JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

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October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Among these four characteristics, pitch and duration have traditionally been considered more important than dynamics and timbre, both in China and the west. While pitch and duration are basic features of both CEM and TCM, the concept of pitch in TCM cannot be equated to the concept of pitch in CEM, and the same holds true for the concept of duration. The reason for the different concepts in TCM is the Chinese language and the underlying philosophical system, namely Taoism. In this paper, the author compares two basic concepts of CEM and TCM-pitch and duration, and examines how and why these concepts are different. Pitch A. the concept of pitch in CEM Let us begin by briefly examining the concept of pitch in CEM theory. Pitch is defined as the relative height or depth of a musical sound and a certain pitch is determined by the rate of vibration of the medium. In CEM theory, there are two concepts of pitch: the pitch of the notes and the pitch of the temperament. A pitch that has a steady, constant frequency is called a tone (Hickok 1979:4). European composers use the note to write a tone. In European classical melody, each note (a tone!) has a certain pitch, and the pitches of notes cannot be changed. If the pitch of a note changed while performing the written notes, it would be considered incorrectly played according to the European theory. B. the concepts of pitch in TCM 1. The concepts of “sheng” and “yin” Unlike in CEM, there are three concepts of pitch in Chinese theory: “sheng”, “yin”, and “lü”. “Sheng” refers to a single tone, while “yin” is the plural of “sheng”. “Lü” is the standard pitch in the temperament. Master Zheng Xuan (127-200 AD), who was a famous Confucian philosopher during the Eastern Han Dynasty, said, “Gong, shang, jue, zhi and yu, (the five basic Chinese tones, which can be understood as do, re, mi, sol and la — Du), are each called sheng, and when we put several sheng together, they are called yin” (Xue 1993 237). Concerning the relationship between “sheng” and “lü”, we find useful information in the Shang Shu, a history book compiled by Confucius: “Sheng change their pitch according to the intonation of the language and we use the lü to coordinate the sheng” (Wang and Zhang 1992:264). 2. The concept of “yaosheng”, or unfixed tone in TCM When we listen to TCM, we often feel the pitch of a tone is moving, unlike the tones played on the piano which have a certain, defined, steady pitch. They are called “yun” by Qin players and I think it is preferable to use the term “yaosheng”. “Yaosheng” might be translated into English as “unfixed tone”, (“yao”= moving, “sheng”= tone). “Yaosheng” therefore is a note whose pitch can move. The concept and use of the unfixed tone is a most important characteristic of TCM, and it makes Chinese music sound very "Chinese" to most western ears. _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2009 112
October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4. _____________________________________________________________________________________ A “yaosheng” cannot be said to be composed of two or three distinct “shengs” or tones such as are the ornaments in European music. In notation sometimes they are marked by a single symbol. Rather, it is best described as a progression of ascending or descending pitches, such as the sound of a police siren — to give a crude example. There are various “yaosheng” in TCM compositions — both for voice and instrument — the “yin”, “rou”, “chuo”, and “zhu” being the most important ones. A “yaosheng” whose pitch descends is called “zhu”, and when the pitch rises it is called “chuo”. When a note is played going down and up in rapid succession, it is called “yin,” and if we increase “yin” by a big margin we will get the “rou” (Du 1995:11). Why is there “yaosheng” in TCM? Again, we find our first hint for our answers in the old texts. In the first chapter of the Yue Ji, (Music Notes) a Chinese music classic written by the musicologist Gongsun Nizi who was a students of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn period, we read, “When many shengs are organized together, some of them will change their pitch. In this way, we have a melody“ (Sima 1992: 294). Another history book called Shang Shu, edited by Confucius says, “Shengs change their pitch according to the intonation of the language and we use the lü to coordinate the shengs” (Wang and Zhang 1992 264). These two classics quite clearly point at the relationship between music and language. It is common knowledge that Chinese is largely a monosyllabic and tonal language. There are four tones in Mandarin also called sheng: the high tone, the rising tone, the low tone and the falling tone. A tone in Chinese is considered to be the variation of a pitch. The first tone is the high tone and its process of pronunciation is 5-5; the second tone is the rising tone and its process is 3-5. Its process is like “cuo”. The third tone is the low tone, its process being 2-1-4, and it can be equaled to “yin” or “rou”. The last one is a falling tone; its process is 5-1, similar to “zhu”. Tones in Chinese are important because they carry meaning differences. For example: if we read “Ma” in the high tone, it means mother; in the rising tone, it means hemp; in the low tone, it means horse; and in the falling tone, it is a curse word. The music must follow the tones of the syllables of a song. It is only in this manner that the syllables can be pronounced clearly and the melody sung according to the accepted manner that is according to Chinese sense of aesthetics. In Chinese music, — contrary to CEM — a note does not have to have a certain pitch; rather the pitch of some notes is required to change while the music is in process. Not only Chinese but almost every language of the Sino-Tibetan family is tonal, so not only the Han traditional music but songs and music of many minority nationalities who speak a Sino-Tibetan language use the “yaosheng”, which means we can find “yaosheng” almost all over China. The concept of “yaosheng” is basic to TCM theory and is firmly planted in the tonal character and requisite of the Chinese languages. Duration A. the concept of duration in CEM In CEM the steady pulses that mark off equal lengths of time are called beats. Beats constitute the most basic unit of musical time. Instead of measuring the length of individual tones in seconds, or _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2009 113
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