Whitewashing Chinese music

The idea that Chinese performers on Chinese instruments playing Chinese music might be guilty of whitewashing seems preposterous, yet I'm going to suggest that whitewashing occurs here, and to no small extent.

Within China, over the past close to two centuries, with Westernisation of the Chinese society, European culture has become the idea of a representation of high culture, modern organisation, a system focused on scientific rigour and understanding. This perceptual shift is a widespread movement throughout various levels of the Chinese society and not restricted to music alone. Western science, western systems of thought, and even western musical systems were being hailed as advanced, as the direction the Chinese had to go in order to be a part of the modern world. This was understandable, with China losing out swathes of land and power since the Opium Wars to the Europeans. What was in the past an ancient and powerful civilisation was so reduced, it was inevitable the Chinese believed that a different way of government, education, philosophies, an entire different way of doing things had to be implemented for their civilisation to be on par with the rest of the world.

Music was no different. The early 20th century saw promotion of singing in schools, bringing music education to the younger generation of Chinese. What is known as school-songs (学堂乐歌) were in fact Westernised melodies with new lyrics. Music education reform was carried out by many idealistic individuals who had the opportunity to go abroad to further their studies. Having learnt the musical tradition of European art music and seeing its systematic organisation of theoretical knowledge, most of them wholeheartedly embraced these philosophies, believing that this was the reform that the Chinese culture needed. From the early 20th century onwards, music in China took on a whole new set of ideas, philosophies, aesthetics, and structure. This was not to say that traditional Chinese music was totally wiped out or that the philosophies and aesthetical ideas of the past few thousand years no longer influenced the people, but it was a fact that this new music from Europe impacted the ideas and musical culture of China significantly from the early 20th century.

While there is the constant revival, conservation and work done for the folk and classical traditions of China, it is an indisputable fact that a significant extent of the idea that people have of Chinese music is the music of the "Chinese orchestra". The development of the Chinese orchestra will not be detailed here but readers can be directed here for slightly more detailed description of its development.

With the basic premise of the Chinese orchestra modelled upon the symphony orchestra of European art music tradition, the aesthetics of how the sound should be like is gradually being influenced as well. The full Chinese orchestra set up as we know of now is not built from a single group of instruments from a particular folk instrumental ensemble, but from different kinds of ensembles all around China. One difficulty arising from this is the fact that these instruments were not built to blend together because they did not originate within the same ensemble in the first place.

Within folk instrumental ensembles, there are various instruments that have very unique sounds and it is precisely because of these unique sounds that contribute to the particular ensemble's defining characteristic. When they come together in the Chinese orchestra however, all these various characteristic sounding instruments unfortunately might not work very well together. In attempting to emulate the symphony orchestra, instruments are being grouped into four instrumental families, much like the instruments in the symphony orchestra. With the creation of these instrumental families, it is inevitable that people also tend to parallel them in comparison.

Take the bowed string section for example. Although both groups of instruments produce sound through the bowing of strings, the similarity pretty much ends there. While performers especially competitive young professional musicians fresh from years of gruelling training from the conservatory will like to emphasise that whatever the violin can do, so can the erhu, and that is quite true - almost all the violin techniques can be performed on the erhu, and there are numerous technically virtuosic pieces in the violin repertoire that have been played just as well by performers on the erhu - they are still fundamentally different instruments. The structure of the instruments are very different with the erhu sounding with a membrane versus the wooden soundboard of the violin. There is no fingerboard on the erhu as well and the angle the bow makes on the strings is different from that of a violin. With all these fundamental differences, it is a sad fact of life that many erhu performers still take the ability to perform virtuosic pieces from the violin repertoire as one of the important goals in erhu performance. While finding ways to challenge and break technical limits is important and always welcome, it is unfortunate that sometimes it overshadows other forms of achievement in the performance of a Chinese musical instrument.

Chinese instruments have been seen as being built less scientifically than western musical instruments. Although this idea is slowly changing, it is nevertheless a very deeply ingrained one. The idea of musical instruments from another culture being less "well-built" is hard to shake off when the standard is being set with the ability to perform pieces equivalent to the European art music repertoire in musical systems based on the European art music culture. Definitely it is a boost to the ego when one can say that one is able to perform a certain piece of music just as well on the erhu as any other good violinist can on the violin, it is unfortunate however that this in fact perpetuates the believe that for the musical culture of the Chinese to be good, one has to aspire towards the achievement of European art music standards. This in fact is a circularity that turns in on itself. Instrument makers and researchers are at the same time constantly developing various ways of improving on Chinese musical instruments and many of the improvements sought after are precisely how to make them "comparable" to western musical instruments. Making instruments whose sounds "blend" better together in the orchestra, trying to increase the instruments' resonance and sound (an erhu can never match a violin in terms of volume) and even experimenting with different materials for the instruments are some examples of these developments. The results are instruments that sound good in the orchestra, instruments which are easier to play, and so on, and these are definitely welcome for performers. But at the same time, isn't "sounding good in an orchestra" a very Eurocentric point of view? What does a "good sound" imply?

All these build up an extremely intricate web that is very difficult to unravel. With the development of the Chinese orchestra being so influenced by European art music, the direction musical aesthetics of the Chinese orchestra takes has already been set, from the early days. While not set in stone, it is still a direction which, unless the entire performance practice of the Chinese orchestra were to change radically, is still going to be moving in the same general course. Yet at the same time, even with its borrowing of all the European traditions, there are elements that are different. While I argue that the whitewashing of Chinese music is a matter of historical fact, I am also at the same time, believing that music, art, and culture are always evolving, and always borrowing from other traditions and cultures. With communications and huge ease of accessibility, this is going to be even more so in the current time. And that should not be something to be feared but recognised. Influences should be acknowledged and new developments embraced.

Origins of the names of the degrees of the scale, "gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu"

The degrees of the scale "gong [宮], shang [商], jue [角], zhi [徵], yu [羽]" are terms which have been in use in Chinese music since the ancient times. The "Commentary of Zuo [左傳]" mentioned the fact that regardless of what type of songs it was, regardless of the area it originated, regardless of the type of scale used, the five tones (of the anhemitonic, tonal pentatonic scale) was the basis of the notes. In the chapter "Discourses of Zhou [周語]" within the book "Discourses of the State [國語]", it was mentioned that "gong" was the starting point in the creation of the modes.

The next question was how these names came about. The musicologist Feng Wen Ci [馮文慈] believed that "gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu" arose from astrology. "Gong" represented the centre of things, and that was the Big Dipper. "Shang, jue, zhi" were three stars within the Azure Dragon of the East, one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations. "Shang" was Sigma Scorpii, "jue" was Spica, and "zhi" was Alpha Librae. Finally, "yu" was Alpha Crateris, a star within the Vermilion Bird, another symbol of the Chinese constellations. Feng believed that astrology played a huge part in the lives of the ancient Chinese and hence the reflection in the music of the people.

There is also Xi Jie Guan who believes that these names came about when the notes are being sung. In the text "Guanzi [管子], the notes "zhi, yu, gong, shang, jue" were likened to the sounds of the animals on the farm, from the lowest to the highest. "Zhi" was described as the grunts of the boar, "yu" as the neighing of the horse, "gong" as the calling of the cow, "shang" as the baa-ing of the sheep, and "jue" as the cries of the pheasant. Because the names of the animals sounded similar to the words "gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu" in the pronunciation of ancient Chinese, these words could have been derived from that.

As could be seen, these names of the degrees of the scale were already in place by the Spring as Autumn era, but musicologist Feng Wen Ci proposed that they could have arisen even as far back as Western Zhou, or the Shang dynasty.

Music was a mysterious phenomenon to the ancient Chinese and hence the common 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 that we take for granted now was associated with something as far reaching as the skies, or as important to life as the livestock on the farm.


References:
Liu, ZS. (1989). Zhong Guo Gu Dai Yin Yue Shi Jian Shu [中國古代音樂史簡述]. Beijing: Ren Min Yin Yue Chu Ban She.

Chinese Music briefly

Chinese music encompasses several different genres, the more prominent ones being: folk music; traditional music; and art music. These various forms of music represent not only the traditions of a single ethnic group, but of various ethnic populations that make up China. At the same time, they also include not only music that has been handed down through the generations, but also contemporary, living music.

Art music is a very big area to define, including not only pieces of music composed by past and present composers in China, but also compositions by composers who may be ethnic Chinese but do not reside in China, and who may or may not write for traditional Chinese instruments and/or based upon Chinese themes.

contemporary Chinese art music

Traditional music in China includes music that dates back more than 5000 years in China's history. In modern classification, scholars tend to categorise music that predates the Qing dynasty as traditional Chinese music. Traditional Chinese music can include court music [宫廷音乐], scholarly music [文人音乐], religious music [宗教音乐], and folk music [民间音乐]. Court music includes ritual music [雅乐] and music for entertainment [燕乐]. Ritual music is meant for religious activities in the courts and to signify the ultimate power and position of the emperor and is hence sombre and never light and lively. Court music for entertainment on the other hand usually derives from folk music or music brought in from other areas by foreign musicians. It is usually modified somewhat to suit the courts but usually retains the unique characteristics of the music it was derived from. Scholarly music includes guqin music or poetry set to music. The characteristics of scholarly music, especially that of guqin music has been exemplified in the writings and philosophies of several important thinkers in Chinese history and aesthetic values of ancient Chinese music has been based on these ideas.


traditional scholarly music

Religious music in China is mostly comprised of music for Buddhism and Taoism. These religious music however could vary quite widely in the different areas of China, as each derives influences from different cultural, historical, and geographical factors.

Folk music refers to music that is being performed and enjoyed by the common people and they include folk songs [民歌], music of folk dances [民间舞蹈音乐], folk instrumental music [民间器乐], operas [戏曲], and music for narrative-singing [说唱]. The folk music of China has a long history and at the same time, it is still very alive and constantly evolving even at the present moment. In the feudalistic society of the past, the literati thought of folk music as a base form of music and bad for the cultural development of the people. Yet, folk music continues to development and remain a very important part of people's lives. The folk music of China has became such a big part of the Chinese musical culture and presently, could be one of the most important forms of traditional music that influences the development of contemporary art music in China. The forms and types of folk music are so widely varied and the contents so rich that the influence to modern development is almost infinite. Even though the view towards folk music during the feudalistic past was far from complimentary, there are various eras in which the department in charge of music within the courts took an effort at collecting and classifying the folk music of their common people. These provide us with an idea of the types of folk music that were present during those periods of time and are a very important source of information. At the same time, the educated literati, besides collecting and classifying folk music, might do certain modifications or change the folk music in certain ways, slowly also infusing the folk music of the common people with characteristics of the music of the courts of scholarly music. Hence besides the common folks' practice of folk music and gradual change over time, these forms of interactions and influences by the literati and court officials are also part of the slow process in which folk music evolve through the ages. The folk music of China has been created and evolved through people's ideas and lives over the ages and in them, we can find very rich sources of artistic creativity, as well as the emotions, dreams, ideas, and passions of the people throughout the long history of China.

Types of folk music
The folk music of China could be divided into 5 categories: folk songs, music of folk dances, music for narrative-singing, operatic music, and folk instrumental music.

Folk songs could be classified in various ways. They could be grouped according to the contents of the lyrics; or they could be grouped based on their utilitarian purposes; they could also be classified by the period of time of their origin; or they could be divided into the various regions from which they come from.

Chinese folk song

Music of folk dances do not have as long a period of scholarly research as the folk songs of China and hence their understanding and classification are still in the stages of infancy. The music of the folk dances is often closely related to the folk songs of the area and hence one can usually see similar characteristics within the music.

folk dance

In narrative-singing, the classification is usually made up of pinghua [评话], guqu [鼓曲], kuaiban [快板], and xiangsheng [相声]. Amongst them, only guqu involves music and this group of genre could be further classified according to the instruments that are used, the area of origin, or the musical characteristics such as guci [鼓词], tanci [弹词], daoqing [道情], paiziqu [牌子曲], and qinshu [琴书]. Another way of classification is based on the musical structure and this includes danquti [单曲体], qupailiantaoti [曲牌联套体], banqiangti [板腔体], and zhuchati [主插体].

narrative singing

Operatic music has 2 different modes of classification - the first is based on the singing style and the second based on the musical structure. Based on the singing styles there are 6 different categories: kunqiang [昆腔], gaoqiang [高腔], bangziqiang [梆子腔], pihuangqiang [皮簧腔], folk singing and dance style [民间歌舞类型], and narrative-singing style [民间说唱类型]. Based upon the musical structure, there is qupaiti [曲牌体] and banqiangti [板腔体].

opera

Folk instrumental music consists of solo instrumental music and ensemble music. Solo instrumental music can be divided into wind instruments, bowed string instruments, and plucked string instruments. Ensemble music can be categorised into string ensemble [弦索乐], silk and bamboo ensemble [丝竹乐], wind and percussion ensemble [吹打乐], and percussion ensemble [清锣鼓].

traditional folk instrumental ensemble

Characteristics of folk music
Oral traditions, improvisation and group composition:
Folk music cannot trace their origin to a single composer, they are created through the long process of singing and passing on, and they are the result of the ideas of generations of people throughout history. Folk music is historically passed down through oral traditions and through this process, gets slowly changed. There is plenty of improvisation within folk music as well and because of the absence of strict adherence to notations, there is a continuous fluid change in every piece of folk music.

Regional:
Folk music has very unique regional characteristics. Various regions in China have developed very different cultures and ways of life through the years due to various geographical, historical, sociopolitical factors, and all these influenced the development of the music in that region. Different dialects result in regional differences in the ways a melody might be ornamented or sung. Differences in ways of life also creates different emotional loading of the music, as well as differences in the lyrics of folk songs. Different geographical and physical attributes also lead to differences in the ways a melody or rhythmic features develop, as well as differences in musical instrumentation.

Utilitarian:
Folk music serves various purposes and these could be: educational; to aid in labour; for entertainment; for festivities and rituals; etc.

Chinese Traditional Folk Instrumental Music

Definition:
Chinese traditional folk instrumental music can be used to describe any form of folk music played on traditional Chinese instruments. There are two types, solo instrumental music and ensemble music. Solo instrumental music are categorised according to the instruments used, as well as the playing style, such as wind, bowed, plucked, etc. Ensemble music can be divided into various different types: Percussion ensemble or qing luo gu [清锣鼓] for those using only percussion instruments; Wind and Percussion ensemble or chui da yue [吹打乐] for ensembles made up of both wind and percussion instruments; String ensembles or xian suo yue [弦索乐] for ensembles utilising only string instruments; Silk and Bamboo ensembles or si zhu yue [丝竹乐] for ensembles made up of string and bamboo instruments. Each of these types of ensembles can come in many different manifestations and can have very different musical characteristics.

Function of Chinese Traditional Folk Instrumental Music in the Society:
Traditional folk instrumental music is frequently used in folk events and rituals, such as weddings, funerals, religious activities and so on. Various types of folk instrumental ensembles can be found in every part of China and even though they are known by different names, all of them provide the function of these various folk activities as well as for the entertainment of the people. Traditional folk instrumental music is indispensible in folk activities. Due to the different functions of various ensembles, different musical styles and characteristics have slowly evolved and different types of music and different ensembles can be found in different types of activities.

The Origins and Development of Folk Instrumental Ensembles:
The growth of instrumental music is closely related to the economic and cultural growth of an area. Because of a lack of written records in ancient history, much of the origins of musical instruments can only be guessed. There are plenty of Chinese legends talking about musical instruments and instrumental music. They may have some basis in reality, but the exact origins and history of instrumental music in China still has much to be uncovered. Archeological findings have uncovered the existence of percussion instruments very far back in history. It is highly likely that the simpler percussion instruments such as bells, chimes [钟，磬，鼓，etc] were invented first while other more complex instruments with more complex construction or playing techniques were invented much later. Most of these early instruments were used in religious rituals, and in dances. Based on both archeological and written records, instruments that were present in China since pre-Han period include several complex instruments many which can still be found in Chinese music today. These include: drums [鼓], rattle drums [鼗], chime-stones [磬], chimes [钟], bells [铃], whistles [哨], xun [埙], vertical flute [箫], guan [管], chi [篪], sheng [笙], qin [琴], se [瑟], lute [筑] and so on. During the Zhou dynasty, the ancient Chinese have already started categorising their musical instruments. They divided musical instruments according to the type of materials they were made from and 8 categories emerged, namely: metal [金], stone [石], clay [土], skin [革], silk [丝], wood [木], gourd [匏], and bamboo [竹]. This form of categorisation has been in used in China from the Zhou dynasty, all the way until the beginning of the Qing dynasty. During Qin-Han dynasty, the zheng [筝], pipa [琵琶], di [笛], fang xiang [方响], etc have been invented. With the strengthening of the Han dynasty, there was increase in communication and interactions with other places outside China. Influences from all these foreign places brought about new types of music and cultural activities. Instruments from foreign lands also came into China. By the Sui-Tang era, there were plenty of diplomatic exchanges with foreign countries and cultural exchanges lead to a further development and change in the music of China. Based on written records, there were as many as 300 different types of instruments during the Tang dynasty. At this time, the pipa has become the main instrument used in the entertainment music of the courts [燕乐] and several virtuosic performers on the pipa emerged during that time. It was also during this period of time that bowed string instruments first made their appearance in China. Instruments such as the zha zheng [轧筝] and xi qin [奚琴] could already be seen outside the courts played by the common folk. Bows made of horse-hair were not yet present and these bowed instruments produced their sounds by bowing on a bamboo strip. From the Song dynasty onwards, musical instruments continued to advance in their designs and sound quality, and the four main groups of Chinese instruments start to emerge (even as the 8 categories of musical instruments were still in use): wind [吹]; bowed strings [拉]; plucked strings [弹]; percussion [打]. The bowed string instruments which have slowly became popular in the folk music by this time have been enriched by another type of bowed string instrument which came into China from the north-western regions. This was the "horse-tail" hu qin [马尾胡琴] which uses a bow made of the hair from the tail of a horse. The popularisation of dance music, the growth of narrative-singing and various forms of operas all led to a rapid development of various types of bowed string instruments and the family of hu qin such as the erhu [二胡], banhu [板胡], jinghu [京胡], zhuihu [坠胡], sihu [四胡], etc slowly emerged. Plucked string instruments also saw a gradual change from the Song dynasty onwards. The pipa popular during the Tang dynasty has undergone several changes from the Song dynasty onwards. The bent neck was replaced by the straight-necked pipa, and from being played with a pick, was gradually changed to being played with the fingers. Originally carried horizontally when playing, it changed to being carried vertically. The number of strings became fixed at four and the number of frets gradually increased. Several modifications on the pipa drew its influence from the ruan xian [阮咸] and by the Qing dynasty, pipa playing techniques have reached new heights and many important repertoire of the solo pipa have emerged. In addition to the pipa and the ruan xian, other plucked string instruments popular during this period of time were the sanxian [三弦] and the yueqin [月琴]. Very popular among narrative-singing genres, the sanxian could be traced back to the Yuan dynasty and its popularity continued to soar over the Ming and Qing dynasties. The yue qin was also popularised by narrative singing genres especially since the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the end of the Ming dynasty, another type of string instrument came into China. This was the yangqin [扬琴], a percussive string instrument, different from the bowed or plucked instruments that had been present. The yangqin was brought into China from Persia and the strings were struck with pieces of bamboo. The suona [唢呐] is another instrument that entered Chinese music during this period of time. Originating also from Persia, the suona came into China slightly earlier than the yangqin. Suonas could be found in Chinese music from as early as the Yuan dynasty, although it was during the Ming dynasty when it enjoyed much greater popularisation. Percussion instruments also saw new additions from the Yuan dynasty onwards. The yun luo [云锣] is an important set of percussion instruments which emerged during this time and became an important type of percussion instrument in Chinese music. Musical instruments and musical culture did not just move in a single direction from outside of China into China. Over this long period of history, many Chinese instruments and Chinese music moved out of China and influenced several musical cultures around the world.

Development of Folk Instrumental Ensemble Music: From the Western Zhou up to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, there were already several musical instruments popularly played in folk music. During the Qin-Han period, the wind and percussion ensemble from the north-western regions came into China and soon came to be used in plenty of court music. At the same time, this form of music spread to the common folks and over a long period of time, slowly evolved into many different types of wind and percussion ensembles. Prior to the Han-Wei period, Instrumental music was used together with singing but by this time, there were beginning to be records of instrumental music that was being performed without any singing. These were known as dan qu [但曲] and were frequently performed by instruments such as the qin, zheng, sheng, and zhu. During the Sui-Tang era, pipa performance techniques rose and the pipa not only became a very important instrument used in court music, but also saw the development of many solo works. Silk and bamboo ensembles started forming by the Song dynasty and there were many different types of ensembles found in the folk music. This development continued on through to the Qing dynasty and by then there was a myraid of different types of folk instrumental music all around China. Since the Song dynasty, the development folk instrumental ensembles were also heavily influenced by regional operatic styles and performance and musical styles of these folk instrumental ensembles were closely related to singing styles of the various operas. Many tunes found in folk instrumental ensembles were also derived from the tunes found in operatic music. Musical Characteristics of Folk Instrumental Music:
Title of a work
There are a few ways of naming a work and unlike modern art music, in which the title usually depicts what the composer has in mind for that piece of music, traditional folk instrumental music may not be named in this way.
Pieces of music which have their melodies derived from a folk song or a certain operatic tune for example, may be titled based on the melody it was derived from, such as Hua Gu Qu [花鼓曲], Mo Li Hua [茉莉花] and so on. Some other pieces may be named by the notes which start off the piece of music, such as Chi Gong Chi [尺工尺] or Liu Wu Liu [六五六]. Others may be named based on their musical structure such as Ba Ban [八板] or Ju Ju Shuang [句句双]. Finally, there are also some pieces which are being titled according to the contents of the music, such as Ba Wang Xie Jia [霸王卸甲], Yang Chun [阳春] and so on.

Musical structure
The conventional way of dividing folk instrumental music is into 2 categories, single piece [单曲] and suite [套曲]. Single pieces are usually derived from one single stock melody [曲牌] while suites are made up of several stock melodies or a linking together of several pieces of music. Several different formal structures can be found: bian zou ti [变奏体], xun huan ti [循环体], lian zhui ti [联缀体], and zong he ti [综合体]. The most commonly seen are bian zou ti and lian zhui ti.

Variation techniques of folk instrumental music
Variation is a type of technique very frequently found in Chinese traditional music. The way the music is being varied takes the form of several very unique techniques characteristic of Chinese traditional music. There are a few different ways of varying a melody in Chinese traditional music. Without changing the basic melody, ornaments may be added. The beginning or the ending of the melody could also be modified thus producing something new while the basic tune is left unchanged. Performance techniques could also be varied while the melody remains unchanged. The pitch of the melody could be changed or the rhythm could be modified. Among all these, changing performance technique while the melody remains unchanged is frequently used in the wind ensembles of the north of China. Variation of the meter [板式变奏], this is characteristic of the variation techniques used in the southern silk and bamboo ensembles. Variation of the modality of the music. In solo instrumental pieces, the modality can be changed via various fingering techniques. Jie zi bian zou [借字变奏] is a very unique kind of variation technique in Chinese traditional music. In this form of variation, one of the main notes in the pentatonic scale would be replaced with a bian sheng [变声], effectively changing the modality of the piece of music, but in a very different way from the conventional modulation techniques we see in Western art music. Traditional Folk Instrumental Ensemble Music:
Silk and Bamboo Ensemble
As can be seen from the name, this type of ensemble is made up of silk and bamboo instruments. Since the Han dynasty, there has already been written records of this form of ensemble used as an accompaniment to singing. During the Northern and Southern Wei-Jin dynasties, besides being used as accompaniment to singing, silk and bamboo ensembles sometimes play a short section before the entry of the vocal part. In the Sui-Tang era, qing diao [清调] and fa qu [法曲] are two types of silk and bamboo ensemble set up. Song dynasty xi yue [细乐], Yuan dynasty da qu [大曲], xiao qu [小曲], are also different incarnations of silk and bamboo ensembles. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of operas and narrative singing lead to a large increase in silk and bamboo ensembles, with the accompaniment for operas and narrative singing frequently using various combinations of silk and bamboo instruments. Eventually, they developed to become not only accompaniment for the operas or narrative singing, but into a stand-alone performance entity. Jiangnan Silk and Bamboo Ensemble [江南丝竹] is a form of silk and bamboo ensemble highly popular in the Jiangnan [江南] area of China. Originating in Jiangsu [江苏], Zhejiang [浙江], and Anhui [安徽] regions, it moved to the city area of Shanghai and became highly developed there. Cantonese Music is a form of silk and bamboo ensemble music popular in the Southern parts of Guangdong [广东] and Zhu Jiang [珠江] areas. Cantonese music emerged towards the end of the Qing dynasty from accompaniment of Cantonese operas. These ensembles started off performing in the teahouses, for weddings and funerals and so on. Later on in the early 20th century, they also started performing in cinemas as a musical accompaniment for the soundless movies of that era. By the 1930s, they also became more commercialised and produced many recordings and even performed in nightclubs and other recreational facilities. Teochew Music includes various genres and is popular in the Chao [潮], Shan [汕] areas of Guangdong, the southern parts of Fujian [福建], as well as in several Southeast Asian countries. Teochew tone-poems [潮州弦诗] traces their origins to ancient tunes set to poems. Later they became popular within the common folk and became in integral part of the folk music. Teochew xi yue [细乐] is an ensemble made up of the sanxian, pipa, and guzheng and several pieces of music have been passed down with written notation. Fujian Nanyin [福建南音] is a type of ensemble music popular in the Min Nan [闽南] areas of China. There are pure instrumental music, as well as plenty of music which includes singing.
Wind and Percussion Ensemble
Wind and Percussion ensembles came into China as early as the Western Han period from the northwestern regions. At the beginning, they were being used for military purposes and for court entertainment. Later on, wind and percussion ensembles moved out of the courts and manifest itself in several forms of folk wind and percussion ensembles around China. Liao Ning Gu Yue [辽宁鼓乐] is popular around Liaoning and the music is heavily influenced by operas, folk songs and other instrumental ensembles of that area. It is frequently used for weddings, funerals and other festivities. Divided into 2 types, suona music and sheng music, the former uses the suona as the lead instrument while the latter uses the guan and sheng as the main melodic instruments. Shandong Gu Chui [山东鼓吹] refers to the various wind and percussion ensembles in the Shandong area of China. In the eastern parts, the guanzi [管子] plays the role of the lead melodic instrument while in the central parts of Shandong, the dizi [笛子] is the main instrument. Finally in the southwestern parts, suona is often the main instrument in the ensemble. Jin Bei Gu Yue [晋北鼓乐] is popular in the Northern parts of Shanxi [山西]. Emerging during the Qing dynasty, this form of ensemble was absorbed into the temples and religious activities and is usually found performing for religious events and weddings and funerals. Similar to the other forms of wind and percussion ensembles, there are also two types, one using the guanzi as the main instrument and the other using the suona as the lead instrument. Ji Zhong Guan Yue [冀中管乐] is popular in Hebei [河北] and has a history of more than 200 years. It is usually used in religious rituals, as well as in festivities, funerals and weddings. Two different types of ensembles can be found, one using guanzi and haidi [海笛] and the other using suona. The types of music can be divided into religious and folk. Chao Zhou Luo Gu [潮州锣鼓] is a type of wind and percussion ensemble found in the Chaozhou [潮州] areas and they include several different performance formats. These include various forms of di tao luo gu [笛套锣鼓] and miao tang yin yue [庙堂音乐]. The development of Teochew percussion music is heavily influenced and also influenced the development of Teochew opera music. Shi Fan Luo Gu [十番锣鼓] is the name for wind and percussion ensembles popular in the Jiangnan areas. It is often used for weddings and funerals and religious activities or other important festivities. There are two types, one is a pure percussion ensemble and the other is known the sizhu luogu [丝竹锣鼓]. In addition to the main wind and percussion instruments, the si zhu luo gu also utilises some string instruments erhu, sanxian and so on.
Percussion Ensemble
Qing luo gu [清锣鼓] is the term usually used for pure percussion ensembles. There are plenty of different techniques used in playing the percussion instruments in these types of ensembles and are frequently used to create a festive and lively atmosphere. One of the types of Shi Fan Luo Gu involves only percussion instruments and is commonly known as su luo gu [素锣鼓]. Chao Zhou Luo Gu also includes several types of pure percussion set up such as the da luo gu [大锣鼓], xiao luo gu [小锣鼓], su luo gu [苏锣鼓] and so on. Tu Jia Zu Da Liu Zi [土家族打溜子] is another form of percussion ensemble common among the tu jia zu. There are plenty of different percussion techniques found in this type of music making the pure percussion sound very varied and interesting. Importance of folk instrumental ensemble music and other forms of folk music: The development of Chinese traditional folk instrumental music is closely related to folk vocal music. Especially since the Song dynasty where operas and narrative singing started developing, folk instrumental ensembles also started developing on a large scale. At first, they were used to accompany operas or narrative singing, or certain folk songs and folk dances. Later on, folk instrumental ensembles started having independent pieces apart from accompaniment. Many of the music is derived from folk songs or operatic music and performance techniques also oftentimes imitate the vocal styles of the music of that region. Folk instrumental music are also an important source of inspiration for the pieces of music in Chinese orchestra and in contemporary compositions in the present. At the same time, the folk traditions are still very much alive and the music and characteristics of these various types of folk instrumental ensembles are still in a process of continual change.

Percussion instruments in Nanyin

Nanyin is a form of Chinese traditional folk music that has an extremely long history. Elements of its origins could be traced to as far back as the Tang dynasty.

The instruments in Nanyin can be divided into the melodic (上四管) and the percussion (下四管) instruments. This other post touch a little on the melodic instruments of Nanyin. There are 4 instruments in the percussion or "xia si guan" section. A side note, the clapper (拍板), although a percussion instrument, does not fall within the percussion "xia si guan" section but within the melodic or "shang si guan" section. This is because the musician playing the clapper is also the singer, and even in cases of purely instrumental pieces, the clapper also falls under the category of melodic instruments.

In Nanyin music, rhythm is notated according to pai [拍] and liao [撩]. In Western classical music terms, we can think of the pai as the first beat in the bar and the liao as the rest of the beats. So a piece with 1 pai 3 liao can be thought of as corresponding to a 4/4 time.

In a piece of Nanyin music, the clapper always hits on the pai, or the main beat of the bar. The performance of the four percussion instruments: the xiangzhan [响盏], sibao [四宝], shuangyin [双音], and jiaoluo [叫锣] follows a strict set of rules.

The xiangzhan follows the rhythm of the pipa but never on the pai or the main beat. This means the xiangzhan will play exactly the same as the main melody, but omitting every time the note is on the main beat.

The sibao consists of 4 pieces of bamboo, the player holding 2 pieces in each hand. It also plays according to the rhythm of the pipa, including the pai or the main beat. When the pipa is playing nianzhi [捻指] (the closest English equivalent should be a tremolo), the sibao will do a tremolo as well, with the hands vibrating the pieces of bamboo. On the pai or main beats, the player will clap the pieces of bamboo together on separate hands, and on the rest of the notes, the player can play in a variety of ways, but always with the pieces of sibao from one hand hitting the other hand's.

The shuangyin is played on all the liao or all the beats of the bar except the first.

Finally, the jiaoluo which consists of a little gong and a temple block held in one hand, also has to follow a strict set of rules. The temple block is hit on every pai or main beat and the little gong is hit on the off beat of the liao, forming an interlocking rhythmical pattern with the shuangyin.

The Butterfly Lovers Concerto

At a reader's request, here is some information about one of the most famous violin concertos in Chinese music.

The 1940s - 1950s was a period of great changes in China's modern history. With the end of the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang resumed until finally in 1949 when the Kuomintang pulled out of the mainland and relocated to Taipei. Left in control of mainland China, the Communist Party of China proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China.

A series of campaigns and plans shaped the newly formed People's Republic of China. First came the "Hundred Flowers Campaign" (百花运动) in which the citizens were encouraged to openly express their opinions of the communist regime and differing views and solutions to national policy were being encouraged. In line with this, artists were also encouraged to rethink traditional arts and music, to modernise the existing art and culture with new knowledge from the West, and at the same time, retain China's cultural and artistic characteristics.

The economic and social plan known as the "Great Leap Forward" (大跃进) that followed aimed to transform the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through rapid industrialisation and collectivisation unfortunately resulted in widespread famine. However, it not only changed the economical landscape but also the social landscape of the country. Religions and mystic institutions were abolished and being replaced with political meetings and propaganda sessions. There were also attempts to improve education in the rural areas and the status of women, as well as many feudalistic practices that were rampant in the past.

From the 1950s up until the end of the Cultural Revolution, educated youths were also being "rusticated" or "sent down" to the countryside, either willingly or under coercion, under the assertion that "the countryside is a vast expanse of heaven and earth where we can flourish".

"The Butterfly Lovers Concerto" grew out from this historical backdrop. Liu Pin (刘品), a secretary of the Communist Party's Oversight Branch who led a rusticating group which included the composer He Zhanhao to the countryside started the idea of composing a piece of music for the proletariats. Ideas of creating something which the masses could appreciate and enjoy was being thrown up. Instead of the violin being an instrument which plays only Western classical music, a genre which probably speaks to only a select group of elite, they wanted to create a piece of music for the violin which can speak to the masses. Hence an experimental group was being formed amongst these students.

The composer He Zhanhao, having played the erhu in a yueju (越剧) troupe (a form of Chinese opera found around Shanghai), naturally took to the violin very quickly and was one of the more outstanding youths in the group. Hence in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the formation of the People's Republic of China, when a gift was being suggested to commemorate this occasion, he was being asked to compose a large scale piece of music in accordance with these ideals.

Being inexperienced in composition, He Zhanhao found himself in a fix. Even though he was motivated and interested in writing something, he found that he did not know where to start. It was only until after the encouragement of Liu Pin, who reminded him that he had plenty of music within himself, all the music from the operas that he was so familiar with was there, that He Zhanhao realised where he could draw his inspiration from.

With this plan underway, Liu Pin explained the situation to the assistant head of the Shanghai Conservatory of music Ding Shan De (丁善德) who then roped one of the composition students of the conservatory, Chen Gang, into the composition group. As told by He Zhanhao on the 50th anniversary of this composition, the names being put up as composers for this piece of music was decided by the leaders, with He Zhanhao as the first composer and Chen Gang as the second. However, there were also other people who were instrumental in the creation of this piece of work whose names were not being mentioned, such as Ding Zhi Nuo (丁芷诺), the daughter of Ding Shan De.

"The Butterfly Lovers Concerto" is a single-movement work in sonata form. Based upon the legend of "The Butterfly Lovers", the piece is divided into 3 main sections, corresponding also to the sections within the sonata form, the exposition; development; and recapitulation.

Explaining how they worked together in the compositional process, He Zhanhao said that he would first write down the solo violin melody in sections and bring to Chen Gang. Being a composition student and well-versed in arranging for an orchestra and accompanying instruments, Chen Gang would look through the melodies and when they were both satisfied with the melody, orchestrate it.

"The Butterfly Lovers Concerto" is a violin work which derives many musical materials from traditional Chinese music. While using Western compositional techniques, Western instruments and playing techniques, it brings out melodies and ideas which are familiar to the common people in China. The opening melody of the concerto

for example, is an interlude which is often found in yueju.

The bridge material of the exposition

is also another interlude used in many different places in yueju.

Operatic techniques of "jin da man chang" (紧打慢唱), in which the percussion and accompanying instruments play a regular, usually fast and intense rhythm while the melodic instruments (singing or solo instrument) play a slower, rhythmically free melody, are also being utilised.

Finally in 27 May 1959, this pioneering work in Chinese music, "The Butterfly Lovers Concerto" was being premiered in Shanghai by the violinist Yu Li Na (俞丽拿). In combining Western instruments and forms with Chinese sounds and ideas, it reflected the ideals the Chinese had at that time, to absorb new ideas from the West and at the same time, to retain their own characteristics.

Wildly popular since the first performance, this concerto has since been transcribed for many other different instruments and also for a Chinese orchestra.


References:
Chen Ming Zhi ed. Zhong Yue Yin Nin Geng Dong Ting - Min Zu Guan Xian Yue Dao Shang (Vol 2). "中樂因您更動聽－民族管弦樂導賞(下冊). Hong Kong: San Lian Shu Dian, 2003.

Yang Cheng Wan Bao (羊城晚报). 9 August 2009. http://news.ycwb.com/2009-08/09/content_2214928.htm

Of Tuning and Temperament

The temperament and tuning systems in Western music is based upon the theoretical properties of physics such as wavelengths and the harmonic series; whereas the temperament and tuning systems in Chinese music is based on the physical properties of materials used such as the length of the pipes or strings being used.

However, even though both cultures look upon tuning and temperament from a slightly different approach, they are both based upon sound physical properties and hence are both scientific and could find a confluence in the systems of tuning that are developed.

Based upon the writings of the ancient Chinese in the Book of History [尚書], sounds from music are based upon language and the various tones are used to coordinate the relationships between the pitches of the sounds. In a way, to the Chinese, the spoken word and the voice has always been of the utmost priority and has perhaps influenced the aesthetics of Chinese music. Many phrasings and inflections are dependent heavily upon how a sentence is being spoken.

Similar to Western music, each octave in the Chinese musical system is being divided into 12 tones. Each of these pitches is known as a lü [律]. These 12 lüs are divided into yin and yang, with the odd numbered ones being yang and called lü [律] and the even numbered ones called lü [呂]. Combined together, they are known as the 12 lü-lü [12 律呂] or simply known as the 12 lü [12 律].

The lüs are the absolute pitch names, different from gong [宮], shang [商], jiao [角], qing jiao [清角], zhi [徵], yu [羽], and bian gong [變宮] - the names of the relative pitches in the diatonic scale. Each of these lüs have their own name and in order from the first, they are known as huang zhong [黃鐘], da lü [大呂], tai cu [太簇], jia zhong [夾鐘], gu xi [姑洗], zhong lü [仲呂], rui bin [蕤賓], lin zhong [林鐘], yi ze [夷則], nan lü [南呂], wu she [無射], and ying zhong [應鐘]. Each of these lüs are based upon an absolute pitch, similar to the letter names of the notes in Western music. Huang zhong is the pitch of the first note and is also the starting pitch that is being considered, from which other pitches are calculated. The absolute pitch of each lü is obtained from a standard tuning object, which sometimes might be a pipe of a certain length, a string of a certain length and so on. Throughout history, the absolute pitch of these notes varied, for example, in the pre-Qin dynasty, the pitch of huang zhong is close to a Ab, during the Western Zhou dynasty, close to a F, in the Tang dynasty similar to a E and during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, a D. Now for convenience' sake, scholars have been using the C as the pitch of huang zhong.

The Chinese have always looked upon music as being a part of a greater whole within the entire cosmos, and hence have related the pitches to the different seasons and months as well, each of the 12 pitches referring to each of the 12 months.

The Chinese also have different tuning systems for these 12 pitches.

Relative Fifth Tuning System

The most commonly used form of tuning that is being adopted is one that is similar to the Pythagorean tuning system, known as the Relative Fifth tuning system (五度相聲律). This kind of tuning system could be traced as far back as the Spring Autumn Warring States (722 B.C.). This system of tuning is a kind of Just tuning, in which the frequency of the pitches are in the ratio of 3:2. With this kind of tuning, the fifths sound perfectly harmonious but unfortunately, it is impossible to obtain a perfect octave. In the Pythagorean tuning system, what is done is to adjust some of the ratios within the octave to create two wolf intervals. The thirds are also impure but with this, the octaves are always in the ratio of 2:1.

In the Chinese Relative Fifth tuning system, all the intervals within an octave are in the ratio of 3:2. With this however, the octaves can never attain the ratio of 2:1, a problem already attested by the ancient Chinese people, because the starting pitch, huang zhong and the perfect octave is 1200 cents apart while the pure perfect fifth, lin zhong, is 702 cents apart, instead of 700 cents if the octave were to be divided into 12 equal intervals.

Tuning in this way also, with each interval being in the ratio 3:2, the pitches will go higher and higher, the third fifth already out of an octave range. Hence intervals that falls out of the octave range will have 1200 cents, the interval of an octave, deducted from it, keeping all the pitches that are being derived within the range of an octave.

Based upon this, we can obtain the following table for the pitches derived from the Relative Fifth tuning system:

degree of scale	1	5	2	6	3	7
pitch name	huang zhong	lin zhong	tai cu	nan lü	gu xi	ying zhong
cents	0	702	1404 - 1200 = 204	906	1608 - 1200 = 408	1110

4#	1#	5#	2#	6#	3#	7#
rui bin	da lü	yi ze	jia zhong	wu she	zhong lü	qing huang zhong
1812 - 1200 = 612	1314 - 1200 = 114	816	1518 - 1200 = 318	1020	1722 - 1200 = 522	1224

As can be seen, the qing huang zhong [清黃鐘] ("qing" referring to pitches an octave higher) is 1224 cents instead of the 1200 cents for a pure perfect octave.

Equal Temperament Tuning System

The equal temperament tuning system, the most commonly used tuning system in Western music in the present, had been proposed by music theorist and mathematician Zhu Zai Yu [朱載堉] (1536 - 1611) in the Ming Dynasty.

With the problem inherent in the Relative Fifth tuning system, scholars tried different ways and means to derive another tuning system.

One of the methods was to carry on deriving more pitches through the relative fifth tuning after the 12 pitches, until it finally resolves onto the pure perfect octave. In this way, a note series comprising more than 12 different tones was obtained. In one instance, Western Han music theorist Jing Fang [京房] (77 - 27 B.C.) derived 60 pitches to obtain a huang zhong which approaches the pure perfect octave closely. In the Southern Song dynasty, another theorist Qian Le Zhi [錢樂之] went further and derived 360 tones to approach the pure perfect huang zhong even more closely, but because the number of pitches was too many to be practical, this was never adopted. Southern Song dynasty theoretician Cai Yuan Ding [蔡元定] (1135 - 1198) took the 12 pitches derived through relative fifth tuning and added 6 more modified pitches to create a total of 18 different pitches. These were in fact, the first 18 pitches calculated by Jing Fang. Although these 18 pitches solved the problem of modulation within the 12 pitches, the problem of the pure perfect octave was still unresolved.

Following a different path from this group of scholars who attempted to resolve the problem of the pure perfect octave by adding more pitches to the tuning system, there is another school of theorists who decided not to add more notes to the system, but rather, to modify the way of calculating the pitches. He Cheng Tian [何承天] (370 - 447), a philosopher from the Northern and Southern dynasties came up with an innovation in tuning. With the deviation from the pure perfect octave through relative fifth tuning, he divided it equally into 12 and added this deviation in pitch to each of the pitches derived through relative fifth tuning. In this way, although still entirely not equal temperamental, the problem of modulation is being resolved and this could be seen as one of the pioneers to equal temperament tuning.

In 1581, Ming dynasty scholar Zhu Zai Yu published a work on tuning and temperament and in the forward, suggested a new method of tuning. Instead of using the ratio 3:2 for deriving the fifth, he used the number 749153538. 500000000 divided by this will give an approximation to 0.667, giving the new pitch of the fifth (lin zhong), and 1000000000 divided by this number will give an approximation to 1.334, giving the new pitch of the octave below the second fifth (tai cu). He further elaborated on this method of tuning in his subsequent work published in 1596, thereby establishing the method of equal temperament. However, the ruler of that time did not recognise the importance of this work and sadly, this method of tuning was never utilised. It was only in 1890 that Belgium musicologist Victor Mahillon (1841 - 1924) studied Zhu Zai Yu's calculations and found them to be perfectly accurate and in 1991, musicologist Liu Yong tested the pitches of the pitch pipes constructed out of Zhu Zai Yu's calculations and proved it to be exactly that of the equal temperament tuning that we know of now.

Just intonation

Just intonation is another important tuning system used in ancient China. This system of tuning is based upon the intervals of the pure perfect fifths, and the pure major thirds. Starting from qing jiao [清角], a pure perfect third above gives the yu [羽], a pure perfect fifth above gives a gong [宮]; from gong, a pure major third above gives jiao [角] and a pure perfect fifth above gives zhi [徵]; from zhi, a pure major third above produces the bian gong [變宮] and a pure perfect fifth above produces shang [商]. In this way, all the seven tones of the diatonic scale is obtained. In this method of tuning however, the semitone that are produced are wider than a usual semitone obtained from pure relative fifth tuning or equal tempered tuning.

In these 3 main tuning systems, the just intonation and the equal tempered tuning systems produces octaves that are pure. The relative fifth tuning system however, has pure perfect fifths within, but has trouble justifying the perfect octave. Each of these tuning systems are being used at some time or other, and in some instances, are being adopted together, for example in the tuning of the guqin whereby both the relative fifth tuning and the just intonation systems are being utilised. In music where modulation is plentiful, the equal tempered tuning system may be used.

References:

Du, Ya Xiong and Qin, De Xiang (2007). 中國樂理 [Zhong Guo Yue Li]. Shanghai: Shanghai Yin Yue Xue Yuan Chu Ban She.