Musica A Lo Largo De Las Culturas

Music Across Cultures

China, Japan and Indonesia Chapters 10, 11 & 12

The music of China is generally known as the Guqun music and is mostly classical and has a spiritual connection with nature and has “delicate floating tones played delicately and reverently.” (Alves 164) This music usually uses one instrument although there are times when other instruments do join in. Japan hasmusic that is beautiful and emphasizes what they call “ma” which is “emptiness within the space”. (Alves 191) They use this in their music, architecture, decoration, as well as their art. Zen is the main influence on this culture which is a form of Buddhism and Shinto is also another religion in Japan. Indonesian music is heavily prominent with bronze instruments and shadow puppet shows. Theyhave what they call “Gamelan” orchestras and music.
The Chinese people are mostly of the Han ethnic group. (Alves 164) Their music is mostly written for one instrument and then some others can join in to add “heterophonic texture, while still emphasizing the original melody.” (Alves 165)
There are three main religions in China even though; Atheism is the official recognized religion in China.Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism have been important in Chinese culture and in their music. The first major religion was Daoism and was essentially “an inward-looking philosophy” and they added various rituals to it that included music. Chinese music focuses on simplicity and usually has a connection with nature. (Alves 166)
Confucianism came in the sixth century BCE from philosopher KongFuzi (Confucius) and he “cultivated music that inspired noble feelings and wanted to have state censorship for music that was only for entertainment and could cause harmful feelings.” (Alves 166) This religion focuses on the power of music but that it should have its proper place in society. (Alves 166) Buddhism is the other main religion in China and this also focuses on meditating andinner-knowledge and searching. (Alves 167) The Chinese Government has loosened up their attitude about music since the 1980’s and they allow some traditional religious practice without interference. (Alves 167)
The Chinese Tuning system has 12 pitches that correspond to the twelve months of the year and twelve hours of the day and night. (Alves 167) Chinese music likes to have a lot ofornamentation in their music. They can do this with instruments as well as voices. Chinese music has a table of notes that shows the music scales and what symbolic things they are connected to such as; faith, righteousness, respect and elements like metal, fire, water and planets and other things.” (Alves 168)
Chinese instruments are chordophones like Zheng, pipa and yueqin. The Zheng is curvedinstrument with strings and different bridges that are moveable. (Alves 170) The Pipa is a “pear shaped lute that is used to play solo pieces.” (Alves 170) The Yueqin is also known as “the moon lute” because of its shape. They also use bamboo quite a lot to make their instruments. They have one called the paixiao that has several bamboo pipes together and the xiao which is a single tube.They use drums as well and they are idiophones because they are made of bronze and the head is metal. They have bronze bells that have been in use for many years as well.
In China music is used for major life events and rituals and important things. After 1911 and the fall of the empire, there were more songs created for everyone and an influence of Western music also came in during thattime in city areas. In 1949 Mae Zedong and the communists took over power and only wanted music that would serve the state not just for entertainment. (Alves 181) Many ensembles were created at this time by the state for their purposes. They did have some revolutions though between 1966 –1976 and many of these “institutions were closed and musicians were sent to re-education camps.” (Alves 181)...