Cantonese Music - A Century Old but Very Much Alive

Chow Fan-fu

Among the fifteen pieces of Guangdong music on the programme of this concert, most may well be called ‘Cantonese music’ as the genre originally referred to folk instrumental music commonly heard in Guangzhou, the Pearl River Delta and the Greater Bay Area. It is closely associated with Hong Kong because of the area’s proximity. The energy of its historical lineage has continued its momentum over the past century. The programme tonight not only traces the various aspects of Cantonese music, but also allows everyone in the audience to feel the vitality of the genre. Therein, too, lies the origin of the concert title, ‘Favourite Tunes in Cantonese Music’.

The unique features and pronounced regional flavour of Cantonese music in terms of style, instrumentation and configuration, performing techniques and formats, melody and temperament, represent the culmination of a gradual development process that took place over an extended period of time. In its early days, Cantonese music existed largely as entr’acte pieces for Cantonese operas, or used to highlight actions within a plot – examples are the suona and percussion music of Da-Kai-Men and Xiao-Kai-Men in this concert. From the 1920s, they became widely popular in the Pearl River Delta, all over the Guangdong province, and in the Hong Kong and Macao regions. Pioneers of this musical genre included Ho Lau-tong (‘He Liutang’ in putonghua), Yim Lo-lit (‘Yan Laolie’), Yau Hok-chau, Yik Kim-chuen, and Cantonese music’s ‘Great Four’ who were based in Hong Kong – Lui Man-shing, Wan Chi-chung, Ho Tai-sor and Ching Ngok-wai. Later there were Siu Tit-hung, Chen Junying, Chan Man-tat and Chen Deju. Together, these musicians not only helped to remodel musical instruments and innovate the performing techniques, but also composed numerous new works with a distinctive character that set Cantonese music completely apart from Cantonese Opera, and put the genre on an equal footing with ancient tunes of the northern Central Plains and sizhu (silk and bamboo) music of Jiangnan (region south of the Yangtze River). Since the 1930s, Cantonese music has gained popularity in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and other major cities in China.

Hong Kong as the cornerstone of Cantonese music

Hong Kong in the 1920s and 1930s grew into a cornerstone for the development of Cantonese music. The activities of many musicians in the field were intimately linked to Hong Kong. For instance, Yau Hok-chau (1880–1942), whose specialties were the wind instrument suona and the plucked-string yangqin, not only wrote well-known Cantonese tunes like In Celebration of Good Times, Lion Rolling a Ball, Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl, and Sheng-Sheng-Man, also published several books including A Handbook of String Music (1916), New Sounds in Chinese Music, A New Compilation of Yangqin Studies, and The Best of Yangqin Music (1928). Another renowned figure in Cantonese music, Ho Lau-tong (1874–1933), collaborated with Lui Man-shing and Wan Chi-chung to establish the music section of Lam Long Wan King Society. Ho also composed The Dragon Boat Race and Rain Lashing on the Plantain, among others.

As a region, the Pearl River Delta has always enjoyed prosperity, while Hong Kong and Macao are confluences between East and West. Moreover, Cantonese people are mentally agile and adapt readily to changes. As such, Cantonese music not only associated closely with folk tunes and ballads of traditional Cantonese operas and the many paiziqu (set tunes) in Guangdong music, but also started to incorporate western musical instruments like the violin, trumpet, clarinet, and saxophone into its repertoire of instruments. In the 1930s, a sub-genre of Cantonese music known as Spirit Music appeared (Smooth Sailing and Dance of the Dragon and the Phoenix in the Sky in this concert). This was actually the earliest jazzification and popularization of Cantonese music, delivered in a nightclub style. Meanwhile, Lui Man-shing modified the erhu into the yuehu and Wan Chi-chung developed the Guangdong violin (fan ling) from the standard instrument by making changes to its tuning and playing techniques. Such innovations greatly enhanced the expressiveness of Cantonese music, and made it into a genre rich in vigour.

It is worth noting that Cantonese music has an immense capacity to accommodate other music styles and cultures. Since the 1950s, many genres of Hong Kong’s music, including Mandarin songs, Cantopop, film scores, and themes from television dramas have all been ‘transformed’ into what is now generic Cantonese music. Examples include I Want Your Love, Beautiful Clouds Chasing the Moon, Hong Kong – the City that Never Sleeps (Summer Night from A Song of the Four Seasons) which are featured in this concert. That is why the Cantonese music of Hong Kong touches a happy chord in the listeners with its soft, delicate, gentle, active and vivacious sounds that enliven the spirit with their humanism. Such a magic can be felt not just in pieces like Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl, Butterflies Flying in Pairs, and The Life of the Party, but also in the more tranquil and melancholic melodies like The Toll of the Temple Bells. The ‘Favourite Tunes in Cantonese Music 2021’ concert may well convince everyone that this accommodating, empowering force of Cantonese music will prevail into its second century.