Chinese Music Culture How Music Can Be Different

hello and welcome everyone

my name is jack and today i’m going to

talk about

chinese musical culture and how

different music can be

in another country

in a time where racial tensions are an

all-time high

one thing links us all together and

that’s music

i was born in beijing china and lived

there for nine years

before moving to the us almost all of my

childhood memories

were made in the completely foreign

country that most of you may never have

even been to

with the tension between the us and

china being so high at the moment

it can be very hard to see and

appreciate

the extraordinary musical culture that

was produced in the country with more

than

4000 years of history today

i’m asking all of you to sit down with

me

tune out everything that’s going on in

the world right now

and listen to some music

this includes both chinese and western

instruments

such as the violin guitar

piano and chinese instruments such as

the

or the chinese zither in english

this instrument is a very large wooden

instrument

that you play like a flat guitar on a

stand

it has a very echoey sharp noise

our hoo a two string violin

that is very high pitched and can

replicate

animal noises and human noises

pizza a type of bamboo flute

that has a reed inside the tube and

produces

a sharp edged sound and yo

chin a chinese guitar that is played

vertically

which takes a lot of skill

more than 70 types of ancient chinese

musical instruments

have been discovered in archaeology

exhibit

exhibits archaeologists unearthed a

flute

in china that is about 8 000 years old

music has always been a part of ancient

chinese musical culture

music in ancient china was used

for pleasure and religious ceremonies

there’s also many more uh performances

the for dancing and entertainment

and to match the blend with the sounds

of nature

some more of these instruments include

the cell

a type of flu that you play vertically

instead of horizontally

that is a very round and warming sound

more than the bamboo and flute because

of the lack of the reed inside the tube

the gong the sword now

which is a double rated instrument as

played like an oboe

but sounds and looks more like a trumpet

and the bienjo which is different

sized bells used for different sounds

with more than 4 000 years of documented

history

the ancient chinese are one of the

oldest civilizations on the planet

despite this very vast history filled

with music and art

a great majority of chinese

people don’t seem to appreciate

traditional chinese music

with parents in china pushing their kids

to

pursue western instruments such as the

piano and violin

these beautiful chinese instruments are

going extinct

even though traditional chinese music

isn’t very relevant

even in china itself anymore

in chinese shows in place one of the

shows called jungju

or directly translated into beijing

opera

it is made in beijing and people on the

stage perform a scene

which is usually a little peek into

history

people wear different makeup or masks

for v

for different character types there’s

different

categories inside the place there’s

shang

the male lead then the female lead

the supporting male lead and cho the

jockeys or clowns

and then there’s the pit the instruments

behind every scene in play

but the most important part is the music

it indicates what’s happening is it kong

is it a fight scene is it a traveling

scene

you can’t tell as much without the music

everything

is made more clear with the background

instruments

there is a type of music for every scene

no matter how much you agree

it’s an important part of every play

but it’s not just the beijing opera that

relies on music

it’s other plays as well everything is

carefully planned out

and has music coordinated to it

which when it has the background support

everything gets enhanced

in the end i think we can all agree that

music

is not just a part but a main part of

chinese culture

thank you