This series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured on this recording are folk songs of three of the minority ethnic groups...

This series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured on this recording are folk songs of three of the minority ethnic groups of Yunnan province – Wa, Blang, and De’ang. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin. The Wa people developed a tradition that is more prolific in vocal music than in instrumental music. The indigenous Wa music employs pentatonic scales, as well as a low and narrow register. The melodic lines usually proceed without sharp fluctuations. The majority of Wa music is monophonic, while the music in the Cangyuan area presents the features of multiple-voices. Sharing the same cultural origins with the Wa and De’ang peoples, Blang music also employs pentatonic scales. The Blang people categorise their music into four types: shuo, zai, shengand shuai. Every music type refers to a group of tunes and specific performance forms. De’ang music is classified into the five categories. The first, guge meaning ancient songs, focuses on telling the history of the De’ang people. Ag u da leng lai biao, one of the guge, describes that the ancestors of the De’ang were originally leaves of a tea tree in the heaven; the second, the music performed for wedding rituals; the third, liturgical music sung for Theravada Buddhism; fourth, shange meaning folk music; and fifth, instrumental music.