earticle

영어

This is a study of the musical characteristics of Han Chinese children's song's known as erge(兒歌). The erge genre consists of erge sung by children and yaoerge(搖兒歌), which is the same as a lullaby in Korea. Erge is a kind of minge(民歌), or folksong. Studies reveal it has an abundance of local characteristics not only influenced by language, customs, and geographical designations but also by music. The Division into Jinsisecaiqu(近似色彩區) of the Han Chinese Race Minge, by Miaojing(苗晶) and Qiaojianzhong(喬建中), said it consisted of 11 recognized characteristics. So, following this ideat, this study examines musical characteristics such as song type, tonal range, cadence, mode and metre. In the case of meter, the songs are primarily in 2/4 but there are also instances of 4/4 and 3/4 of a hemiola(2/4 and 3/4) rhythms. Sometimes we also see 5/4 or 5/8, but rarely witness a free-metre in this genre. Modes could be discussed in terms of Chinese minge which has a formal modal system consisting of 5-note-modes, 6-note-modes, and 7-note-modes. But I discovered some erge with 2, 3 or 4-note-modes. Although there is little published evidence to attest to this, my understanding, based on my research, is that application of melody is related to an application of local mode. Range mostly is within an octave but this also differs according to location. In the study of Chinese erge, there have been no in-depth studies. But Chinese musicologists recognize the importance of erge for studying the origins of Chinese minge. Thus I anticipate future related studies.