Narrative Songs Research Articles

Roads to the Sky: Indic Ritual Elements in the Vietnam-China Borderlands and Their Maritime Transmission

One of the basic features of shamanic rituals cross-culturally in East and Southeast Asia is that the ritual itself is structured as a journey up to the sky, climbing the world mountain or the world tree, or else a journey down to the bottom of the sea and back again. The shamanic retinue is understood to make this journey in person, rather than, as in Daoist ritual, sending divine emissaries up to the highest heavens. The journey is conducted through narrative song and dance, accompanied by strings of bells and lutes. The point of departure is the physical village or village household where the ritual is being conducted, and the journey progresses through a series of well-marked way stations via the temple of the earth god to the higher hills and finally to the villages and markets in the sky, before crossing the heavenly seas and ascending the highest mountain. On the way, demons and other impediments are encountered. The route and way stations vary depending on the purpose of the ritual and the intended divine recipient of offerings and submissions. The present article will explore the route up to the sky and the way stations in more detail, taking a single ritual type as performed by the Pụt and Then ritual practitioners as an example. The Pụt and Then are literate ritual specialists found among the Tày and Nùng peoples in northern Vietnam and southern China, near an area which is known to have been a centre of Brahmanical and Buddhist learning from very early times.

Povești de viață și fabulate din arealul satului Mărișel

Life stories, fables and narrative songs or carols recorded in Mărișel village, Cluj county, are knitted through the yarns of fictional mechanisms. When it comes to narrations articulated into an informal system of folk mythology, in which the interviewed respondents conjure events with supernatural beings (Saint Friday, the forest lady, wolves’ stir, ogres or poltergeists) which happened to them or which were told by other people, I preferred instead of a morphological classification, or a genre theory (fairytale, legend, myths or short stories), a classification based on theories of fiction. Life stories and fables from the region of Mărișel village, form a spoken historical radiography of rural sub‑zones of the named region, made of our respondents’ perspective. The two epic components that fall under analysis are autobiographical stories (from within a certain area) and mythological‑fictional stories (articulated in a prolix system of folk mythology). Without holding the claim of composing a unified theory on fairytale and myths origin, Bogdan Neagota, the anthropological scholar, presents, as an assumption, the concept of fictional, not historical anteriority of mental records about myth or fairytale, in regards to three levels of fiction, mental records of 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree. Therefore, mental records appear as a main epic genre which, in different cultural contexts, being subjected to isomorphical processes of fictional alteration and formalisation, suffer a series of successive changes, becoming legend, fairytale or myth. It moves from the position of experiential object into fictional object, just as Toma Pavel notes, or ideally, as Culianu claims, it completely transforms its fictional condition. From this perspective, we can deduce the possible hypothesis that some myths or fairytales refer to the experience of reality with fundamental value.

Islamic content-based learning: Kindergarten illustrated narrative song "Lulu and Tom"

Music education during early life is crucial and has beneficial impacts on the development and maturation of children during this formative period. Music profoundly impacts young children as it fosters their cognitive capacities, language proficiency, motor skills, and imaginative thinking. Teachers must cultivate kids' gross motor abilities by providing opportunities for them to engage in movement activities and songs. This will enable children to experience movement and directly enhance their overall movement proficiency. This research aims to create songs inspired by Islamic illustrated stories that have been demonstrated to be valid and practical. The utilized development model is 4D, incorporating a Tessmer formative evaluation approach that encompasses needs analysis, product design, and assessment stages. The evaluation stages involve self-evaluation, expert review, one-to-one evaluation, and small-group evaluation. The data analysis technique employs walkthroughs, observations, and checklists. The research findings indicate that the average product and media validity is very valid. Three children were assessed individually during the one-to-one evaluation stage, whereas nine children were assessed together during the small group evaluation stage. The averages for the convenient category were derived from both stages. A practical method to cultivate a joyful ambiance during recreational pursuits is to engage in the auditory experience of music and singing. Songs can enhance children's language development, making the learning process easier. Thus, developing songs based on Islamic illustrated stories is pronounced valid, practical, and fit for use.

Folk Ballads: An Enduring Connection in the Digital Age

Folk Ballads: An Enduring Connection in the Digital Age this paper explores the timeless appeal of folk songs and their continued resonance in today's digital age This explores how these traditional narrative songs retain their relevance through culture internal transformation, digital convergence and cross -generational destiny. By examining the intersection of oral tradition and online community, this study reveals the ways in which folk galdas identify, evoke emotion, and bridge generational gaps through historical context and on a mixture of contemporary examples, this insight reveals the enduring power of folk music to connect people across time and technology. It delves into the fascinating world of folk music, tracing their journey from ancient oral tradition to its current significance in the digital age and examining what a given of these narrative gems would look like multiple generations are capable of exceeding the limits of time and technology. By examining the fusion of traditional storytelling and contemporary digital platforms, the study revealed the ways in which folk galdas can become vehicles for cultural expression, emotion and resonance Online communities, streaming services , social to revive interest in these ballads among contemporary audiences -It also highlights the role of the media. The study also examines the ways in which folk music serves as a means for intergenerational connections and generates shared historical and cultural heritage. Through a multi-dimensional lens, this research sheds light on the enduring thread that connects past classical music and current digital performance.

The language of Chaozhou songbooks

Abstract In the pre-modern era, women in the Chaoshan region of southeastern China had a tradition of learning and performing long narrative songs. From the mid-1800s into the mid-1900s these songs were widely produced by local publishing houses in inexpensive woodblock print books called Teochew songbooks (Chaozhou gece 潮州歌册). These song texts made considerable use of the Teochew language. This paper discusses the history of Teochew songs and songbook publishing, and then examines the language used in one typical songbook, The Case of Haimen (Haimen An 海门案). The paper suggests that the use of different language varieties in the songbook texts is best viewed as a translanguaging phenomenon, as the songbook authors fluidly drew on different linguistic resources and integrated them into a creative genre with its own style, rather than keeping varieties separate for different functions (unlike some other pre-modern texts that use regional Chinese languages). The paper also argues that while the variety of Teochew used in the text has a poetic style which differs in some ways from spoken Teochew, when compared to other pre-modern texts that used regional Chinese languages, the language of the songbooks is relatively close to the norms of spoken Teochew. Finally, the paper argues that in many ways Teochew songbooks are quite typical of pre-modern Chinese texts that use regional languages; in fact, Teochew songbooks exhibit almost all of the distinguishing characteristics commonly found in such texts. In the pre-modern era, women in the Chaoshan region of southeastern China had a tradition of learning and performing long narrative songs. From the mid-1800s into the mid-1900s these songs were widely produced by local publishing houses in inexpensive woodblock print books called Teochew songbooks (Chaozhou gece) that made considerable use of the Teochew language.

An Assessment of Narrative Genres in Kurdish Folklore (Epos, Bayt and Narrative Songs)

In recent years, Kurdish folklore has seen extensive research and significant progress in analysis and classification. However, despite the magnitude and abundance of Kurdish folklore, scientific studies on the definition, differentiation, and determination of literary boundaries in oral literature genres have been inadequate. The most problematic issue in studies on Kurdish folklore has been the identification of specific genres and what to call them. The narrative genres are especially prone to obfuscate definitive genres and literary boundaries. Narrative types are long Kurdish narratives: epos (epic), bayt (with metres), and narrative songs (storytelling). Although the narrative types are divided into plain verse, plain prose, and verse-prose, plain prose is not examined in this article the aim of which is to introduce narrative genres per se, determine their literary boundaries, and reveal their characteristics. For this, the forms of epos, bayt, and narrative songs are compared and their similarities and differences are determined in terms of content, shape, performer, motif, theme, geography, and cultural region.

Wu Song Kills the Tiger: Transcription and Translation of a Cantonese Narrative Song from a Live Performance, with an Introduction

Wu Song Kills the Tiger: Transcription and Translation of a Cantonese Narrative Song from a Live Performance, with an Introduction

Unveiling the Tausug Culture in Parang Sabil through Translation

Translation communicates through language and facilitates the spread of information and culture.It is a conscious semantic transfer of culturalitems from one culture to another. In this paper, it aims to unveil the culture of the Tausugs, the people of Sulu, Philippines, in doing the jihad (holy war) through the translation of the parang sabil, a folk narrative song. Anchored on the interpretative theory of translation, this study translates the contemporary parang sabil titled Kissa sin Pagbunu ha Zambo written in Bahasa Sug, a language spoken among the Tausugs, into English. Performed by the Tausug lady named Indah Anjam, Kissa sin Pagbunu ha Zambo (The Story of War in Zambo) talks about the heroic act of Ustadz Habir Malik during the Zamboanga siege in 2013. By mobilizing the researchers’ knowledge in Bahasa Sug, English, and Tausug history and culture, linguistic and cultural issues were addressed in the English translation to maintain the sense or culture of doing the Tausug jihad. The researchers faithfully expressed in the English translation the culture of the Tausugs by maintaining the identity of the Tausugs as Muslims, by showing that the Tausugs are in unity to defend their homeland and religion, and by projecting that they are brave warriors in defense of Islam. Hence, translating this particular Tausug parang sabil placed in its cultural context is an urgent work to do in order to enlarge our consciousness on Tausug culture and history.

Transforming Gender and Emotion: The Butterfly Lovers Story in China and Korea

Transforming Gender and Emotion: The Butterfly Lovers Story in China and Korea

When Power Swallows its Grace: Poetics, Politics, and Performance in Postcolonial Nigeria

This article theorizes the artful life of power in Nigeria. Focusing on the short call-and-response chants, the extended narrative songs, the proverbial allusions, the bald invectives, and the poetic speeches that political parties deploy within the context of elections in Nigeria, it poses and engages with questions that lie at the intersection of poetry, politics, and performance. The article asks specifically: in what ways do the verbal arts of abuse and duelling emerge outside performative spaces within which they have been traditionally studied? In what contemporary forms do they appear that transcend the often-linear approach that conceives of them as the quotidian mechanisms of resistance for ‘the powerless’? This article suggests that to fully engage with these questions, we must be ready to shift our understanding of subjection and domination as well as of tradition and modernity.

Regilaulude teema-analüüs: võimalusi ja väljakutseid / Topic analysis of Estonian runosongs: Prospects and challenges

Regilaulude teema-analüüs: võimalusi ja väljakutseid / Topic analysis of Estonian runosongs: Prospects and challenges

Suonikylän kolttasaamelainen itkuperinne 1900-luvulla

Itkuvirsiperinne kuuluu lukuisten Luoteis-Venäjän kansojen kulttuureihin. Itkuvirret eli itkut tunnetaan myös kolttasaamelaisessa musiikkiperinteessä, jolla on vuosisataiset yhteydet muihin Luoteis-Venäjän alueen kulttuureihin. Kolttasaamelaisia itkuja on tutkittu aiemmin sangen vähän, mutta tallennettuja itkuja ja niihin liittyvää tietoa löytyy arkistoaineistoista.
 Kolttasaamenkielinen nimitys itkuperinteelle on virss, ja itkujen esittämisestä käytetään verbiä virsseed. Itkuilla käsitellään suruun ja menetykseen liittyviä tunnetiloja. Itkuvirret ovat pääasiassa sooloesityksiä, ja niitä esitetään joko yksityisesti tai osana yhteisön kollektiivista surutyötä muun muassa hautajaisissa. Itkujen esitystilanteet, tekstien teemat ja musiikilliset rakenteet erottavat ne muusta kolttasaamelaisesta perinteestä. Itkujen kielelliset piirteet ovat pitkälti samanlaisia kolttasaamelaisen leuʹdd-perinteen kanssa.
 Artikkelissa käsittelen kuolinitkuja, jotka liittyvät kuolemantapauksiin, hautaamiseen ja vainajien muisteluun, sekä hääitkuja, jotka kuuluvat tilanteeseen, jossa morsian hyvästelee lapsuuden ajan perheensä. Sivuan myös armeijaan tai sotaan lähtemiseen liittyviä rekryytti-itkuja, joista ei arkistoissa ole tullut esiin kuin muistitietoa.
 Tarkastelen myös tilapääitkujen kaltaisena perinteenä tallenteita, joissa käsitellään toisen maailmansodan jälkeistä evakkoaikaa, vanhojen kotiseutujen kaipuuta ja kiitollisuutta. Itkuista tunnettuja tekstin osia on myös eräänlaisina itkusitaatteina kolttasaamelaisesta leuʹdd-perinteessä. Tämä kolttasaamelaisiin itkuihin liittyvä tutkimus on osa laajempaa kolttasaamelaisen musiikkikulttuurin tutkimusprojektia.

Mediación didáctica con canciones narrativas en la Educación y la cultura histórica del Caribe colombiano

El presente artículo es producto de investigación cuyo objetivo fue diseñar una propuesta didáctica, fundamentada desde las canciones narrativas para el reconocimiento de la cultura histórica caribeña en estudiantes de básica secundaria. Metodológicamente, se asumió una postura cualitativa desde los planteamientos de Martínez (2014). A partir del tipo de investigación propositiva y diseño de campo. (Arias, 2006; Hurtado, 2012). Entre las unidades de análisis estuvieron músicos, licenciados en música y referentes de calidad del Ministerio de Educación Nacional. Se aplicaron guiones de entrevistas semiestructuradas y el análisis de contenido, instrumentos validados mediante juicios de cuatro (4) expertos. Las teorías de sustento se exponen desde los planteamientos de Sánchez (2009), Cataño (2011), en lo relacionado a la cultura histórica, y Gardey y Pérez (2009), Olmeda (2003), Ceriani (2013), para las canciones narrativas. Se concluyó que las instituciones educativas carecen de procesos de inter y transversalidad curricular que promuevan la cultura histórica y los procesos de construcción de identidad local, regional y nacional. Razón por la cual, se resaltan las canciones narrativas como mediación didáctica en los propósitos de comunicar costumbres, describir hechos históricos, reconocer temporal y geográficamente un contexto, y contribuir en los procesos de la composición lírica y narrativa desde sus elementos.

La buenaventura del carnaval. Tradición oral en un canto narrativo de transmisión moderna

Este estudio, en el que se parte del análisis comparado de casi un centenar de muestras orales de la canción narrativa generalmente conocida como La buenaventura, se propone demostrar que dicha canción, pese a difundirse tardíamente y a través del pliego de cordel, experimentó un interesante proceso de tradicionalización. En particular, la asimilación del lenguaje tradicional es apreciable en el plano del discurso, de la configuración de la intriga y del mensaje fabulístico, así como en las contaminaciones y engarces con otras canciones y romances del repertorio tradicional.

Ljudska pesem med zavezanostjo tradiciji in nenehnim spreminjanjem

In the article, we consider the dynamic relationship between the preservation of traditional genres and motifs in folk songs and the introduction of new songs during the period from the Reformation to the nineteenth century. This relationship was influenced by the evolving social context, which included both traditions that were linked to the institutional framework of churches and changes in the lives of singers. What has been preserved from this period is above all the records of religious folk songs in manuscripts and printed songbooks, while records of secular folk songs are relatively rare. In addition to descriptions of folk singing activities recorded in the works of writers of the day, we also focus on singers of murder (moritaten) ballads, beggars and folk musicians who conveyed the news of the day in the form of song in order to improve their material situation. In the second half of the eighteenth century, a predominant interest in narrative songs emerged among collectors of Slovenian folklore.

De/re-construction of Zhuang shamanic songs in cultural festivals

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of Zhuang shamanic narrative songs at three festivals to explore how and why a narrative song genre that originated with Zhuang shamans is separated from shamanic ritual contexts and re-contextualized at festivals under the cultural policies instigated by the People’s Republic of China in the post-socialist era. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on a review of publications on Zhuang performance art and fieldwork data collected in southwestern Guangxi, China. Findings The de-construction of Zhuang shamanic narrative song melodies dates back to the late nineteenth century, when southwestern Guangxi literati used the melodies to compose popular songs. By the 1950s, the religious elements of these narrative songs had already been obfuscated, leading Chinese scholars to select them as representative of Zhuang performance arts. Since the enactment of China’s Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) Law in the early twenty-first century, local Zhuang elites have re-constructed and re-introduced shamanic elements to narrative songs as they are performed at festivals as a means to further highlight the ethnic characteristics of the Zhuang people. Originality/value The paper provides detailed documentation of three cases of the restoration of shamanic elements to narrative songs sung by the Zhuang people. However, the research is limited to one community, inviting comparison with other cases, both inside and outside China, of how ICH policies impact grass-roots cultural practices.

Linear Narratives in Cyclical Form: the Hunt for Reason in the Cantigas de Santa Maria

ABSTRACTCentral to the world of thirteenth‐century Galician‐Portuguese song are the Cantigas de Santa Maria (CSM), on whose narrative cantigas de miragre this article focuses. These songs comprise alternations between a refrain and strophes that finish by reiterating the refrain's metre, rhymes and melody. Combining the strictly linear narrative of the miracle cantiga with this cyclical framework poses manifold complications. Self‐contained narrative logic is divided by interstrophic refrains, and chains of thought are divided by destabilising chains of interstrophic enjambment. This setup in the cantigas de miragre is rendered all the more curious given that few comparable instances of cyclical structure and linear narrative occur elsewhere in late‐medieval vernacular repertoire. In essence, concatenating the linear with the circular does not – and perhaps should not – work in narrative song. In this article, I examine how the cantigas de miragre navigate this dichotomy. Parsing the musical, poetic and narrative structures of CSM 232, I demonstrate how the sonically tenacious refrain, recapped within the latter part of each strophe as the strophe‐b, works to highlight the narrative thrust of a miracle story. The memorially marked recurrence of refrain metre, rhymes and melody in the strophe‐b functions as a device to separate the narratively central from the extraneous. It thereby exposes a miracle song's essential message to its audience. Through the analysis of CSM 232, this article highlights the fundamental role of sonic memory in late‐medieval vernacular song.

The way of enjoyment and educational significance of narrative folk songs

The way of enjoyment and educational significance of narrative folk songs

서사민요 의 형성과 전승의 맥락

서사민요 의 형성과 전승의 맥락

Multiformity in the Song of Ḫedammu

AbstractA new analysis of the narrative tradition of the Hurro-Hittite Song of Ḫedammu is presented, arguing that two separate Hittite versions can be reconstructed, one relatively condensed, the other more prolix. Such multiformity supports the postulation of an oral tradition lying behind the scribal production of Hurro-Hittite narrative song at Ḫattuša.