Chaozhou music is a general term for the folk instrumental music popular in the Chaozhou region of Guangdong Province. Its forms vary and its style is characteristic of the southern lands. It is not only an important genre of folk instrumental music of our country, but also widespread in the countries of Eastern and Southern Asia. Its source may be traced to the ancient music of the Central Plains. Because of the southward conquest of rulers of many dynasties, the banishing of many intellectuals and the migration of people of the Central Plains, the ancient music of the inland gradually flowed into the Chaozhou and Shantou areas, and later was combined with the local music, and assimilated the music of such opera genres as "Zhengzi," "Kunqiang," "Xiqin" and "Waijiang," etc., resulting in this kind of music.
There are five traditional playing forms for Chaouzhou music, namely, the gong and drum music, the ancient music of set flutes, the string poetic music and the exquisite music. The string poetic music is a kind of small-scaled ensemble music for the folk stringed and plucked instruments of Chaozhou. Its major instrument is the erxian (two-stringed instrument), and its secondary ones include the yehu (a kind of huqin made of coconut palm), the dulcimer and the small sanxian (three-stringed instrument), etc. The structure of the music is usually a multi-mode variation, the speed changing from slow to fast between the passages; the mode distribution is usually like this: the first mode--the second mode--the beating mode--the third mode; its variations include such forms as "the single speeding," "the multiple speeding," etc. characteristic of Chaozhou music. One of the famous works of Chaozhou stringed poetic music is "The Jackdaw Playing with Water."
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