Copyright Zhu Zhu 2021 RICE UNIVERSITY Convergence: Unveiling the Yanyue Modal System of the Tang Dynasty By Zhu Zhu A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE Doctor of Musical Arts APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE Anthony Brandt Professor of Composition and Theory Peter Loewen (Apr 28, 2021 10:50 CDT) Peter Loewen Associate Professor of Musicology Nanxiu Qian Nanxiu Qian (Apr 28, 2021 17:58 CDT) Nanxiu Qian Professor of Chinese Literature HOUSTON, TEXAS April 2021 ABSTRACT Convergence: Unveiling the Yanyue Modal System of the Tang Dynasty by Zhu Zhu There is a dearth of Western scholarly research on ancient Chinese music. Unlike the trajectory of Western music—where the Catholic Church facilitated a linear, centralized, and well-chronicled musicological evolution—ancient Chinese music history is fragmented and incomplete. Dynastic cycles often led to hostile transitions of power and the destruction of the cultural vestiges from the preceding fallen dynasty. As a consequence, the elegant Yanyue twenty-eight-mode system of the Tang dynasty is scarcely known or understood in the West. The musicological history of the Yanyue modal system is disjunct and imprecise. This document will reconstruct the theoretical architecture of the Yanyue twenty-eight modes and unveil them for a Western audience. The Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907) reflect an extended phase of political stability and economic prosperity. The Tang dynasty in particular was a period of renaissance and artistic cultivation. It embraced migration and the blending of disparate cultural traditions. This document will reveal the Yanyue twenty-eight modes to be not merely a musicological artifact, but a sonically ornate and remarkably diverse tonal system whose structural organization reflects the heterogeneity of Tang itself and colors our image of life in ancient China. ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Anthony Brandt for his invaluable support and guidance. His commentary was always insightful. Special thanks to Dr. Nanxiu Qian, whose expansive knowldge of Chinese literature and history was my most valuable resource. I would like to express my apprectation to wonderful teachers and friends from the Rice community: my teacher and mentor Dr. Robert Roux and Hyeree Roux, Dr. Jon Kimura Parker and Aloysia Friedmann, Dr. Richard Lavenda and Dr. Liliana Escobar, Dr. Damian Blättler and Dr. Jackie O’Brien, Dr. Peter Loewen, and Julia Jalbert. I am grateful for the constant support, care, and love from my parents, Jianxin Wang and Hongyi Zhu; as well as from my in-laws, Janette and Stephen Marshall. Finally, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the love of my life, Dr. Richard Marshall. I could not have done this without him. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 Yanyue as a Genre .................................................................................. 3 Scholarly Challenges ............................................................................... 12 II. THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ANCIENT CHINESE MODES ........................... PRECEDING TANG ............................................................................................ 15 The Twelve-Tone SysteM: Twelve Lü ...................................................... 15 The PentatoniC Scale: Gong-Shang-Jue-Zhi-Yu ...................................... 20 The Three AnCient Modes ....................................................................... 22 The Zhengshen ........................................................................................ 31 III. THE FRAMEWORK OF THE YANYUE TWENTY-EIGHT MODES .............. 33 Five Dan, Seven Sheng ........................................................................... 33 Three DisloCated PitChes ......................................................................... 39 The FunCtion of Dan ................................................................................ 42 The FraMework of the Yanyue Twenty-EiGht Modes ............................... 44 IV. THE YANYUE TWENTY-EIGHTMODES ...................................................... 50 Gongche Notation and the Twelve Lü ...................................................... 54 The CharaCter of Gongche Notation Used in EaCh Mode and Final ........ 59 iv V. YANYUE IN PRACTICE ....................................................................................... 79 Three Notation SysteMs .......................................................................... 80 ExaMple 1 Gong (1") systeM ..................................................................... 82 ExaMple 2 Yu (6") systeM ......................................................................... 86 DiverGenCe .............................................................................................. 89 ExaMple 3 Shang (2") system ................................................................... 91 ExaMple 4 Jue/Biangong (7")system ........................................................ 97 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………… 104 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………………… 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………….. 108 v Chapter I Introduction China is comprised of a vast diversity of ethnic minorities whose histories each span thousands of years. Over a thousand and four hundred years ago, as the greatest Chinese empire, the Tang (618 – 907), was first being framed, the centralized authorities efforted to integrate the many voices of its ethnic groups into a harmonious entity. This included the creation of a unified musical system: the Yanyue twenty-eight modes. Chinese musicians used this modal system for both formal composition and improvisation, as well as establishing its notational system. The structure of this system embraced the cultural diversity of China’s ethnic roots within a rigorous, methodological framework. Following the opium wars of 1839 – 1842 and 1856 – 1860 Western culture began encroaching as European music had its first major influence in China. After the “May Fourth New Culture Movement” in 1919, Chinese music became divided between traditional music and a new musical vernacular based on Western popular culture. Over the past century, Chinese music reflects an integration of a wide range of styles. On one hand, China’s new vernacular originated with "school songs," mostly European and American tunes or Westernized Japanese tunes. Only a few of these school songs draw on traditional Chinese melodies. In terms of China’s professional art music Western styles have likewise infiltrated both the educational and cultural scenes. Nevertheless, Chinese musical tradition has not been forgotten completely. While a variety of Chinese traditional genres—folk songs, operas, national instrumental music, etc.—have absorbed elements of Western music, they nonetheless retain the primary characteristics of their historic archetypes. Prominent Chinese composers have long blended Western music theory and compositional techniques with traditional musical language—as for example in works like "White-Haired Girl," by Yan Jinxuan (1945), "Yellow River Cantata," by Xian Xinghai (1938), and the "Butterfly Lovers" Violin Concerto, by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao (premiered 1959). Despite the robust influence of Western music, Chinese new music has never been fully divorced from its traditional heritage. When it comes to theory and analysis, Western music has in many respects eclipsed traditional Chinese repertoire. From a theoretical perspective, the early eras of Western music have a distinct advantage over their Chinese counterparts: for many hundreds of years European compositions were centralized, catalogued, and preserved by the Catholic Church, which resulted in a historical continuum for composers, theorists, and performers to build out from. Chinese music has a similarly long history, but there is no theoretical or evolutionary continuity as in the West. This is largely the consequence of dynastic cycles: hostile transitions of power that often led to the destruction and loss of established traditions of the preceding dynasty. In addition, the ancient texts that first documented the Yanyue system were written by non-musicians who made errors that have confounded later scholars. The Yanyue twenty-eight modes of the Tang dynasty exemplifies an ancient theoretical system that is rigorous and distinct, but that over time has become muddled and misunderstood. In the West, by virtue of the Church, we have a clear picture of the medieval Church modes, which became the building blocks of Western tonality. In contrast, the theoretical structure of the Yanyue twenty-eight modes—buried under a thousand years of opaque Chinese music history—is scarcely understood. The Yanyue modal system of the 2 Tang dynasty continues to exert its influence in China today, yet its origins, cultural roles, musical qualities, and theoretical structure remain virtually unknown in the West. As a result, a vital and vibrant corner of Chinese musical life has been largely overlooked by Western scholarship. In this thesis I will historicize and contextualize the formation of the Yanyue twenty-eight modes, as well as explicate the theoretical structure of this system based