Beijing Drumsong

Dagu, or drumstrong, is a big drum variety of spoken and sung narratives, of which variations may be found virtually all over China. Although most dagu stories are accompanied by some form of musical accompaniment, usually the sanxian alone or with the erhu, the two-stringed fiddle, there are variations that do not have musical accompaniment.  This genre became widespread at the end of the nineteenth century (Qing Dynasty) in areas around the Yellow River Valley, which is considered northern China. Wang Jue lists thirty-three different kinds of dagu, which may be associated, for the most pan, with geographical locations. Dagu  may be categorized by musical instrument as well as geographical area and theme, for example, metal clappers dagu or wooden clappers dagu. or, on the other hand, comic dagu or three-leaps wooden clapper dagu, and so on.