Notes on Chinese Music (Traditional)

It should not come as a surprise to learn that China, with one of the oldest continuous civilizations on the face of the earth, also has a deep and ancient musical heritage. And as one of the largest empire/nations in terms both of area and population, her musical culture is astonishingly diverse. Multi-volume studies have been devoted to explaining Chinese music and musical history, and our brief survey here can only touch on a few of the most significant aspects of that story.
The earliest inhabitants of modern day China are lost in the mists of prehistory, though the first recorded imperial dynasties—as in Egypt—were already active by the end of the third millennium B.C. Somewhere between the purely archeological and the historical resides the mythical, and Chinese mythology names Ling Lun as the founder of music. With obvious parallels in Greek mythology, it is said that Ling Lun carved flutes out of bamboo stalks to create the earliest tuned wind instruments. He used the flutes to imitate bird calls, including the alluring sound of the mythical phoenix. Appropriately, the oldest extant composition, Youlan (“Solitary Orchid”), has been attributed to the great spiritual leader Confucius (551-479 B.C.). China’s Golden Age of music and culture occurred about a thousand years later during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.).
The development of music over 3000 years of emperors (1122 B.C.-1911 A.D.) reflects patterns familiar to students of Western musical history: the emergence of court-sanctioned styles of martial and ceremonial music alongside freer, spontaneous folk traditions of the peasants; the rise of authoritarian ministers charged with monitoring the “propriety” of composition and performance; conflicts and rapprochements between indigenous and foreign elements. During the past sixty years of Communist rule in China, popular music has been marginalized to near inaudibility, while patriotic and revolutionary themes have come to dominate state-sponsored compositions—which is to say almost all compositions.
Poetry has always played an important role in the growth and dispersion of Chinese music. As far as the evidence will tell us, the earliest works were simply sung poems, just as in ancient Greek and European cultures. This traditional style favors the melodic interest of a solo voice, often with minimal accompaniment in the form of a string instrument like the pipa or qin. Incidentally, the pipa demonstrates the importance of cultural exchange for Chinese music, for the modern pipa seems to have evolved from a Persian lute-like instrument brought to China around 250 A.D. Apart from solo voice, traditional and contemporary Chinese music also features small chamber ensembles, although modern composers such as Tan Dun and Bright Sheng have successfully adapted folk elements onto the broad canvas of the full symphony orchestra.
Apart from history and instrumentation, Chinese music also favors a particular melodic structure known as a pentatonic (“five-note”) scale, which helps explain its distinctive sound. It is easier to hear a pentatonic scale than to say anything in detail about it by way of explanation. Chinese composers often use the “major” type of pentatonic scale, which combines stepwise intervals with gaps: for example, C–D–E–G–A. One may observe that pentatonic scales appear in other folk traditions (as in Eastern Europe or African-American spirituals) and were one of the most significant “exotic” influences on Western art music during the nineteenth century…but more on that tomorrow.

(c) Jason Stell


As our concert this evening begins with traditional music for pipa, of which we heard samples last night, I will begin by reiterating a few comments about Chinese musical history and style from Saturday’s notes.
Chinese mythology names Ling Lun as the founder of music. It is said that he used flutes carved from bamboo stalks to imitate bird calls. The oldest extant composition, Youlan (“Solitary Orchid”), has been attributed to the sage Confucius (551-479 B.C.), though her Golden Age of music occurred about a thousand years later during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The development of music over 3000 years of emperors (1122 B.C.-1911 A.D.) reflects patterns familiar to students of Western musical history: the emergence of court-sponsored and court-approved musical styles alongside freer, spontaneous folk traditions of the peasants; the rise of authoritarian ministers charged with monitoring the “propriety” of musical composition and performance; conflicts and rapprochements between indigenous and foreign elements.
Poetry has always played an important role in the growth and dispersion of Chinese music. As far as the evidence will tell us, the earliest works were simply sung poems, just as in ancient Greek and European cultures. It favored the melodic interest of a solo voice with or without minimal accompaniment, usually in the form of a string instrument like the pipa or qin. Incidentally, the pipa demonstrates the importance of cultural exchange for Chinese music, for the modern pipa seems to have evolved from a Persian lute-like instrument brought to China around 250 A.D. Apart from solo voice, traditional and contemporary Chinese music typically features small chamber ensembles, although modern composers such as Tan Dun and Bright Sheng have successfully adapted folk elements onto the broad canvas of the full symphony orchestra.
Apart from history and instrumentation, Chinese music also favors a particular melodic structure known as a pentatonic (“five-note”) scale, which gives it a distinctive sound. It is easier to hear a pentatonic scale than to say anything in detail about it by way of explanation. Chinese composers often use the “major” type of pentatonic scale, which combines stepwise intervals with gaps: for example, C–D–E–G–A. One may observe that pentatonic scales appear in other folk traditions (as in Eastern Europe or African-American spirituals) and would become one of the most significant “exotic” influences on Western art music during the nineteenth century, as we will hear later in the concert.

(c) Jason Stell