Research On Musical Characteristics Of Taoist Chanting In Northern Shaanxi

Taoist chanting, deriving from Taoist,is an ancient form of art. The primary aim of its birth was to spread the philosophy of Taoist and to win more disciples, later, due to the public's fondness for Taoist chanting, it gained a rapid development, and produced many other typical schools of musical form by connecting with their local folk culture. Taoist chanting in the northern Shaanxi is one type of them. Having similar social effects like folk songs and story-telling in this area, it has its own specific features as a kind of folk art. This paper aims to explore Taoist changing's structures of melody, its musical mode and its melody. This paper includes four parts.The first part is introduction. It presents the origin, classification and development of Taoist chanting in the northern Shaanxi. It also introduces its research background, present situation and methodologies of this paper.Chapter one includes four parts, introducing the classification of singing and tune in Taoist chanting in the northern Shaanxi, its structures of its melody, internal features and its rules of combination.Chapter two includes three parts. The first part mainly presents the scale and mode in Taoist chanting of the northern Shaanxi. To the aspect of mode in Taoist chanting of the northern Shaanxi, the second part analyzes that Zhi-mode is the main singing mode of it. Part three is a brief exploration of modulate.Chapter three analyzes the melody features of Taoist chanting in 3 aspects, and they are rising after restraining tunes in Up-bound libretto, wave-rounding melody in down-bound libretto and glossy intonation, and these features are regarded as the typical characteristics of Taoist chanting in northern Shaanxi.Last part is a conclusion of the whole paper, and advocates the protection and development of Taoist chanting in northern Shaanxi.