mus 122 china

Instruments

• Qin

  • seven stringed zither (played by plucking)

  •   Jinzhi – ‘forbidden finger’ (ring finger)

  • Mentioned in Shujing 6^th c. BCE

  • Music piece: Flowing water

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•  Erhu

  • string instrument played in the Jiangnan Sizhu (Chinese chamber)

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  Pipa

  • four stringed lute

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• Yangqin

  • string instrument played in the Jiangnan Sizhu (Chinese chamber)

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• Sheng

  • wind instrument played in the Jiangnan Sizhu (Chinese chamber)

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• Dizi

  • wind instrument played in the Jiangnan Sizhu (Chinese chamber)

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Terms

• Jingju Theater/Peking Opera

  • major dramatic musical art form

  • presented plots using music, speech, stylized gestures and dance movements, acrobatics, mock combat scenes, makeup, and elaborate costumes

  • four arias (solos), heightened speech, and instrumental music

  • functions of instrumental music:

    • accompany singing and physical movement and dance

  • 2 components of instrumental music:

    • wenchang: melodic (civic instrumentation)

    • wuchang: percussion (military instrumentation)

  • singing style of Chinese opera reflects language, is brighter

  • music: dramatic aria from zuo zai & narrative aria from chun qiuy pei

  • used to be performed in tea houses

• Jinzhi

  • forbidden finger to play on the qin (ring finger)

• Jiangnan Sizhu

  • Instrumental ensemble with strings and winds popular around Shanghai (Chinese chamber)

  • Jiangnan - south of the river

  • Sizhu - silk bamboo

  • Silk/strings: pipa, erhu, yangqin

  • Bamboo/winds: dizi, sheng

  • Music: Hua San Liu

• Han

  • 93% of Chinese population

• Marxism

  • music for the minorities

  • provided pseudo-theoretical justification for the Han to control and ‘help’ minorities

• Mei sheng vs Bel canto

  • music of Mongolian singers

  • Mei sheng - throaty singing like bel canto (western European teaching style)

  • music: blessings to my mother

• PRC

  • People’s Republic of China - 1949

  • Caused stop of Liuxing Gequ

  • Led to more canto pop, disike (disco), xibeifeng (rock/heavy metal)

• May Fourth Movement

  • 1919 liberal chancellor Cai Yuanpei read Karl Marx which sounded appealing to him → CCP

• Cultural Revolution and the CCP

  • Completely rejected western influence (burned European instruments and art) to prove Chinese Superiority (1966-1976)

  • CCP - Chinese Communist Party

    • propaganda/nationalist music

    • Russian sounding music, no Chinese instruments used

    • music: we workers have strength & the internationale

• Liuxing Gequ

  • pop music in Shanghai

  • western, jazzy, not Chinese sounding

  • early 1900s night club

  • music: ye shanghai

    • ye=night

• Shong Jinshu

  • rock music in china mid 1980s

• Benke

  • punk music

Be able to explain:

• Throat Singing

  • Tuvan throat singing

  • Tuva was a part of China that used to be part of the USSR

• Cultural/political significance of Beijing

  • Used to be called Peking

  • Emperor’s palace

  • Peking opera/jingju theater/beijing opera

  • capital city, political, cultural, and economic center

  • center of Chinese traditional culture

• Cultural/political significance of Shanghai and its relation to popular music

  • Jiangnan Sizhu

  • pop music → liuxing gequ is shanghai popular song

    • western jazzy music

  • ex/ ye shanghai

  • birthplace of CCP

Important people:

• Bo Ya

  • Chinese professional qin player

  • natural music, wind, waves, forests

• Master Kong

  • Kong Fuzi (Confucious)

  • Identified shi yin (proper sound) and chi yue (extravagant music)

    • don’t exactly know what he meant but CCP used this to illegalize music

• Cui Jian

  • rock music in china mid 1980s

  • inner emotions, cultural, and political issues in music

  • ambiguous language used

  • was arrested several times, under careful watch

  • music: Having nothing

• Mao Zedong

  • Founder of the PRC and leader of the CCP

  • ‘national hero who liberated the country from foreign influence and occupation’

  • influenced international communist movement

  • remembered fondly