Chinese

• Chinese
• 7 string zither, NO frets or bridges, instrument of prestige (the literati)

• Musician
• from Wuxi, trained in Taoist Music

• ♦became blind, which lead to becoming a public performer
• &
• beggar
• ♦
• very influential musician and composer
• ♦
• “The Moon Reflected on the Second Springs” example

• (record
• in 1950, the year of his death)

• Jiangnan = “south
• of the river,”referring to the Yangzi river valley & Sizhu

• ♦
• late 19th century origins

• ♦ typically
• performed in tea houses

• ♦ some
• merchant class patrons

• ♦ amateur
• musicians

• ♦
• neighborhood groups

• ♦ ba duqu (eight great pieces/mother
• tunes); core repertoire

• ♦
• heterophonic texture

• (eight
• great pieces/mother tunes); core repertoire of Jiangnan Sizhu

• Chinese “Silk”
• Instrument; zither with bridges, many ornaments produced by nonplucking hand;
• modern descendent of qin

• 2 string fiddle;
• played by Abing

• Chinese pear shaped
• lute

• Chinese
• bamboo instruments
• ♦
• dizi - flute with interior membrane to add timbre

• ♦ xiao -
• end-blown flute

• Chinese
• bamboo instrument; mouth/cluster organ

• Beijing
• Opera (lit. “Capital City Opera,” formerly known as “Peking Opera.”
• ♦ Chinese drama with music
• ancient, Jingju fairly recent

• ♦ subject matter – stories of gods,
• emperors, generals of past dynasties, etc.

• shawm,
• used in folk music

• ♦
• Revolution - • Mao Zedong’s “comeback”

• • radical and extreme Chinese reform movement
• from 1966-76

• • Carried out by “Red Guard,” primarily
• students

• climate of persecution

• public humiliation “struggles”

• • movement
• against the “four olds” of “the exploiting classes”: old

• customs, old
• habits, old culture, old “thinking”

• • “four olds”
• broadened

• • anti-Western,
• anti-intellectual, anti-elite; universities/schools

closed

• • some ancient
• artworks destroyed

• • Western
• influences shunned

• • any Chinese
• culture perceived as old, hierarchical, immoral, or

• religious is
• banned

• ·
• propaganda campaigns

• ·
• The personality cult of Mao

• ·
• “Little Red Book” (anthology of Mao
• quotations)

• ·
• “big character” Poster Art

music designed to instruct, particularly to inculcate

morals or values

• • 5
• Model/Revolutionary Operas, 2 Revolutionary Ballets, 1 revolutionary symphony

• south of river
• silk and bamboo ensemble

• revolutionary Beijing Opera
• political,
• didactic plots

• Clearly delineated characters

• • Inclusion of Western symphonic
• instruments

• dominated musical landscape