kavalan is the latest tribal unit influenced by the Han nationality in Pingpu Tribe. It is also the unit that reserves the most traditional culture. They are mainly distributed in Yilan、Hualien and Taituan county. In history documentation, the Kavalan activities on the Yilan plain were started from the immigration of Han nationalty over the sea to Taiwan for cultivation. In 1796, when Wu, Sha led the immigrants from Jhangjhou、Pojhou and Guangdong to cultivate Hazai beach, the plain was already inhabited with Kavalan people.
Traditionally, Kavalan tribe holds its original belief as 「every thing on this earth is with spirit」. As to the soul concept of this tribe, the power of the heaven and earth is from three sources：the good spirits、the evil spirits and the natural spirits. Extended from this original belief, a unique sacrifice ritual culture and healing ceremony is therefore derived. And all kinds of complicated rituals and ceremonies carried out by a Metiyu have deeply and mysteriously painted the close connections between the Kavalan people and the spirits.
Music content and characteristics
the immigration history and cultural changes of Kavalan people have been reserved through the ballads left by the present Kavalan people. We can not only hear from the lyrics of this tribe how their ancestors were immigrated and cultivated with difficulties but also hear in the modes of ballads the obvious signs of music performance style of Basay、Kavalan、Amis and Japanese. This is what we see today in music of Kavalan.
To divide the presently reserved 29 ballads according to their sources, we will have five different categorizations：
(1) Kisaiz: the song for healing ritual sacrifice ceemony：
According to the metiyu Jhu, A-Bi who is still carrying out sacrifice ceremonies, a kisaiz healing ritual contains 8 fixed sacrifice songs to form a complete set of kisaiz suite. These 8 songs will serve the functions of summoning the holy spirit of Kavalan，「welcoming the spirits」、「taking the spiritual silk」、「practicing magic」、「healing illness」、「worshiping holy spirits」and to the last Sending away the spirits song to end this ritual. The function of music is always the focus of the ritual. The 8 songs set the modes based on a pentatonic scale. The way they use lyrics is the same with the way we used to construct “songs of praise” in the Book of Songs in China. The principle is「very few words with very deep meanings」. Each song is a repeat of the same mode only with different lyrics. This is what we called the typical strophie form.
(2) The Non-ritual ballads performed with traditional lyrics and modes
there are three ballads of this kind. Both the lyrics and the modes are considered by the tribal people to be the most genuine Kavalan ballads. The three songs are miomio sinawari(song of harvest celebration)、mrina(a lullaby) and masawa(song for Wars).
(3) Presently composed ballads with traditional modes
This kind of ballads are composed with new lyrics and traditional Kavalan modes.
(4) Foreign modes／Kavalan lyrics
This kind of ballads are performed by applying the ballad modes of foreign tribes and the translation of the original lyrics into Kavalan language. There are two mode sources of this kind： one is from neighboring Amei ballad modes and the other is from the popular Japanese song modes during the period from Japanese occupation to Taiwan restoration.
(5) New Folksongs (Recomposed lyrics and modes )
what we called 「New folksongs」are those modern Kavalan folksongs recomposed with new modes and lyrics. For example, the song “we kavalan people shall rise”(qasengat pa ita na kebaran) by Mr. Pan, Jin-Rong is a completely newly composed ballad. Its mode structure is based on dispersed chord notes【 do 、 mi 、 sol 】as its main melody. Today this song has become a new symbolic song to represent the Kavalan tribe.
Data origin：
Wu, Rong-Shun， 2000 ，〈Taiwan Aborigine Music〉，《The hear-sing and appreciation of Local Music》, National Center of Traditional Arts Preparation Division，Page237-240 。
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Pingpu Tribe
