Bells and drums (BC16th century-22 BC1century)
This period of history lasted about 1300 years, spanning the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, until the Qin Dynasty unified China. It can be divided into two periods, the former is the Shang Dynasty and the latter is after the Western Zhou Dynasty. These two periods have something in common, that is, "the music of bells and drums", but there are obvious differences.
The highly developed music of Shang Dynasty laid a good foundation for Zhou Dynasty. Because Zhou's culture is not as good as Shang's, its culture and technology are all taken from Shang. After Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, Wei was enfeoffed in the center of the Shang Dynasty, instead of moving the political center to the Shang Dynasty. Zhou's music, that is, the local music (now in Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province), is its original music. Probably to win people's hearts and ease clan conflicts, Zhou people often call themselves "Xia people". Later, because the words "Xia" and "Ya" had the same pronunciation at that time, it was customary to write what Zhou called "Xia" as "Ya" (this would at least help distinguish two "Xia" separated by hundreds of years). Therefore, "Yayan" is the language of Zhou; "Elegant Poetry" (the size of "elegance" in The Book of Songs) is a poem of the Zhou Dynasty. "Yayue" is actually Zhou's music (dance).
Song and Dance Daqu (2265438 BC+0-960 AD)
This history is nearly 1200 years, and it can also be divided into two periods. The former period includes the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty (AD 2265, 438+0-420), while the latter period includes the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties (AD 420-960). The common feature of the two periods is that Daqu is the main musical form. The difference between them is that in the early stage, Han music was the main music component, and in the later stage, through the unprecedented exchange of Chinese and foreign national music, song and dance music reached its peak.
Qin is very short, only 14 years, but it is not transitional but pioneering. Han just inherited the Qin system. Musically, Han inherited the Yuefu organization founded by Qin. There were two institutions in the Qin Dynasty that managed music. One is "Tai Yue", which belongs to "",and ""is in charge of etiquette, so "Tai Yue" is the ritual music of Guan. The other is Yuefu, which belongs to Shaofu. The function of Shaofu is to collect articles from all over the country for the emperor to squander, so Yuefu is also an institution to collect distinctive songs and dances from all over the country for the emperor to enjoy.
Yuefu received special attention in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty (pre 140- pre-87), and it also developed greatly. It collected folk songs of "Zhao, Dai, Qin and Chu" (equivalent to Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu today) and invited dozens of famous literati such as Sima Xiangru to write poems. Li Yannian is a native of Zhongshan, which has a rich musical tradition. His parents and brothers are both geisha who work in music. Li Yannian was named "Captain Xielu" because his dancer was favored by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It was a temporary gift that didn't appear in the permanent position, but Li Yannian gave full play to his musical talent in this position. The so-called "harmony" refers to the creation and expression of music. Li Yannian is good at writing and adapting new songs. People call his music "new sound", "new sound" and "new sound change".
From the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Yuefu became more and more huge. At first, it was a banquet, but there were 70 singers and girls singing, accompanied by a band, and the scale was not large. However, there were more than 800 people under Yuefu, so in 7 BC, Yuefu had to be abolished, but most of the people who were abolished were singing and playing talents from all over the country, and the rest were assigned to "Taiyue" to engage in elegant music activities. However, in these two hundred years, especially after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Yuefu had a great influence. Although Yuefu has no name, it basically has a corresponding compilation, and later generations also call similar songs collected by Yuefu "Yuefu".
The most famous form of songs collected by Yuefu is called "Song Xianghe". "Harmony Song" is a kind of folk unaccompanied "apprentice song", which is often sung by one person and accompanied by several people. On this basis, silk and bamboo musical instruments are added, that is, "silk and bamboo are more (alternately) harmonious", which is called "harmony song" The accompaniment instruments of silk and bamboo are Qin, Qin, Zheng, pipa, flute, sheng and pool, and the singer plays drums in a unified rhythm. There are various structural forms of Xianghe songs, which can be sung to the end, regardless of paragraphs, or divided into more than two paragraphs, each of which is called a "solution". Daqu, with large structure, was later called Daqu. Sometimes Daqu is preceded by a "wonderful" part equivalent to the introduction, followed by a "tendency" or "confusion" part with the nature of ending. Such a structural form can already express more complicated contents or emotions. Song Xianghe has several different tunes, and it indicates which music belongs to which tune. Although we know that there are different tunes from the musical instruments and literature records in the pre-Qin period, there was no tune at that time. The establishment of tune names can only be found in Xianghe songs. Song Xianghe's five basic tones are called flat tone, clear tone, tone, initial tone and lateral tone. Among them, the first three songs are dedicated to Shang Qing music after the Jin Dynasty, also known as "Three Songs of Shangqing".
The formation of new musical varieties and the all-round development of vocal instrumental music (960- 19 1 1)
This period of history includes Song (Liao, Jin), Yuan, Ming and Qing. Its characteristics are: not only make the song and dance music, which used to be dominant, continue to develop, but also produce many new music varieties, which make vocal music and instrumental music develop in an all-round way and become the foundation of modern music in China.
As mentioned earlier, China's music was locked in the palace before the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Although ordinary people are music creators and providers of new music varieties, they can't enjoy music in the end. This phenomenon finally changed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At that time, temple fairs such as Buddhist temples were accompanied by folk music activities, and restaurants sang poems from time to time. After the Song Dynasty, there was a fundamental change. Due to the development of industry and commerce and the prosperity of the city, civilians represented by citizens have their own entertainment places, which were called "tile market" and "Goulan" at that time. Both "Washi" and "Goulan" are in the city, not only engaged in trade, but also engaged in folk art performances. If the music before the Song Dynasty was almost represented by court performances, then the music after the Song Dynasty was represented by these "Washi" and "Goulan", and later "Theater" and "Teahouse" performances; For history, court music has become insignificant. Therefore, the music history of China before the Song Dynasty is almost the history of court music, and it is actually the music history of citizens (or civilians) after the Song Dynasty.