A-Wa Mountain 阿佤山

Details

Description

Composed by Guo Wenjing | 郭文景作曲
The melody starts with fervent percussion rhythms, accompanied by the special effects of fingernails flicking the sound-box of the string-plucking instruments. The largo is followed by adagio doloroso with the melodic figure alternating between the alto bamboo flutes and the strings. Then comes the luxuriant passage in lento of cantabile nature with the dignified quality of the rhythm maintained in the music which differs from the leaping quality of dance music. The sequence of this sublime passage changes from pianissimo to the fortissimo climax in the end.
People of the Wa ethnic group are scattered throughout various mountainous regions of the Yunnan Province, with a population of about 352,000 in 1990. They speak Wa language (a branch of the South Asian family language), but do not have a written language of their own. The Wa writing in the form of Latin alphabet was created in 1957.
The Wa people's ethnic belief entails that the God of Nature exists in many forms on Earth. In the past, they observed the tattoo custom and the custom of offering poultry, oxen, or even human skulls as a sacrifice to ghosts. Amongst their primitive religious activities, the more prominent highlights are "beating wooden drums" and "chopping ox tails". From 1950 onwards the Wa people has had undergone changes in many aspects of their culture.