Folk Music of China, Vol. 2: Folk Songs of Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang

Manchu music refers to the traditional music of the Manchu people from Northeast China (historical Manchuria). It spans courtly repertories cultivated under the Qing dynasty and a rich layer of folk, ritual, and narrative genres maintained in Manchu communities. Musically, it favors pentatonic and related North China modal idioms, heterophonic textures, and flexible vocal delivery that can move from free-rhythm chant in ritual contexts to steady, strophic melodies in folk songs. Core timbres come from northern Chinese and steppe-linked instruments such as huqin-family fiddles (including sihu), sanxian (plucked lute), frame and barrel drums (including octagonal drum used for narrative song), small gongs and cymbals, and sometimes jaw harp (kouxian) in village practice. The tradition prominently includes shamanic chant and drumming for spirit-invitation rites, narrative ballads about hunting, border life, and clan history, and pieces preserved or adapted within the Qing court’s ceremonial soundscape. Because of the Manchu role in imperial life, Manchu music both absorbed wider Sinitic, Mongolian, and Tibetan elements and, in turn, helped shape the mixed northern Chinese capital style that later fed into Beijing’s theatrical and narrative arts.