Chinese Instruments

Horse-Headed Fiddle

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 15:40:22 +0800

The Horse-headed fiddle is a bowed stringed-instrument with a scroll carved like a horse's head. It is popular in Mongolian music. With a history of over 1,300 years, it even influenced European string music when Marco Polo brought one back from his travels through Asia. Its wide tonal range and deep, hazy tone color express the joy or pathos of a melody to its fullest.

The Mongolian people bestowed upon their beloved horse-headed fiddle a fantastic legend: during horse-racing at the Nadam Fair -- their featured grand festival--a hero, Su He, and his white horse ran the fastest, which incurred the envy and wrath of the duke. The cruel duke shot the horse dead, and Su He grieved so much that he met his horse in a dream. In the dream, the horse told Su He to make a fiddle from wood and the hair of a horse's tail, and to carve the head of the fiddle in the shape of a horse's head. The lad followed the horse's advice and when he finished, the fiddle produced an extremely vivid sound. From then on, people loved this instrument and composed many songs for it.

Beijing Opera plays and Performance

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 15:37:35 +0800

Every Beijing opera troupe aims for a playable balance of role types. This balance is often described through analogy to a table whose top is supported by four beams that in turn are supported by four legs. The top represents the full repertoire of Beijing opera plays; to perform them, four "beams,"i.e., four principal performers, are required to portray leading roles. These principal per- formers are an older sheng, a martial sheng, a young dan, and either a young sheng or a jing. These four "beams" are then supported by four "legs", the abso- lutely essential performers of supporting roles; a secondary older sheng, an older dan, a chou, and a young sheng or a jing (whichever has not already been em- ployed as a "beam"). Every troupe also requires a number of tertiary performers to serve as additional supporting characters, foot soldiers, attendants, and servants of both sexes.

Instrumental Connectives

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:41:44 +0800

There are three major types of instrumental connectives large instrumental connectives (da guomen), small instrumental connectives (xiao guomen), and halfline instrumental connectives (banju guomen). The first type is longer than the latter two; the standard instrumental connective for each metrical type in each mode is usually its large instrumental connective. The shorter instrumental connectives may consist of an excerpt from the large instrumental connective, or may be a simplified version of the entire large instrumental connective. Both large and small instrumental connectives may serve as prelude, interlude, or con cluding instrumental connectives; halfline instrumental connectives most fre quently occur as interludes, and are usually found in the erhuang mode. Because the display of song skill in the expression of emotion is usually performed in synthesis with danceacting, instrumental connective serve a third function; in addition to establishing, and maintaining atmosphere and emotional color, and to clarifying meaning by punctuating dou, instrumental connectives also accom pany the danceacting movements of the stage performers.

When longer sec tions of danceacting movement are appropriate, large instrumental connectives are played. And when shorter sections of danceacting movement are called for, small instrumental connectives are performed. In some instances speech is inter jected during instrumental connectives as well.

The Influence of Western Instruments on the Development of Chinese Music

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 08:44:55 +0800

At the beginning of the 20th century,western music pushed open China's gates,and the Chinese gradually accepted western music instruments and learned performance and composition of instrumental music.One group of national composers after another with national consciousness and creativity gradually gave up imitating western styles in the beginning through their creative practices and explored a new road of"absorbing ancient elements to be used now,and foreign elements to be used in Chinese music."Brave in absorption and reference and mutual fusion,they created many instrumental music pieces loved by the people.As early as 1934,Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin or Qi Erpin held a contest in"collecting Chinese style piano works."Corydon Piccolo by He Luting won the competition.It is a piano piece with typical Chinese tastes,and until now the charm of this number has not diminished,and it has become a song that every Chinese child learning piano must play.

In 1959,He Zhanhao and Chen Gang,two students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music composed the violin concerto Butterfly Lovers (Liang Zhu) For half a century,Butterfly Lovers has become a classic symphonic works with the most prestigious international reputation in the music history of China,and has become a symbol of the music culture of China.

Butterfly Lovers describes the steadfast love story of a young couple named Liang Shangbo and Zhu Yingtai.The piece uses the tunes of Yue Opera (or Shaoxing Opera)as thematerial and is written in the form of a concerto.Although it combines Chinese and western styles,it is full of national style.In terms of music structure,the composers use the western style sonata to reflect the dramatic conflicts;in terms of artistic process,it gives full play to the characteristics of folk music,and absorbs a rich variety of expressions in Chinese opera.For example,in the presentation part it absorbs the form of singing"dialogue"in opera to express the theme of the love between Liang and Zhu;in the roll-out section,"wailing soul jumping into the tomb,"it uses the daoban in Beijing Opera and xinoban in Shaoxing Opera.It made a bold and successful attempt to explore the way of nationalizing symphonies in China.Once it came out,people loved this work.

In the international community,this piece called Butterfly Lovers is widely spread and loved by people around the world.The Chinese folk music instrument has been reformed with the development of the society and technology,professionally referring the reform of tone and expansion of diapason, as well as the application of the national musical instruments in the national symphony. This reform plays an important role in the development of the Chinese national symphony. To win a greater popularity of folk music, musicians have done a lot. The spread and development of electronic music encourage the musicians to create a new kind music named as "new folk music,"which is integrated with folk music, electronic music and pop music.

This new folk music enables a better performance of the Chinese instrument and adds more popular and fashion elements to the folk music, which is now more popular. Twelve Girls Band, a band established in 2001, should be an example for combining the traditional Chinese cultural elements together with modern audio-visual effect. Twelve beautiful and well-educated girls use the Chinese music instrument like guzheng, yangqin, erhu, pipa, xiao and bamboo flute to perform music integrated with strong folk music features and pop music elements. High-tech is used for playing music, which brings newaudio-visual enjoyment for the people. Although there is still dispute in the artistic value of such kind of music, the new folk music indeed creates a way for the popularization and internationalization of the Chinese folk music.

Chinese Instrumental Connectives

Wed, 29 May 2024 17:49:30 +0800

The melodic orchestra plays instrumental connectives (guomen)that serve as preludes to the sung melodic passages, as interludes between them, and often as codas to them, instrumental connectives are therefore closely related to the accompaniment of song. because they introduce, connect, and sometimes conclude that accompaniment. In spite of this close connection, however, instrumental connectives are usually classified as a function separate from the accompaniment of song by both musicians and stage performers. There are two major reasons for this classification.

The first reason may be termed the "source of the melodic initiative."The specific melody of every sung melodic-passage originates with the singing performer; the melody played by the jinghu player in accompaniment is a variation on that specific melody, and the jinglhu player follows the singer when playing that accompaniment. However, instrumental connectives are purely instrumental; when the jinghu player leads the melodic orchestra in playing them, he or she follows only the tempo and rhythm set and maintained by the conductor with the drum-and-clapper. Because there is no sung melody during instrumental connectives, the melodic initiative is, within the patterns of the mode and metrical type, the jinghu player's own.

Second, the purpose of instrumental connectives is somewhat different than that of accompaniment for song. In the accompaniment of singing, the jinghu provides the major variation on the melody sung by the singing performer, with the other instruments of the melodic orchestra providing additional variations. Prelude instrumental connectives, however, introduce and establish the atmosphere and emotional color of the sung melodic-passages that follow; interlude instrumental connectives maintain that atmosphere and emotional color when the singer is not actually singing but the song has not yet concluded, and concluding instrumental connectives "round off" that atmosphere and emotional color. Additionally, interlude instrumental connectives serve to punctuate the dou, clarifying meaning by making the units of meaning distinct. Instrumental connectives are there fore interpretively quite important. But the focus of every song is on the display of song skill by the singer(s) in the expression of emotion. Although the singer may adapt his or her melody to suit performance conditions, instrumental connectives are more melodically fixed, serving as constants between the more melodically flexible melodic-passages of the singer and his or her accompaniment.

The Development of Chinese Traditional Musical Instruments in the 20th Century.

Mon, 20 May 2024 19:03:39 +0800

Having gone through years of suffering and development,the erhu has had a very significant position in Chinese music.Through tireless exploration by several generations of performers and composers,the numbers of people who perform on the erhu are significantly enriched and their performance skills improved.From A Bing's Er Quan Ying Yue,Pursuing Toward a Bright Future by Liu Tianhua,to the later created or adapted River Water,Lan Huahua Ballads,Shaanxi Opera Theme Capriccio,Newlyweds Saying Goodbye,and Great Wall Capriccio,the numbers improved and transplanted in recent years,such as Sun Shining Taxkorgan,Song of the Wanderer,and Carmen,the erhu,this ancient musical instrument has experienced new developments in the 20th century.

Not only the erhu,but also other national musical instruments such as the pipa and flute were also developed in the 20century.Liu Tianhua helped make significant reforms for the pipa in the 1930s,and created the Six-phase 13-grade pipa,which can perform traditional musical notes and 12 average notes.The Shanghai Datong Music Society also made a pipa in the shape of a gourd,the earliest six-phase 18-grade pipa of China.After the People's Republic of China was stablished,the pipa made even more pogress.In the beginning the pipa was only an accompaniment instrument,but now its performance skills and numbers have become increasing richer.Today it has become a solo instrument.

With an extensive repertoire,from the pieces handed down from ancient times such as Haiqing Hunting the Swn,Shi Mian MaiFu High Moon to those created in modern times such as Dance Music of the Yi People,Five Warriors on Mountain Wolfeeth,Little Heroic Sisters on the Grassland,Weishui Qing,Spring Rain,Spring Silkworm and other classical works form an impressive repertoire of pipa art.Now,in addition to being used as a solo instrument and part of the national orchestra,the pipa is the main instrument for Jiangnan Sizhu,Canton music,Chaozhou Xianshi,and Fujian Nanyin;In some southern Xiqu and Suzhou Pingtan,Sichuan Qingyin,and other narrative-singing music,the pipa is also a necessary and indispensable accompaniment instrument.

The Development of Musicals Before the Establishment of the People's Republic of China

Fri, 10 May 2024 15:59:29 +0800

In recent years, due to an increasing introduction of Western musicals, Chinese audiences have learnt more about this kind of arts. Many Chinese artists also try to make musicals with Chinese characteristics so as to show the charming of the Chinese music.Golden Sand (Jinsha) and Snow Wolf Lake (Xue Lang Hu), two Chinese musicals, are two of the most impressive ones.

Writing is for carrying the way, poems are for expressing your vision, music for voicing your thoughts," it was said in the 1930s, with the beginning of the anti-Japanese war, many musicians in China redirected the purpose of composition to inspire national spirit. The most Outstanding representatives among them are Xian Xinghai and Nie Er.

After coming back to China from France in 1935, Xian Xinghai saw the sufferings of the Chinese under the oppression of Japanese imperialism, so he actively participated into the anti-Japanese movement and composed a lot of mass songs, and music for progressive films like Zhi Zhi Ling Yun (Vision and Ambition), March of the Youth, and the drama Resurrec-tion, and Great Storm. In 1938 suffering ex-treme difficulty and hardship in Yan An, he still created the immortal masterpieces such as Yellow River Cantata and Chorus of Production and other fine works.

"Yellow River Cantata" inspired by the Yellow River, describes the dramatic change of the people living along the Yellow River before and after the Anti-Japanese War, criticizing the cruelty of the enemy and the oppression that the people suffered. In the end it depicts a magnificent picture about the masses protecting their home country and fighting against the enemy. In this work, the composer integrated folk music into the piece and created many melodies with national characteristics to create the fighting image of the anti-Japanese army and people, expressing the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people, making the work become the one of the most popular chorus works in the modern music history of China.

Nie Er was a contemporary of Xian Xinghai, and although born in a poor family, his enthusiasm for music enabled him to include daily hardships in such popular songs such as Wide Road Song,Song of the Dockers,Pioneers,New Female，Graduation Song,Song of Newspaper Selling,and Female Singer under theIr on Heel. Nie Er advocated that“Music is like other arts such as poems,novels,and dramas; it cries out for the public,and the public surely will require new musical content and performance,and require new outlooks from composers."

In along period,this view significantly influenced the establishment of a group of progressive musicians.

The Development of Chinese Folk Music in the Ming and Qing dynasties

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:47:09 +0800

The Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) saw the sprouting of capitalism in civil society. With the increasingly expanding citizen class, the music culture tended to be more secularized and further enriched the lives of ordinary people. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) boasted rich content and diverse categories of folk songs that, though somewhat vulgar, had such extensive influences that everyone, male or female, could sing them. In the meantime, private workshops also started to collect, edit and publish folk songs, resulting in published lyrics booklets, opera scripts and qin music scores including Song in the Mountains edited by Feng Menglong and the earliest qin music, The Miraculous Secret Tablature of the Qin edited by Zhu Quan.

The "telling and singing music" came in a variety of categories in the Ming and Qing dynasties, including tanci, guci as well as paiziqu, qinshu and daoqing. The tanci in Suzhou had the biggest influence in the southern areas, while guci music such as the big drums in Shandong, Xihe and Beijing, and wooden drum in Jizhong, were the most famous pieces of music in the northern areas. The paiziqu music included danxian and dadiaoquzi in Henan; Qinshu music was represented by qinshu in Shandong and yangqin in Sichuan; Daoqing music included the daoqing in Zhejiang and Shaanxi, and yugu in Hubei. Also, some ethnic groups also boasted some telling and singing music like the story telling of Mongolians and dabaiqu of the Bai ethnic group.

The period saw another peak of opera music marked by the"four major tunes"(Haiyan, Yuyao, Yiyang and Kunshan tunes).The Kunshan tune, redeveloped by musicians like Wei Liangfu in Jiangsu, gained popularity for its pleasant and smooth melody as well as highlights on pronunciation. Through the integration of southern and northern opera music, the Kunshan tune was later developed into Kun opera that was popular with the people. The Yiyang tune heavily influenced local dialect opera music with its flexible and changing style, leading to an increasing number of local operas like high-pitched ones. In the northern areas, the bangzi tune represented by the qin tune in Shaanxi developed rapidly.

High-pitched and unconstrained, the bangzi tune has lasting and far-reaching influences.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the pihuang tune, consisting of two basic tunes known as xipi and erhuang, initially took shape and further evolved into the Peking Opera that has become popular throughout the country.

Orchestral music combining multiple musical instruments appeared in civil society during the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as pipe music in the Zhihua Temple in Beijing, chuige in Hebei, sizhu in the areas south of the Yangtze River and Shifan luogu. The qin music like Wild Geese over the Clam Sands in the Ming Dynasty and Flowing Water in the Qing Dynasty, as well as some nice qin songs like

Parting at the Yangguan and The Eighteen Beats of Tartar Reed Flute were widely spread works. Well-known pieces of pipa musicd included Haiging Hunting the Swan and Ambush on Ten Sides (Shi Mian Mai Fu) created during the period from the late Yuan Dynasty to early Ming Dynasty, and the earliest Tablature of the Pipa compiled by Hua Qiuping in the Qing Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty also produced an eminent yuelü expert, Zhu Zaiyu, who was the first person to establish the theory of "Equal Temperament." By figuring out the length proportion between any two neighboring Lü (semitones) in the equal temperament (with the accuracy of 25 digits), the theory was a revolution in both music and physics in music, and a great invention in world science history as well.

The Development of Chinese School Songs

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 14:45:23 +0800

In its long history,Chinese music has made many contributions to the world's music culture.It has integrated a great deal of foreign music.From the Chinese nation to foreign nations,from neighboring countries and regions in Southeast Asia and Central Asia to faraway Europe,America and the entire world,the Sino-foreign exchange of music has lasted more than 2,000 years.Their changes mainly lie in two aspects:On the one hand,foreign music improves Chinese music;on the other,Chinese music has enhanced the culture of other countries.

After the founding of the Qing Dynasty,an increasing number of missionaries came to China from all over the world,introducing hymns and western musical instruments.But they merely spread to a limit scope and had little influence on the entire society.The first record of the western keyboard stringed instrument in China can trace back to 1601.In that year,Matteo Ricci came to Beijing for the second time and presented a western harpsichord to the emperor.The European-style harpsichord was called Atlantic qin (yaqin,fanqin,wired qin or tianqin).

The School Songs,originated in the early 1920s,played a crucial role in the rejuvenation of modern Chinese music.In 1902,Shen Xin'gong held a music seminar in Tokyo.He even called for composing new lyrics for some popular Japanese,European and American songs.In94,the Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty approved the Authorized School Regulation and put it into effect.From then on,many new schools opened music and song classes in succession.

Along with the progress of school songs,western music was introduced and prevailed in various forms such as song,organ,piano and violin.Meanwhile,music notations like numbered musical notation and staff as well as basic music theory became popular among the people.For instance,the staff was introduced into China in the period under the reign of the Emperor Kangxi but became popular in the 19th century.In addition,books on basic western music like Yue Dian Da Zhang (chapters on music),Outline of Music Theory and Harmonics were published in large numbers.

After the Republic of China was founded in 1912,the government enlisted music and song class into required classes for primary and secondary schools.Since most schools songs advocated the patriotic essences of "study,progress and civilization,""making China rich and building up its military power"and "saving the nation from extinction,"they quickly became fashionable in the social and cultural lives of the time.As a matter of fact,school songs helped to lay the foundation for the mass chorus of China and foster a large number of native music education workers.

Chinese Music during the Three Kingdoms, Western Jin Dynasty, and Northern and Southern Dynasties

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:29:38 +0800

The period of the Three Kingdoms, the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties and the Southern and Northern dynasties (220-581) was one of turbulence caused by frequent wars. It also witnessed unprecedented cultural exchanges among all nations but also dramatic progress in Chinese music. The "Silk Road"that had been made smooth since the Han Dynasty facilitated the introduction of music in the western regions in the inner land. In the 18h year of the reign of Emperor Jianyuan in the Pre-Qin Dynasty (382 AD), Li Guang brought the Oiuci (now called Kucha in Xinjiang) music into the inner land and called it"qinhanji"by further integrating it with the music in Shaanxi and Gansu areas.

Buddhism spread quickly in China during this period.Fanbei, regional Chinese Buddhist folk music, grew popular as well. In the mean time, the ancient gin became progressively more mature. A group of scholar-type qin artists like Ji Kang and Ruan Ji emerged as the typical experts of scholar music with such well-known songs as Guanglinsgsan and jiukuang, dominating the way of Chinese music focusing on "harmony"and "beauty."Guanglingsan, previously folk instrumental music in Guangling areas (current Yangzhou, iangsu) in the Han Dynasty, was adapted as a song played with the ancient qin in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and became more popular in the Three Kingdoms Period when Ji Kang, a famous qin player performed the piece. The music describes a moving story about Nie Zheng, the son of a sword-casting craftsman in the Warring States Period, who stabbed the king of the State of Han in revenge for his father's death and then killed himself to avoid getting his mother entangled. With an exciting and passionate melody, Guanglingsan is one of the rare grand pieces of music played on the ancient qin and is of great artistic value.

"Qingshang Music"developed based on "Xianghe Ge" gained great attention from the Cao Wei Regime in the northern areas, hence the establishment of the Qingshang Institute. Qingshang Music, inheriting various styles of music in the Han and Wei dynasties,was the umbrella name of Jiyue evolved based on folk music at that time. Also caled“QingshngQu,"it was mainly ber formed on occasions like banquets and entertainment in the upper social class. The“yue ji”(musicians) were called“qing shang zheng shengxianghewudiaoji"and always received attention from imperial courts of all dynasties. Due to the turmoil of wars in the Western Jin and Eastern Jin dynasties,Qing shang Music was introduced into the southern areas of China and further integrated with WuGeandXiQu (two music forms) in the areas.

In the Northern Wei Dynasty,Qing shang Music returned to the northern areas and became one of the major music types to spread across the country.