At a national conference on the protection of traditional Chinese culture held in April this year, Xi'an ancient music, along with 28 other items, was included in the second phase of the National Folk Culture Protection Project. Meanwhile, a special team was set up in Northwest China's Xi'an City to begin the preservation work on the dying art form.

'Living fossil of Chinese ancient music'

Xi'an ancient music is a form of music played by folk musicians in the areas surrounding Xi'an. Having originated in Chang'an City (today's Xi'an in Shaanxi Province) during the prosperous Tang Dynasty about 1,300 years ago, the music was mainly popular in downtown Xi'an and its subordinate areas, such as Chang'an, Zhouzhi and Lantian in ancient times.

Also called "Xi'an Drum Music", "Chang'an Ancient Music" or "Chang'an Drum Music", the music features rich contents, a large-scale band, many repertoires, a complex musical structure and fine melodies; it is thus called the "living fossil of Chinese ancient music".
Xi'an, as one of China's most important historical cities, is the site of the glorious Tang Dynasty (618-907) capital of Chang'an -- the prosperous Eastern terminus of the central Asian trade routes. Xi'an's ancient music has been described as a "living fossil" descended directly from specific musical genres of the Tang and Song (960-1279) dynasties.

The music has an inseparable relationship with religion (Buddhism and Taoism) and is only performed for religious -- never commercial -- purposes. Although it is one of the most important surviving types of Chinese music, surprisingly, the genre has been largely neglected by both performers and researchers. The tradition is, at present, carried on by only a few elderly musicians.

The highly acclaimed surviving notation (more than 3,600 pieces) constitutes a large corpus of ancient Chinese melodies written in a rare and ancient "half-character" notation system, which is closely linked with Tang and Song notation systems. It provides important evidence in the search for some of the music lost from the Tang and Song periods.

About 500 musical pieces have been handed down since then, which can be divided into four categories: ancient Buddhist music, Taoist music, court music of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and music used for sacrifices and celebrations. The collection represents some of the most historically significant pieces of music from China's long history.

Jiao Jie, a musical researcher says the good condition of the manuscripts and clarity with which the original music was recorded has made preservation possible.

Performing styles and musical instruments

Xi'an ancient music still completely retains the traditional performing styles, structures, musical instruments and original names of tunes. It is characterized by wind and percussion ensembles led by the di zi(bamboo flute) and guan zi(reed pipe).

The music can be performed in two ways -- sitting and walking. Seated performances are a kind of chamber music that involve more than 20 musical instruments, including wind instruments, such as the di zi,sheng(a kind of reed pipe wind instrument),guan zi, and percussion instruments, such as the zuo gu("sitting drum"), war drum,du gu("single drum"), big cymbals, small cymbals, big gongs, a slit drum, etc.

Strolling performances mostly take place outdoors, such as during street processions and temple fairs. This type of genre can be subcategorized as "Tongyue Drum" ("joint-happiness drum," also called "gao bazi") and Luan Baxian("mixed eight immortals," also called "Single-sided Drum"). "Tongyue Drum" involves musical instruments like the di zi,sheng,gao badrum (long-legged drum), gongs,jiao zi(a scissors-like instrument), hand- held slit drum, etc. Luan Baxian incorporates eight kinds of musical instruments, namely the di zi, sheng, Chinese gong chimes, single-sided drum,yun luo(a kind of gong),jiao ziand the hand-held slit drum.

Worldwide fame

For over 1,000 years Xi'an ancient music has spread widely throughout the country, as well as beyond China. The influence of this type of music can be found in nan yin, a genre from South China, and the imperial music of Japan. The famous Naxi ancient music, which is popular in the Lijiang area of Southeast China's Yunnan Province, is also believed to have its roots in Xi'an ancient music.
As an important material that boasts a very high academic value, Xi'an ancient music once attracted much attention from domestic and foreign scholars. When Yang Yinliu, the first superintendent of the Musical Research Institute of the Central Conservatory of Music, was translating the scores from Jiang Kui, a writer and musician of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), he came across some untranslatable elements.

Later, having studied Xi'an ancient music, he finally decoded them, making a big stir in the music circle. Foreign experts once believed that people could only research music from the Tang Dynasty with the aid of Japanese gagaku. However, since 1954, many experts and scholars from Hungary, Japan, Italy, the United States, Britain and Australia, have changed their views because they thought Xi'an ancient music is a good means for their research.

The ancient music of Xi'an not only provides valuable clues into researching the evolution of Chinese ancient music, but also provides many material sources and an impetus for the development of this music in Shaanxi Province. For instance, musical programmes, such as "Shooting the Drum on Fragrance Mountain", "Chant of Lishan Mountain" and "Quarrel Between Ducks," and large-scale song and dance works such as "The Tang Dynasty Song and Dance Show", "The Song and Dance Show of Tang Dynasty Chang'an," and so on, are all adapted from ancient Chinese music, and have won awards and high praise from both home and abroad.

In 1981, the Hejiaying Ancient Music Society staged a joint performance in Xi'an with the Japan Nara Gagaku Society, where the elegant and pure ancient music overwhelmed Japanese audiences. In 1987, artists from the Hejiaying Ancient Music Society and Xi'an Dajichang Ancient Music Society attended the Fifth "Sound of China" Concert to perform "The Six-Move Eight-Time Sitting Performance of Ancient Music. The consummate performing skills of these experienced artists and the elegant styles of Sui (581-618) and Tang dynasty music overwhelmed Beijing experts and audiences.

In 2002, the Ancient Music Society of Jixiang Town in Zhouzhi County held a special concert of Xi'an ancient music in Berlin, Germany, to an audience that largely consisted of German experts in musical composition, instruments and theoretical research, who were at once fascinated by the unsophisticated countryside flavor and classical elegance of Xi'an ancient music.

Present and future

"Xi'an ancient music is a unique and precious cultural treasure of Xi'an City," said Kong Zhengyi, director of a cultural preservation institute in Xi'an. Kong, who has researched the music, believes that art of the feudal age -- especially music -- reached its zenith in the glorious Tang Dynasty. As the capital city of the dynasty, Xi'an not only boasts a large number of cultural relics, but has also preserved an intangible cultural heritage, where Xi'an ancient music is considered the most interesting.

However, the future of Xi'an ancient music is uncertain. There are very few folk groups in Xi'an that can actually play the music since the masters have either passed away or are simply too old to perform. Eighty-seven-year-old Zhao Gengchen used to be a member of Dongcang Music Society, which was very popular in the 1930s and '40s. However, today there are no new members in the society, and even Zhao's own son is not interested in learning the craft.

Several years ago, the music society merged with the Xi'an Jiaotong University, where eight teachers from the university promised to help Zhao turn the old melodies into modern musical notations to be better understood by the laity. However, now there is only one teacher left working on the project, who says only 60 percent of the work is complete.

As for professional performing groups, Longzu Miaoyin, or "Sound of the Dragon," is the only orchestral group committed to performing purely Xi'an ancient music in Xi'an. The group, which is made up of more than 20 female artists, has staged more than 100 performances in the city since its establishment in 2000.

With the government vowing to preserve and revive Xi'an ancient music, more groups specializing in the genre are expected to emerge in the city. But, as pop culture continues to influence the youth in urban areas, the old form is likely to have a hard time appealing to the majority.