Quyi, or ‘song art’, refers to performances involving storytelling and singing, with music or percussion accompaniment. It has more than 300 variant sub-genres, and among them, the type involving drums (known as ‘guqu’, or ‘drum song’) also has many stylistic schools. For dagu (‘big drum’), the performer would alternate between narration and singing when telling the story. The cogent delivery must be matched by vivid portrayals, crisp enunciation, and appropriate lyrical or dramatic tones.

The Tianjin Song Art Troupe will bring to Hong Kong some classics in song art that are representative of the various stylistic schools, such as the sonorous short-story narration of the Liu Baoquan school, the heartbreaking frailty of the Bai Yunpeng school, and the throaty ‘kadiao’ the Luo Yusheng school. True to the saying that ‘Tianjin is the home of song art’, the Troupe will perform a huge variety of song art genres, such as Jingyun dagu (narrative singing performance in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment), Henan zhuizi (ballad singing to the accompaniment of the zhuiqin), Meihua dagu (narrative singing with five instruments as accompaniment), Xihe dagu, Leting dagu, Danxian, Kuaibanshu (storytelling with a clapper) and Shandong qinshu (narrative singing of Shandong). It will be a good opportunity to enjoy a comprehensive showcase of narrative singing in northern China.

Performers

Wang Li, Hao Xiujie, Li Shaojie, Wang Zhe, Zhang Kai, Feng Xinrui, Wang Hongliang, Wang Jianmei, Kong Xiaomeng