Investigation And Research On Yangcheng Gushu

Yangcheng Gushu is a kind of traditional rap and singing art popular in Yangcheng County,Jincheng city,Shanxi Province."Drum" is named after its accompaniment instrument,flat drum.Local people generally call it "story telling",which is a popular art form.Yangcheng Gushu spread in the Qing Dynasty,Jiaqing and Daoguang years time;and was well established in Tongzhi and Guang Xu years time;then it was popular in the late Qing Dynasty,which has more than 200 years of history.Since the emergence of Yangcheng Gushu,it has been a way of amusing the gods.Out of fear of God.Yangcheng Gushu become an essential part of folk activities such as worship of God.In addition,people often invite Gushu artists to sing in folklore such as celebrating birthday,paying vows,marriage and funeral.The main instruments in the early Yangcheng Gushu were one drum,one board,one waking wood,and then gradually joined three strings,four strings,erhu,Banhu and other string instruments,which enriched the music art of Yangcheng Gushu.After continuous development and innovation,coupled with the acceptance of other operas,quyi music and the development of maturity.Yangcheng Gushu has been continuously improved in accompaniment music and singing,and has distinctive tunes and dialect characteristics as well as is widely welcomed by local people.In the performance features of Yangcheng Gushu,folk activities are mainly related to the saying of God's books and temple fairs,and form the local folk customs with distinctive artistic characteristics.With the continuous development and change of quyi culture and history,Yangcheng Gushu has gradually formed a unique long and short repertoire.Some of which are the traditional great bibliography that has been handed down from ancient to present and there are also modern and contemporary drum artists to write amusing small pieces that are Yangcheng Gushu valuable text materials.According to the author's fieldwork and the arrangement of the existing repertoire,a total of 216 tracks were collected,including 47 long traditional tracks and 169 short pieces,and 38 pieces of firsthand or lost songs were collected.These preserved raw materials provide favorable conditions for the current study of Yangcheng Gushu.With the diversification of modern entertainment,Yangcheng Gushu gradually lost the original survival soil and the status quo is not optimistic.Yangcheng Gushu was listed on Shanxi Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage list in June 2017,which is the most important measure to protect and pass on Yangcheng Gushu.Combing the drama and folklore research methods,using the field investigation to collect original data,and being supplemented by literature,this paper does a detailed investigation and research about the evolution,music features,performance characteristics,drama scripts,artist survival present situation and the protection of Yangcheng Gushu.Finally,the paper hopes to contribute to the spread and development of Yangcheng Gushu.