Music and order
In early Chinese thought, music was more than entertainment. Confucian writers linked proper music with proper ritual, and believed that the right sounds could help shape character and keep society in harmony. Ritual and court music, sometimes called yayue (“elegant music”), accompanied ceremonies, sacrifices and state occasions. Such ideas about music’s moral power continued to influence discussion for centuries, even though everyday music-making was far more varied than the official ideal.
Ancient ritual instruments
Some of the most impressive early evidence comes from tombs. Sets of bronze bells, hung in a frame and struck with mallets, have been found from the Zhou period, and some sets can produce more than one note per bell. Stone chimes and early flutes and pipes have also been found. These instruments show that music was an organized art with tuned scales long ago.
An old way of classifying instruments was by material, in a scheme often called the “eight sounds”: metal, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, clay, hide and wood. Bells belong to metal, chimes to stone, strings to silk, flutes to bamboo, and so on. The system reflects how instrument-making drew on many crafts, from bronze casting to silk production, since silk was used for strings.
The scale
A widely used scale in Chinese music is the pentatonic scale, with five main notes. Many traditional melodies are built on it, which gives them a recognizable sound. Different modes can be made by starting on different notes of the scale. Theorists also described systems of twelve pitches, and music was written about as both an art and a subject of calculation. It is worth remembering that Chinese music includes many regional styles and scales, so the pentatonic scale is common but not universal.
Common traditional instruments
The following are among the best-known traditional instruments:
- Guqin, a long seven-string zither, associated with scholars and quiet, reflective playing.
- Guzheng, a larger zither with movable bridges, played with finger picks.
- Pipa, a four-string pear-shaped lute plucked with the fingers; instruments of this type spread into China from lands to the west and were developed further.
- Erhu, a two-string bowed instrument with a small sound box, often used in opera and folk music.
- Dizi, a transverse bamboo flute with a distinctive buzzing membrane.
- Sheng, a mouth organ made of pipes, whose design is very old.
- Drums, gongs and cymbals, which keep time and mark action in theater and processions.
Many of these instruments developed over a long time and through contact with neighboring peoples, which is a good example of how Chinese culture has absorbed outside influences.
Court, city and folk
During the Tang dynasty, the capital was a cosmopolitan city where musicians from Central Asia and elsewhere performed, and foreign instruments and tunes influenced court music. Large court orchestras and dance ensembles were part of state ceremony. Later, in the Song dynasty, growing towns supported teahouses, markets and entertainment districts where storytellers and singers performed for paying audiences.
Meanwhile, folk songs, work songs, wedding and funeral music, and temple music went on in villages. Music was tied to the festival calendar and to life events. Different regions and ethnic groups have their own song traditions, instruments and dances, so any single account of Chinese music simplifies a large and varied field.
Opera and storytelling
From around the time of the Yuan dynasty, theater became an important home for music. Song, speech and instrumental accompaniment merged in opera, with each regional style using its own melodies and instruments. Narrative singing with a small ensemble, such as a storyteller with a stringed instrument, was another popular form. Chinese opera is treated in a separate article, but it is worth noting that for much of the population, opera was the main way of hearing music.
Modern music
In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, contact with Western music brought new instruments, notation, schools and orchestras. Composers experimented with combining Chinese melodies with Western harmony, and traditional instruments were adapted for larger ensembles. Popular music, film music and later styles from around the world have also become widespread, and many younger musicians blend older instruments with contemporary genres.
Traditional music continues too, in conservatories, folk groups, festivals and temples. A listener new to this subject might start by hearing a few of the instruments above on their own, noticing how the pentatonic scale shapes a tune, and then moving on to the wider range of regional music.