A Short Prehistory of Western Music, Chapter 3

16 P Tagg: A Short Prehistory of Western Music Chapter 3
This system already existed in melodies from the time of the Zhou dynasty (1050-
255 BP) and Chinese texts from the fourth and third centuries BP call the five
notes gong, shang, jiao, ji and yu ( ). Any of these five might serve as centre
for a new mode of the scale and each mode would be characterised by this note
as its principal and final, for example the f of ex.3:9b or the a of ex.3:9c. In other
words, the procedure described thus far rationalised the origin of the ‘five notes’,
establishing a physical theory of the major pentatonic mode and of modes deriving
from any of its constitutent pitches. 29 However, ancient Chinese music theory did
not stop at that.
‘The symbolism underlying Chinese ritual required music’s fundamental note to
move… with the twelve months (and the twelve hours). In other words, the keynote
(and the scale based upon it) had to be transposed for each successive period. To regulate
this movement a series of twelve notes was generated by the method of ascending
fifths and descending fourths already mentioned’ (fig.9d): ‘and each of the twelve
notes so generated became in turn the starting point of the scale. In order to show
all the notes in their musical firmament together the Chinese next arranged the
twelve notes in stepwise order’ (fig.9e). ‘The resulting arrangement has all the appearance
of a chromatic scale, but it was never used as such, only as a system for
transposing the five-note scale’ (Crossley-Holland 1959:46-47).
3:9 Theoretical basis of pentatonicism in ancient China, here with f as doh (gong): (a) the ‘five
notes’ as rising fifths [G × frequency of previous pitch] and descending fourths [H × frequency
of previous pitch]; (b) the same notes arranged as standard major pentatonic scale with doh
as principle note []; (c) same notes arranged as a minor pentatonic scale with la as principle
note []; (d) as (a) except extending the sequence by seven more intervals to complete the
octave and return to doh; (e) the notes of (d) arranged as a twelve-tone chromatic scale.
The above account explains the rationale behind gapped pentatonicism as the norm
in imperial China but it does not answer the other question: did Chinese emperors
employ music inspectors to check if people were singing and playing the ‘right’
pitches and, if so, why would such musical inspection be considered necessary?
‘An Imperial Office of Music (Yuefu) was founded under the Emperor Wu (141-87 BP)
for standardising pitch, supervising music and building up musical archives. The
Chinese had long previously recognised the relationship of musical pitch to the
length and capacity of a tube and so it was that this organisation was attached to the
Office of Weights and Measures’ (Crossley-Holland 1959:48).
‘The basic lu pipe preserved in this office was also used as a standard measurement
for length and weight. Thus, the music office was a bureau of the Office of Weights
and Measurements and remained so through many dynasties’ (Malm 1977:152).
29. It is unclear, however, if the minor pentatonic mode, with la as principal (starting on d if doh=f) as
principal , was established at the same time.