The Prehistory of Chinese Music Theory
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The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a New Look at Musical Instrument Classification
The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a new look at musical instrument classification by Roderic C. Knight, Professor of Ethnomusicology Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, © 2015, Rev. 2017 Introduction The year 2015 marks the beginning of the second century for Hornbostel-Sachs, the venerable classification system for musical instruments, created by Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs as Systematik der Musikinstrumente in 1914. In addition to pursuing their own interest in the subject, the authors were answering a need for museum scientists and musicologists to accurately identify musical instruments that were being brought to museums from around the globe. As a guiding principle for their classification, they focused on the mechanism by which an instrument sets the air in motion. The idea was not new. The Indian sage Bharata, working nearly 2000 years earlier, in compiling the knowledge of his era on dance, drama and music in the treatise Natyashastra, (ca. 200 C.E.) grouped musical instruments into four great classes, or vadya, based on this very idea: sushira, instruments you blow into; tata, instruments with strings to set the air in motion; avanaddha, instruments with membranes (i.e. drums), and ghana, instruments, usually of metal, that you strike. (This itemization and Bharata’s further discussion of the instruments is in Chapter 28 of the Natyashastra, first translated into English in 1961 by Manomohan Ghosh (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, v.2). The immediate predecessor of the Systematik was a catalog for a newly-acquired collection at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. The collection included a large number of instruments from India, and the curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon, familiar with the Indian four-part system, decided to apply it in preparing his catalog, published in 1880 (this is best documented by Nazir Jairazbhoy in Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology – see 1990 in the timeline below). -
Diversity, Knowledge, and Valuation of Plants Used As Fermentation Starters
He et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2019) 15:20 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-019-0299-y RESEARCH Open Access Diversity, knowledge, and valuation of plants used as fermentation starters for traditional glutinous rice wine by Dong communities in Southeast Guizhou, China Jianwu He1,2,3, Ruifei Zhang1,2, Qiyi Lei4, Gongxi Chen3, Kegang Li3, Selena Ahmed5 and Chunlin Long1,2,6* Abstract Background: Beverages prepared by fermenting plants have a long history of use for medicinal, social, and ritualistic purposes around the world. Socio-linguistic groups throughout China have traditionally used plants as fermentation starters (or koji) for brewing traditional rice wine. The objective of this study was to evaluate traditional knowledge, diversity, and values regarding plants used as starters for brewing glutinous rice wine in the Dong communities in the Guizhou Province of China, an area of rich biological and cultural diversity. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were administered for collecting ethnobotanical data on plants used as starters for brewing glutinous rice wine in Dong communities. Field work was carried out in three communities in Guizhou Province from September 2017 to July 2018. A total of 217 informants were interviewed from the villages. Results: A total of 60 plant species were identified to be used as starters for brewing glutinous rice wine, belonging to 58 genera in 36 families. Asteraceae and Rosaceae are the most represented botanical families for use as a fermentation starter for rice wine with 6 species respectively, followed by Lamiaceae (4 species); Asparagaceae, Menispermaceae, and Polygonaceae (3 species respectively); and Lardizabalaceae, Leguminosae, Moraceae, Poaceae, and Rubiaceae (2 species, respectively). -
Newslett Sp03
Number 31 Spring 2003 www.chimes.cornell.edu [email protected] (607) 255-5350 NEWSLETTER Marisa Piliero LaFalce ‘96, Editor Physics + Bells + Pizza = Party! Catherine Jordan ’03 Whoever said physics isn’t fun? When you add bells to anything, it’s a great time! This February we had the good fortune to meet with Edith Cassel, Professor of Physics, who teaches a course “The Physics of Musical Sound.” Each year, as part of her course, she brings her class to the tower for a tour and Chimes concert. She also participated in a panel discussion on the Physics of Bells during the Chimes Rededication Celebration in 1999. For our special session, Professor Cassel came armed with diagrams, charts, bell models, xylophone bars, mallets, and a great sense of humor. For the next hour we explored the size, shape and composition of bells, and how they produce the A page beautiful music that we take for granted. Quite a bit from Rick of the material was pretty confusing – for example, Watson’s why is it that a larger and more massive bell pro- journal duces a lower pitch than a smaller and less massive containing bell, yet, when you remove mass from a bell by notations tuning, it lowers the pitch? The pitch of a bell is from the Cornell related not only to its mass but its rigidity, and the Chimes thinning of the bell’s shape with tuning makes the tuning bell less rigid, and therefore it has a lower pitch. project. This page I could go on with the fun bell facts we learned! for the low C hour bell. -
HUNG LIU: OFFERINGS January 23-March 17, 2013
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: December 12, 2012 Maysoun Wazwaz Mills College Art Museum, Program Manager 510.430.3340 or [email protected] Mills College Art Museum Announces HUNG LIU: OFFERINGS January 23-March 17, 2013 Oakland, CA—December 12, 2012. The Mills College Art Museum is pleased to present Hung Liu: Offerings a rare opportunity to experience two of the Oakland-based artist’s most significant large- scale installations: Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain) (1994) and Tai Cang—Great Granary (2008). Hung Liu: Offerings will be on view from January 23 through March 17, 2013. The opening reception takes place on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 from 6:00–8:00 pm and free shuttle service will be provided from the MacArthur Bart station during the opening. Recognized as America's most important Chinese artist, Hung Liu’s installations have played a central role in her work throughout her career. In Jiu Jin Shan (Old Gold Mountain), over two hundred thousand fortune cookies create a symbolic gold mountain that engulfs a crossroads of railroad tracks running beneath. The junction where the tracks meet serves as both a crossroads and 1 terminus, a visual metaphor of the cultural intersection of East and West. Liu references not only the history of the Chinese laborers who built the railroads to support the West Coast Gold Rush, but also the hope shared among these migrant workers that they could find material prosperity in the new world. The Mills College Art Museum is excited to be the first venue outside of China to present Tai Cang— Great Granary. -
The Finest and Most Complete Virtual Bell Instrument Available
Platinum Advanced eXperience by Chime Master The finest and most complete virtual bell instrument available. Front and center on the Platinum AX™ is a color touch screen presenting intuitive customizable menus. Initial setup screens clearly guide you with questions about your traditions, ringing preferences and schedule needs. The Platinum AX ™ features our completely remastered high definition Chime Master HD-Bells™. Choose your bell voice from twenty-five meticulously sampled authentic bell instruments including several chimes and carillons cast by European and historic American foundries. Powerful front facing speakers provide inside ringing and practice sound when you play or record the bells using a connected keyboard. Combined with a Chime Master inSpire outdoor audio system with full-range speakers, the reproduction of authentic cast bronze bells is often mistaken for a tower of real bells. An expansive library of selections includes thousands of hymns in various arrangements and multiple customizable ringing functions. You may expand your collection by personally recording or importing thousands more. Control your bells remotely from anywhere with Chime Master’s exclusive Chime Center™. This portal seam- lessly integrates online management and remote control. Online tools facilitate schedule changes, backup of recordings and settings, as well as automatic updates as soon as they are available! ® Where tradition meets innovation. ™ Virtual Bell Instrument FEATURES HD-Bells™ Built-In Powerful Monitor Speakers Twenty-five of the highest quality bell Exceptional monitoring of recording and instruments give your church a distinctive voice performances built right into the cabinet. in your community. Built-In Network Interface Enhanced SmartAlmanac™ Easy remote control via your existing smart Follows the almanac calendar and plays music phone or device. -
The Hungarian Rhapsodies and the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs: Historical and Ideological Parallels Between Liszt and Bartók David Hill
James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Dissertations The Graduate School Spring 2015 The unH garian Rhapsodies and the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs: Historical and ideological parallels between Liszt and Bartók David B. Hill James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019 Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Hill, David B., "The unH garian Rhapsodies and the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs: Historical and ideological parallels between Liszt and Bartók" (2015). Dissertations. 38. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss201019/38 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Hungarian Rhapsodies and the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs: Historical and Ideological Parallels Between Liszt and Bartók David Hill A document submitted to the graduate faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts School of Music May 2015 ! TABLE!OF!CONTENTS! ! Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…iii! ! Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...iv! ! Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………...1! ! PART!I:!SIMILARITIES!SHARED!BY!THE!TWO!NATIONLISTIC!COMPOSERS! ! A.!Origins…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4! ! B.!Ties!to!Hungary…………………………………………………………………………………………...…..9! -
Inscriptional Records of the Western Zhou
INSCRIPTIONAL RECORDS OF THE WESTERN ZHOU Robert Eno Fall 2012 Note to Readers The translations in these pages cannot be considered scholarly. They were originally prepared in early 1988, under stringent time pressures, specifically for teaching use that term. Although I modified them sporadically between that time and 2012, my final year of teaching, their purpose as course materials, used in a week-long classroom exercise for undergraduate students in an early China history survey, did not warrant the type of robust academic apparatus that a scholarly edition would have required. Since no broad anthology of translations of bronze inscriptions was generally available, I have, since the late 1990s, made updated versions of this resource available online for use by teachers and students generally. As freely available materials, they may still be of use. However, as specialists have been aware all along, there are many imperfections in these translations, and I want to make sure that readers are aware that there is now a scholarly alternative, published last month: A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions, edited by Constance Cook and Paul Goldin (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, 2016). The “Source Book” includes translations of over one hundred inscriptions, prepared by ten contributors. I have chosen not to revise the materials here in light of this new resource, even in the case of a few items in the “Source Book” that were contributed by me, because a piecemeal revision seemed unhelpful, and I am now too distant from research on Western Zhou bronzes to undertake a more extensive one. -
Maria Khayutina • [email protected] the Tombs
Maria Khayutina [email protected] The Tombs of Peng State and Related Questions Paper for the Chicago Bronze Workshop, November 3-7, 2010 (, 1.1.) () The discovery of the Western Zhou period’s Peng State in Heng River Valley in the south of Shanxi Province represents one of the most fascinating archaeological events of the last decade. Ruled by a lineage of Kui (Gui ) surname, Peng, supposedly, was founded by descendants of a group that, to a certain degree, retained autonomy from the Huaxia cultural and political community, dominated by lineages of Zi , Ji and Jiang surnames. Considering Peng’s location right to the south of one of the major Ji states, Jin , and quite close to the eastern residence of Zhou kings, Chengzhou , its case can be very instructive with regard to the construction of the geo-political and cultural space in Early China during the Western Zhou period. Although the publication of the full excavations’ report may take years, some preliminary observations can be made already now based on simplified archaeological reports about the tombs of Peng ruler Cheng and his spouse née Ji of Bi . In the present paper, I briefly introduce the tombs inventory and the inscriptions on the bronzes, and then proceed to discuss the following questions: - How the tombs M1 and M2 at Hengbei can be dated? - What does the equipment of the Hengbei tombs suggest about the cultural roots of Peng? - What can be observed about Peng’s relations to the Gui people and to other Kui/Gui- surnamed lineages? 1. General Information The cemetery of Peng state has been discovered near Hengbei village (Hengshui town, Jiang County, Shanxi ). -
Three Millennia of Tonewood Knowledge in Chinese Guqin Tradition: Science, Culture, Value, and Relevance for Western Lutherie
Savart Journal Article 1 Three millennia of tonewood knowledge in Chinese guqin tradition: science, culture, value, and relevance for Western lutherie WENJIE CAI1,2 AND HWAN-CHING TAI3 Abstract—The qin, also called guqin, is the most highly valued musical instrument in the culture of Chinese literati. Chinese people have been making guqin for over three thousand years, accumulating much lutherie knowledge under this uninterrupted tradition. In addition to being rare antiques and symbolic cultural objects, it is also widely believed that the sound of Chinese guqin improves gradually with age, maturing over hundreds of years. As such, the status and value of antique guqin in Chinese culture are comparable to those of antique Italian violins in Western culture. For guqin, the supposed acoustic improvement is generally attributed to the effects of wood aging. Ancient Chinese scholars have long discussed how and why aging improves the tone. When aged tonewood was not available, they resorted to various artificial means to accelerate wood aging, including chemical treatments. The cumulative experience of Chinese guqin makers represent a valuable source of tonewood knowledge, because they give us important clues on how to investigate long-term wood changes using modern research tools. In this review, we translated and annotated tonewood knowledge in ancient Chinese books, comparing them with conventional tonewood knowledge in Europe and recent scientific research. This retrospective analysis hopes to highlight the practical value of Chinese lutherie knowledge for 21st-century instrument makers. I. INTRODUCTION In Western musical tradition, the most valuable musical instruments belong to the violin family, especially antique instruments made in Cremona, Italy. -
The Misunderstood Eleventh Amendment
UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW Founded !"#$ Formerly AMERICAN LAW REGISTER © !"!# University of Pennsylvania Law Review VOL. !"# FEBRUARY $%$! NO. & ARTICLE THE MISUNDERSTOOD ELEVENTH AMENDMENT WILLIAM BAUDE† & STEPHEN E. SACHS†† The Eleventh Amendment might be the most misunderstood amendment to the Constitution. Both its friends and enemies have treated the Amendment’s written † Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School. †† Colin W. Brown Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law. We are grateful for comments and suggestions from Sam Bray, Tom Colby, Scott Dodson, Jonathan Gienapp, Tara Grove, Julian Davis Mortenson, Caleb Nelson, Jim Pfander, Richard Re, Amanda Schwoerke, Eric Segall, Jonathan Urick, Ingrid Wuerth, and from participants in the Fall Speaker Series of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, the Hugh & Hazel Darling Foundation Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference at the University of San Diego Law School, and Advanced Topics in Federal Courts at the University of Virginia School of Law. Thanks as well to Brendan Anderson, Kurtis Michael, and Scotty Schenck for research assistance, and to the SNR Denton Fund and Alumni Faculty Fund at Chicago for research support. (!"#) !"# University of Pennsylvania Law Review [Vol. "!$: !#$ text, and the unwritten doctrines of state sovereign immunity, as one and the same— reading broad principles into its precise words, or treating the written Amendment as merely illustrative of unwritten doctrines. The result is a bewildering forest of case law, which takes neither the words nor the doctrines seriously. The truth is simpler: the Eleventh Amendment means what it says. It strips the federal government of judicial power over suits against states, in law or equity, brought by diverse plaintiffs. -
Harmonic Resources in 1980S Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Music
HARMONIC RESOURCES IN 1980S HARD ROCK AND HEAVY METAL MUSIC A thesis submitted to the College of the Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Music Theory by Erin M. Vaughn December, 2015 Thesis written by Erin M. Vaughn B.M., The University of Akron, 2003 M.A., Kent State University, 2015 Approved by ____________________________________________ Richard O. Devore, Thesis Advisor ____________________________________________ Ralph Lorenz, Director, School of Music _____________________________________________ John R. Crawford-Spinelli, Dean, College of the Arts ii Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... v CHAPTER I........................................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 GOALS AND METHODS ................................................................................................................ 3 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE............................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER II..................................................................................................................................... 36 ANALYSIS OF “MASTER OF PUPPETS” ...................................................................................... -
Official Colours of Chinese Regimes: a Panchronic Philological Study with Historical Accounts of China
TRAMES, 2012, 16(66/61), 3, 237–285 OFFICIAL COLOURS OF CHINESE REGIMES: A PANCHRONIC PHILOLOGICAL STUDY WITH HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF CHINA Jingyi Gao Institute of the Estonian Language, University of Tartu, and Tallinn University Abstract. The paper reports a panchronic philological study on the official colours of Chinese regimes. The historical accounts of the Chinese regimes are introduced. The official colours are summarised with philological references of archaic texts. Remarkably, it has been suggested that the official colours of the most ancient regimes should be the three primitive colours: (1) white-yellow, (2) black-grue yellow, and (3) red-yellow, instead of the simple colours. There were inconsistent historical records on the official colours of the most ancient regimes because the composite colour categories had been split. It has solved the historical problem with the linguistic theory of composite colour categories. Besides, it is concluded how the official colours were determined: At first, the official colour might be naturally determined according to the substance of the ruling population. There might be three groups of people in the Far East. (1) The developed hunter gatherers with livestock preferred the white-yellow colour of milk. (2) The farmers preferred the red-yellow colour of sun and fire. (3) The herders preferred the black-grue-yellow colour of water bodies. Later, after the Han-Chinese consolidation, the official colour could be politically determined according to the main property of the five elements in Sino-metaphysics. The red colour has been predominate in China for many reasons. Keywords: colour symbolism, official colours, national colours, five elements, philology, Chinese history, Chinese language, etymology, basic colour terms DOI: 10.3176/tr.2012.3.03 1.