Shengguan music 笙管乐 from Laishui County 涞水县, Baoding 保定市, Hebei 河北省, China

A brief TV news video about the South Gaoluo Music Association (Chinese: Nan Gaoluo Yinyuehui, 南高洛音乐会), a ritual music association from Nan Gaoluo Village (南高洛村), Yi'an Town (义安镇), Laishui County (涞水县), northern Baoding (保定市), central Hebei province (河北省), northern China, which plays music that has been referred to as a "living fossil" (Chinese: huohua shi, 活化石) of Chinese music, although its repertoire probably dates to no earlier than the Ming and Qing dynasties, the village having been settled in the early 15th century. Probably filmed in Nan Gaoluo Village (南高洛村), Yi'an Town (义安镇), Laishui County (涞水县), northern Baoding (保定市), central Hebei province (河北省), northern China. The segment was filmed by Xinhua News (新华社), perhaps in 2022. The tonal center of the piece heard here (whose title is unknown) is E-flat. In addition to its liturgical vocal repertoire, which is chanted from "precious scrolls" that have been handed down and recopied across the generations, the South Gaoluo Music Association performs instrumental ensemble music for winds and percussion that is officially designated Jizhong shengguan music (冀中笙管乐). This music features the guanzi (管子, double reed pipe) and dizi (笛子, bamboo flute) as leading melodic instruments, usually accompanied by multiple sheng (笙, mouth organ), and percussion (drums, cymbals, gongs, yunluo 云锣, a set of ten tuned gongs in a frame, and a small gong called dangzi 铛子 or dangdang 铛铛). The association's repertoire, which comprises around 70 playable pieces, is preserved in handwritten scores in gongche notation (Chinese: gongche pu, 工尺谱). Like other music associations across the Central Hebei Plain, prior to 1949 the South Gaoluo Music Association performed for sacrificial (ancestor worship) ceremonies and life cycle rituals such as funeral ceremonies at local temples, as well as for other folk rituals such as praying for rain and a good harvest, welcoming the God of Happiness, purifying houses, and praying for blessings and the elimination of misfortunes. Since 1949, it has performed primarily for folk funeral ceremonies and Lunar New Year worship ceremonies, as well as to provide entertainment during holidays such as the Lantern Festival. By tradition, the association is not remunerated for its performances, and relies primarily on voluntary donations for its operating expenses. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the association's activities were severely curtailed, and some of its scrolls and instruments were destroyed by members of the Red Guards. Its activities resumed beginning in 1978. The senior musician who speaks in this video is Mr. Cai Yurun (蔡玉润, born c. 1956), a 21st-generation inheritor of Laishui Gaoluo ancient music (涞水高洛古乐) who serves as the leader of the South Gaoluo Music Association (Chinese: Nan Gaoluo Yinyuehui, 南高洛音乐会) and holds the status of National-Level Representative Inheritor/Transmitter of the tradition of Laishui Gaoluo ancient music. Cai, who grew up in a farming family, joined the People's Liberation Army in his early adulthood, and later served as Nan Gaoluo Village's Party Secretary. In 2006 the Gaoluo Music Association, as a subcategory of Jizhong shengguan music, was included in the First Batch of the Hebei Province Province-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage List (第一批河北省省级非物质文化遗产名录). Additionally, in 2006 Central Hebei shengguan music (冀中笙管乐), a collection of shengguan ensemble traditions found across the Central Hebei Plain (which is bounded to the north by Beijing, to the east by Tianjin, and to the south by Cangzhou and Dingzhou, including nearly 30 cities and counties of Hebei province), an area that includes Baoding, was included in the First Batch of China's National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage List (第一批国家级非物质文化遗产名录). In November 2019 China's National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Item Protection Units (国家级非物质文化遗产代表性项目保护单位名单) were announced, and the Laishui County Cultural Center (涞水县文化馆) qualified as an Item Protection Unit for the Gaoluo Music Association. The ceremonial music activities of both South Gaoluo Village and North Gaoluo Village have been extensively documented by the UK-based ethnomusicologist Stephen Jones, who spent 14 consecutive years (from 1989 to 2003) doing fieldwork there, and who (in 2024) released a documentary film on the subject -- link: https://stephenjones.blog/gaoluo-the-... Bibliography: ● Jones, Stephen. Plucking the Winds: Lives of Village Musicians in Old and New China. Leiden, the Netherlands: CHIME Foundation, 2004. 大美非遗｜中国音乐“活化石”：高洛音乐会 More information: https://stephenjones.blog/gaoluo/ https://tinyurl.com/5n7372hx https://tinyurl.com/2c7jpa5d https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/news... https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2008-10-07... https://tinyurl.com/yxxbypch https://tinyurl.com/bdecw3m5 https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forw... https://tinyurl.com/cxhd67bj https://tinyurl.com/yajwkvjl