Beiyuehui 北乐会 shengguan music 笙管乐 from Daxing District 大兴区, Beijing, China

A brief video (filmed, very unfortunately, in "vertical video" format) featuring an excerpt of an informal performance by the Beixinzhuang Yinyuehui (北辛庄音乐会, Beixinzhuang Music Association), a local ensemble from Beixinzhuang Village (北辛庄村), Zhangziying Town (长子营镇), Daxing District (大兴区), southern Beijing, northern China. The title of the piece being performed here is unknown. The key is E diao (E调).

The Beixinzhuang Yinyuehui, which was established in 1951, performs ceremonial music of the beiyuehui (北乐会, literally "northern music association") type. Along with nanyuehui (南乐会, literally "southern music association") music, beiyuehui music is a variety of Central Hebei shengguan music (Chinese: Jizhong shengguanyue, 冀中笙管乐), a collection of shengguan ensemble traditions found across the Central Hebei Plain (Chinese: Jizhong Pingyuan, 冀中平原), which is bounded to the north by Beijing, to the east by Tianjin, and to the south by Cangzhou and Dingzhou, and includes nearly 30 cities and counties of Hebei province.

Shengguan ensemble music (Chinese: shengguan yue, 笙管乐) features guanzi (管子, double reed pipe) and dizi (笛子, transverse bamboo flute with buzzing membrane) as leading melodic instruments, accompanied by multiple sheng (笙, mouth organ), and traditional percussion instruments including drums, cymbals, gongs, and yunluo (云锣, a set of ten small tuned gongs of equal diameter suspended in a vertical frame).

According to ethnomusicologist Du Yaxiong (2002), the most common ceremonies for which the Beixinzhuang Yinyuehui performed included praying for rain, a New Year's parade, "distribution of lantern flowers" (Chinese: san deng hua, 散灯花) on the day of the Lantern Festival, and funerals, although they stopped playing for the praying-for-rain ceremonies after 1978. Its scores are preserved in a shorthand form of gongche pu (工尺谱), an old form of musical notation using Chinese characters to represent the notes. In 1996 a book of scores of the Beixinzhuang Yinyuehui, entitled《北京市大兴县长子营乡北辛庄音乐会谱本》, was published by the Music Research Institute of the Chinese National Academy of Arts (中国艺术研究院音乐研究所前身) in Beijing.

The names of most of the individual musicians is unknown, but two of the musicians include:
● Mr. Liu Zhenyuan (刘振远) - erhu (二胡, 2-stringed vertical fiddle with snakeskin-covered soundbox)
● Mr. Liu Zhenting (刘振亭) - bangzi (梆子, pair of hardwood sticks struck together as a timekeeping instrument)

Probably filmed at the ensemble's headquarters in Beixinzhuang Village (北辛庄村), Zhangziying Town (长子营镇), Daxing District (大兴区), southern Beijing, northern China, c. January 31, 2024.

The Beixinzhuang Yinyuehui was discovered in 1988 or 1989 by the ethnomusicologist Du Yaxiong (杜亚雄, b. Huolu Town, Luquan District, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, February 1945; d. Beijing, October 7, 2024), an event that he regarded as a breakthrough in his work, and he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on its music (University of British Columbia, 2002), as well as subsequent articles.

In 2006 the tradition of Jizhong shengguanyue (冀中笙管乐) was included in the First Batch of China's National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage List (第一批国家级非物质文化遗产名录).

Bibliography:

● Du Yaxiong. "Ritual Music in a North China Village: The Continuing Confucian and Buddhist Heritage." Ph.D. dissertation. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: University of British Columbia, 2002.

北辛庄音乐会，排练中

More information:
https://www.douyin.com/video/73301923...
http://rdbk1.ynlib.cn:6251/Qw/Paper/2...
http://www.zhihuatemple.com/Temple/Mu...
http://www.oxiang.com/music/20170808/...
https://lib.zgysyjy.org.cn/book/detai...
https://www.huain.com/article/other/2...
http://www.360doc.com/content/17/0501...
https://ruippo.fi/material/tallinn/fi...
https://zyyx.cbpt.cnki.net/WKG/WebPub...