The definition of Chinese classical music

The seven sounds in ancient China: Gong, Shang, Jiao, Wei, Hui, Yu and Bian Gong, which are C, D, E, F, G, A and B in modern music. The Zhou Dynasty had seven tones and twelve laws. In the 6th century BC, King Jing of Zhou (544 BC? In 52O), he asked Yue Guanling, Zhou Dui, what is a seven-tone scale and what is a twelve-tone scale. When answering the question, Lingzhou dove listed the names of the ranks of Gong, Shang, Jiao, Wei, Wei, Yu and Bian Gong, and explained the relationship between each rank and the twelve laws. The appearance of the seven-tone scale was pushed to the era of Zhou Wuwang's replacement (BC 1O66).

China's seven-tone scale is dominated by elegant music and Yan music.

Elegant music generally refers to the music used in court sacrificial activities and court ceremonies. Rites originated in the Zhou Dynasty, and were used in rural communities [to worship heaven and earth], ancestral temples [to worship ancestors] and court etiquette [to attend ceremonies, banquets, guests, etc. ], rural filming [the ruler banquets for ordinary people's representatives] and military ceremonies. Later generations' activities of offering sacrifices to sages, such as offering sacrifices to Taibo and Confucius, also imitated and applied the joy of suburban communities and ancestral temples. The ritual and music system of the Zhou Dynasty has strict hierarchical regulations on the ceremonies and tracks of the above-mentioned different occasions. According to legend, Liu Yue was given to Zhou Wuwang by the Yellow Emperor for sacrificial ceremonies and major banquets hosted by the emperor and a few princes, and was regarded as the highest model of elegant music by later Confucianism.

Scale: (also called ancient scale, old scale or traditional scale)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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Le Yan is a highly artistic entertainment and ornamental song and dance music from Sui and Tang Dynasties to Song Dynasty.

Shen Kuo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in "Talk about Meng Xi": "The joy of the former dynasty was elegant music, the new voice of the past life was clear music, and the joy of rivers and lakes was Yan music." Yan Music in Sui and Tang Dynasties inherited the achievements of Yuefu Music, which is a new type of court music that combines Han folk music, other national music in China and foreign folk music. It developed greatly under the impetus of several emperors who loved music in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Emperor Yang Di had 30,000 professional musicians. According to the music sources, the large-scale court bands at that time were divided into nine sections, namely, Le Qing (traditional music), Xiliang (now Gansu), Qiuci (now Kuqa, Xinjiang), Tianzhu (India), Guo Kang (that is, Kangju, now Northern Xinjiang and Central Asia), Shule, Anguo (Central Asia), Koryo and Bi Li (Li Bi). During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of court musicians, and five workshops were set up to manage them, and other workshops were set up to coach court music composers. In the early Tang Dynasty, nine songs were changed into ten songs, including: Yanle (Chinese and foreign music mixed), geisha (traditional music), Xiliang geisha, Tianzhu geisha, Koryo geisha, Qiuci geisha, Anguo geisha, Shule geisha, Guo Kang geisha and Gaochang geisha (in modern Xinjiang). By the time of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty, ten pieces of music were divided into two categories according to the performance form: the left geisha and the inner geisha. Sitting in the room, the number is small, the voice is elegant and delicate, and the skills of musicians are highly required; Geisha in Libu perform outdoors, with a large number of people, often noisy ensembles, sometimes hundreds of performances at a time.

Yan music includes a variety of musical forms, such as vocal music, instrumental music, dance, and acrobatics. Among them, song and dance music occupies the most important position in Yan music in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Multi-stage large-scale dance music is called Daqu, which has made outstanding artistic achievements in Yan music in Tang Dynasty.

The main musical instruments used in Le Yan are pipa, violin, violin, sheng, flute, Jie drum and. After the An Shi Rebellion, court music declined, and court musicians were scattered among the people. After the reunification of the Song Dynasty, although a teaching workshop was set up to follow the old songs of the Tang Dynasty, Daqu played inside and outside the court was only a part of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, and its scale was greatly reduced. Daqu in Song Dynasty began to evolve into a musical, and many paragraphs gradually became qupai, which were scattered in lyrics, operas, rap and instrumental music. Daqu, as an independent music genre, gradually died out. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the mainstream of music development turned to civic art (opera, rap, city songs, etc.). ), and the court's Yanle and Yayue lost their original development momentum.

Fourthly, discuss the monosyllabic nature of China's music.

Both the elegant music system and the Yan music system are based on the monophonic system, which is related to the traditional aesthetic spirit of China. The main features of China's ancient aesthetic thought can be summarized as follows: First, "emptiness and quietness". That is, people's psychology is in a state of virtual silence, and they can understand the world without external interference. Su Shi's poem "Silence is the reason why the group moves, and emptiness is the reason why the world is full" precisely expresses this meaning. The second is the beauty of neutralization, that is, in the Analects of Confucius, "happiness without lewdness, sadness without injury." It can be said that "ethereal" and "golden mean" constitute the core of China's ancient aesthetic thought.

Taoist thought also influenced the emergence and development of China's music. "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments, two instruments give birth to four images, and four images give birth to eight diagrams", so there is a "five-degree law" in "Fa". In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, China made a breakthrough in his aesthetic thought. He opposed Taoist quietism, denied the idea of five tones and five colors, and replaced metaphysical poetry with landscape poems and paintings. However, it is not a complete betrayal, but an opposition to naturalistic portrayal, demanding "immortal descent" and "spirit likeness". Therefore, there are five tones of "public, upper, communication, righteousness and Yu".

Western music is based on polyphonic system. The author believes that this is closely related to "learning from nature" in western aesthetic thought. As we know, music is produced and developed on the basis of all acoustics in nature. And the natural sound is not only single; In addition, western countries pay more attention to scientific explanation, and they find that even a single tone is supported by many overtones when it makes a sound. Therefore, the west has "pure law"; Therefore, there are "counterpoint" and "harmony acoustics" in the west. Polyphony music is developed on this basis (at least one of the foundations). The difference between Chinese and Western aesthetic thoughts is that China's music emphasizes the effect of emotion on art and "qualitative beauty". Western music emphasizes imitating nature and pays more attention to "formal beauty".