ORDER NOW!!!
Historical Trends in
Preferences for
Musical Instruments
The system of Chinese musical instruments is a family of musical instruments utilizing all available acoustical materials and resonators. In fact, the name reserved for musical instruments is "qin ", or resonator. The history of Chinese musical instruments has been a history of new resonator discovery, new use of physiology in acoustical excitation, and musical acoustics. Acoustical research in the 20th Century revealed a most distinguished history of the science of music in China. Ancient China possessed a level of acoustical science that was essential in supporting the elaborate musical art of those periods. Physics and engineering worked hand in hand to perfect musical instruments and to arrive at desirable orchestration. Coupled acoustical systems were invented in every period. New performing methods were found in all regions. Throughout the ages, preferences for musical instruments have changed greatly. Very early instruments naturally emphasized wind and percussion. Globular flutes xun and en d-bl own flutes xiao first appeared in China 8,000 years ago. Panpipes yue and mouthorgans he were invented very early. The early invention of silk strings formed the basis of the design of string instruments. The bronze age brought about the fabulous dual-pitched Chinese musical bells.
SHANG-ZHOU: COMPLETION OF ALL INSTRUMENTAL GROUPS During the early dynasties of the Shang (16th-11th Century BC) and Zhou (16th Century-221 BC) period, sophisticated stringed musical instruments were used. They were not to be carried when played (unlike the later lutes and fiddles which were portable) and they were all quite large - these were the times of qin, se, zheng, and the horizontal konghou . These major instruments remain today, with the se becoming completely unpopular nowadays. At a later time, the bowed yazheng appeared to become popular, especially in Sui times. The qin utilized contrasts between harmonics, stopped strings, and open strings as major categories of tone quality in composition. The se was frequently used in qin and se duets - thus a fingerboard instrument is contrasted and supported by a bridged instrument. These instruments and the zheng were plucked, and the yazheng bowed. The resonator used here can be classified as a long box which amplifies notes made on strings which transmit their energy via ridges, posts or bridges. The one instrument which is uncommon after those periods was the zhu, on which a stick-bow was bounced on strings. On arts depicting zhu performances, e.g. in the Mawangdui relics, the zhu was played like a cello with the bow bouncing on its strings. The discovery of the musical treasure of Zenghou Yi from the 5th Century BC provided examples of two orchestras: one based on jin-shi-si-zhu (metal-stone-silk-bamboo) and another based on si-zhu (silk & bamboo). The large court orchestra was rather dynamic in volume and symphonic in acoustical impact, utilizing a large bell chime (a single musical bell is a zhong and a bell chime is called a bianzhong) which would occupy the complete stage of a chamber music recital hall today, and a large stone chime (a single musical stone is a qing, and a stone chime is a bianqing). This large orchestra utilized various mouthorgans in the categories of yu and sheng (the yu is a melodic instrument and the sheng is a harmonizing instrument, both in the free-reed mouthorgan c a tegory), the yue (panpipe) and the chi (the chi and the di are side-blown flutes ) and a large number of silk instruments such as the ones we already described above. There were the "Shi" Music Officers assigned to various lead instruments including the zhong, the qing, the sheng, the yue, the bo (ceremonial bell) and other musical instruments.
QIN-HAN PORTABLE LUTES The next period of expansion in Chinese instrumental music was the Qin (221-207 BC) and the Han (206 BC-220 AD) period. During the Qin-Han period, many hand-carried and portable instruments became widely popular. These included the ruan, pipa, qinhanzi, hulei, and others, which can best be classified in the lute family - but because of their performing technique, they really were vertical members of the "tantiao" family of China (see Shen, 1981 and Shen, 1991), the horizontal members of this family being the qin, the zheng, the se and the yangqin. One form or another of all of these instruments are in use today - thus this period is extremely important for Chinese instruments. Today three general groups of the vertical tantiao family are popularly known: (A) the sanxian group which uses drum resonators covered with skin membrane on two sides, coupled to a fingerboard neck. Members include the large sanxian and the small sanxian, (B) the ruan group which uses disc-like resonator coupled to fretted neck. Members include the ruan, the yueqin, and the qinqin, and (C) the pipa group which uses a pear-shaped resonator with a convex back, with frets. Members include the pipa, and the liuqin.
WEI-JIN THROUGH TANG: REED & PERCUSSION AND FIDDLES The Wei (220-265) and Jin (265-420) periods up to Tang (618-907) saw the complete disappearance of the bell chimes and the stone chimes. In fact, the dual-pitch design of the musical bells and the performance techniques were completely lost until the 20th Century . Many portable percussion instruments were popular. These included the bo cymbal, the paiban for keeping tempo and orchestral direction. The fangxiang xylophone was popular and it completely replaced bell chimes and stone chimes. The Sui-Tang period fancied the use of double reeds. In particular, the cylindrical double-reeded bili became a popular sound, together with the jiegu drum performed with two sticks. The famous Xuanzong Emperor of Tang composed several dozen musical numbers featuring the jiegu as a solo instrument and the whole musical scene became very exciting with the popularity of various double reeds and percussion instruments from western China. The Sui-Tang courts had one of the biggest musical staffs. There were per manent installations of orchestras from more than ten different regions of China in the Tang courts. In addition to the bili as a double reed, the conical suona was popular as well. Also during the Sui-Tang period the age of true fiddling began. This was a time when bowed strings were officially imperial instruments. The Chinese fiddles are true fiddles in that they were intended to be bowed when invented and not converted from lutes. The xiqin fiddle of the Sui-Tang period, which used a long bamboo stick as its bow with no horsehair, became the predecessor of the present-day banhu fiddle. During the time of Genghis Khan, various types of the Mongolian matouqin horse-head fiddle became known more widely to the majority of the non-Mongolian Chinese. This fiddle utilized a horse-haired bow. A cross-fertilization of fiddles then took place all across China and its vicinities. From this point on all fiddle players of China became exposed to bows with horse hair, and have utilized it up to the present tim e. This p ractice also influenced lute players and instrument makers in Europe who adopted the concept of the horse-haired bow for bowed lutes that would be used as new string instruments.
SONG TO THE PRESENT: FIDDLE POPULARITY The Song (960-1279), the Yuan (1271-1368), the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1911) periods saw the consistent popularity of the fingerboard lute sanxian, which had been important in theatrical music and ballad singing during this time. In the Ming period, the great musician Wei Liangfu was a master of the fiddle tiqin. He used this fiddle as a main accompanying instrument for Kunqu singing and in the silk and bamboo ensemble. Compared with the xiansuo string music of the north, according to Li Yu of the Qing period, the tiqin was more crisp in tone. It's a long fiddle that used no qianjin (Thus the whole length of the strings were used) and bowed with a horse-haired bow. The tiqin was popular before the huqin, and was later replaced by the huqin. Of course, the huqin family remains extremely popular today. Thus from Sui-Tang to the present time, we saw several developments pertaining to the fingerboard that are prevalent: (1) the popularity of plucked instruments with no frets, as well as (2) th e p opularity of bowed fiddles with and without a fingerboard . Very few new resonators were introduced after the Sui-Tang period. The last dynasty-the Qing period-was a time when the Qing court was very interested in reviving ancient instruments such as the bianzhong to ascertain a main-stream Chinese status. However, the Qing court failed miserably - they were able to construct only modest-quality ceremonial bells but not musical bells at all. As a result, many scholars in China and abroad during the Qing and the Republic period were also terribly confused about what a bianzhong was or how it was played. There was a serious lack of understanding of Chinese musical culture during Qing times. The 20th Century saw the elevation of many ensemble and orchestral instruments to a solo status. In particular, the second fiddle, already popular in its orchestral role because of the statistics of use in regional ensembles and orchestras, became the most popular solo instrument in ensemble and orchestral works. A disheartening phenomenon in the 20th Century is the collapse of the motive forces behind regional instrumental practices, as a handful "professional" composers try to simplify the orchestral scene in larger cities. They composed for a simplified Chinese orchestra which lost all of the musical interests and cultural acoustics of Chinese orchestras. They lost track of Chinese aesthetics, and most importantly, they lost track of the principles behind the acoustical space of the Chinese orchestra. Thus it is a matter of education, and a matter of mind set. The regions and provinces of China are drastically different culturally. The cultural acoustics of the music in each of them are individually unique, and yet all Chinese. The reason is that the Chinese were different peoples. The culture of the people are so different that a person from a neighboring province may or may not understand what he hears in the next province. Over thousands of years, the Chinese people have been unified by a single language and a single Harmony System. As a result, we have the most interesting situation of the coexistence of many Chinese orchestras, each having its cultural acoustical specialties, and yet all unified by the Chinese Harmony System. It is thus a mistake to take apart the regional Chinese orchestras and try to produce a single Chinese orchestra because they are already unified through the Harmony System. But it is highly desirable to broadly present the different ways of doing things instrumentally in these different regions and provinces, so that their cultur al acous tics and musical interests can be further propagated and, most importantly, utilized in new compositions.
REFERENCES Shen, Sin-yan, The Tantiao (Pipa) Strings, Chinese Music, 4/1, 3 (1981). Shen, Sinyan, Acoustics of Ancient Chinese Bells, Scientific American, 256, 94 (1987). Shen, Sin-yan, Chinese Music and Orchestration: A Primer on Principles and Practice, Chinese Music Society of North America, Chicago (1991).
Membership | Chinese Music Monograph Series | Concert and Lecture Division | Chinese Music Research Institute | Silk and Bamboo Ensemble | Chinese Classical Orchestra | Chinese Music International Journal | Membership Order Form | Book Order Form
Copyright © 1997-2008 Chinese Music Society of North America