Chinese Music Flashcards
Baban form
eight beat timing-Chinese musical form with eight melodic phrases; most traditional solo guzheng pieces are in this form
Republican era vs. initial Communist era conservatory guzheng
Republican era: modernization on all levels.Western music prized and cultivated, traditional chinese=backward.
Initial Communist era: musical reform efforts initiated during the republican era continued with a layer of political content tied to Chinese socialist doctrines:
- glorification of Mao and the CCP
- “emancipation”(liberation) of the peasant masses
-government controlled the arts
cultivation of a new musical culture
Guzheng was promoted as “genuine folk instrument”
- many new works usually based on folk music
- political programmatic elements(employment of instrumental music to illustrate an idea, or evoke imagery/scenes)
- piano inspired two-hand technique developed
- 21 string replaced the 16 string
Regional style vs. conservatory style
- Regional style: Reflected a long history of micing between folk, popular and court music traditions. Each regional style has it own distinct yun or “regional character”(like mode in western music, ex. Livelieness, short descending melodic phrase, preference for wide or narrow vibrato). Regional style uses baban. The designated emotional quality (yijing) which is identified as a sort of sadness that you keep to yourself.
- Conservatory style: Directly rooted to the Republican era of Chinese history. It has been and still is the time where traditional Chinese music is seen as inferior to the 18th and 19th century western music. They tried to improve or modernize traditional chinese music by incorporating western elements. The zheng developed a two hand technique that was inspired by the piano and therefore became a 21 string instrument.
The guzheng during different historical periods/dynasty eras
Han Dynasty-guzheng continued to develop and gain popularity as an instrument to accompany entertainment or public ritual. It was played by anyone basically and was favoured by diverse social classes
Tang Dynasty-Guzheng reached its apogee(peak) during the Tang dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, it was incorporated into many different kinds of ensembles and used in a wide range of contexts. New strings were added, new playing techniques introduced. During the Tang period, more females started play the guzheng
Interesting fact, probs don’t have to know(I think these vs questions are gonna be part of the written but anyways: The Tang emperor Xuanzong played an important role in cultivating the guzheng as a female instrument as he has the male court musicians teach the females in his palace.
Min and qing dynasty: Guzheng became the standard item in the home. The Ming dynasty was the era when various regional styles of Chinese opera flourished. The guzheng was an important instrument that accompanied regional opera performances. There were distinctive zheng playing techniques and styles of melodica ornamentation. These developments were important to the emergence of identifiable regional styles of the solo guzheng playing. Which in turn helped shape the conservatory style of solo zheng performance in the modern era
Silk Road- connected china to peoples and lands that were very distant. It was via the silk road that the pipa instrument(it’s a kind of guitar thing that has a very long body(taller than the musician when they are sitting down-pear shaped,plucked chordophone with four strings). This made the pipa(has a banjo like timbre) one of the most important of all chinese instruments.
Silk Road
connected china to peoples and lands that were very distant. It was via the silk road that the pipa instrument(it’s a kind of guitar thing that has a very long body(taller than the musician when they are sitting down-pear shaped,plucked chordophone with four strings). This made the pipa(has a banjo like timbre) one of the most important of all chinese instruments.
Yun
distinctive regional character of a piece of music or particular musical style (ex. Shandong yun vs Henan yun in guzheng music)
Ethnic minorities (Tibetans, Uighurs)
Tibetans-beginning in 1950 and intensifying after 1956, China gradually occupied Tibet. Tibetan monks were persecuted including the Dalai Lama which lead him to flee Tibet in 1959 to India. Many Tibetan monks still remain political refugees. Their chant produces multiphonic sounds(a voice that is able to produce multiple tones). This oppression also affected the Uighurs.
Uighurs-A significant portion of the repertoire of solo instrumental music of the modern conservatory tradition(including solo guzheng music), consists of heavy sinicized(make into chinese)/Westernized compositions based on minority music traditions of Uighurs and Tibetans. The music project themselves as psositive images of a unified, inclusive, multicultural Chinese nation, that pleases the Chinese government endeavors’ of being “multicultural”
Uighur muqam
- Uighur has a tradition known as Dolan Muqam. There are several regions for muqam music too.
- Muqam refers to a particular type of large scale, precomposed suite of songs and instrumental music
- Muqam begins with free rhythm intro, followed by series of pieces played in different meters that gradually have faster tempos. Instruments generally involved(plucked chordophone-rawap, lead vocalist w/ small chorus w/ small ensemble of instruments, rhythmic accompaniment provided by frame drum called dap(steady duple-meter rhythm;rhtyhm of dap(frame drum) characteristically “Uighur”
Chinese popular music categories
- Mandopop (Mandarin)
- Cantopop (Cantonese)
- Hokkien pop (Taiwanese)
Mainland Chinese popular music styles
- Folk Style C-pop: characterized by pentatonic scale, traditional chinese instruments and ethnic singers
- Rock Music-belonged mainly to uni students and a dew underground amateurs at the beginning. Cui Jian father of chinese rock
- Punk and Heavy metal: Heavy metal started in the Tang dynasty(style: British heavy metal + Classical Chinese)
The rise of popular music in Mainland China
- Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou became centres for pop music industry
- internet singers in 2001
Western influences on C-pop
-British Heavy metal +Classical chinese
Chinese traditional instruments
Guzheng/zheng (16 and 21 string)-They are nearly the same. The 21 string gu zheng is slightly westernized in that it uses the two hand technique influenced by piano playing. The 16 string is the true traditional one.
Pipa-a pear shaped chordophone(tends to be bigger than the player), played with four strings. Close historical association with the guzheng
Erhu-long stick with round thing at the bottom, represents china. Timbre is middle range has a wide expressive range. Very good at sounding human suffering and sadness. And hope for people in the old times.
Sheng/Sho(the shan) tall thing that is blowed.It is a mouth organ that has polyphonic texture like a harmonica, but has the timbre of an organ
Koto-The Japanese board zither chordophone with 13 strings. Histroically related to the chinese zheng
Guzheng (zheng) playing techniques, and developments through history (especially during 20th century)
the ancestral version of the modern guzheng was invented more than 2500 years ago.
Oldest forms of guzheng consisted of five strings mounted on bamboo frame.
Later developments had 12-13 strings. Modern forms: 16 or 21 strings(21 is most commonly used). Modern guzhengs now have movable bridges.
By the Qin dynasty, guzehng was favoured was its varied sound and portability. Guzheng was a key instrument in emergent, ancient “pop music”. As it took place in different regions in china, regional styles emerged.
Later on during the 20th century when China began to favour the western songs, the Guzheng began to use the two hand technique like a piano.
