Xi'an Guyue: Ancient ensemble awaits another millennium

Xi'an Guyue is usually divided into two categories – sitting music and walking music, with the latter also including the singing of chorus.

The sitting music is played by performers sitting in a hall and subject to a strict and fixed musical pattern and structure, while the walking music is more casual and the performances focus on melodies.

Over the centuries, the tunes have never ceased to hymn and the scores, using an ancient notation system dating from Tang and Song dynasties, are passed down generation by generation just as they were a thousand years ago.

Approximately 3,000 musical pieces are documented and about 150 volumes of handwritten scores are preserved and still in use.

The ensemble was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2009.

Looming barriers

Uprising from a time when the Middle Kingdom was the center of the world and the royal house was greatly respected, Xi'an Guyue once played an important role in entertaining the crowds.

It is one of the most complete genres of folk music still surviving in China, earning the name "the living fossil of ancient Chinese music".

But in a fast-modernizing society, its functionality and popularity are fading away at a great speed. What's left behind of its value seems to be only recognized in academic studies, tourism and religious practices in limited areas.

There are only six major ensembles carrying on the art form in suburban Xi'an and its neighboring villages.