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All these noble experiments

seem to have had little effect on
the actual condition of Chinese
Music. It remained untempered
and pentatonic even though the
diatonic seven-tone scale was
described in the ffth-century
History of Later Han and in Tang
period ( 618-907) sources, and
tempered tuning was introduced
in the Ching ( 1644-1911).

It is important to keep the

basic pentatonic scale in mind,
for many studies list notes in
larger scale-like orders, either for
the sake of theoretical
speculation or to illustrate extramusical, nonscalar relationships.
Thus, the legends explain that
notes of upper series are those
sung by the male phoenix bird,
the lower series those for famale.

Pai hsiao
A Chinese pan flute. It is one of the
most
ancient of Chinese musical
instruments,
and is similar to its Western
counterpart.

Yin and Yang tones also tended to be

arranged separately in the racks of
sixteen bronze bells ( pien chung)
and similar sets of stone chimes (pien
ching) so popular in chou court
orchestra.

Pien chung:
- ceremonial bell.
Pien ching:
- is a set of L-shaped stones, of
different quantities and sizes, hanging from
a stand and struck with a special hammer.
They are played only at court and during
religious ceremonies.

At least two thousand years ago,

Chinese scientist knew as much about
soundproof research laboratories, the
laws of vibrations, and tuning as did
Westearn scientist at the turn of the
present century.

Besides the whole-step pentatonic

scale, many of the structural principles
of chinese music today can be trace to
the grand syntheses created in an age
that parallels the era of aristotole and
phythagoras but updates Ai Farabi or
pope gregory by several centuries.

Pope Gregory

These were classifed under the so

called eight sounds system, which
differentiated instruments by the
main materials from which they were
made stone, metal, skin, wood,
bamboo, gourds, and silk.

Under the bamboo category one

fnds the lu pipes bound together as a
panpipe ( pai hsiao). Both the vertical
notched hsiao flute and the horizontal
ti flute are in this category.

The silk category contains a surprisingly

large number of multiple stringed zithers
with movable bridges, such as the
twenty-fve-stringed and the thirteenstringed sheng. the most famous of the
silk instruments, however, is the sevenstringed chin. This instrument and its
music have long been associated with
Confucius and the life of the intellectual
in china.

Sheng

-is aChinesemouth-blown
free reed instrumentconsisting of
vertical pipes.

Chin

-the most famous of the silk

instruments, however, is has seven
stringed.

Pipa

the

fretted string lute that evoked the

senses and creativity of poets, painters
and men since its popularization before
the Tang Dynasty.

THE END