The allegro drum section of Su-nan Shifangu is always the highlight in the winds-percussion compositions when the composition is with drum. The musicians can well present their drum skill in this section. The allegro drum section is the climax of the whole composition. Observing two trends of Su-nan Shifangu’s allegro drum section, it is found that both of them are adapted from the score of Zhu Qinfu, the Drum King of South China. This finding initiates a series of investigations on the allegro drum section of Su-nan Shifangu in this thesis. Through literature reviews and interviews, this research investigates the reason of such discrepancy. The thesis attempts to understand the characteristics of different drum paizi with the analysis of their heritance, and to provide its original observation and interpretation of the allegro drum section in Su-nan Shifangu.

The project starts with the analysis of the scores. Interviewing scholars and experts, such as Li Zhengui, Yim Hok-man, Wang Jianhua, Quin Xiaoyuan, etc., the research moves on to the process of their heritance and the differences between the two trends of Su-nan Shifangu performance. With these first-hand materials, the thesis provides its own interpretations on the scenes of performances and the presented images of the music.

It is shown that the earlier folk musicians’ representations of the works were more flexible. There were wide ranges of deviations on the allegro drum section. Li Zhengui and Li Minxiong had learned the Su-nan Shifangu from Zhu Qinfu and recorded the scores. Their versions of the allegro drum section differ and have their own specialties. The researcher combines the specialties of both, and proposes a new version of allegro drum section. Based on the research, the project further searches in the percussion works to trace the adaptations and imitations of Zhu’s skill, rhythm and sentence structure in the allegro drum sections of Li Minxiong’s drum compositions. This thesis aims to motivate diverse and profound readings of the performance and the representation of the allegro drum section.