Xiaodiao and Shidiao

Xiaodiao are the metred, accompanied folk songs of towns and villages, while shidiao are the handful of tunes that travelled furthest.

Related

QupaiGongdiaoPipa

Time and place

Xiaodiao took shape in the towns and markets of the Ming and Qing and spread across China. Singers and street performers used them, and their words were printed as songbooks. Shidiao are the most travelled of these tunes, refitted with new words in province after province along the canals and trade routes.

Musical features

The form is regular, most often four phrases to a stanza, with a clear opening, development, turn and close. Metre is marked by ban and yan, the line moves mostly by step, and ornament is fine. Stanzas are usually many, mixing narrative and lyric. A xiaodiao may be accompanied by erhu, pipa, sanxian, flute or yangqin, or sung bare. Shidiao carry fixed tune names such as Mo Li Hua, Meng Jiang Nu and Xiu He Bao.

Repertoire

Common pieces include Jasmine Flower, Meng Jiang Nu, Embroidering a Pouch, Flying a Kite, Little Cabbage, Zizhu Diao and Visiting the Qing River.

What to listen for

Begin with the four phrases of Jasmine Flower, noticing how the third turns away and the fourth closes. Then take Little Cabbage, with its descending line and weeping cadence. Finally compare Zizhu Diao, where Jiangnan ornament shades the tune.

Common misunderstandings

Xiaodiao is often mistaken for a small mode, or assumed to be cheerful. It names a folk-song category, not a scale, and its subjects include love, narrative, satire and lament. Shidiao should also not be confused with Tianjin shidiao, a later narrative genre.

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.