挽救消亡中的民族音乐

Master Of The Leaf: Preserving China's Music

挽救消亡中的民族音乐

by Louisa Lim

作者：Louisa Lim

On a chilly Beijing afternoon, musician Guo Yong is rooting through some bushes, choosing an instrument. He is a master of the common or garden leaf. Picking an average leaf and flicking it to check its elasticity, he puts it up to his mouth and blows against the surface, mimicking birdsong.

Louisa Lim/NPR

经过传统训练的艺人郭勇说数载光阴才使他真正了解自身布依族音乐的价值所在，例如模仿鸟鸣的吹叶绝技。

北京的一天下午，寒风瑟瑟，民间音乐艺人郭勇在路边的矮树上翻弄着，想找到一片叶子。这位可以让小小叶片充满乐感的音乐高手，摘下了一片普通的叶子，轻轻弹了弹，看叶子的弹性是否合适，然后他含住叶子的一头，吹了起来，顷刻间周围的空气中鸟鸣回响。

This skill catapulted the classically trained composer onto the stage of Beijing's egg-shaped National Theatre. He's among a number of ethnic minority musicians who are working together with Chinese pop singer Dadawa to save dying musical traditions from extinction.

站在北京的“巨蛋”国家大剧院舞台上，这位传统艺人向观众展示了树叶的音乐之美。如今，像众多少数民族音乐家一样，他与中国流行音乐歌手朱泽琴携起手来，共同为挽救濒临消亡的传统音乐奉献着自己的力量。

Guo is from the Buyi minority, from Guizhou province in Southwestern China, and this is where he learned his leaf skills.

郭勇是中国西南贵州省的自布依族人，在这片土壤上，孕育出了他的“灵叶”绝活。

"In Guizhou, it's very mountainous," Guo says. "Sometimes it's boring to walk by yourself, so you grab a leaf and blow on it and copy the birds. Sometimes you use leaves to call to people, to talk to them, since with leaves the sound goes farther."

“贵州是个多山的地方，”郭说。“在寂寞的山林中穿行之时，难免烦躁，这时抓过一片叶子，模仿林间的鸟叫声是一种舒缓心情的好方式。树叶吹起来，发出的声音可以传的很远，你可以树叶传音，也可以通过树叶与其他人交谈。”

Guo says it took him years to see the value of his own traditional culture.

郭勇说，在很多年后他才真正意识到这种传统音乐文化所孕育的巨大价值。

"At college, I studied orchestral composition, but then I slowly learned that the things I removed myself from are the most precious," Guo says. "Our way of thought is not the same, our religion. Maybe it's because Westerners believe in Christianity; they think of grand works. Growing up in the mountains, we couldn't imagine big orchestras. We think of natural things: bamboo banging, cows mooing. These sounds are also music."

“上大学的时候，我学的是管弦乐，但是随后的经历使我渐渐意识到，我所摒弃的正是我最弥足珍贵的东西。”郭说。“中西两种音乐的思考方式不同，秉承的宗教信仰也不同。其原因可能在于西方人相信上帝，他们认为恢弘巨制的音乐才是音乐的精髓。我生长在大山之中，我们那的人，无法想象什么气势磅礴的大型乐团。我们的思想和血液中回荡的是自然的声响，那竹子的空空声，哞哞的牛叫声。在我们的心中，这些也是音乐。”

 

Enlarge Yang Hai Dadawa performs on the Hear the World: Dadawa and Ethnic Music Masters Tour.

Yang Hai Dadawa performs on the Hear the World: Dadawa and Ethnic Music Masters Tour.

Yang Hai

朱哲琴“世界听见”：朱泽琴与民族歌乐师巡演。

A Mission To Preserve

肩头的重担

He performs on stage with a number of ethnic music masters, gathered together by Dadawa, who's both a Chinese pop star and an ambassador for the United Nations Development Program. She's on a mission to help preserve minority music, and donating profits from her CD and tour to help 400 ethnic music masters take on students. Last year, Dadawa went on a road trip through six of China's most far-flung provinces to find masters of vanishing musical traditions.

朱泽琴是中国的流行乐歌手，另外她还有一个特殊的身份——联合国开发计划署的特使，正是她聚集了众多民族音乐艺人，向世人奉献了这一场场的民族音乐盛宴。她扛起了保护民族音乐的重担，从其销售的个人CD和巡演收入中拿出钱来，帮助400名民族音乐大师招收弟子。去年，朱泽琴风尘仆仆走访了中国六个偏僻的省份，寻找那些步入暮年的传统音乐艺术。

"Your ears will lead you to the right place," Dadawa says of her methods, laughing. "It's like a trip full of discovery. We just followed the sound. Any possibility to listen to special music, we went there."

谈及探访之道，她笑着说“你的耳朵会引领着你。”“这就像一段充满发现的音乐之旅。我们紧紧跟随者声音的脚步。哪里有特别的音乐，我们的足迹就会出现在哪里。”

 

Enlarge Louisa Lim/NPR Aalatengwula demonstrates how to play the modentsuur, an instrument into which you need to blow at the same time as throat-singing.

Louisa Lim/NPR

阿拉腾乌拉演示如何吹奏modentsuur（潮尔），在用喉音唱歌的同时吹奏乐器。

Louisa Lim/NPR Aalatengwula demonstrates how to play the modentsuur, an instrument into which you need to blow at the same time as throat-singing.

Her ears led her to musician Aalatengwula from Alashan in Inner Mongolia. He plays the horsehead violin, that most Mongolian of instruments, and he's one of the very few people in China able to coax music out of the tsuur or modentsuur — a you blow into at the same time as throat-singing (or khoomei) to produce two noises at once.

在耳朵的指引下，她拜见了内蒙古阿拉善音乐艺人阿拉腾乌拉。他演奏了蒙古人常用的乐器马头琴，在中国，极少有人能向他一样轻灵的演奏潮尓（蒙古的竖笛），潮尔是一种圆锥管型的乐器，演奏者需要在用喉音歌唱的同时吹奏乐器，形成声乐混合的听觉效果。

"Lots of people can make a sound with this instrument, but very few people can actually create a whole melody," Aalatengwula says.

“吹出声来，大多数人都可以办到，但是要演奏出完整的旋律，却是却鲜有人及，”阿拉腾乌拉说。

When he first heard the mysterious sound created by the modentsuur, he was hooked and decided he wanted to learn how to play. But then he discovered that it had already died out in Inner Mongolia, so he first went to Outer Mongolia, then to the Altai Mountains in Xinjiang to find a teacher. The elderly master who taught him has since died.

首次聆听到潮尓的迷人音乐时，他沉浸其中无法自拔，他下定决定学习演奏之道。但是寻寻觅觅后，却发现在整个内蒙古，真正的潮尓奏者已经绝迹，就这样他平生第一次踏上了外蒙古，辗转到新疆的阿尔泰山脉，终于觅得了一位良师。而如今，这位老迈的民族艺人已然逝去。

"In Xinjiang, my teacher used it to create the sound of the waves ... and the hoofbeats of a horse," Aalatengwula says.

“在新疆，我的老师用潮尔吹出了波浪的声音... 马蹄的蹄音”，阿拉腾乌拉说。

Aalatengwula's mother is herself an expert in Mongolian long-tone folk songs. He says it's a vital but endangered part of the culture.

其实，阿拉腾乌拉的母亲本身就是蒙古长调民歌的高手。但透过他的言语，这种脉脉传承的重要民族音乐文化正在走向末路。

 

Enlarge Louisa Lim/NPR Ku'ermanjiang Zhikeriya says the dongbula is "the soul of the Kazakh people."

Louisa Lim/NPR

库尔曼江·孜克热亚说冬不拉是“哈萨克人的灵魂”。

Louisa Lim/NPR Ku'ermanjiang Zhikeriya says the dongbula is "the soul of the Kazakh people."

"My mother is illiterate, but she knows every word to 156 folk songs," Aalatengwula says. "Mongolian people don't have many written historical records. Everything is in our songs. But now, lots of Mongolian kids go to Chinese schools, and they can hardly speak or write their own language."

“我的母亲不识字，但是对于156首民乐，她如数家珍”，阿拉腾乌拉说。“蒙古人没有多少文字史料。我们一切的一切都融入到了歌声之中。而如今，大多数孩子都去了中文学校，可他们几乎不会写、甚至也不会说自己的族言。”

Saving The Dying Arts

挽救处于绝境的民族音乐瑰宝

China's educational policies for its ethnic minorities have made headlines lately, with protests by Tibetan students over new rules that would marginalize the use of Tibetan language in the classroom. The protests highlight Beijing's strained relationship with its ethnic minorities. But these musicians are more focused on saving and popularizing their dying arts, rather than dissecting the politics of music.

最近，中国的少数民族的教育政策为人所关注，新条例中在课堂上摒弃使用藏语的规定受到了藏族学生的抗议。这些抗议之声使得北京与少数民族的关系趋于紧张。但是，在这些民族音乐艺人心中，眼下要做的并不是剖析什么音乐政策，挽救并普及各自濒临绝境的民族音乐艺术才是当下之极。

One virtuoso performance is from Ku'ermanjiang Zhikeriya, a Kazakh from Xinjiang who plays the dongbula, a two-stringed guitar with a bowl-shaped body. He seems almost unable to talk without plucking at the dongbula strings or cradling his precious instrument, which he describes as "the soul of the Kazakh people." He says most Kazakhs can still play the dongbula, but many other traditional instruments are already lost, even to his professional music troupe.

新疆哈萨克族的库尔曼江·孜克热亚用手中的冬不拉（一种瓢形琴身的两弦琴）奉上了大师级的演奏。冬不拉就像是他的心，他的口，一切言语似乎只有在拨动上面的琴弦或者怀抱心爱的冬不拉时才能侃侃倒出，在他的言语中冬不拉就是“哈萨克人的灵魂”。他说今天大多数人还在弹奏着冬不拉，不过许多传统乐器已经成为了遗迹，就算在他的专业乐队中，也无外乎如此。

"We play around 20 instruments in our troupe," Ku'ermanjiang says. "But there are 30 other traditional instruments that we've already lost. We don't even have them anymore."

“在我们的乐队中，演奏的乐器有20种”，库尔曼江说。“但是另外还有30种传统乐器已经失传了。在未来的岁月中，这些乐器只能成为无尽的追忆。”

These performers are careful not to blame Chinese government policies. In some cases, they say the government has helped support traditional culture. Rather, they blame a complex mix of modernization, westernization and new technology.

这些民乐艺人小心翼翼，谨微慎行地不要苛责中国政府的政策。有时候，他们会发出政府热诚扶持传统文化的声音，将民族音乐的没落归咎于现代化、西方化和新技术共同冲击下而导致的苦果。

"I used to think my own culture was crude and backward," Guo says. "But now I've sung our mountain songs in our national

“过去我常常认为我们自己的文化是粗俗落后的”，郭说。“但是现在我把家乡的山歌唱到了国家大剧院。这让我充满信心，将我们的民族音乐传播给更多的人。”

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