misunderstandings

The qiangdi is often mistaken for the Han dizi. It is a vertical double pipe with double reeds, one octave in range. Nor are all Qiang songs polyphonic; mountain songs, drinking songs and work songs differ. Qiang music is not a fossil of ancient Qiang culture; it is still sung in rebuilt villages and festivals.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 羌族音乐与羌笛条目核对，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.