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