Asian Music Regions

In the early years of the twentieth century, Mr. Wang Guangqi, an early Chinese comparative music scholar, divided the world's music system into three major musical systems according to the differences in the scales used by the peoples of the various regions: the Chinese system based on the pentatonic scale; the Greek system based on the septatonic scale; and the Persian-Arabic system based on the micro-scale. micro-scale)-based Persian-Arabic music.

This classification, from the point of view of today's world music, admittedly simplifies the diversity and subjectivity of regional and ethnic music, and also ignores the phenomenon of the connotation of the export and import of music and culture, but it is undeniable that Wang Guangqi's thesis points out the two major dominant points*** of the Asian region, namely, Chinese music based on the pentatonic scale in the East, and Persian Arabic music based on the micro-scalar scale in the West. The two dominant points **** the formation of the Asian music culture circle. These two pivotal points have evolved over the course of history and the interaction of ethnic groups, and it is only through the fusion of each of these basic cultures that the musical and cultural systems of each country have evolved.

From the geographical point of view of China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan in Northeast Asia, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar in Southeast Asia, the influence of Chinese music has been spreading to the east (Northeast Asia) and to the south (South-Central Asia). Taiwan can be said to have inherited almost entirely from this, except for the aboriginal South Island music system.

Japan from the seventh century popular "Gogaki" (Utagaki) song and dance, until today still in the Japanese folk preservation of "Yaku", "Kabuki", "Noh", "Bunraku" and so on, are Japan's traditional music, the Japanese people called Bangle (Hogaku). The original four-stringed instrument called Ud in West Asia was transformed into the pipa from West and Central Asia to China, and together with the Yan music of the Tang Dynasty in China, it was brought to Japan and became the Gagaku of Japanese classical music. The pipa, which is a solo instrument, was popularized in the Kyushu area and transformed into typical Japanese rap music, such as the satsuma biwa, moso biwa, heike biwa, kyuji biwa, and chikuzen biwa. The combination of the Chinese music system of the former Japanese music and the Japanese shamisen music system, together with the Japanese formal aesthetics that emphasizes "body posture" and "beautiful posture," has led to the development of the Japanese music that makes us want to hold our breath when we hear songs, dances, music, and dramas today.

In the music system of Korea, which used to be called Goryeo, the instrumental solo Sanjo (Sanjo) of Agak, which was once heavily influenced by Chinese Yalak, is still a treasure of the National Music Institute. The traditional folk Korean system of Sinawi (witch music) also developed a set of rap-based P'ansoro music, and Samulnori (farm music), a four-object percussion ensemble developed by Goryeo folk farmers, is now a typical genre of Korean music.

On the Southeast Asian side, Vietnam's culture, instruments, ensembles, musical scores and language are strongly influenced by China. Because of its geography, Vietnam also had close contact with the Champa dynasty of ancient India. Therefore, the structure of Vietnamese music still has traces of Chinese and Indian culture. Of course, the Vietnamese people have since contributed their own traditional musical elements to Vietnamese music, making it very different from Japanese, Korean and Chinese music. Vietnamese court music, as well as rich folk instrumental ensembles and songs such as Hat a Dao and Ca Hue, are among the favorites of the Vietnamese people.

The khene is the national instrument of Laos and Thailand and is known as the sheng in Chinese. The sheng is distributed throughout Asia from Japan to Thailand, and from Bengal to Borneo free sheng reed instruments have related attributes. The Hmong in Laos and southern China use six-barrel shengs, while the Pumi use five-barrel shengs, with metal reeds set into a bowl-shaped wooden bellows. The Burmese-Tibetan and Mon-Khmer groups in China, and even some groups in Borneo, use shengs with a real gourd soundbox. Among the Karen of Burma, the sheng is made of buffalo horn, which is also used by the ethnic minorities of Laos and Cambodia. In addition to being the accompaniment for songs and dances, the sheng is also the most important catalyst in the art of rapping.

Myanmar is situated at the crossroads of Southeast Asia and South Asia, and is culturally quite separate from them, and this is also true of its music culture. Myanmar's most distinctive styles of music are the so-called "strong style music", in which the Saing waing, a chamber orchestra, uses the drum as its main instrument, and the "soft style music", in which the Saung gauk, Myanmar's national instrument, is the subject of court songs, either solo or accompanied by the harp, which is the country's most powerful musical instrument.

As for the South Asian region of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, tabla drums and sitar form a system of gala (

melodic) and tala (rhythmic) music, and improvisation dominates everything. South Asian musicians must have understood the relationship between gala and tala, and the fact that poverty leads to change is what makes the music of the region so fascinating.

In addition to these two systems, Asian music must also encompass the so-called "Austronesian Musical Cultural Area" (AMCA), a large diamond-shaped area of Oceania formed by Taiwan's aboriginal music in the north, New Zealand in the south, Madagascar in the west, and Easter Island in the east. This area can be further subdivided into four sub-districts: (1) Malayo-Polynesia: Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Madagascar. (2) Micronesia (micronesia): Guam, Palau, Mariana Islands and Caroline Islands. (3) Malanesia: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Zealand. (4) Polynesia: Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Society Islands and Easter Island. The music culture circle of the South Island is based on the unity of song and dance as the main body of music, and the instrumental music is based on simple bamboo wind instruments, such as the nose flute, row flute, and bamboo wind instrument (Indonesian sasandu or Madagascar valiha) are.

However, with the importation of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity, as well as the southward migration of Southeast Asian land races, the Bintanao indigenous peoples of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the South Philippines have developed the gamelan or kulindan music system, which is based on the gong and bamboo cultures. In addition, the Aboriginal music of Australia is not a member of the South Island language group, and its woodwind (dijeridu) overtone performance is completely outside the music system of this cultural area.