5/29/2023 0 Comments Chinese stringed instruments![]() In the court and the Confucian temples there were two basic musical divisions: banquet music ( yanyue) and ritual music ( yayue). Nevertheless, there are several survivals from the Han dynasty that give some insight into how the musical events took place. Modern information on all these elements of music has suffered because of the destruction of many books and musical instruments under the order of Shihuangdi, the last emperor of the Qin dynasty, which was the immediate predecessor of the Han. The extensive work in music theory and classification in ancient times implies that there must have been an equally large amount of material addressing performance practice (the technicalities of proper performance). Han dynasty (3rd century bce–3rd century ce): musical events and foreign influences Western imitations of its sound are found in the reed organ and, later, in the harmonica and the accordion. ![]() Many variants of this instrumental principle can be found in Southeast Asia, and it is not possible to know with assurance where this wind instrument first appeared. Blowing through a mouth tube into the wind chest and closing a hole in a pipe with a finger will cause the reed to sound, and melodies or chord structures may be played. Each pipe has a free metal reed at the end encased in the wind chest. Seventeen bamboo pipes are set in a gourd or sometimes in a wooden wind chest. The Chinese category of gourd is reserved for one of the ancient instruments, the sheng mouth organ. One of the most enjoyable members of the wooden family is the yu, a model of a crouching tiger with a serrated ridge or set of slats along its back that were scratched by a bamboo whisk in a manner recalling the various scratched gourds of Latin American dance bands. Drums are skin instruments, whereas percussive clappers are wood. Stringed instruments of ancient China belong to the silk class because their strings were never made of gut or metal but were made of twisted silk. The possession of such bronze drums or, later, gongs was, and still is, prestigious among peoples of Southeast Asia. Han dynasty military expeditions to the south report that bronze drums among southern peoples represented the spirit of rain and water and rumbled like bullfrogs. The sounds of the drum are also intriguing, as are the designs inscribed on its bronze head and the frog figurines that often grace the head’s rim. Another ancient member of the metal category is a large, so-called bronze drum ( tonggu), which is of special interest because of its widespread archaeological distribution throughout Southeast Asia. The zhong bronze bells are obvious metal examples. Stone chimes, vessel flutes, and tubular flutes are examples from the first three categories. This system was based upon the material used in the construction of the instruments, the eight being stone, earth (pottery), bamboo, metal, skin, silk, wood, and gourd. Another important ancient system called the eight sounds ( ba yin) was used to classify the many kinds of instruments played in imperial orchestras. The Chinese talent for musical organization was by no means limited to pitches. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |