Music and Arts of China

Musical Instruments and Traditional Instruments

 Erhu 二胡
o Pronounced èrhú (urrh-hoo) in Mandarin, it is a two-string, violin-like instrument played with a
bow like a violin bow. It isn’t as loud as a violin because the soundbox is small.
 Guzheng 古箏
o Pronounced gǔzhēng (goo-jung) in Mandarin, it is a large 18–23-or-more stringed instrument. It
is said that it is an ancestor of the Japanese koto.
 Pipa 琵琶
o The pipa (pípá, pee-pah) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument. The instrument has a
pear-shaped wooden body with frets like those on a guitar. It sounds like a banjo.
 Dizi 笛子
o Dizis are generally made of bamboo, and they generally have six or more finger holes. One hole
is covered with paper so that the flute has a peculiar buzzing sound that people like.
 Dulcimer 扬琴
o Dulcimer, a kind of strike-stringed instrument, was first introduced to China by Persian (an
ancient Arabic country) at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the performance, it plays a role like
the piano. Two jean bamboos (a kind of elastic small bamboo hammer) are used to strike the
strings.
 Guqin 古琴
o Also called heptachord, Guqin is one of China's oldest plucked instruments, which appeared not
late than the Yao and Shun period. Players pluck the string by right hand and press with the left
hand.
 Chimes 编钟
o Made of bronze, Chimes are percussion instruments. Chimes are a set of bells hanging on a big
bell-cot, arranging according to different bell tones. If you use a wooden hammer and bar to
knock the bronze bell, it will have a different sound.
 Suona 唢呐
o Introduced by Persian, Suona, also named horn, is a kind of Chinese playing music instrument.
Because of its keen and resonant sound, Suona is often used in yangko, drum music and to
accompany local opera and ballad.
 Sheng
o The sheng is a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. It is a
polyphonic instrument and enjoys increasing popularity as a solo instrument.
Musical Plays
 Peking Opera
o Peking opera, or Beijing opera, is the most dominant form of Chinese opera which combines
music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing
dynasty and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century.
o Beijing Opera presents dramatic plays and figures mainly by infusing four artistic methods:
singing, dialogue, dancing and martial art. Singing is utilized to intensify the appeal of the art by
all kinds of tones. Dialogue is the complement of singing which is full of musical and rhythm
sensation. Dancing refers to the body movements requiring high performing skills. Martial art is
the combination and transformation of traditional Chinese combat exercises with dances.
 Face Painting
o Lianpu is formed through dramatic artists' long-term practice and their understanding and
judgment of the roles in plays. It is the colorful dressing on actors' faces. By using transformative
and exaggerated figures, professional spectators would easily tell the characteristic of a role.

Main Characters
  Sheng
o It's a common name of male characters and composed of Lao Sheng and Xiao Sheng. Lao Sheng
refers to the middle-aged man with a beard who acts as the decency figure; for example,
Zhugeliang in 'Empty City Scheme'. Xiao Sheng means young man without a beard. Zhangsheng
in 'The Story of the West Room' is a representative of Xiao Sheng.
 Dan
o The general name for female characters can be divided into Zhengdan, Huadan, Laodan, Wudan.
Zhengdan is also called 'Qingyi', who mainly plays the part of the strong-minded middle-aged
woman who behaves elegantly. Huadan refers to little girls who often live in the bottom of
society. Laodan refers to the senior woman and Wudan indicates the female who is good at
fighting.
 Jing
o Painted face often refers to male characters with unique appearance or personality, such as
Baozheng and Caocao. Besides, Chou is a comic role or villainous character or righteous person.
The actor's nose is painted by a piece of white powder, making him or her easily recognizable.
 Chou
o The Chou is a male clown role. The Chou usually plays secondary roles in a troupe. Chou has the
meaning “ugly” in Chinese. This reflects the traditional belief that the clown’s combination of
ugliness and laughter could drive away evil spirits. Chou roles can be divided into Wen Chou,
civilian roles such as merchants and jailers, and Wu Chou, minor military roles.

Chinese Painting
 The history of Chinese painting can be compared to a symphony. The styles and traditions in the
figure, landscape, and bird-and-flower painting have formed themes that continue to blend to this day
into a single piece of music. Painters through the ages have made up this “orchestra,” composing and
performing many movements and variations within this tradition.
 Landscape Painting was regarded as the quintessential form of Chinese Painting.
o 3 major components of Landscape Painting
 Nature
 Heaven
 Humankind
 Chinese painters combine ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE compositions to create a sense of harmony.
o BALANCE - A feeling of equality in weight, attention, or attraction of the various visual
elements within the pictorial field as a means of accomplishing organic unity.
o ASYMMETRY – informal and seems less organized than symmetry.
o SYMMETRY - a type of formal balance in which two halves of an artwork mirror each other.
 6 principles of Chinese painting
o “Spirit Resonance” or Vitality – this is the whole energy of the artwork.
o “Bone Method” or the way of the brush – the art of calligraphy is indivisible from painting.
o “Correspondence to the object” or the depiction of form – this is how the artist brings the parts of
the artwork together.
o “Suitability to type” or the application of color – the use of colors correctly, that includes layers,
value, and tone.
o “Division and Planning” or placing and arrangement – this makes the composition of artwork
alive. It will take only the most important parts of the vision and leave of the extras.
o “Transmission by Copying” or the copying of models – it is important to learn as much as
possible from the masters of the past and apply it to your own personal style.
 Chinese Seals/Chop
o The traditional Chinese identification stamp is inscribed into the bottom of a small decorative
sculpture carved from soft stone, then printed in red ink to identify both artists and collectors.
  Famous Chinese Painters
o Fan Kuan
 Fan Kuan began his career by modeling his work on that of Li Cheng but later created his
own style claiming that the only true teacher was nature. He became one of the most
formidable artists of the tenth and eleventh century and remains the most revered artist in
Chinese history. His masterpiece Travellers among Mountains and Streams is an icon of
landscape painting and future artists turned to it umpteen times for inspiration. Along
with Li Cheng and Guan Tong, he is one of the ‘three great rival artists’ of the golden
period of Chinese art. In 2004, Life Magazine rated Fan as 59th of the 100 most
important people of the last millennium.
 Travelers among Mountains and Streams
o Gu Kaizhi
 Considered the founder of Chinese painting, Gu Kaizhi is the most renowned artist of the
Jin Dynasty. He wrote three books on painting theory which had a deep and profound
influence on Chinese painting for many centuries to come. Though none of his originals
survive, his art lives on through copies of a few silk handscroll paintings that are
attributed to him. Gu is known for his attention to detail and for capturing vivid
expressions of his subjects to reveal their spirits. He has acquired a legendary status in
Chinese art and his following line is known by all: “In figure paintings, the clothes and
the appearances are not very important. The eyes are the spirit and the decisive factor.”
 The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies
 Calligraphy
o Calligraphy, literally "beautiful writing," has been appreciated as an art form in many different
cultures throughout the world, but the stature of calligraphy in Chinese culture is unmatched. In
China, from a very early period, calligraphy was considered not just a form of decorative art;
rather, it was viewed as the supreme visual art form, was more valued than painting and
sculpture, and ranked alongside poetry as a means of self-expression and cultivation.
o Calligraphy established itself as the most important ancient Chinese art form alongside painting,
first coming to the fore during the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). All educated men and some
court women were expected to be proficient at it, an expectation which remained well into
modern times. Far more than mere writing, good calligraphy exhibited an exquisite brush control
and attention to composition, but the actual manner of writing was also important with rapid,
spontaneous strokes being the ideal.

Music and Arts of Japan

ARTS
1. Origami
o Origami is the art of paper-folding. Its name derives from Japanese words ori (“folding”) and
kami (“paper”). Traditional origami consists of folding a single sheet of square paper (often with
a colored side) into a sculpture without cutting, gluing, taping, or even marking it.
o Paper was introduced to Japan in the 6th century. During this time, the practice of paper-folding
emerged as a ceremonial Shinto ritual. It was not until Japan's Edo Period (1603 – 1868) that
origami would also be viewed as a leisurely activity and art form.
 History
o Like Japanese woodblock prints—an art form that also saw popularity during this time—origami
works often featured flowers, birds, and other nature-based motifs. These subjects are also
prevalent in contemporary origami, which remains true to the traditional Japanese practice in all
ways but one: originally, the practice allowed artists to strategically cut the sheets of paper.
Today, however, true origami is sculpted entirely through folds—an attribute the Japanese
adopted from Europe.
 Famous Artists
 o Akira Yoshizawa
 Akira Yoshizawa was a Japanese origamist, considered to be the grandmaster of origami.
He is widely recognized for his work in raising origami from a craft to a living art form.
Yoshizawa devised many new folding techniques during his lifetime. According to his
own estimation made in 1989, he created more than 50,000 models, of which only a few
hundred designs were presented as diagrams in his 18 books.
 Yoshizawa acted as an international cultural ambassador for Japan throughout his career.
In 1983, Japanese emperor Hirohito named him to the Order of the Rising Sun, one of the
highest honors that can be given to a Japanese citizen.

2. Woodblock Painting
o Celebrated for their one-of-a-kind process and distinctive aesthetic, woodblock prints have
become a widely recognized and iconic form of Japanese art. Along with paintings, prints
produced from the 17th century through the 19th century captured the spirit of ukiyo-e, a genre
that presented “pictures of the floating world” to the public.
 History
o Introduced during China's Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, the art of
woodblock printing was not popularized in mainstream Japan until its Edo period, an era
denoting 1603 through 1868. Initially, the woodblock printing process was used to reproduce
traditional hand-scrolls as affordable books. Soon, however, it was adapted and adopted as a
means to mass produce prints.
o While woodblock printing was eventually replaced by methods of moveable type (in terms of
text), it remained a preferred and popular method among Japanese artists for decades—namely,
those working in the ukiyo-e genre. Japanese masters like Andō Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai,
and Kitagawa Utamaro helped elevate the practice with their “floating world prints,” which are
considered world-class works of art today.
 Steps in Woodblock Printing
o The block carver begins with a flat piece of wood – typically cherry – and take the prescribed
drawing and place it face down onto the block.
o The piece of paper thus applied would then be made transparent by rubbing it with oil and then
removing the paper so that the reverse image of the ink was transferred to the block
o The carver would then outline the areas that were to be inked/printed black and, after doing that,
would carve away the areas that were to be left blank
o This part of the process creates the block which would be used to print the black lines and is
known as the “key block”
o This process would then be repeated for every color that would be used within the image,
resulting in different blocks for each different color.
o In order to retain accuracy in the printing of the different colors onto the single image/page, a
registration key is used – typically a kagi (a raised “L” shape which fits to one corner of the
block and into which a corner of the page is placed) and a hikitsuke (a raised bar usually laid
along the long-side of the block and into the corner of the hagi)
o The printing process of a single sheet continues by using the various blocks and colors and re-
registering the sheet until the entire image was completed to the artist’s satisfaction
 Famous Artists in Woodblock Painting
o Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806)
 One of the first great masters of the ukiyo-e genre, Utamaro produced depictions of bijin,
the beautiful women of the tea houses and pleasure quarters of Edo, that represented the
very essence of the "floating world." He also produced a great many shunga prints, and
was imprisoned in 1804 for an image of historical hero Toyotomi Hideyoshi with a group
of concubines.
o Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)
 When thinking of Japanese woodblock prints, the first image that springs into the minds
of most will be Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa. He is famed for his many
landscapes showing waterfalls, bridges, and mountains—especially Mount Fuji—but also
produced many pictures of ghosts, wildlife, and erotic imagery. He helped sow the seeds
of the manga tradition with his illustrations for the yomihon, or historical narratives, of
Kyokutei Bakin and Ryūtei Tanehiko.
o Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
 Hiroshige captured the landscapes and customs of Edo with a degree of poetry that
rendered the exotic somehow familiar and had a huge influence on Western artists
including Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Whistler. His collection One Hundred Famous
Views of Edo remains a fascinating historical document, as well as one of the
masterpieces of ukiyo-e.

Vocal Music/Traditional Vocal Music

Historically, Japanese folk music was strongly influenced by music from China, with some of its forms
being imported from China more than a thousand years ago. Many popular Japanese musical instruments
originated in China and were then adapted to meet local needs.
Traditional Japanese music usually refers to Japan’s historical folk music. Two forms are recognized as the
oldest forms - shōmyō, or Buddhist chanting, and gagaku, or theatrical court music.
 Shomyo
o Shōmyō is a piece of ritual music sung in a Buddhist ceremony by a group of Buddhist monks –
literally translated, the word ‘shōmyō’ combines the characters for ‘voice’ and ‘wisdom’.
 Gagaku
o Gagaku is the oldest of Japan's musical traditions and includes dances and songs in two styles –
kigaku, which is instrumental music, and seigaku, a form of vocal music.

 Gagaku-Seigaku
o Seigaku ( 声 楽 ): Japanese vocal and dance pieces performed primarily in private or seasonal
Shinto ceremonies. Ensemble vocals are accompanied by reduced gagaku instrumental
ensembles without drums. However, winds and strings are led by a shakubyoshi (clapper), and
the melody can be heard in the sho. Vocal/instrumental pieces can also be called kokufu kabu
(“Japanese Song Dance”, indigenous Japanese court/shrine song and dance).
 Mikagura
 Mikagura(or Kagura-uta, 神楽歌) are performed in order to praise the virtue of
the gods (especially during Shinto ceremonies). The suffix "uta" means song or
poem. Mi-kagura is regarded as the most sacred form of music and has been
performed in the heart of the Imperial Palace since the 11th century. It consists of
four sections:
o Purification of the ritual site
o Welcoming of a god
o Entertaining the god
o Seeing off the god
 Azuma-asobi
o Azuma-asobi ( 東 遊 び , from eastern Japan) is a suite of folk songs and dances, often for
ceremonies to pay respect to imperial Shinto ancestral spirits on both spring and autumn
equinoxes. It is also offered at important special rituals in such grand shrines as Kamo jinja
(Kyoto), Iwashimizu hachimangû (Kyoto), Kasuga taisha (Nara), and others. Typically there are
4 singers with an instrumental ensemble. The main sections below are often complemented by
additional preludes and interludes:
 Ichi-uta
 Ni-uta
  Suruga-uta (dance)
 Motomego-no-uta (dance)
 Obire-uta

Instrumental Music/Traditional Music

Traditional Japanese music is meditative in character, with highly ritualised performance – sharing much in
common with martial arts, and other Japanese art forms such as the tea ceremony and calligraphy. The music
often looks to represent natural sounds, and the sounds of life, through percussion, wind and stringed
instruments.
 Wagon
o also called yamato-goto, musical instrument, Japanese six-stringed board zither with movable
bridges. The wooden body of the wagon is about 190 cm (75 inches) in length. The musician
plays the wagon while seated behind the instrument, which rests on the floor.
 Kagura-bue
o The kagurabue is a six or seven-hole transverse bamboo flute used to support Japanese kagura
performance. The Kagurabue can also be known as a yamatobue.
 Shō (mouth-organ)
o The shō is a Japanese free-reed musical instrument that was introduced from China during the
Nara period. It is descended from the Chinese sheng, of the Tang Dynasty era, although the shō
tends to be smaller in size than its contemporary sheng relatives.
 Hichiriki (oboe)
o Hichiriki, Japanese short, double-reed wind instrument, similar to the oboe. The present Japanese
form is about 18 cm (7 inches) long and has seven finger holes on the front of the instrument and
two thumb holes on the back.
 Kakko (drum)
o The kakko is a Japanese double-headed drum. One way in which the kakko differs from the
regular taiko drum is in the way in which it is made taut.
 Taiko (drum)
o Taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any
kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese
drums called wadaiko and to the form of ensemble taiko drumming more specifically called
kumi-daiko.
 Shōko (Bronze gong)
o The shōko (kanji: 鉦鼓) is a small bronze gong, struck with two horn beaters, used in Japanese
gagaku. It is suspended in a vertical frame and comes in three sizes. In Buddhist music and
Japanese folk music the instrument is called kane/shō.
 San-no-Tsuzumi (hour-glass drum)
o Tsuzumi, any of a family of Japanese two-headed drums with hourglass-shaped (waisted) bodies.

Music and Arts of Korea

PAINTING
Korean painting includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces, and art dating
from the paintings on the walls of Goguryeo tombs to post-modern conceptual art using transient forms of light.
Visual art produced on the Korean peninsula has been traditionally characterized by simplicity, spontaneity, and
naturalism.
 Genres
o The genres of Buddhist art showing the Buddha, or Buddhist monks, and Confucian art
portraying scholars in repose, or studying in quiet, often mountainous, surroundings, follow
general Asian art trends.
 o Buddhas tend to have Korean facial features and are in easy resting positions. Nimbus colors are
not necessarily gold, and may be suggested by lighter colors. Faces are often realistic and show
humanity and age.
o Scholars in paintings tend to wear the traditional stove-pipe hats, or other rank hats, and scholar's
monochromatic robes. Typically they are at rest in tea houses near mountains or at mountain
lodges or are pictured with their teachers or mentors.
o Hunting scenes, familiar throughout the entire world, are often seen in Korean courtly art, and
are reminiscent of Mongolian and Persian hunting scenes.
o Minwha, colorful decorative paintings produced by anonymous folk artists, were produced in
large numbers.
 THEATER MASKS AND DRUMS
o "Tal" is the Korean word for "mask." For ancient Koreans, the tal was a sacred symbol of the
gods (or a particular god). As such, it was especially valued and worshipped, and was always
kept a certain distance away from living quarters. At the same time, the tal was believed to be
capable of warding off illness and danger.
o By the fifteenth century, the perception of the mask as the creator of excitement and fun at
festivals became more firmly established. This shift in function led to the birth of talchum
("mask dance") and talnori ("mask play"). Both developed into unique forms of rural theater,
with interesting and notable differences in content and approach by region.
 Drums
o The buk used for court music are usually fixed with nails on the rims, while ones used for folk
music are usually tied up with leather straps to form the shape. Performers in the court music
usually beat their buk with bukchae ( 북 채 , a drum stick) on one hand or two hands together,
while drummers in the folk music commonly beat their buk with it on their right hand as hitting
the other side of the buk with their bare left hand.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
String Instruments
Traditional Korean string instruments are made of paulownia wood and some other materials. They are
categorized on the basis of the basic technique used to produce the sounds, such as plucking, pulling, or hitting.
For example, the gayageum and geomungo mainly produce sounds when the strings are plucked. On the other
hand, the ajaeng produces sounds when the strings are pulled with a bow. The yanggeum makes sounds when
the metal strings are hit with a stick.
 Gayageum
o The gayageum makes sounds when the strings are plucked and strummed. The soundboard,
which is made of paulownia wood, has twelve movable bridges that support twisted silk strings.
There are the pungnyu gayageum for literati music, the sanjo gayageum for folk music, and the
modified gayageum for modern music. They come in different materials, sizes, or numbers of
strings.
 Geomungo
o The geomungo is a six-string zither with three movable bridges and sixteen convex frets. The
modernized geomungo increases the strings and uses nylon strings. The instruments are widely
arranged in traditional music from solo performance to an orchestra.
 Haegeum
o The haegeum has a rodlike neck, a hollow wooden sound box, and two silk strings, and is held
vertically on the performer’s knee.
 Ajaeng
o The ajaeng has seven or eight strings made of twisted silk, and is played by means of a slender
stick made of forsythia wood or horsehair. The larger one has seven strings, called a daeajaeng,
 is used for court orchestral music, while the smaller soajaeng has eight strings and is used for
folk music or solo performances.
 Yanggeum
o The yanggeum is played by striking the metal strings with a thin bamboo stick. One set of string
consists of four strings and in total fourteen sets are placed on two frets on a trapezoid sound
box.

Wind Instruments
Most of Korean wind instruments are made of bamboo. They are classified differently based on the
musicians' posture and the direction the instruments are facing. The piri, danso, taepyeongso are vertical
instruments, while the daegeum and sogeum are transverse flutes.
 Piri
o The piri is a Korean double reed instrument made of bamboo. Sound is made when air is blown
into the bamboo cylinder pipe through the thin bamboo reed.
 Daegeum
o The daegeum has a mouth piece with a closed end and a membrane hole. The membrane is
collected from the inside of the reed stem and it produces a unique buzzing sound of the
daegeum.
 Danso
o The Danso has five finger holes and a U-shaped mouth hole.
 Saenghwang
o The saenghwang is a free reed mouth organ with a windchest made of dried gourd.
 Taepyeongso
o The taepyeongso is a double reed instrument. It has a conical wooden body with a metal
mouthpiece and a cup-shaped metal bell, called the dongpallang.

Percussions
Korean percussive instruments are made of metal, animal skin, wood, bamboo, and stone. They are also
divided into two kinds, one with different pitches and the other without pitches. The pyeonjong and the
pyeonggyeong are the most popularly shown melodic percussive instruments, while the bak, jwago, janggu,
kkwenggwari, jing and buk have no pitches.
 Bak
o The bak is made of six hard wood boards that are tied together at one end to make a fan shape
when spread out. The bak is sounded once when the music starts or significant changes occur in
rhythmic patterns.
 Janggu
o The janggu is an hourglass-shaped drum made of animal skins and has a wooden body.The
janggu is used in court or classical music and played with one stick and one hand, while two
sticks are used for folk music and the janggu dance.
 Jwago
o The jwago is a drum hung on the wooden frame, and the musician always plays it while sitting
on the floor. It is arranged in orchestra or wind ensembles in order to cue the first beat or to
intensify the sound of the janggu.
 Pyeonjong
o The pyeonjong consists of sixteen bronze bells hung on a wooden frame, and it is played with a
stick made of cow horn. Each bell has a different pitch. The thicker the bell the higher the pitch.
 Pyeongyeong
o The pyeongyeong consists of sixteen stones hung on a wooden frame, and it is played with a
stick made of cow horn. Each stone has a different pitch. The thicker the stone, the higher the
pitch.
 Soribuk
o The soribuk is played with both an open left hand and a stick made of birch that is held in the
right hand.
o It has tacked heads that are different from the ones used in the percussion quartet with laced
heads.

 ARIRANG
o Arirang is a popular form of Korean folk song and the outcome of collective contributions made
by ordinary Koreans throughout generations. Essentially a simple song, it consists of the refrain
‘Arirang, arirang, arariyo’ and two simple lines, which differ from region to region.
o "The term Arirang is often translated as “my beloved one,” as some linguistic research supports
that in ancient Korean ari meant “beautiful” and rang meant “the groom.” In addition, Arirang is
said to be the name of a hill located in the central part of Seoul.