Asian Music
In the early 20th century, Mr. Wang Guangqi, an early Chinese comparative music scholar, divided the world's music system into three major music systems according to the different scales used by ethnic groups in various regions. : The Chinese music system based on the pentatonic scale (pentatonic); the Greek music system based on the septatonic scale (septatonic); and the Persian and Arabic music system based on the micro-scale.
This classification, from the perspective of today’s world music, admittedly fails to simplify the diversity and subjectivity of regional music and ethnic music, and at the same time ignores the connotation of the output and input of music culture. phenomenon, but it is undeniable that Wang Guangqi’s argument also points out that the Chinese music based on the pentatonic scale in the East in Asia and the Persian and Arabic music based on the microtonal scale in the West are formed by the two dominant points. Asian music culture circle. As these two fulcrums interacted with the development of history and the migration of ethnic groups, they merged under each basic culture and then developed the music culture system of each country.
From a geographical perspective, the influence of Chinese music radiates from China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan in Northeast Asia to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar in Southeast Asia. East (Northeast Asia) and South (Central and South Asia) development. Except for the aboriginal Austronesian music system, Taiwan can be said to have almost completely inherited it.
Japan has evolved from the "Utagaki" singing and dancing that was popular in the seventh century to the "Gagaku", "Kabuki", "Noh" and "Bunraku" that are still preserved among Japanese people today. Etc., they are all traditional Japanese music, which the Japanese call Hogaku. The four-stringed horizontal instrument originally called Ud in West Asia became the pipa from West Asia and Central Asia to China. Together with the Yan music of the Tang Dynasty in China, it was spread to Japan and became the Gagaku of Japanese classical music. (Gagaku). After the pipa came to Japan, it became popular in Kyushu and became a typical Japanese rap music, such as satsuma biwa, moso biwa, heike biwa, and Higo biwa. kyuji biwa), and chikuzen biwa, etc. After the Chinese music system of pre-Japanese music was combined with the Japanese shamisen music system, and the Japanese formal aesthetics that emphasized "body" and "beauty", it developed into the song, dance, music and drama we hear today. All kinds of Japanese music that makes you want to hold your breath.
Among the music systems that people used to call "Korea" and are now called Korea, "Agak" was deeply influenced by Chinese elegant music, and its solo instrumental music (sandiao) sanjo) is still a treasure of the Chinese Traditional Music Center. The traditional Korean folk music "Sinawi" (Sinawi) system has also developed a set of P'ansoro music based on rap, and the Samulnori (agricultural music) group developed by Korean folk farmers are now the core of Korean music. Typical music.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnamese culture, musical instruments, ensembles, music scores and language are all strongly influenced by China. Due to its geographical environment, Vietnam also has close contacts with the Champa dynasty of ancient India. Therefore, the structure of Vietnamese music still contains cultural traces from China and India. Of course, the Vietnamese people also contributed their own traditional music elements to Vietnamese music, so it is very different from Japan, South Korea, and China. Vietnamese court music, as well as rich folk instrumental ensembles and singing such as Hat a Dao and Ca Hue are favorites of Vietnamese people.
Khene is the national musical instrument of Laos and Thailand, and is called "Sheng" in Chinese. The sheng is distributed in Asia from Japan to Thailand, from Bangladesh to Borneo. Free sheng reed instruments all have related attributes. The "Miao" people in Laos and southern China use six-pipe shengs, and the Pumi people use five-pipe shengs. The metal springs are embedded in the bowl-shaped wooden bellows. The Sheng used by the Burmese-Tibetan and Mongolian-Kau speaking groups in China, and even some ethnic groups in Borneo, has speakers made of real gourds. Among the Karen people in Myanmar, buffalo horns are used as speakers for Sheng. This is also used by ethnic minorities in Laos and Cambodia. In addition to being an accompaniment to singing and dancing, the Lao sheng is also the most important catalyst in the Lao rap art.
Myanmar is located at the intersection of Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is quite separated from Southeast Asia and South Asia in terms of cultural form, and the same is true in terms of music culture. The most special features of Myanmar are the so-called "strong style music": the chamber orchestra Hsaing waing, which uses row drums as the main instrument, and the "soft style music": Myanmar's national treasure instrument - the harp Saung gauk (phoenix-headed harp). Themes, either solo or accompanied by court songs, are the most charming types of Burmese music.
As for the South Asian regions of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, the gala (
melody type) and tala (rhythm type) music systems formed by tabla drums and sitar instruments are used for improvisation. Dominating everything, musicians in South Asia must be well aware of the relationship between gala and tala. The charm of music in this region is that when it is poor, it changes, and when it changes, it becomes versatile.
In addition to these two major systems, Asian music must also include Taiwan, which is dominated by aboriginal music, in the north, New Zealand in the south, Madagascar in the west, and Easter Island in the east. The so-called "Austronesian Musical Cultural Area" is formed in the large diamond-shaped Oceania island area. This area can be further subdivided into four small areas: (1) Malayo-Polynesia: Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Madagascar. (2) 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 South Island music culture circle combines singing and dancing as the main body of music, and instrumental music is mainly based on simple bamboo wind instruments, such as nose flute, pan flute and bamboo organ (Indonesian sasandu or Madagascar valiha). yes.
However, with the introduction of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, as well as the southward migration of Southeast Asian land peoples, the original Austronesian peoples of Mindanao Island in Indonesia, Malaysia and the South Philippines have developed gongs. Gamelan music system or kulindan music system based on group culture and bamboo group culture. In addition, Australia's Aboriginal music is not a member of the Austronesian cultural area, and its woodwind (dijeridu) overtone performance is completely outside the music system of this cultural area.