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Traditional Chinese Music • 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. The scale has five notes. Bamboo pipes and qin are among the oldest known musical instruments from China; instruments are traditionally divided into categories based on their material of composition: skin, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, • earth/clay, metal and stone
The dizi (Chinese: 笛子; pinyin: dízi), is a Chinese transverse flute. Traditional Music Instruments
The Chinese sheng (Chinese: 笙; Pinyin shēng) is a mouth-blown free reed instrument (the first) consisting essentially of vertical tubes, in the Chinese orchestra. Traditional Music Instruments
A gong is any one of a wide variety of metal percussion instruments. The term is Malay-Javanese in origin but widespread throughout Asia. The instrument itself appears to have origins in the bronze drums of China, cymbals of central Asia, and perhaps even in European bell-casting techniques. Traditional Music Instruments
The erhu (Chinese: 二胡; pinyin: èrhú), sometimes known in the West as the "Chinese violin" or Chinese two string fiddle, is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras. Traditional Music Instruments
The guqin (help·info) (Chinese: 古琴; pinyin: gǔqín; literally "ancient stringed-instrument") is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument Traditional Music Instruments
The guzheng, or gu zheng (Chinese: 古箏; pinyin: gǔzhēng) or zheng (箏) (gu- means "ancient") is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither(A musical stringed instrument with strings stretch over a flat sounding box; played with a plectrum and with fingers.) family of string instruments. Traditional Music Instruments
The pipa (Chinese: 琵琶; pinyin: pípá) is a plucked Chinese string instrument. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body. It has been played for nearly two thousand years of history in China,Famous pieces include 《十面埋伏》 Shimian Maifu [Ambushed from Ten Sides], 《夕陽簫鼓》 Xiyang Xiaogu [Flute and Drum at Sunset], 《陽春白雪》 Yangchun Baixue [White Snow in a Sunny Spring], 《龍船》 Long Chuan [Dragon Boat], 《彝族舞曲》 Yizu Wuqu [Dance of the Yi People], 《大浪淘沙》 Dalang Taosha [Big Waves Pushing the Sand], 《昭君出塞》 Zhaojun Chusai [Zhaojun Outside the Frontier] and 《霸王卸甲》 Bawang Xiejia [King Chu Takes Off his Armour]. Traditional Music Instruments
The morin khuur or morin huur (from the Mongolian: морин хуур) or matouqin (from the Chinese: 馬頭琴, ma tou qin) is a chordophone of Mongolian origin whose name roughly translates as "horse-head fiddle" in English. It is played with a bow and produces a sound which is poetically described as expansive and unrestrained, like a wild horse neighing, or like a breeze in the grasslands. It is the most important musical instrument of the Mongolian people, and is considered a symbol of the Mongolian nation. Traditional Music Instruments
The suona (simplified: 唢呐; traditional: 嗩吶;suo na, also called the laba 喇叭 or haidi 海笛) is a Han Chinese shawm (oboe). It has a distinctively loud and high-pitched sound, and is used frequently in Chinese traditional music ensembles, particularly those that perform outdoors. Traditional Music Instruments
Bianzhong (Simplified Chinese: 编钟; Traditional Chinese: 編鐘; pinyin: biān zhōng) is an ancient Chinese musical instrument consisting of a set of bronze bells, played melodically. Traditional Music Instruments
The xun (simplified: 埙; pinyin: xūn) is a Chinese ocarina made of clay or ceramic. It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments. Traditional Music Instruments
The hulusi (simplified: 葫芦丝; pinyin: húlúsī) is a free reed wind instrument from China. It is held vertically and has three bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd wind chest; one pipe has finger holes and the other two are drone pipes. Traditional Music Instruments
The trapezoidal yangqin (揚琴; pinyin yángqín) is a Chinese hammered dulcimer originally from the Middle East (Persia (modern-day Iran)). The yangqin was traditionally fitted with bronze strings, which gave the instrument a soft timbre. This form of instrument is still occasionally heard today in the hudie qin (蝴蝶琴, lit. "butterfly zither") played in the traditional silk and bamboo genre from the Shanghai region known as Jiangnan sizhu (江南絲竹), as well as in some Cantonese music groups. Traditional Music Instruments
The sanxian三弦(literally "three strings") is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. Traditional Music Instruments
The ruan (阮, pinyin: ruǎn) is a Chinese plucked string instrument. It is a lute with a fretted neck, a circular body, and four strings. Its strings were formerly made of silk but since the 20th century they have been made of steel (flatwound for the lower strings).
Top 10 Ancient Chinese Classical Music • Mighty Mountain and Flowing River (Gao Shan Liu Shui，高山流水) • GuanglingSan广陵散 • Wild Geese (Ping Sha Luo Yan平沙落雁) • Mei Flower (Mei Hua San Nong梅花三弄) • Besieged (Shi Mian Mai Fu十面埋伏) • Sunset (Xi Yang Xiao Gu夕阳箫鼓) • Conversation between a fisherman and a woodman (Yu Qiao Wen Da渔樵问答 ) • Home Return (Hu Jia Shi Ba Pai胡笳十八拍) • Autumn Moon in the Han Palace (Han Gong Qiu Yue汉宫秋月) • Sunny Spring & White Snow (Yang Chun Bai Xue阳春白雪)
Chinese Well-known Music • The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto is one of the most famous works of Chinese music and certainly the most famous outside of China. It is an orchestral adaptation of an earlier legend, the Butterfly Lovers. Written for the western style orchestra, it features a solo violin played using some Chinese techniques. • The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written by two Chinese composers, He Zhanhao and Chen Gang in 1959 while they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. • Chinese name: 梁祝，liangzhu
Chinese Well-known Music • The Yellow River Cantata (Chinese:黄河大合唱 Pinyin: Huánghé Dàhéchàng) is a cantata by Chinese composer Xian Xinghai (1905–1945). Composed in Yan'an in early 1939 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the work was inspired by a patriotic poem by Guang Weiran, which was also adapted as the lyrics. Premiered on April 13 of the same year in the Shanbei Gongxue Hall of Yan'an, the work soon spread to all parts of China and greatly inspired the people to take up arms against Japanese invaders
Chinese Modern Music • The 1970s saw the rise of Cantopop in Hong Kong. It arose as a reaction against more traditional shidaiqu, and featured American soft rock and traditional Cantonese vocal styles. Joseph Koo, Lisa Wang, Adam Cheng, Lotus, Wynners and James Wong were especially popular. In the 1980s, singers began using Cantonese instead of English. This new generation of stars included Sam Hui, Danny Chan, Kenny Bee, Anita Mui, Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai, Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung. The last four were the biggest stars, and were referred to as "the four gods (of Cantopop)" (Cantonese: sei3 dai6 tin1 wong4). Newer teen idols include Sammi Cheng, Karen Mok and Eason Chan. • Parallel with the rise of Cantopop was Chinese Rock, which drew on earlier, underground pioneers like Taiwanese star Teresa Teng. The widely-acknowledged forefather of Chinese rock is Cui Jian. Modern rock artists include Tang Dynasty, Dadawa, Cobra, Dou Wei, Zhang Chu, He Yong, Zhinanzhen, Lingdian and Heibao. Musically, these range from New Wave (Lingdian) to heavy metal (Heibao), alongside punk rock bands like Catcher in the Rye and Dixiayinger. • In 1980 the Chinese Musicians' Association was formally elected to the International Musicological Society. Chinese musical groups toured foreign countries, and foreign musical organizations performed in China. In the mid-1980s popular ballads and Western folk and classical music still drew the greatest audiences, but other kinds of music, including previously banned Western jazz and rock and roll, were being performed and were receiving increasing acceptance, especially among young people.
The Father of Chinese Rock-Cui Jian 崔健 • Cui Jian (Chinese: 崔健; pinyin: Cuī Jiàn; born August 2, 1961) is a Beijing-based musician, songwriter, trumpet player, guitarist and composer. Affectionately called “Old Cui” (老崔), he is considered to be a pioneer in Chinese rock music and the first Chinese artist to break away from conventional Chinese popular forms and incorporate a Western rock style into his songs. For this distinction Cui Jian is sometimes referred to as the “father of Chinese rock”. In his later works, he has also begun to experiment with rap music, adding a drummer/MC to his band for The Power of the Powerless (1998)
The Father of Chinese Rock-Cui Jian 崔健 • In the late 1980s Cui Jian played the first Chinese rock song called: "I Have Nothing" ("Yi wu suo you"). It was the first time that an electric guitar was used in China. Cui Jian became the most famous performer of the time. His socially critical lyrics earned him the anger of the government and many of his concerts were banned or cancelled. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 he played with a red scarf around his head to demonstrate against the actions of the government.
