Quick Answer: What Are Fengyang Flower Drums?
Fengyang Flower Drums (凤阳花鼓, Fèngyáng Huāgǔ) is a folk performance tradition from Fengyang County in Anhui. It combines song, percussion and movement. The national heritage list places it under quyi (曲艺, qǔyì), the performing arts of song and storytelling.[1][3]
- Instruments: An older duet used a small drum and a small gong.[1][2]
- Sound: The performers can accompany their own singing.[1][2]
- Repertoire: Songs carry familiar tunes and often take a local place or ordinary encounter as their subject.[1][4]
Follow the voice as well as the drum. A pause in the singing can leave space for the percussion to answer.
When the two performers finish a line, a drum tap and a ringing gong can briefly take over. The balance between song and percussion changes again as soon as a voice returns.
What the Drum and Gong Do
In one traditional duet, one singer beats a small drum and the other strikes a small gong. The drum’s more contained attack and the gong’s bright ring can punctuate different places in the tune. Listen for where the players fit those sounds around the singing.[1][2]
The name Shuangtiao Gu (双条鼓, shuāngtiáogǔ) refers to two slender beaters. Fengyang accounts describe thin bamboo sticks and a drum small enough to hold in one hand. In this use of drums and gongs, the performers can keep their own rhythm while they sing.[1][2]
How the Songs Traveled Beyond Fengyang
The form is generally understood to have developed during the Ming dynasty. Historical accounts associate its spread with people leaving Fengyang in years of hardship. Some sang for alms as they traveled. The small instruments allowed them to bring the performance to audiences outside a theater.[1][3][4]
Qing writers describe performances that combined singing and movement. Over time, other settings became prominent, including seated singing and singing at doorways. The same repertoire could therefore circulate in a form with less movement than a staged dance.[1]
Two Songs That Belong to the Repertoire
Fengyang Song (凤阳歌, Fèngyáng Gē) is among the best-known pieces. Some versions introduce the small gong and drum as part of the singer’s description of the performance. That makes the words and the sounds of the instruments easy to connect when they occur together.[1][2][4]
Another title is Third Sister Wang Goes to Market (王三姐赶集, Wáng Sānjiě Gǎnjí). The title points to an ordinary outing as the subject of a song. Both titles are listed among the popular tunes sung by early performers.[1][2]
How Performance Changed in Fengyang
In the early 1950s, some stage reformers removed the small gong and kept the drum as the accompaniment. Later performers combined the drum and song with some movements drawn from modern dance. That arrangement gives the drum room to carry both the pulse and the visible movement of the group.[1][3]
A 2023 Fengyang project combined the drum form with local folk songs for group exercises during school and workplace breaks.[5]
FAQs About Fengyang Flower Drums
Is Fengyang Flower Drums the same as flower-drum opera?
The national heritage list classifies Fengyang Flower Drums as a tradition of song and storytelling. Flower-drum opera (花鼓戏, huāgǔxì) names a group of regional theater traditions with dramatic roles and plays.[1][6]
What does the name Shuangtiao Gu mean?
The name means a drum played with two beaters. It refers to the pair of slender sticks used to strike the small drum.[1][2]
Sumber
[1] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Fengyang Flower Drums
[2] Fengyang News. Fengyang Flower Drums
[3] ChinaCulture.org. Fengyang Huagu
[4] Zhuhai College of Science and Technology. Fengyang Flower Drums and Song
[5] Anhui Provincial Sports Bureau. Fengyang Flower Drum Exercise Adaptation
[6] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Flower-Drum Opera