cantonese operatic song (cantonese quyi)

just like the cantonese opera, cantonese operatic song is an artistic form loved by the people in guangdong province, hong kong and macao, pearl river delta area and xijiang river basin. generally speaking, the cantonese operatic song means the various kinds of folk art forms, such as ballad-singing of cantonese operatic song, wooden fish, dragon boat, south tone and cantonese chorus without accompaniment as well as chaozhou song brochure, kejia plate song and fisherman’s song in east huizhou, etc. but the so called cantonese operatic song refers to the ballad-singing of cantonese operatic song, or cantonese quyi.

the cantonese operatic song is the most popular kind in the cantonese spoken area with the history over 150 years. guangzhou, hong kong and macao are its base of performance which is also extended to the guangdong and guangxi province. we can say the cantonese operatic song is being sung in everywhere in the world the overseas cantonese lives. cantonese operatic song was originated from cantonese opera, and then developed gradually to an independent tune. the cantonese operatic song has strong melody, focuses on the auditory art, pays attention to the art of singing; its tune-pattern belongs to the plate tune of xipi and erhuang system, with bangzi, erhuang, paizi ditty, ditty and ballad forming a whole, and three kinds of throat tunes including flat throat, sub-throat and great throat.

the formation and development of cantonese operatic song has passed through more than 150 years with three stages. the first stage was the “eight-tone troupe” times in 1821--1861. the “eight-tone troupe” was good at singing cantonese operatic song arias without makeup and acting, with the actors from seven, eight to tens, mainly performed for happy events and religious activities, and often showed in small towns or countryside. the second one was the “shiliang (blind actress)” times in1862--1917. shiliang referred to the blind actress, called “blind sister”. they learned the art when they were little children, they played and sung by themselves or sung for a living along the streets or were called to sing at others’ house. “shiliang” appeared on the stage starting from the opening ceremony for the amusement ground of shibafu zhenguang co. in guangzhou xiguan. later they gradually sung on platforms in the teahouses and restaurants. during the “eight-tone troupe” and “shiliang (blind actress)” times, the actors sung cantonese operatic song by “official theatric language” or “official language of guilin”. the third one was from 1918 to 1945, the cantonese operatic song developed to “nuling (actress)” times. the cantonese operatic song flourished since then., beautiful “charming actress” took place of the handicapped blind sister, “shiliang”. the cantonese operatic song actors were not only active on the stage, but also appeared in many “personal parties” that the people gathered together to sing cantonese operatic song spontaneously and play the cantonese music. during this period, the “nuling” divided the original ten different tune-patterns of cantonese opera into three tune systems including great throat, flat throat and sub-throat. they invited composer and musician of cantonese music to play an accompaniment, design their tune-patterns and compose ditties for them. they also introduced in the western musical instruments for accompaniment, thus enriched greatly the styles of cantonese operatic song, made their singing tune more beautiful and sweet. in 1920s, there were eight teahouses such as da shan yuan and jiu ru,etc. that had the highest attendance for the performance of cantonese operatic song, thereby brought to a lot of famous “nuling” of cantonese operatic song such as great throat singer xiong feiying, sub-throat singer zhang qiongxian, flat throat singer little star deng manwei, xu liuxian and zhang yueer, etc. till 1940s, he lifang of guangzhou xiguan was hailed as the “queen of three- throat singers”. during the height of cantonese operatic song, there were many musicians of cantonese music of high attainments entering into the quyi society, they not only played accompaniment and design tunes for the “nuling”, but also composed music, in which the most famous one with greatest achievements were he liutang, he yunian, he shaoxia, lu wencheng, yin zizhong and he dasha, etc.

the cantonese operatic song grew up, prospered and developed to be one of the melody standing among the quyi garden of our country, and also spread to the overseas chinese society, that was the great contribution and merit of the “nuling”. but in the old times, most of the female actors were “beautiful lady with miserable destiny”. the flat throat singer little star was a very typical example.

little star, originally named deng manwei, was an orphan losing her parents since she was a little girl. she learned the art from ye yisun at the age of 11, and sung on stage at 12 years old. she created a new and unique flat throat tune______star tune, and used the artistic name “little star” since then. she won success by singing wonderfully with a silver voice and deep feeling with her flat throat tune of woe and distress, and was the outstanding one among all other singers. she became the pillar of the stage of cantonese operatic song at the age of 17, and was much admired and welcome by the audience. during the war of resistance against japan, little star presented her performance in hong kong and macao, the famous cantonese operatic song such as sentimental spirit and grave in autumn made her win high reputation at once, with a large outpouring of favorable comments, and became popular in hong kong and macao. the “nuling” had low income at that time, most of them were poor. little star was famous “nuling”, so she had better revenue. but her marriage was not so good, she had divorced twice, and went back to guangzhou sunk in enemy’s hands with mawkish sentiment. her situation became worse with poverty and sickness, and was dogged by debt. the boss of teahouse often forced her to sing on the platform in spite of her illness. one day in august of 1942, when little star sang grave in autumn in the music teahouse on the terrace of changdi xianshi co. regardless of her own illness, she vomited blood and fell down on the stage because of excessive fatigue. a so famous singer reached her last peak of artistic perfection while she died at the age of only 31. because of poverty and debt, she left no penny to her name for burying, finally her disciples li yifang and etc. raised money by no benefit performance to hold her  funeral ceremony..