South Music, an ancient folk Chuige, is popular in the area around the north of Baoding in Hebei Province. Xushui South Music Chuige was widely spread in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The music plays of South Music Fair were carried from the Buddhist temple by a monk Feng who came to beg alms and imparted it to the natives.
Nancheng Village South Music Fair of Ansu Town in Xushui County enjoys a great fame. The major instruments of South Music Fair include the big pipe, suona horn, sheng, flute, lama horn, bass drum, second drum, big gong, dihu, banhu, barrel-shaped drum, basin-shape drum, cymbals and hairpin etc. In performances, it is led by the big pipe and accompanied by the percussion instruments. It often uses the 4-degree chord and 8-degree chord. The music score is the numbered musical notation, which is used to be the gongchipu. The performance also used to be the single one and then turns into the performance of several vocal parts and changes in the tune.
South Music Fair is skilled at performing the ancient music and modern music. The representative one is Heroes Cross the Dadu River Successfully, which is powerful, enthusiastic and charming. And the China National Music Group adopted the ancient music play Laban and performed it in Vienna. At present, there are sixty to seventy persons of South Music Fair to take part in the performance activities and about one hundred music plays to perform.
