The Evolution of Tao Xun

Cloud is an important wind instrument in ancient China. Its shapes are tubular, olive fish-shaped, conical and so on. All of them have blow holes at the top, some have no sound pressure holes, and some have several sound pressure holes. Mostly pottery products, but also bone products.

This tomb has a long history. At present, the oldest tombs found are the oval soundless pottery tomb used by residents of Hebo site in Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang Province about 6000 years ago (Figure 3) and two pottery tombs found in Yangshao cultural site in banpo village, Xi 'an. One of them has no sound hole, and the other one has a sound hole, which can play a small interval, that is, a feather (F) and a gong (bA).

According to the sound measurement results of many pottery pots from the late Neolithic period to the Shang Dynasty in recent years, although the absolute pitch of these pottery pots is different, they can all blow out the past three degrees. In other words, they can all play lado (feather, palace) or misol (angle, sign) in the later pentatonic scale, which is the oldest known scale form. It is estimated that music at that time, such as Divide the Grains, may be composed of these sounds.

About four or five thousand years ago, in today's Jingcun Village, Wanquan County, Shanxi Province and Yijing Village, a suburb of Taiyuan City, a two-color hole pottery was still in use. This kind of pottery can blow out three tones, of which the tone blown out by Jingcun constitutes a pure fifth and a small seventh interval; The sound blown by the Yijing ring constitutes the third and pure fourth interval. That is to say, Jing Cun Huan can play three tones equivalent to 635 (feather, horn and horn) or 26 1 (up, feather and gong) in the pentatonic scale after G. The Yijing language can play three tones, which are equivalent to 6 12 (feather, palace, quotient) in the fifth tone of G or 356 (angle, sign and feather) in C. At that time, people did not have the concept of absolute pitch. So these two streams actually add a "quotient" sound or a "feather" sound on the basis of the third interval blown by Banpo stream. They constitute two kinds of trishilies, which should be the oldest known trisyllabic scale.

According to archaeological evidence, Yan's further development was after entering the slave society. In recent years, more than 20 painted pottery tombs have been unearthed in the civilian tombs of Huoshaogou cultural site in Yumen, Gansu Province, belonging to the late patriarchal society to the early slave society. Its shape is fish-shaped, the fish's mouth is a spray hole, and there are three sound holes on its body (Figure 4). The results of sound measurement show that the absolute pitches of these cymbals are different, but they can all play four main sounds, namely palace, horn, sign and feather, which are equivalent to domisola in the later pentatonic scale. Some can also blow out fa (clear angle). A few can play four kinds of backbone sounds: feather, palace, business and horn. Based on this, it is speculated that at least the above two four-tone scale modes with palace and Yu as the main tones may have appeared at that time.

Yan's basic stereotypes were generally in the late Shang Dynasty. The objects are the Yin Tomb of Liu Lige, Huixian County, Henan Province (Figure 5), a set of three-piece pottery tombs unearthed from Muhao Tomb in Xiaotun, Anyang City, Henan Province, and the animal-faced bone tombs unearthed from Yin Ruins 100 1 tomb (Figure 6). They are all conical and have five sound holes. The results of sound measurement show that Huixian and Regal have the same pitch, both of which are A, so the concept of absolute pitch may have existed at that time. Judging from the scale structure of Huixiankui, in fact, it is based on the two four-tone scales of Gansu Kuikui, and two inflections are added. If a is a palace, it can form a scale sequence of palace, angle, sign, feather, clear feather and change palace; Or taking e as the palace, it can form a scale sequence of feather, palace, quotient, angle, clear quotient and clear angle. The appearance of tone sandhi shows that it is possible to modify or rotate tone sandhi by using color sandhi-changing the mode of treble conversion scale.

In later literature, it was said that "Shang Dynasty was in front but had five tones", and it was not until Zhou Dynasty that there was "seven tones". In recent years, a set of five cymbals unearthed from the tombs of men and women of the Yin royal family can play a scale structure of 56 145, which is equivalent to the G key of later generations. Taken together, China's pentatonic scale was formally formed, which may not be earlier than Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

In the 20th year of Zhao Gong (632 BC), Zuozhuan recorded the seven-tone scale at the earliest. Judging from the fact that Shangyu has been able to blow out some partials in the seven-tone structure, its formal formation may not be too far away from the "five-tone". Due to the lack of conclusive evidence, it is still difficult to determine.

The appearance of the seventh scale involves the old and new scales and the Qing-Shang scale that are often encountered in the study of China's traditional modes. The old scales "angle" and "sign" are "sign change" (#fa), and the semitone position is between four or five degrees and seven or eight degrees; The new scales "Angle" and "Sign" are "Clear Angle" (fa), and the semitone position is between three degrees and four degrees, and between seven degrees and eight degrees; The "angle" and "sign" of Shang Qing scale are clear angles, and the semitone positions are between three degrees, four degrees, six degrees and seven degrees (■ "means semitone relationship, and the rest are full tones).

In the above three seven-tone structures, the five positive notes of the pentatonic scale are always at the core. This is what Zi Chan called "Nine Songs, Eight Styles, Seven Tones, Six Laws and Five Tones" (Twenty-five Years Left).

According to the existing sound measurement materials, although Huixian collapse has not yet formed a complete seven-tone structure, the fish dam of Huoshaogou cultural site can blow out the existence of Qing Jiao and Huan Qingyu in Huixian, which shows that the above three seven-tone structures are scales with a long history in China.

From the earliest third interval of Banpo language to the late Shang Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, there are complete pentatonic scales and heptatonic scales, which have gone through more than 3000 years. It can be seen that people's understanding of scales has been explored and practiced for a long time.