Traditional Chinese Music School Presentation with nice template and History, Background, Facts, and Key points of Traditional Chinese Music. It contains slides about the Foundation tone, Rites and Ritual, General Traits of Chinese Music, and Traditional Instruments.

1. Traditional Chinese
Music

2. History
The legendary founder of music in Chinese mythology was
Ling Lun who made bamboo pipes tuned to the sounds of birds.
The music of China dates back to around 3,000 years ago or
as early as the Zhou Dynasty when a complete musical theory and
sophisticated musical instruments began appearing in China. About
500 BC and afterwards music had the crucial role of an important
pillar of society and by the Han Dynasty the imperial court set up a
Music Bureau which was in charge of collecting and editing ancient
melodies and folk songs.
One of the Confucianist Classics, Shi Jing, contained many folk
songs dating from 800 BC to about 300 BC.
The oldest known written music is Youlan or the Solitary
Orchid, attributed to Confucius.

3. Shi Jing
(The Classics of Poetry)
The first song of the Classic of Poetry, handwritten by the
Qianlong Emperor, with accompanying painting.

4. Did you know?
• In ancient China the position of musicians was much lower than that
of painters.
• The first European to reach China with a musical instrument was
Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci who presented a Harpsichord to the Ming
imperial court in 1601, and trained four eunuchs to play it.
• Archaeologists have found the world's oldest playable flute in China.
The 9,000 year-old, 8.6 inch instrument in pristine condition has
seven holes and was made from a hollow bone of a bird, the red-
crowned crane. It is one of six flutes and 30 fragments recovered
from the Jiahu archaeological site in Henan province.

5. Archaeologists Find Oldest
Playable Flute In China
Some of 30 flutes unearthed

6. Background of Chinese
Traditional Music

7. In Confucian teachings, the purpose and role of music are laid out
and the qualities of "good music" are defined.
Confucius taught that:
“To educate somebody, you should
start with poems, emphasize ceremonies,
and finish with music.”

8. Foundation Tone
The foundation tone was produced when Ling Lun,
the founder of Chinese music and a scholar, went to the
western mountain area of China and cut a bamboo pipe in
such a way that it produced the correct sound.
A musical note of specific pitch, also had political
implications, since each dynasty was thought to have
its own "proper pitch."

9. Rite and Ritual
Music was so important because the ideal society
was to be governed by rites, ritual and ceremonial
functions, but not by law or raw power. In a culture where
people function according to ritual and ceremony, music is
used to help conduct and govern them. So music wasn’t
really entertainment, but a means for musicians to
accomplish political and social goals.
Music was ultimately a means for optimizing social
utility or happiness.

10. General Traits of Traditional
Music
•Grand Entry
•Technical Finesse
•Pentatonic Scale
•Smoothly Continuous
•Grand Finale
To produce the proper respect for the authority and an optimal
audience response, music should have a “magnificent beginning,” be
“harmonic” and “clear,” have an easy structure, and be “smoothly
continuous.”

11. Grand Entry
Musicians in an orchestra or ensemble often begin their pieces
with a grand flourish of all of them playing their instruments
simultaneously for a few seconds or by loudly sounding a gong or
drum. This signals that the piece has begun and gets the audience’s
attention.
Technical Finesse
The musicians will generally tone the volume down towards the
middle. This enables the audience to appreciate the technical finesse
of the individual musicians.
Pentatonic Scale
Most of the traditional music of the elites used the ancient
Chinese pentatonic scale. The scale lends to making simple
harmonies, but perhaps to maintain the Confucian norms of simplicity
and clarity, harmony isn’t emphasized.

12. Smoothly Continuous
Unlike Western or African music, there is no emphasis on
rhythm or beat. Traditional Chinese music isn't meant to be danced or
moved to. As Confucius taught, beautiful and appropriate music is
meant to promote social tranquility.
If the music is a part of an official ceremonial function, the
music is meant to regulate the behavior of the people so that they
perform the ritual appropriately and obey authority.
Grand Finale
Instead of a regular tempo throughout, many pieces feature a
regular but smoothly accelerating tempo. The tempo slowly
increases towards a finale at the end. This connotes a river gaining
speed as it cascades downwards, and this is often the rhythmic feature
of traditional Chinese music.

13. Three Kinds of Traditional
Music
The three general kinds of traditional music that people are
most like to hear nowadays are
•Chinese opera music meant for theatrical performances,
•ensemble or orchestra music for cultured audiences,
and
•solo instrumental performance.

14. Chinese Opera Music
Chinese opera music is meant to augment the
operatic story, actors, visual effects, but the traditional
Chinese ensemble and instrumental solo pieces are
generally meant to calm the passions and dispel unrest.
A small ensemble of about seven musicians
playing at one end of the stage.
The instruments include the erhu and other
stringed instruments, wood clappers, gongs, cymbals, and
wind instruments

15. Traditional Music Ensembles
and Orchestras
Chinese musicians in a traditional ensemble
incorporate Western and modern musical styles. Even
the instruments may be redesigned to play according to
Western musical styles and are made from modern
materials.
Non-traditional instruments such as a piano may
also perform traditional music. So the music doesn’t sound
exactly like the music played 200 years ago, but Western
audiences will be intrigued by the differences in style and
sound compared to Western orchestral music.

16. Solo Instrumental
Performance
Instrumental performance has long been preeminent
in Chinese art. Scholars were generally expected to be
proficient performers. Solo instrumental performance is a
serious musical discipline. The performances are subtle
like a poetic recitation. The music itself is abstract.

17. • Chinese vocal music has traditionally been
sung in a thin, non resonant voice or in
falsetto and is usually solo rather than
choral.
• All traditional Chinese music is melodic
rather than harmonic.
• Traditional music in China is played on
solo instruments or in small ensembles of
plucked and bowed stringed instruments,
flutes, and various cymbals, gongs, and
drums.

18. Traditional Musical
Instruments
They can be divided into four categories:
stringed instruments,
percussion instruments,
plucked instruments, and
wind instruments.

19. Bowed strings
• erhu, zhonghu, dahu, banhu, jinghu,
gaohu, gehu, yehu, cizhonghu, diyingehu,
leiqin
Erhu
Zhonghu
Banhu

20. Woodwind and percussion
• dizi, sheng, paigu, gong, paixiao, guan,
bells, cymbals, bottle gourd silk
Dizi
Sheng
Gong
Paigu

21. Plucked and struck strings
• guqin, sanxian, yueqin, yangqin, guzheng,
ruan, konghou, liuqin, pipa, zhu
Zhu
Sanxian
Ruan

22. Among the many traditional musical
instruments of China, the most popular
nowadays include the stringed instruments
called the erhu, pipa, and guzheng, and the
dizi flutes.

23. Erhu 二胡
Pronounced èrhú (urrh-hoo) in
Mandarin, it is a two-string,
violin-like instrumentthat is
played with a bow like a violin
bow.
the traditional instrument that
you’ll be most likely to seein a
trip to China.
You might see it played non-
professionally for
entertainment in public parks,
and it is also played by street
musicians.
inexpensive and portable

24. Guzheng
古箏
Pronounced gǔzhēng (goo-
jung) in Mandarin, it is a large
18–23-or-more stringed
instrument. It is said that it is
an ancestor of the Japanese
koto.
It isn’t commonly played in
parks or on the streets. It is
meant for Chinese opera and
concert performances, and it
is often played in traditional
music ensembles. It is usually
played by female musicians.

25. Pipa 琵琶
The pipa (pípá, pee-pah) is a
four-stringed Chinese musical
instrument. The instrument
has a pear-shaped wooden
body with frets like those on a
guitar. It sounds like a banjo.
Nowadays, pipa musicians will
mainly be seen on the stage
or perhaps as entertainers at
special parties or
restaurants.Modern
pipas have been re-
engineered to fit better with
Western-style music. Steel
strings are now used, so
players wear special finger
plectra.

26. Dizi 笛子
Dizis (dízi /dee-dz/) are
generally made of bamboo,
and they generally have six or
more finger holes. One hole is
covered with paper so that the
flute has a peculiar buzzing
sound that people like.
There are several kinds
of dizi (dízi /dee-dz/) flutes
such as the qudi and bangdi
depending mainly on the
length. The longer ones like
the changdi allow for deeper
sounds.

28. ERHU
LUTE
DIZI
SHENG

29. paigu
gong
ruan
zhonghu

30. Sources
• http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/arts/chinese-music.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_music
• http://www.philmultic.com/English/Chinese_music.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Poetry
• http://library.thinkquest.org/20443/traditional_music.html#
• http://www.crystalinks.com/chinamusic.html
• http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/traditional-
music.htm