|
|
Features of Amis folk songs
Music and dance are part of typical Amis daily
life. It is common to sing and dance while
working, resting, or drinking. No matter what
age they are, Amis men and women are crazy about
singing. During festivals of sacrifices, there
are music and dancing all day long. Amis culture
is known to pay respects to their gods using a
form of dance instead of food. Therefore, folk
songs are the most important part of traditional
Amis musical culture. There are no limits as to
what can be used for a song because anything has
to do with one’s daily life can be found in Amis
folk songs. In order to simplify the problem
with understanding traditional Amis folk songs,
a total of 3 categories are used here:
children’s nursery rhymes, everyday songs, and
songs of rituals. Amis folk songs have
no titles.
一、 Types of folk songs
（一） Children’s nursery
rhymes
Children’s nursery rhymes cover not only songs
children sing but also songs adults sing to
children.：
１、Children’s
songs sing by adults:：
The singers of children’s songs by adults are
usually females like sisters, mothers, and
grandmothers. This type of song was designed to
for the following purposes: calm children down
while putting children to bed; pacify and
entertain crying or fussy children; after
dinner, a story time is usually accompanied by
songs for educational purposes. Moreover,
children’s songs by adults can be furthered
categorized into the following types:
(1)
Bedtime songs: for example: “Sleep tight.. Good baby… Have a
wonderful night!”.
(2)
Fun songs: for example: “Heha! Smile. Give me a big smile”.
(3)
Story songs: for example: “Tea pot”, “Cheeta”, “Cicada Sings”,
“Frog’s eyes”, and more.
(4)
Tale songs: for example: “Superman”, “spring water”, “Banai’s
sad songs”, “Nakao and Sila”, and more.
(5)
Songs for preserving mother tongue: for example: “Nine
rabbits”.
(6)
Educational songs: for example: “Worshiping God”, “Number’s
game”, and more.
(7)
Songs for respecting elderly. “Wild vegetables”, “Respect your
parents”, and more.
２、Children’s
songs by children：
Children’s song sang by children are mostly
based on games reflecting children’s everyday
and filled with innocence, happiness, and
humors.
(1)
Fun songs: for example: “papaya”, “turn around and around”,
“cute family”, “exchange”, and more.
(2)
Game songs: “Wild boar”, “catching the big head”, “catching
ghost”, “catching mice”, and more.
(3)
Dance songs: for example: “let’s dance”, “rivers”, “blue sky”,
“hopping”, and more.
Hilarious and sarcastic songs: “anteater”,
“strange man”, “Hi Miss”, “a knot is tied”, and
more.
（二）
Everyday songs：
Amis culture is very colorful and
diversified. Typical activities in
traditional Amis culture include hunting,
wood chopping, setting up traps, fishing,
picking seashells, catching crabs,
cultivating, seeding, weeding, praying for
rain, praying for clear days, participating
in ceremonies of sacrifices, and more.
Because average Amis people are happy,
humorous, and naturally romantic, there had
been countless love songs and humorous songs
in Amis culture.
-
Drinking songs: “Let’s dance”, “Cheers!”,
“Happy feast”, and more
-
Working songs: “Harvesting rattan”, “Go up
to the mountains and work”, “fishing”,
“hunting”, “cultivating”, and more.
-
Love songs: “Wonderful days”, “Welcoming
brides”, “May I know your names”.
-
Inspiring songs: “For children”, “Unmarried
girls”, “Young men”, “Educated people”,
“Married people”, and more.
-
Funny songs: “Dad went fishing”, “Crab”,
“Song-in-law went fishing”, “who said I
loved you”, and more.
-
Dining songs: “Miracle soup”, “Black ghost
dish”, “Delicious Tulun”, and more.
（三）
Songs of
Rituals
Based on traditional Amis belief, mankind’s
everyday lives are closely tied to
supernatural spirits such as birth, aging,
illness, death, production, Mother Nature,
and more. Supernatural spirits are supposed
to have control over mankind’s activities.
As a result, rituals of sacrifices were
created to pay respects to supernatural
spirits, whereas specific songs and dance
are essential to these rituals. Songs of
rituals can be grouped into the following
categories:
-
Chanting songs: songs of praying for rain,
praying for clear days, repelling devil of
sickness, and witchcraft.
-
Songs of rituals: offering sacrifices to
ancestors and gods as well as devotion for
harvest, animal hunting, and head hunting.
In addition to the above categories, there are a
number of indecent songs. Though they mostly
intended to be humorous, rough languages in
those songs can be too graphic and not
appropriate for an overview. Nonetheless, these
songs are popular in Amis households and are not
considered inappropriate even for children to
sing along.
二、 Features of Amis Folk
Songs
Filler word
(virtual word) and actual word：
Based on the observations for common daily words
and songs, Amis folk songs can be grouped into
filler words and actual words.
Filler words (virtual words): Take
“Naluwan-Ohai-Ya” as an example, it plays a very
important role in Amis folk songs. For every
Amis song, there are two ways to sing: singing
with actual words and singing with vowel sounds
of filler words (virtual words). Anyone can
easily sing along songs using vowel sounds of
filler words (virtual words) to portray the
meaning of actual words, whereas the songs with
actual words are only handful. Songs with actual
words are more popular in recent centuries.
According to statistics of related studies, it
is evident that songs with filler words are more
than songs with actual words. Furthermore, based
on historical documents, songs with filler words
(virtual words) appeared earlier than songs with
actual words. Therefore, filler words in Amis
folk songs are not only valuable but also
meaningful with given purposes. |
