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Chapter 14: China: 14-1b Traditional Music Theory in China

Book Title: Music of the Peoples of the World
Printed By: Stephen Fox (foxs@hawaii.edu)
© 2013 Schirmer, Cengage Learning

14-1b Traditional Music Theory in China

In many musical cultures, music theorists are writers who attempt to articulate and elucidate
the often unspoken and complex processes underlying existing musical composition and
performance, to codify what musicians do and why. In China, however, the purpose of music
theory has been to find music's philosophical basis and its relationship to the cosmos. If
musical practice does not completely agree with the ideal described by theory, then those
performances are considered vulgar, ill formed, or out of balance.

A document from the third century BCE describes a tuning system in which successive pitch
ratios of 3:2 derive a scale of 12 pitches per octave. This method was probably known long
before that time in many ancient societies, including Europe, where it became known as
Pythagorean tuning. Chinese theorists, like later musicians in Europe, extended this tuning
system to derive a 12-tone scale. Each of the 12 pitches is known as lü (pitch of Chinese
tuning system) . Traditional zithers, such as the guqin, are still tuned this way, although most
modern versions of Chinese instruments adopt the compromise of 12-tone equal
temperament so that, like their European counterparts, they can easily transpose and be
grouped into larger orchestras.

From this theoretical set of 12 pitches, theorists next derived various heptatonic (seven-
pitch) scales that are basically the same as the diatonic scales of Europe. However, as far
as we know, most traditional Chinese music was pentatonic, not heptatonic; the two extra
notes, called bianyin (alternate pitches outside a Chinese pentatonic mode) (changing
tones), were sometimes used as auxiliary pitches. These pentatonic scales left out the
semitones (small intervals) of the heptatonic scales. Thus, the pentatonic scales are
sometimes called anhemitonic (fivetone modes without semitones) (without semitones)
scales. The black keys of the piano keyboard approximate these scales.

There are five possible anhemitonic pentatonic modes, called diao (Chinese pentatoic
mode) , one for each possible tonic or home pitch. Musicologists often name these
pentatonic scales by numbering them within the heptatonic system, leaving out those
numbers corresponding to the two absent notes. The pitches are numbered so that one
always represents the tonic. Therefore the five possible pentatonic modes are the following:

gongdiao 123-56-

shangdiao 12-45-7

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juediao 1-34-67

zidiao 12-456-

yudiao 1-345-7

Gongdiao and zidiao are the most common modes in use. As listed in Table 14.1, a great
deal of classical writing in Chinese music theory was devoted to the cosmological
significance of such musical components as these modes. Clearly, the tonic pitch affects the
symbolism of a piece as well as its relationship to the other pitches.

Table 14.1

Table of the Notes of the Chinese Musical Scales and Their Symbolic
Connections

Musical
Notes Gong Shang Jue Zi Yu

Cardinal
Points center west east south north

Political national natural

Structure king minister people affairs world

Virtues faith righteousness benevolence respect knowledge

Colors yellow white blue red black

Elements earth metal wood fire water

Heavenly
Bodies constellations earth stars sun moon

Planets Saturn Venus Jupiter Mars Mercury

Flavors sweet pungent sour bitter salty

Emotions desire melancholy anger joy fear

Sounds song weeping shouting laughter mourning

© Cengage Learning 2013

In Chinese opera, many different aspects of a performance may characterize a mode apart

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from its scale—the sequence of pitches that end phrases (cadential pitches), the music's
relative range, and even the instruments. The character of the mode makes it most
appropriate to the rhythms and meters, the degree of ornamentation or melisma, and the
characters in the opera.

Chapter 14: China: 14-1b Traditional Music Theory in China

Book Title: Music of the Peoples of the World
Printed By: Stephen Fox (foxs@hawaii.edu)
© 2013 Schirmer, Cengage Learning

© 2017 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any
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