Guangdong music (genre)

Guangdong music, also known as "Cantonese music" (广东音乐 "Guǎngdōng yīnyuè") is a style of traditional Chinese instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas in Guangdong Province on the southern coast of China. The name of the music is not an accurate description because "Guangdong music" is not the only music of the whole Guangdong area. In Guangdong, there are numerous traditional genres of music such as Chaozhou music and Hakka music (Hakka "Hanyue" and "sixian"). The name of the music originated in the 1920 and 1930s when the music was popular in Shanghai ballrooms in the form of "Spiritual Music" (精神音樂 Jīnshěn Yīnyuè; more properly translated as "spirited music"). As the performers were almost entirely from Guangdong, Shanghai people generalized the form of music as Guangdong music. Musically, compositions are based on tunes derived from "Yueju" (Cantonese opera), together with new compositions from the 1920s onwards. Some pieces have influences from jazz and Western music, using syncopation and triple time, and incorporating instruments such as the saxophone, violin, guitar, piano, drum set, or xylophone.

Instrumentation

The "gaohu" is the most common lead instrument used in performing Cantonese music. It was invented by Lü Wencheng (吕文成, 1898-1981) in the 1920s. Prior to this, the "erxian" was the most common lead bowed string instrument in the Cantonese ensemble.

Guangdong music gradually evolved into a string ensemble format by the 1960s, led by the "gaohu" with "ruan", "qinqin", "yangqin", "sanxian", "yehu", "tiqin" and various woodwind (including "houguan") and percussion instruments. Compositions by Lü Wencheng remain particularly popular.

Audio samples