The Musicological Development and Educational Transmission of Liangzhou Xianxiao Chinese Folk Music

Abstract

This study aims primarily to trace the musicological development of the practice across different periods and to design an educational framework for the practice to be included within modern quality education systems, thus helping to revitalize this folk practice, which is rapidly disappearing. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of music education sociology and intangible cultural heritage preservation, this inquiry explicitly addresses two specific research questions: how the musicological structures of the genre evolved under shifting sociopolitical climates, and what actionable pedagogical pathways can effectively prevent lineage fracture. This study employed qualitative research methods. The sampling method for this study was purposive sampling and took place in Wuwei City from March 2024 to March 2026, following the researcher in this time period. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews, field observations, and the physical analysis of heritage artifacts. The specialized informant group comprised five participants, each in one of the three groups designed to provide rigorous triangulation: two members of the formal education sector, who provided archival material; two former traditional artists, who were the practice’s main inheritors; and one municipal-level, modern community communication singer. The musicological results of this practice showed that from the Western Xia Dynasty, Liangzhou Xianxiao progressed in three phases: a court art form with an integrated system, a secular practice supported by closed guilds of the blind, and a contemporary digital practice. However, certified lineages are on the verge of collapse due to a severely aging demographic (57% over 60 years) and the total collapse of the traditional vertical blind master-apprentice system. These findings suggest an urgent need for a paradigm shift from passive museum archiving to active classroom-based heritage education. By institutionalizing credit-bearing mother-tongue music curricula, introducing updated Entering Campus staging ensembles, and creating ethically regulated tourism performance slots, music scholars and music-based cultural practitioners will be able to narrow the generation gap, reclaim the lost economic and artistic power of practitioners, and ensure that Chinese folk music is sustained for future generations. Finally, future research directions are explicitly mapped out, recommending that succeeding investigators expand geographical fieldwork lines to capture sub-regional stylistic variations and implement longitudinal empirical metrics to measure exact youth retention rates in the region.