Added: Jul 18, 2008

From: zhouzhzh

Duration: 3:36

English Lyrics translated from Dong language: You are like a great cabbage. I often want to steal it. You are like a nice radish growing at cross street in Changkai County. I often want to pull it out. Bees can even make honey after collecting pollens. Why did you forget all your sweet words to me? The deserted land in the past has become a grassland today. Grasses can grow in a deserted land. Why did you cheat me like cheating a kid? You cannot remember even a sentence of your former swears. Now I am left lonely, with confusion and turmoil in my head. ---------------------------------- Cicada Songs Group won the silver medal of "Natural Singing Style" on the 12th National Youth Singing Contest hosted by CCTV in 2006. This video clip is their performance at the third round of the final stage competition. This song is a Big Song, a typical singing style of the Dong people. Dong's Big Song The Dong people's Big Song is a kind of narrative song that tells their daily life and their history. The Big Song is deemed as one of three wonders of the Dong people. The other two wonders are Drum Tower and Roofed Bridge (Wind-and-Rain Bridge, Flower Bridge). The Big Song was discovered by a famous Chinese musician Zheng, Lju-Cheng (郑律成) by chance in the 1950s. It has ever made a great sensation in Paris when the Big Song Chorus of Guizhou Province of China performed it in 1986. The renowned French pianist Richard Clayderman once used the musical elements of the Big Song in his East-meets-West work at "New Era" (with the Chinese Broadcasting Orchestra). In performance, the singers join in multi part harmony. The lead singer will be either a tenor or soprano with a chorus providing a harmonious backing, weaving the various parts of the song together. Many evenings, there are get-togethers in village Drum Towers where polyphonic singing accompanies the music of pipas and special ox-legged shaped Dong guitars. Dong's Big Song imitates sounds from the nature. Birds, insects, and murmuring brooks, have long inspired the people inhabiting their hometowns. The major contents of Dong's Big Song include the beautiful nature, daily working life, love, and friendship. They praise the harmony between man and nature, and between man and man. So, in Dong villages where the Big Song is popular, people rarely fight or quarrel with each other. Thieves are also very rare. In the past, the Dong had no written language. Instead, the Dong's history and ancient legends were imbedded in songs which have been passed down through generations. During important festivals, such songs are always sung to the youth. The "Big Song" in Dong language pronounces "Ga Lao". Here "Ga" means song while "Lao" means old and grand. Chinese musicians translated it as "Da Ge" (大歌), where "Da" means big and "Ge" means song. So a more appropriate translation of "Ga Lao" to English should be "Grand and Old Song", not "Big Song". I used the term Big Song because many people are using it. ------------------------------ The Cicada Songs Group This group comes from the Miao & Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Southeast Guizhou (黔东南苗族侗族自治州), Guizhou Province of China. Miao is another ethnic minority of China. The Cicada Songs Group got the highest grade in the first & the second round in the National Singing Contest. They were also voted as the Most Favorite Singers by the Chinese audience. Unfortunately, they did not win the gold medal in the fourth round in 2006. ---------- Ethnic Dong's Emblem: http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/content/413/813_1.shtml This emblem was designed by an ethnic Dong designer. It shows a Dong's Drum Tower. There are many Drum Towers in Dong villages. Generally one village or one large family has a drum tower. Drum tower is a public place where the Dong people host guests, hold meetings, hold song parties, teach Dong history to the youth, train Big Song, and practice martial arts, etc. The Dong people use many traditional paintings to decorate Drum Tower and make it not only a public gathering place but also a beautiful artwork. ----------- About the Dong People: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_people Dong's Drum Tower (侗族鼓楼): http://images.google.com/images?q=%E4%BE%97%E6%97%8F%E9%BC%93%E6%A5%BC&btnG Dong's Roofed Bridge (Rain-and-Wind Bridge, Flower Bridge 侗族风雨桥, 侗族花桥): http://images.google.com/images?q=%E9%A3%8E%E9%9B%A8%E6%A1%A5 Forum of the Dong People (in Chinese): http://www.dongren.cn/ Miao & Dong Autonomous Prefecture of Southeast Guizhou: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiandongnan_Miao_and_Dong_Autonomous_Prefecture ----------------------- 蝉之歌组合 - 你象一兜好白菜 (侗族大歌) 蟬之歌組合 - 你像一兜好白菜 (侗族大歌) 十二届CCTV青年歌手电视大奖赛 十二屆CCTV青年歌手電視大獎賽

Channel: Music

Tags: big  cctv  china  chinese  cicada  dong  folk  guizhou  music  song  world  中国  侗族  原生态  央视  民族  民歌  青歌赛 

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