Basic characteristics of national music

First of all, in terms of music composition, China music is based on pentatonic music. The so-called pentatonic mode is a mode composed of five tones: Gong, Shang, Jiao, Qian and Yu, which is similar to 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 in notation. Six tones and seven tones in national music are developed on the basis of five tones. China's traditional music is generally written in five tones, such as the folk songs Jasmine, Running Water, Five Brothers Grazing Sheep, Instrumental Music, Moonlit Night on a Spring River, Three Lane of Plum Blossoms and so on. In the past, people often called people who sang incorrectly "pentatonic scale", and pentatonic scale here refers to these five sounds in pentatonic scale form.

Secondly, in the form of musical expression, China's music pays attention to the horizontal development of music, that is, the expression of melody. Like China's calligraphy, painting and other arts, in terms of artistic style, China's music pays attention to the charm of melody, emphasizing the scattered form and the scattered spirit. Traditional China's music works are often performed in the form of a single melody, and harmony is rarely used. For example, the top ten famous songs in ancient China are basically solo tracks of a certain musical instrument. Ensemble music is generally used in court ceremonies, religious ceremonies, competitions to meet the gods and other large-scale occasions, which is very different from western music that emphasizes harmony.

Thirdly, China traditional music is closely related to sister arts such as dance and poetry. In ancient times, music was generally inseparable from dance, such as the "Music and Dance in the Six Dynasties" in ancient times, the song and dance in the Tang Dynasty, and the opera music that appeared after the Tang and Song Dynasties, all of which reflected the combination of music and dance.

Ancient poems are generally divided into three categories: poems, words and songs. At first, they were all used for singing, but later, the function of poetry was divided. From the perspective of modern music, most of the lyrics of songs rhyme, and a good lyric is also a good poem.

In addition, China's national vocal music art has its own characteristics in singing. We usually call this kind of singing method, which is created by the people of China in thousands of years of music practice, has distinctive national characteristics and conforms to the appreciation habits of the people of China, as "national singing method". The characteristics of national singing are: emphasizing the bright and sweet voice, vivid language and simple feelings, emphasizing the roundness of lines and clear articulation, emphasizing the use of breath, and paying attention to true voice singing. In recent years, on the basis of inheriting the traditional singing method of our country, Chinese vocal music workers constantly learn from and absorb the characteristics of Bel Canto, making the national singing method more scientific and more vital.

China's opera singing is also a kind of national singing, and it is very distinctive. There are many kinds of operas in China, and different operas have different singing methods, among which Peking Opera is the most representative. In Beijing opera, singing is also called singing. The five roles of life, Dan, quietness, beauty and ugliness in Beijing Opera have their own vocals, which are complex and changeable, with both true and false voices and exquisite methods, and are unique singing methods in the world. Many essences of modern national singing are derived from China's traditional opera singing.