China prepares music for the olympics
Image details: China Prepares For Beijing 2008 Olympic Games served by picapp.com
Lovely photograph of large drums being prepared for the Olympics in Beijing. In Western music, there are five categories of instruments, based on how one produced sound: idiophones (shell, horn, wood), membranophones (drum world), aerophones (trumpet, clarinet, flute) chordophones (all y’all strings), and electrophones (anything you plug in).
Chinese instruments are similar in some ways. Their instruments have strings, reeds, airholes. Here’s the big dif: the classification system is based on the ancient pa yin (eight sounds) system which identifies instruments according to the natural material it’s made from (stone, metal, bamboo, gourds). Chinese instruments are crafted to create harmonic overtones–they resonate with the basic element, and the harmonics resonate with the forces of the universe.
The legends, theory, and ethics that twine through Chinese music evidence the importance to the Tao. Check out the sheng. It’s a set of pipes, but considered a gourd, because it forms a little hollowed out area. Go figure.
2 Comments
Interesting info, especially these instruments with which I have been unfamiliar. I realized when I listened to the Sheng, this was a sound I recognized from instances when Chinese music was being played on the radio. I never knew what the instrument was. Thanks!
Don’t you love the sites that have sound clips of the instruments? There are other cultures in which music is an integral part of their spirituality. I’ll post on the gamelan orchestras of Indonesia in the next week.