Chinese Music

Chinese music.
Los Angeles, Calif. : Quon-Quon-Co., c1944.
Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322
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IVERS1TY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES

CHINESE
MUSIC
"Musicthe magnet of fellowship"
Edited for and Copyrighted, 1944
by
QUON-QUON COMPANY
Lot Angeles, Calif.

Page Two
//Z^THE OLDEST MUSIC
IN THE WORLD.
"Merely legendary" is a phrase which should be written
with reluctance; too often, with regard to traditional
material, such a comment has been accepted as adequate
in disqualification and dismissal. In this connection, we
have the example furnished by the story of the origin of
Chinese music.
"The legend runs" that the Emperor, Huang-ti (circa
2697 B.C.), sent his minister, Ling-lun, to the Kuenlun
Mountains in northwest China "to cut a pitch-pipe from
a species of bamboo which gave the normal pitch-note,
Huang-chung." Probably the truer aspect of this min-
isterial mission, however, is suggested by the recent
archaeological discovery of a great center of ancient
civilization in an area contiguous to northwest China,
and still more recent discoveries of related ancient civi-
lizations definitely ranking as colonies of that amazing
center.
All of which leads to the point that Ling-lun's journey
to the Kuenlun Mountains at that particular date took
him close to the center and source of one of the greatest,
highest, and most ancient civilizations yet known to
Man; that he sought the information he required at the

Page Three
spot where he was likeliest to find itand did find it.
Further, it may be suggested that, somewhere on the
southern face of the Kuenluns in old China, there may
yet be unearthed one more outpost of that ancient
culture to afford one more proof that the Chinese were
and are the continuing heirs of much that pertained to a
high civilization which existed beyond 5000 B.C., and
did not need to go beyond the confines of their empire
for their musicthe oldest in the world.
Lung-lun returned with the pitch-pipe; and, while
the poetic Chinese story is that pipes were then evolved
which, when blown into, would give forth the notes of
the male and female Phoenix, that legendary bird which
ranks so highly in Chinese mythology, the practical fact
is that there was developed soon after Ling-lun's return
a system of music which not only constitutes the basis
of all music in the world but which in days now re-
garded as almost shadowed in antiquity solved with ac-
curacy the mathematical and physical properties of
acoustics, for which latter fact we have the testimony
of the world's greatest authority on sound: and the
development was solely Chinese. There is nothing of
legend about that. The Chinese had the diatonic scale
coming now to comparatively modern timessix hun-

dred years before it was completed in Europe, and a
sol-fa system which was at least eight hundred years
old when Curwen began his in 1840.
Page Tout
The ancient Chinese scale has five tones: Kung (C),
Shang (D), Chiao (E), Chih (G), and Yu (A). At the
time of the Chou dynasty (112$-255 B.C.), two fur-
ther notes were added: Pien-chih (F() and Pien-kung
(B). Each note of this scale of five or seven notes can
be used as a primary note, giving five or seven modes. As
each of these five or seven modes can be transposed in
twelve ways, there are sixty or eighty-four keys in
Chinese music.
Returning for a moment to the mission of Lung-lun
and the pipes which gave the notes of the Phoenix, we
are told that these birds had a scale of six notes, the male
beginning with what we know as C, and ascending in
full tones to A; and the female, beginning with C sharp,
ascended by full tones to B. As the birds were believed
to sound the notes alternately, they produced a chromatic
scale of twelve semitones.

Page Five
The very ancient music of China is said to have been
lost in the Third Century B.C., when the Emperior
Tsing-Shi Hwang had all records and books burned in
his purposeful "destruction of all precedents;" but China
has preserved important works, and in Yo Tsz there is a
description of an ancient form of worship of heaven
and earth in which twelve instruments played the fol-
lowing notes while voices sang alternate notes:
Note* bf Instruments
9 r i
Notes by Voices
^f- * " fj "" bJ1
The instruments playing in the twelve different scales
ascended in a progression of perfect fourths, while the
voices, also singing the twelve different scales, descended
in perfect fifths: all this in the manner of the Phoenix
of poesy and wonder-tale.
Despite the activities of the destroyer of precedents,
we know that, prior to the time of Confucius, there were
in existence:
The twelve semitones comprising an Octave;
The five notes of the ancient Pentatonic scale;

Eight different sound-producing instruments;
Six different ceremonial dances with musical accom-
paniment.
Page Six
Further, we know that music was one of the arts essen-
tial then to recognized culture in the individual; that
the proper age for a boy to begin the study of music was
thirteen years; that there were national teachers of music.
Confucius accompanied his own songs instrumentally.
The most highly qualified authorities are agreed that
in its character the ancient music of China was of that
class of music which is the magnet of fellowshipmusic
of the heart, gentle, hopeful, questing, grieving, endur-
ingthe music of the kin and clan in lonely places,
inseparable from its twin of the human spirit, poetry.
In later and more closely organized life of the people,
ritual and ceremonial found the place which they have
always found; musical instruments of complexity far
removed from the primitive pipes of Ling-lun were
evolved; the ancient and natural sweetness of the folk-
song gave place to the designed and the blatant in cere-
monialthe difference betwen the attraction of the
group that is in natural human harmony and the mass
that must be drawn and dominated.
Chinese music is written by means of vertical rows of
characters, with signs denoting rests or pauses. Notes
are flatted or sharped as necessary, but there are never
more than fourteen sounds in any composition. Simple

common time and compound time are both used; the
time marks are X (pan) and a circle O (yen), the first
at the side of the accented note, the second at the side of
Page Seven
the unaccented. Other time marks are found, any defi-
nite system in their employment being very difficult to
determine. v
The performers of vocal music generally use a high,
head voice, a nasal falsetto, singing with the "closed"
voice, while expressing by evolutions, movements and
attitudes what the voice and instruments say. There are
no harmonized tunes in Chinese music; yet there was
published in China in 1525 a book in which the rudi-
ments of harmony were given. The idea of harmony, it
is said, came from "the barbarous hordes of the north."
More probably, it came from the northwest, and from
peoples far from barbarous, as we have seen.
As matters stand, China already possesses voluminous
musical records dating back over two thousand years, a
fact befitting the Mother of Music; there are no such
records elsewhere in the world. The Dictionary of Music,
Yo Tien, a remarkable work published in 1544, records
that Tow Kung, a blind musician, presented to the
Emperor Hiao Wen-ti, in A.D. 471, a book containing
the mathematical table of the twelve semitones and
modulator; it was one of the books which escaped the
destructive fury of the zealot who, in the Third Century
B.C., sought to wipe clean the slate of the past and

begin the life of China anew.
The modulator referred to is historic in its import-
Page Eight
ance. It is the old scale of seven notes with the semi-
tones between the fourth and fifth, identical in princi-
ple with the Curwen modulator of 1840. Further, there
is extant the record of the work of Sz-Ma-Ch'ien, who
died in 8 S B.C. He gave the length of the pitch-pipes for
producing the five notes of the Chinese scale: Do (C),
81; Re (D), 72; Mi (E), 64; Sol (G), 54; La (A), 48.
Starting with 81, and subtracting one-third and adding
one-third alternately, he found the value by fifths. The
scholars of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 190), used
the same rule in developing the twelve semitones, and
we use it in reckoning vibrations and in tuning by fifths.
The Chinese in those distant days were aware, also, of
the difference between a pipe and a string producing
the same sound.
It is claimed that the West would have found itself in
natural kinship with that very ancient music, and greater
understanding. There is good ground for the claim. The
Pentatonic scale of ancient China, upon which Chinese
native airs are for the greater part founded, not only con-
stitutes the basis of all the music of the Westa modern
thing as compared with that of Chinabut is the basis
of the music of the American Indian and of all Africa
along the wide equatorial belt which stretches from the

ancient jungle-choked Chinese city on the island of
Mafia off the coast near Zanzibar, to the "White man's
grave" of the Western seaboard of Africa.
Page Nine

Stone Instrument!
Page Ten
CHINESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
There are 130 kinds of musical instruments in China.
That figure is inclusive of some of comparatively recent
type, several of which show certain adaptations of Occi-
dental ideas. In the older lists, specifically Chinese, we
find 72, divided into eight categories; but many of these
older forms are no longer in use. The eight divisions are:
1. StoneChimes and prayer-stones of sonorous
stone.
2. MetalBells, gongs, gong-chimes, cymbals, trum-
pets.
3. StringedLute, psaltery, balloon guitar, three-
stringed guitar, moon guitar, four-stringed violin,
two-stringed violin, harpsichord. dU><- t <
4. BambooPandean pipes, ceremonial flute, com-
mon flute, small flute, clarionet.
5. WoodSonorous box, musical tiger, castanets,
wooden fish.
6. SkinLarge barrel-drum, small barrel-drum,
rattle-drum, flat-drum.
7. GourdReed organ.
8. ClayOcarina.

Page Eleven
The Chinese, in making and enjoying their music, hear
more than the note produced by the instrument. It is
the quality of an old people that with the hearing of the
note there comes to them full realization of its signifi-
cance in mental picture and in spiritual appreciation.
There is more in music than the enjoyment or sheer
narcotism of sound as such, to the Chinese, for the cen-
turies during which poetry and music were one to them
were many centuries, and they were a very old civiliza-
tion before the Polar ice-cap had thawed completely from
the face of the Western earth.
Even in their physical forms, the musical instruments
of China have been given symbolic significance. For
example, the Sheng (reed organ) is emblematic of the
Phoenix. The carpenter's square is typified in the sound-
ing-stone, which also signifies the life of care and dis-
cretion, justice and uprightness. The guitar was shaped
in honor of the moon. In the lute there is the symbol
of matrimonial harmony. And the flute is the emblem
of one of the Eight Immortals, Han Hsiang-tzu.
The Chinese made music from many things. One
finds instruments of jade, tortoise-shell, red ivory, the
bark of the beech trees, the coconut, and even of certain
leaves. It is recorded that Hwang-ti (2353 B.C.), had

the lyre, the lute, and stringed instruments of from five
to fifty strings; in which connection, we refer the reader
Page Twelve

to the opening paragraph of this booklet, in which has
been suggested the sudden discovery by the heart of
China of the resources and advances in culture actually
existing within the remote areas of her own empire, the
lands beyond the ranges.
The division of Chinese music into sacred and secular
classes took place officially during the Sui dynasty (A.D.
589-618). Music for theatrical purposes in China has a
history which vanishes in the lost ages, and organized
performances, which appeared about A.D. 720, are
therefore comparatively modern. Drama came to the
fore in 1280, and the inseparable music from it was
given a place of greater prominence by the evolution of
Chinese opera, not yet understood by the West. The
opera depends almost wholly upon the make-up of the
actor; his every gesture, even to the slightest movement
of the sleeve, has a meaning all its own. In China it is
said: "Northern Chinese people go to listen to the opera,
those of the south go to see it." The actor sings accord-
ing to his own feeling and his own ideas of interpreta-
tion, while the orchestra accompanies him in unison; and,
as there is no standard pitch, the instruments are tuned
to suit the voice of the singer.
All in all, the world may well give thanks for the

Mother of Music and the mission of Lung-lin.
Page Fourteen

Balloon Guitar
3 Stringed Guitar
Moon Guitar 2 Stringed Violin
4 Stringed Violin Harpsichord
Page Fifteen
Chinese Classics in Miniature
Chinese Proverbs.
The Story of Jade.
Chinese Symbolism and Superstition.
The Romance of Chinese Metal Art.
Bronze, Brass, Cloisonne, Copper,
Pewter.
Chinese Pottery and Porcelain.
Chinese Religious Beliefs.
Kuan Yin
The Legends of the Eight Immortals.
Chinese Carvings.
Chinese Music.
Chinese Dogs.
Chinese Recipes.
Chinese Astrology.
The Cavalcade of China.
The Romance of Chinese Writing.
Chinese Festivals.
Exclusive distributor
QUON-QUON COMPANY
843 South Los Angeles Street
Los Angeles 14, California

Page Sixteen

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 06876 1322




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Chinese music.

Los Angeles, Calif. : Quon-Quon-Co., c1944.

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

Public Domain, Google-digitized

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

IVERS1TY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

"Musicthe magnet of fellowship"

Edited for and Copyrighted, 1944

Lot Angeles, Calif.

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

//Z^THE OLDEST MUSIC

"Merely legendary" is a phrase which should be written

with reluctance; too often, with regard to traditional

material, such a comment has been accepted as adequate

in disqualification and dismissal. In this connection, we

have the example furnished by the story of the origin of

"The legend runs" that the Emperor, Huang-ti (circa

2697 B.C.), sent his minister, Ling-lun, to the Kuenlun

Mountains in northwest China "to cut a pitch-pipe from

a species of bamboo which gave the normal pitch-note,

Huang-chung." Probably the truer aspect of this min-

isterial mission, however, is suggested by the recent

archaeological discovery of a great center of ancient

civilization in an area contiguous to northwest China,

and still more recent discoveries of related ancient civi-

lizations definitely ranking as colonies of that amazing

All of which leads to the point that Ling-lun's journey

to the Kuenlun Mountains at that particular date took

him close to the center and source of one of the greatest,

highest, and most ancient civilizations yet known to

Man; that he sought the information he required at the

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

spot where he was likeliest to find itand did find it.

Further, it may be suggested that, somewhere on the

southern face of the Kuenluns in old China, there may

yet be unearthed one more outpost of that ancient

culture to afford one more proof that the Chinese were

and are the continuing heirs of much that pertained to a

high civilization which existed beyond 5000 B.C., and

did not need to go beyond the confines of their empire

for their musicthe oldest in the world.

Lung-lun returned with the pitch-pipe; and, while

the poetic Chinese story is that pipes were then evolved

which, when blown into, would give forth the notes of

the male and female Phoenix, that legendary bird which

ranks so highly in Chinese mythology, the practical fact

is that there was developed soon after Ling-lun's return

a system of music which not only constitutes the basis

of all music in the world but which in days now re-

garded as almost shadowed in antiquity solved with ac-

curacy the mathematical and physical properties of

acoustics, for which latter fact we have the testimony

of the world's greatest authority on sound: and the

development was solely Chinese. There is nothing of

legend about that. The Chinese had the diatonic scale

coming now to comparatively modern timessix hun-

Generated for kevin.oneil2 (McGill University) on 2014-04-06 16:42 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068761322

dred years before it was completed in Europe, and a

sol-fa system which was at least eight hundred years

old when Curwen began his in 1840.

The ancient Chinese scale has five tones: Kung (C),

Shang (D), Chiao (E), Chih (G), and Yu (A). At the