Traditional Chinese Music

Unit check #3 - WM

What is apart of the Chinese geo-cultural region?

• Korea

• Japan

• Mongolia

• Eastern half of Russia (Siberia)

What is the “Ideographic Writing System”?

• Developed by the Chinese a few millennia ago

• Each symbol has a meaning rather than a phonetic sound

• Common writing system throughout East Asia

• District written languages gradually developed in Japan, Korea, and Mongolia

What is the Chinese geo-cultural region?

Mainland

• China

• Taiwan

• Hong Kong

What are the 2 main Chinese languages?

Mandarin (Han people)

• Official language of China, Taiwan, & Singapore

Cantonese

• Spoken in above countries + Hong Kong & Macao

Dozens of minority languages (many indigenous)

Qualities of China (mainland)

Capital: Beijing

Largest city: Shanghai

Most internationalized city: Guangzhou

• Most Chinese live in eastern third

• Western interior and Mongolia sparsely populated

What is the Han ethnic group?

95% of mainland China (People’s Republic of China) & of Taiwan (Republic of China)

Qualities of the Han ethnic group (4)

• Arose along the Huang He (Yellow) River in northern China -2000 BCE

• Spread throughout East Asia & settled mostly south of the Huang He River & north of the Yangtze River in China

• Largest civilization in the world & considered the “original” Chinese civilization

• “China-sized” outside influences, which were then adopted by neighboring cultures

What is the North China Plain?

Center of Chinese Civilization

• Most farming between Huang He (Yellow) and Yangtze Rivers

What are the 3 main philosophical systems in China?

Focus on individuals rather than specific deities

1. Daoism

2. Buddhism

3. Cofucianism

What is the Daoism philosophical system?

• (arose 3rd century BCE)

  • Focus on human interactions with nature;

  • “Dao” = “the way” (the natural flow of life)

What is the Buddhism philosophical system?

• (arose 543 BCE)

  • Focus on human interactions with spiritual world

  • Achieving enlightenment to escape cycle of rebirth of the soul

What is the Confucianism philosophical system?

• (arose 5th century BCE)

  • Focus on human interactions with other humans

  • Based on the ideas of Chinese philosopher & scholar Kong Fuzi (551-479 BCE)

What are dynasties in China?

Many long-ruling dynasties over several millennia

• Dynasty: a succession of related rulers (Ex: British monarchy)

What is the Zhou Dynasty?

1046-256 BCE

• Origin of traditional Chinese culture, including writing, music, and Confucianism

What is the Qin Dynasty?

221-206 BCE

• First Imperial Dynasty

• 221 BCE: Conquered 7 warring states, ended Zhou Dynasty, & unified China

• Established imperial system that lasted until 1911

• “Qin”: Etymological ancestor of China

Who was Qin Shi Huang?

259-210 BCE

• Founder of Qin dynasty & first emperor of unified China

What is the Great Wall of China?

• Over 13,000 miles long

• Started in earnest - 220 BCE

• Additions for next 2000 years

What is the Han Dynasty?

206 BCE-220 CE

• Given its name to the majority Han ethnic group

What is the Silk Road?

• Ancient caravan trade routes

• 4000 miles long

• Origins: Han Dynasty (206 BCE)

• Connected Eastern China w/ India, Central Asia, & eventually Europe

• Used by merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, & urban dwellers

What is the Silk Road? Cont.

Marco Polo: 1271-1295

Main trades: Silk, tea, porcelain, spices

• Cultural exchanges, Buddhism, Christianity, technology, disease, music, instruments, & disease.

What is the Yuan Dynasty?

1271-1368

• Established by invasion of the Mongols from the North

What were the “Mongols”?

Nomads from the North that crossed the Mongolian plateau to invade China in the 1200s & 1300s

• Mongols’ success attributed to the use of horses (short & stocky) in warfare

• Mongol empire spread through Asia & as far as Eastern Europe

Who is Kublai Khan?

• Grandson of Genghis Khan

• 1271: Founded Yuan Dynasty, & ruled as first Yuan emperor until 1294

• Made Beijing the capital

What was the Ming Dynasty?

1368-1644

• Established by the Han, who replaced the Mongols

What was the Qing Dynasty?

1644-1911

• Established by invading Manchus from the Nort

• Codified the 56 nationalities recognized in China today - began appropriating their traditions as “part of China”

What was the role of the arts in Chinese identity?

• Music/theatre perceived as strongly influential on people’s thinking/behavior

• Music considered to be important for encouraging "ethical”
  morals, character, & behavior

What are a traditional Chinese music fundamentals?

• Sung folk songs, narrative song, & theater form the core

• Based on anonymous melodies that take vocal, instrumental, solo, and ensemble forms

• Melodies based on 5 possible pentatonic scales (diao)

What are prevalent textures of traditional Chinese Music fundamentals?

1. Monophony (solo): single melodic line (vocal & instrumental)

2. Heterophony (ensemble): different versions of the melodic line

What are a traditional Chinese music fundamentals? cont.

• Timbre/ornamentation are important

• Percussion accompanies music. dance, & opera

• Programmatic titles to most songs, alluding to nature, literature/myth, mood, or musical structure

  Ex: “Autumn Moon & Lake Scenery”.

What is the Chinese pentatonic scale Diao?

• Five possible pentatonic scales

  • Gongdiao: 1-2-3-5-6

  • Shangdiao: 1-2-4-5-7

  • Juediao: 1-3-4-6-7

  • Zidiao: 1-2-4-5-6

  • Yudiao: 1-3-4-5-7

• Approximate the black keys on the piano

• Most common: Gongdiao & Zidiao

Gongdiao social & cosmological significance

Cardinal Points: Center

Political structure: King

Virtues: Faith

Colors: Yellow

Elements: Earth

Heavenly bodies: Constellations

Planets: Saturn

Flavors: Sweet

Emotions: Desire

Shangdiao social & cosmological significance

Cardinal Points: West

Political structure: Minister

Virtues: Righteousness

Colors: White

Elements: Metal

Heavenly bodies: Earth

Planets: Venus

Flavors: Pungent

Emotions: Melancholy

Juediao social & cosmological significance

Cardinal Points: East

Political structure: People

Virtues: Benevolence

Colors: Blue

Elements: Wood

Heavenly bodies: Stars

Planets: Jupiter

Flavors: Sour

Emotions: Anger

Zidiao social & cosmological significance

Cardinal Points: South

Political structure: National Affairs

Virtues: Respect

Colors: Red

Elements: Fire

Heavenly bodies: Sun

Planets: Mars

Flavors: Bitter

Emotions: Joy

Yudiao social & cosmological significance

Cardinal Points: North

Political structure: Natural world

Virtues: Knowledge

Colors: Black

Elements: Water

Heavenly bodies: Moon

Planets: Mercury

Flavors: Salty

Emotions: Fear

How is Diao characterized?

How they are realized in performance

• Instrumentation

• Range

• Rhythm

• Ornamentation

• Cadential formulas

• Opera characters

What are 3 instruments that have been performed for over a millennium?

1. Pipa

2. Erhu

3. Guqin

What is the Pipa?

• 4-stringed pear-shaped, plucked lute

• Quintessential instrument

• Performed as solo instrument

• Uses raised bamboo frets

• Associated with banquet music & storytelling

  Techniques: Bending strings to change pitch, continuous rapid roll w/ 5 fingers on sustained tones

What is the Hu (or huqin)?

Bowed Fiddles

• Introduced from Mongolia during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 CE)

• Held vertically

• Bow hairs pass between 2 melodic strings, tuned a 5th apart

What is the Huqin Family? (6)

Over 30 types of Hu instruments

• Leihu

• Erhu

• Zhonghu (Lower register)

• Gaohu (Higher register)

• Jinghu

• Yehu (Coconut fiddle)

What is the Erhu?

Most Prominent Hu: Two-string fiddle

• Horse-hair bow: slides between 2 strings tuned a 5th apart

• Wooden body, snakeskin head

• 2 rear tuning pegs at top

• Touch strings at different points to change pitch

• Emotional-sounding due to similar range to human voice

What is the Guqin (“ancient Qin”)?

• Plucked zither 7 silk strings dating back to 200 BCE (Han Dynasty)

• One of the world’s most ancient instruments to be in continuous use

What is a Sizhu?

Si (“silk”)

Zhu (“bamboo”)

• Silk & Bamboo Ensemble

  • Informal ensemble of mostly fiddles, lutes, & flutes

What is the Bayin (Eight Materials)

Organological system for classifying instruments based on materials rather than sound vibration

• Similar to Western brass, woodwinds, strings, etc.

What are the 4 district regional styles of Sizhu?

1. Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River) - The Shanghai region

2. Guangdong - from Guangdong province in the south

3. Chaozhou - from Eastern Guangdong province

4. Nanguan - From Xiamen in Fujian province

What are the musical traits of Sizhu? (4)

• Tuneful & easily accessible music

• Consistent volume level throughout

• Clear duple meter

• Simple rhythms

What are the musical traits of Sizhu? cont.

• Continuous heterphonic playing - ensemble can sound “busy” to Western ears

• “Bright” & “thin” timbres

• Pieces held together by short melodic motives. use of a single diao, & a consistent heterophonic texture

What is the social context of the Sizhu ensemble? (3)

• An “amateur” tradition, mostly played by non-professionals

• Performed in informal gatherings at tea/club houses by a social club

• Performance intended for the performance & relaxation of the performers

What is the social context of the Sizhu ensemble? cont.

• Heterophony, basic melodies, & simple rhythms contribute to inclusivity

• Originally allowed ordinary working people artists without a low-class reputation

• Taught in music conservatories

What is the Jiangnan Sizhu?

• Folk tradition from Jiangnan (“south of the river”): region around Shanghai

• The most prominent regional style

• Repertoire: about 20 anonymous pieces

What are Sizhu instruments?

1. Dizi

2. Yanqin

3. Pipa

4. Erhu

What is the Yanqin?

• Hammered dulcimer w/ double & triple coursed strings

• 3-5 sets of bridges, arranged chromatically

• Introduced from Persia (now Iran) via the Silk Road during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) - derived from the santur

• Originally silk strings (softer timbre), then bronze strings, now steel strings (brighter sound)

• Both solo & ensemble instrument

What is the Yanqin? cont.

• Yanqin is struck with 2 bamboo hammers w/ rubber tips

• “Double hammers” have two striking surfaces, allowing players to play up to 4 notes simultaneously

What is the Dizi?

• Horizontal bamboo flute

• Different sizes, ranges, and diao

• 6 finger holes, 1 blow hole, 1 membrane hole

What is the Paiban?

Wooden clapper

What are Guqin performance characteristics?

• Fretless plucked zither w/ 7 strings, originally twisted silk

• Long, rectangular wood soundboard

• 11-13 inlaid circles marking vibration points

• Tuned by twisting pegs on the underside

• Strings plucked w/ 1 hand, vibration stopped w/ the other

What are Guqin performance characteristics? cont.

• Sparse, quiet, & intimate sound

• Played in free rhythm

• Timbres - Plucked sounds, tone-bending, scraping, harmonics

• Fundamentally pentatonic w/ anchor pitches

• Tablature-style notation as old as the instrument

• Short motives rather than extended melodic lines

What are Guqin social characteristics?

• Instrument of the scholarly class (literati), from which the government chose its officials

• Associated w/ Confucian philosophy & ideals of balance, harmony, order, moderation, & subtlety

• Also associated with Daoist philosophy of entering the flow of the universe (“chi”) through communion w/ nature & self

What are the Daoist artistic aesthetics?

• Depiction of empty space in paintings, reflecting “the lone scholar” communing w/ nature (the focal point)

• Chuang Tzu - 1 of the greatest Daoist writers, flourished 250 BCE

Confucian & Daoist sensibilities in Guqin playing

• Form of sonic meditation & self-cultivation - a quiet & intimate art played in solitude or w/ soulmates

• Not for public, neither presentational or participatory

The Modern Era - Republic of China

1911: Popular revolution overthrows a Qing Dynasty

• Sun Yat-Sen attempts democracy modeled on U.S. Constitution

• Influx of Western elements

• Suspicion of traditional elements

The Modern Era - Republic of China cont.

• 1920s: Start of power struggle between Nationalist Kuomintang Party (led by Chiang Kai-Shek) & the Chinese Community Party (led by Mao Zedong) elements

• Japanese occupation of China (1937-1945)

Important dates (1937-1949)

• World War II: Japanese Occupation of China (1937-1945)

• Civil war between Communist & Nationalist Parties, resulting in Communist victory (1946-1949)

• China-Kai-Shek flees to Taiwan, where he establishes the Republic of China (ROC) - 1949

• Mao Zedong establishes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) - The most influential leader of Modern China (1949)

What is the Cultural Revolution?

1966-1976

• Social/political movement set in motion by Mao Zedong & his wife Jiang Qing (to avoid blame for the 1966 famine)

• Attempted to preserve “true” Communist ideology by purging traditional & capitalist elements from Chinese society

What are Red Guards?

Youth paramilitary groups that enforced CCP doctrine

• “Little Red Book” - Part of a widespread propaganda campaign - contained talks & statements by Chairman Mao

What was the “Destroy the Four Olds” ?

1966 - Campaign encouraging the destruction of traditional “old”

• Culture

• Customs

• Habits

• Ideas

Homes of the literati ransacked - cultural artifacts, art, & Guqins destroyed

Guqin - Seen as a prohibited instrument, associated w/ intellectualism

Millions displaced & persecuted

• Public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, & seizure of property.

Qualities of music during the Cultural Revolution

Chairman Mao - used music/theater to fight enemies & control citizens

• Traditional/Western classical musical practices were blended to carry a revolutionary Socialist message - only message allowed

• As in Bulgaria, the Western influence was thought to “uplift” & “modernize” Chinese folk music, even though the CCP was staunchly anti-capitalist

Ex: Qualities of music during the Cultural Revolution (2)

• The CCP’s Navy Orchestra - combined erhu w/ Western symphonic instruments & musical approaches

• Traditional Beijing Opera became “Revolutionary Beijing Opera” (Western symphonic instruments & harmony added, plots of “Socialist Realism”)

• New music set Mao’s words to music & praised him

When did the Cultural Revolution end?

1976 - With Mao’s death

Qualities of “Beijing Spring” (3)

Late 1700s

• Brief period of liberalization

• Economic reforms: shift from planned economy to socialist-market economy

• Outside, capitalist cultural influences seep in

Qualities of “Beijing Spring”

Spring 1989

• University students gather in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of liberal reformer

• Led to a nationwide democracy movement, similar to other worldwide movements

May 20, 1989

• Party authorities declare martial law & mobilize 300,000 troops to Beijing

What was the Tiananmen Square Massacre?

June 4

• Troops with assault rifles & tanks inflict thousands of casualties on unarmed civilians

Post-Cultural Revolution struggles for cultural legitimacy

Between China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC)

• Expressive culture (music, art, language) - used by PRC for..

  • Recognition of Guqin as a “Masterpiece of intangible Cultural Heritage” (ICH) by UNESCO in 2005

    • Reinstated the instrument’s important to traditional Chinese music

    • Resulted in celebrations, new students, & concert hall performances

What is UNESCO?

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)

• Provided an international framework, funding source, & identification & protection of what was deemed “Masterpieces of Intangible Cultural Heritage” (ICH recognition)

What is UNESCO? cont.

CCP applications for ICH recognitions a form of cultural imperialism

• Way for the Han majority to dominate the cultural expressions of the 55 ethnic minorities of China

• Greatly reduces the # of cultural narratives in China receiving global recognition

• Start to see static preservation efforts

What is the CCP cultural imperialism via UNESCO called?

Uyghurs of Xinjiang Province & the Muqam of Meshrap gatherings

What are Uyghurs? (2)

• The largest ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang Province in the far northwest-rugged mountains & vast desert

• Most identify as Muslim but classified by CCP as atheist

What are Uyghurs? cont.

Human rights of Uyghurs violated by CCP, along with other Xinjiang minorities

• Sent to re-education camps

• Prohibited from practicing religious activities & ceremonies

• Forced sterilization of women & forced labor

• Human rights violations led to a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics & Paralympics in Beijing in 2022

What is The Meshrep?

• A traditional grassroots male gathering that typically includes a planned format of poetry, music, dance, & conversation

• Usually held in mosques, public gathering sites, or the courtyard of a member’s family home

What is The Meshrep? cont.

• Maintains Uyghur identity & culture by teaching young people social rules & enacting community

• Typically includes discussions of moral questions & a musical practice called Muqam

What is the Muqam?

• The musical portion of the Meshrep, but also performed outside this event

• Performances of folk ballads & poems bear witness to history & present-day affairs

• 12 main regional styles covering both solo & ensemble performance

• Includes both folk & classical music

• Distinctive dances accompany the music

What is the Muqam cont.

Xinjiang Province’s location at a central point in the Silk Road = combination of Middle Eastern & traditional Chinese musical influence in Muqam

• Middle Eastern influence found in singing, instrumentation, and scales

• Traditional Chinese influence found in timbres & use of string and wind instruments as the lead instruments

• Both influences emphasize melody & it’s diversification

UNESCO ICH Recognition of Muqam

• CCP applied for this, NOT members of the Uyghur community

• CCP’s success = increased popularity of Muqam throughout China

• CCP starts to take over the practice, sterilizing it for consumption = diminishing grassroots performances

• Resulting narrative - “Muqam is Chinese and was always Chinese, therefore the Uyghur are as well.”