Dagu analysis (Chinese Drum Story Singing)
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Dagu (Chinese Drum Story Singing)
Vocal singings are somehow often combined with story telling in many cultures in the world. This seemingly coincident phenomenon can be explained by a very shallow reason since story singing is just an extended form of regular vocal music with a more organized plot. We’ve learned about the Korean story singing P’ansori that uses a very unique singing style of singing that may take a performer many years to sing the songs in a conventional way. Compared with P’ansori, Dagu is a younger and more flexible school of story telling, which also led to the result that Dagu gained its audience extremely fast during the first 50 years in its history and is still popular today among traditional art fans.
Origin
The setting of Dagu is quite complex because of the special era it was born. The origin of the music has been under great controversy but the mainstream theory states that Dagu originated from a music played with wooden panels and was used in fortune telling in Shandong Province at the start of 20th century. (Yao fang, The Origin and Development of Yue Ting Dagu) The most challenging step of the spreading of Dagu was the first one caused by its accent. At the time when Dagu was born, the Qing dynasty could already foresee its collapse and the imperial family had already lost interests in developing the country’s economy, education and national defense, etc. The average education level of the civilians was not so competitive as it is today. Because of the imbalanced economic development, which is common for an empire since the emperor always preferred to show off their power by spending a huge number of the annual fiscal budget on building palaces and other luxurious aspects than improving the living and education standard of ordinary people, the economic gaps among provinces were unimaginably large and caused by this gap was regional discrimination. As I mentioned above, Dagu was born in Shandong that has a
very strange accent compared with Beijing and other more developed areas. This background made it challenging for the music to be accepted by audience from Beijing since that accent originally designed to connect the performer with the audience in Shandong was considered a sign of being uncivilized and uneducated in the capital. However, because of the music’s flexibility on contents and rhythms, it quickly adapted to the environment in Beijing and was accepted as a popular music form among lower class people. The same story happened in every major city in the north China and later on, people found that the music originally existed for fortune telling had evolved to an art form that everyone enjoys in their spare time. The different accents and music styles played in different cities have now become hundreds of schools of Dagu.
Dagu During WW2
One of the most basic themes in the study of the setting of this music is the WW2 when Japan attempted to invade and colonize China and opened the pacific theater of the war. Before the U.S government intervened by supplying the Nationalist party, the loosely organized troops of China had
experienced so many failures that Japan almost successfully colonized the North part of China. At the same time, Dagu was rapidly gaining its audience among Japanese troops and Nationalist governmental officials, which sounds impossible from today’s perspective since entertainment would only grow when the material demand is satisfied. It is true that the war was a disaster for lower class people but this proves the flexibility of the music to a further extent because it managed to switch its audience from ordinary local people to the Japanese soldiers and military officers. In content it shifted from various stories to focus on only those about battles in ancient China and even deliberately chose those depicting successful conquers and colonization wars. These stories were passed down to today and even affected the direction of the composition of new songs for performers now.
Instrumentation
The instrumentation used in the general Dagu musics is quite simple compared with other folk songs and story telling styles. It only uses several instruments commonly seen in traditional music performances. In order to
introduce the music in a more clear way, we’ll take Beijing Dagu as a standard since it uses a more complex instrumentation system and can cover the characteristics of other schools in terms of instrumentation. The leader of the ensemble is the performer who tells the story and controls the base rhythms using the main instruments of Dagu and wooden panels that tells the audiences when the major turns happen in the plot. In addition to these main instruments, Pipa, San Xian (literally translated as Three string violin) Si Xian (four string violin) and Erhu are also required for the music to enrich the ornamentation and provide a more perceptual melody for the leading performer and the audience. Some instruments for Jingju are occasionally used in the performance if the story is adapted from jingju but later on the music completely separated from Jingju and formed its own instrumentation system.
Sound Texture
In terms of sound texture, there are basically two parts in vocal singing, narrative and singing. The narrative part is said to be the most difficult part of the music since the performer has to follow the rhythms even when he or she is
plainly narrating. The narration part of the Beijing school of this music sounds exactly like that of Beijing opera. The narration is used when the performer thinks that the audience should pay attention to the conversation he or she is describing instead of the music, which means that this part is for the sake of the plot instead of mere entertainment. The singing part is more aesthetically appealing to the audience. The singing part is basically monophonic with repetitive tones that don’t vary in most part of the performance except from that in the beginning and ending verse.
The Teaching of Dagu
Just like other traditional art forms, although the music is relatively young and should have been scripted and passed down given that most musical forms born in the same period were already taught in a written form. However, reserved Chinese artists decided to teach the music orally because they believed that scarcity determines the value of the music. Because Dagu doesn’t require a complex singing skill, it is relatively easier to learn than other music forms like Jingju. In terms of this reason, Dagu is very similar to Indonesian
Gamelan since performers of both musics decided to control the amount or characteristics of the perspective performers by teaching the music only through oral traditions.
As is well known by the world, the relationship between the teachers and students in China is extremely strict especially if the teachers teach some traditional skills that can be used to make a living for the student. This can be traced back to the incredible influence of Confucianism from ancient China. Teacher is respected as much as the father of the students in many perspectives. Also, the teachers treat their gifted students as their children.
Famous Dagu Artist
Dagu is an art form that kept many lower class people living a satisfying life during the wartime. During this period, many famous Dagu performers appeared on the stage. Among these performers, Wenfu Liu (1989-1967) was the most popular Dagu performer in the mid 1900s. His records were played in every radio station during Nationalist era until communist party took over the governance. According to one of his records, it is clear that he established his own
style that distinguished from any existing Dagu styles at that time. The popularity of his Dagu music is even comparable to the most starring pop groups today and even gained some political influence in nationalist party, which was not so common in China since artists are valued as people with lower social status even in modern China. However, he was cruelly oppressed during communist period probably because of his unique political influence in Nationalist party. However, his extraordinary fame also saved his life during that “Ten-Year Chaos” or “the Cultural Revolution” when most traditional artists are imprisoned, tortured and even executed by the government. After being prohibited from performing and composing Dagu music, he never appeared in public. Whenever requested to attend a public event or festival, he never mentioned the real reason he refused to perform but merely said“ I just want to give the younger people more opportunities to shine.” He was not the only performer oppressed in the “Ten-year chaos” but he is definitely the most unforgettable one for people who love traditional arts.
Dagu in Cultural Revolution
Dagu was one of the worst oppressed art form in the “Ten-Year Chaos” because of the fact that the music served the audience from Japan and Nationalist party, which may sound unreasonable at the first glance but it is also true that artists in China are all socially related to some political figures because of the Chinese tradition “Tang Hui” (Private Concert). Tang Hui is a music event where the artists are invited by upper class people to perform exclusively for their family. During wartime, upper class consisted of only politicians and military officials. This was how these artists connected themselves with political figures in order to seek protection from the war. Therefore, Dagu was especially oppressed in the ten years. Today, Dagu is rarely played as a single art form but is frequently adapted in Xiang Sheng (The traditional paired stand up comedy that originated in the same period when Dagu was born).
Dagu Today
As every traditional art in China, Dagu has lost popularity among the major audience and already exited the field of popular arts. However, in addition to the influence of western cultures, this phenomenon is also caused by the deliberate oppression of the government and the repellence of the patriotic public because of the behavior of the performers in the war against Japan. Nowadays, most people simply don’t know about the music without knowing why it is not popular any more. There were attempts made by artists to rejuvenate the music just like other traditional art forms. XiangKun dong, a professional Dagu performer who is a professional composer. In around 2005, he released a Dagu song called “sending my daughter to college” that basically tells the story of him sending his young daughter to a college that he always wants her to attend. However, this attempt did not succeed at the end because of multiple reasons. Among all of them, the most important one was the lack of influence of the performer himself.
Conclusion
Throughout the course of history, Dagu has experienced its peak and low ebbs and is already on its way to perish. Political factors always have a stronger influence on the music than the choice of the public. The public audiences
have their own preferences but they can only choose among the options given by the government. For example, South Korea believes itself is a country of freedom on the international stage. However, even the confidence of the government of a developed country seems to be insufficient when it comes to the conflict between South and North Korea. Also, the cultural shock brought by the western culture is another influence. Compared with hip-hop and rock music, Dagu sounds less passionate and not as engaging for young people. There is no doubt that young audiences always lead the trend. If a music form’s audience consists of only older people, it is not far from being forgotten by the public.
Sources:
athleen Kuiper, "The Culture of China" Rosen Educational Publishing | 2010 | ISBN: 1615301402, 1615301836
http://www1.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2003-09/24/content_40189.htm China Culture-- Xihe Dagu
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BXMeThHGI&index=21&list=PL843641F7526 2B223