EAST ASIA MUSIC

Pipa- a four-stringed lute with a pear-shaped body. It has an extremely wide dynamic range and remarkable expressive power.

Erhu- a two-stringed fiddle and one of the most popular Chinese instruments.

Sheng- also called as Chinese mouth organ and looks like a ser panpipes with 12 to 36 bamboo pipes.

Dizi- is the traditional Chinese flute

Zheng - an ancient Chinese instrument that has an arched surface and an elongated-trapezoid with 13 to 21 strings stretched over individual bridges.

Pengling - These are two small bells made of high-tin bronze, without internal clappers, and hemispheric or bottomless gourd-like in shape.

Chong-ak means literally right (or correct) music

Sog-ak or minsogak is a category of Korean music tradition associated with the lower classes or for the general public and are vibrant and energetic. It includes genres such as pansori and minyo.

Pansori is a music presented to audiences by skilled vocal singers and drummers, with even the unskilled could sing these songs. They sang when they worked the rice paddy or fields, sang when they went off with their lover, when their life was troubled and weighing them down.

Instrumental Music of Korea
Korean music, especially in South Korea, has a rich vocal tradition and diverse instruments and music forms. Folk songs, religious works, court music, and shaman rituals all express the soul of a nation whose history is filled with colorful and fascinating tales. Traditional Korean music represents a world of captivating rhythms and melodies whose sounds draw listeners in like a breath. Koreans sang songs when they could not hold their sadness in.

Korean Musical Instuments

String Instruments

1. Kayagum (gayageum) - is a traditional Korean zither- like string instrument, with 12 strings, although more recently variants have been constructed with 21 or more numbers of strings. It is probably the best-known traditional Korean musical instrument.

2. Geomungo- this six-string plucked zither is a traditional Korean stringed musical instrument of the zither family instruments with both bridge frets. Scholars believe that the name refers to goguryeo and translates to goguryeo zither that it refers to the color that translates to "black crane zither”

3. Haegum (two-string vertical fiddle)- has a rod-like neck, a hollow wooden soundbox, two silk strings, and is held vertically on the knee of the performer and played with a bow.

Wind Instruments

Piri - used in both the folk and classical (court) music of Korea. It is made of bamboo. Its large reed and cylindrical bore gives it a sound mellower than that of many other types of oboe.

Percussion Instrument

Changgo- is the most widely used drum in the traditional music of Korea. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from animal skin. The two heads produce sounds of different pitch and timbre, which when played together are believed to represent the harmony of man and woman.

• Arirang is a Korean folk song used as a symbol of Korea and Korean culture. It evokes the feeling of the tears shed by Koreans and the remembrance of sad stories specifically partings.

Japan

Japanese vocal music is quite different f the Western vocal music, and is based on intervals of human breathing rather th mathematical timing. and how Japan musicians show their spiritual self-mastery mastering his or her instrument more than simply perfecting a technique of some sort and how the give value to their performance and composure.

Traditional Japanese music is basica meditative in character. Its music performance are highly ritualized, as is composure of the musicians when performing Japanese chamber music and solo music have slow meditative pace and use concrete elements, which serve to represent natural sounds and the sounds of life. The main tone of Japanese music have two modes: the yo-sen and the in-sen. Both consist of five primary to based on a scale with seven tones. Japanese music has three general types of instruments- percussion instruments (odaiko, tsuzumi, shoko, tsurida taiko), string instruments (koto, shamisen, biwa), and wind instruments mostly flutes (shakuhachi, nokan, sho, hichiriki). Compared to our mus Japanese music is very simple. They sing melodies in unison and they new repeat the same melody in a song.

China

Chinese vocal music has traditionally been sung in a thin, non-resonant voice, or in falsetto. Chinese vocal music is usually solo rather than choral, All traditional Chinese music is melodic rather than harmonic. Chinese music uses the pentatonic scale as can be heard in the song Mo Li Hua. Xiaodiao, or short tunes, are popular music in Chinese urban areas.

GLOSSARY

Arirang - a Korean folk song used as a symbol of Korea and Korean culture. It evokes the feeling of the tears shed by Koreans and the remembrance of sad stories specifically partings.

Biwa- a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is the chosen instrument of Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry, and education in Japanese Shinto.

Changgo - an hourglass-shaped drum that is played with two hands, the left hand strikes the left side while the right hand strikes the other side with a stick

Ching- a huge gong played by means of a padded stick

Chong-ak- has a literal meaning of "music for the noble classes"

Clarion the sound of such an instrument or any similar sound; clear and ringing and inspiring

Ensemble - a work for two or more vocalists or instrumentalists

Form- refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music; it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections

Gagaku ancient imperial court music and dance; a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries

Haegum- a two-stringed plucked instrument made of bamboo

Heterophony - a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line

Hichiriki - a double reed Japanese fue (flute) used as one of two main melodic instruments in Japanese gagaku music, the other being the ryüteki. The hichiriki is difficult to play due in part to its double reed configuration.

Homophony- a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords

Pentatonic- is a musical scale or mode with five notes per octave

Pentatonic scale - is a musical scale or mode with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic (seven-note) scale such as the major scale and minor scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world.

Piri- is a Korean double reed instrument, used in both the folk and classical (court) music of Korea

Ryüteki - (literally "dragon flute") is a Japanese transverse fue made of bamboo. It is used in gagaku, the Shinto classical music associated with Japan's imperial court.

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)- is a traditional Japanese folk song depicting - spring, the season of cherry blossoms

Shakuhachi- the most famous flute made from bamboo. It has four or five finger holes on the front face and a thumb hole on the rear face. As with other instruments above, it was imported from China for gagaku.

Shamisen- is a plucked stringed instrument. Its construction follows a model similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, employing a neck, and strings stretched across a resonating body. The neck of the shamisen is fretless, and is slimmer than that of a guitar or banjo.

Shinobue- a Japanese transverse flute or fue that has a high-pitched sound

Shinto or Shintoism - is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the people of Japan. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past.

Shō- is a Japanese free-reed musical instrument that was introduced from China during the Nara period (AD 710 to 749). It is modeled on the Chinese sheng, although the sho tends to be smaller in size. It consists of 17 slender bamboo pipes, each of which is fitted in its base with a metal free reed.

Sog-ak or minsogak- a category of Korean music traditionally associated with the lower classes or for the general public and are vibrant and energetic

Strophic- the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "AAA"