Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China

Southwest China’s Yunnan province is home to the majority of the Hani people. Think of the terraced rice fields of rural China and you’ll see the soil from which their singing springs.

The polyphony and slowly shifting structure of the Hani’s chanting is mesmeric. The first track ‘Wu Chu Aci’ emphasises the music’s purposefulness, intended in this case to accompany rice transplanting. The alarm-like squeaking of tree-leaf horns seems to signal labour’s beginning, and the chorus of vocal encouragement ebbs and flows with the rhythm of the effort. It is not all work and no play however. In ‘Iyu Gu (Responding Courting Song in the Mountain)’, women and men exchange playful whoops and screams.

This singing shares something universal with spirituals and work songs the world over. Recordings like this connect us to music’s deep past and remind us of its unifying power.