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Chinese music has ancient roots. The art
flourished in the Shang dynasty after the 14th century BC,
and its origins were surely earlier. Though remarkable for
its stability, the music of China has not been stagnant and
has all the variety and richness to be expected in the art
of a vast, ancient, and populous land.
The importance of Chinese music extends beyond China's national
borders. The presence of Chinese musical instruments, as well
as repertoire and style characteristics, is conspicuous in
Korea, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia.
THEORY
Musical speculation and descriptions of musical performances
began to appear in many of the historical, ceremonial, and
literary documents written between the 6th and 1st centuries
BC. These writings reveal an immensely sophisticated idealism
that is the principal musical legacy of ancient China.
Music and musical thought were the expression of an all-embracing
world view. Art and life have never been closer: music, it
was believed, was an emanation of the heart and an image of
the cosmos. The author Lu Buwei (Lu Pu-wei) "was able
to speak of music only with a man who has grasped the meaning
of the world." The influence upon conduct and conviction
ascribed to music was accordingly great: it was regarded as
the basis of government, of order. This is evident in the
sustained attention given to accuracy in musical tuning, which
was seen as essential to the harmony of the world: the readjustment
of pitch became one of the first acts of a new emperor, and
an Imperial Office of Music was established under Han Wudi
(Wu-ti) (r.140-87 BC).
Chinese melody is ordinarily based on a 5-tone (pentatonic)
scale, although additional pitches can be introduced. Expressiveness,
however, is often less a function of melodic patterns than
of the individual note, which carries cosmological connotations.
This emphasis on the single tone raises timbre to a position
of enormous importance, and Chinese musicians have employed
with immense skill the range of coloristic possibilities afforded
by their instruments and voices.
Polyphony is alien to China. Traditional notation involves
a separate sign for each degree of the scale, although tablatures
are used by zither players, and staff notation has been imported
in modern times.
INSTRUMENTS
Musical instruments are first described in the great classics
that document the history of China's kingdoms before the 2d
century BC.
The Book of Odes (Shi Jing) compiled song texts from periods
as early as the 10th century BC. These describe the use of
instruments in ritual entertainment. The most frequently mentioned
are drums, bells, zithers, flutes, and mouth organs. The following
instruments are those most prominent in contemporary usage
or are of historical interest.
Among the percussion instruments, the qing (ch'ing), tuned
sonorous stone chimes of the Zhou (Chou) era, has been retained
today for use in Confucian ceremonies.
Another early instrument is a large barrel-shaped bronze gong,
the tong gu ("metal drum"), a ritual instrument
of southeast Asia that was introduced to China during the
Han dynasty's military expeditions. It is remarkable for its
metal workmanship and ornamentation. Today, gongs (luo) and
cymbals (bo) in a variety of sizes are used in Taoist ceremonies
as well as in opera.
An instrument that is used in the important role of directing
the opera is the ban, rectangular wood clappers. In Buddhist
ceremonies the muyu ("Chinese temple block"), a
slit-gong of camphor wood in a symbolic carving of a fish,
is used for setting the musical pulse.
The generic term for drum is gu, of which diverse types abound.
Drums are used in folk music, religious functions, opera,
and in a variety of ensembles for entertainment. The skins
are generally nailed to the wood shell and are commonly played
with sticks. Some well-known types are the huagu, the flat-shaped
"flower drum" used by northern ballad singers, the
ubiquitous dagu, or "great drum," a barrel-shaped
double-headed instrument, and the banggu, a single-headed
opera drum with a small resonant surface producing a piercing
"dry" sound.
Of the wind instruments, the flutes made of bamboo have remained
as simple in construction as they were in ancient China. The
end-blown xiao has a gentle quality and is appropriate for
small ensembles. The transverse flute ti produces a more assertive
tone and a wide range of expressive effects. A rice-paper
covered hole next to the mouthpiece gives the ti a "buzzing"
timbre, and performers have developed highly virtuosic techniques.
Also of ancient origin is the sheng, a free-reed mouth organ.
It survives in very limited usage for secular and Confucian
music, yet provides a unique chordal sound texture. The double-reed
sona, a member of the SHAWM family, is widely used in the
Near East, Asia, and Europe and is commonly played in Taoist
ceremonies and occasionally in opera.
Of the string instruments, the she and qin are zithers closely
associated with the scholars of ancient times. They created
an esoteric and sophisticated repertoire and a highly detailed
system of notation for the instrument. First appearing in
the early 15th century, collections of qin music are the largest
source of notated instrumental music. The more brilliant sounding
zheng, a 13-string zither, was better suited to entertainment
and became widely popular. This instrument suggests the influence
of Chinese culture in east Asia, for it was adopted by adjacent
countries. It has been used in Japan since the 7th century
and is there called a koto. The yangqin, a hammered dulcimer
of Near Eastern origin, is commonly used for entertainment.
Other plucked string instruments include two short-necked
fretted lutes: the pipa with a shallow pear-shaped body, and
the yueqin, called the "moon guitar," with a circular
body. The san xian differs from these in having a long neck
with a small snakeskin-covered resonator. A large family of
bowed string instruments has evolved since the 9th century.
These are generically called huqin, while each regional variation
is known by a specific term that may differ among regions.
Examples are erhu, jinghu, dijin, nanhu, erxian, yehu, and
matou and jin. They all have a string-bearing neck that projects
through a small resonator and a bow, the hair of which passes
between the two strings.
Instrumental ensembles in varying sizes have figured in the
history of Chinese music. In earlier days, the size of an
ensemble reflected the eminence of its owner.
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