Loke Shiuk-Tung writes:

>...there are 2 types of "Chinese" music, which some of us might be
>confused - (i) Traditional Chinese music with the use of instruments such
>as "pi ba", "er hu", "gu qin" etc.  "Chinese Orchestra" if one can put it
>this way.  They have distinct "Chinese" sound.  I doubt that there is any
>influence by the western be it political or music idea.

Yes, this is what I am talking about.  This is good music, and well worth
a better understanding.  There are some points of Western influence,
however, which I will outline.

First, and one cannot discuss Chinese music without it, the Cultural
Revolution was obviously politically inspired by the West.  Some of
this music was officially suppressed.  Guqin was suppressed because it
was one of the "four ancients" and a pillar of the literary culture.
This has affected the performance tradition today.  The same is true for
parts of repertory for other instruments such as pipa or guzheng.  On the
other hand, more popularly-oriented folk tunes were strongly encouraged.
This political decision is a big part of the rise of the erhu as a major
instrument in China.  It has its origin in folk music, and had its modern
repertory defined only with A Bing in the 1930s.  From there, it has
quickly become the showpiece instrument for folk tunes, and has taken
the lead in "Chinese orchestra" combinations.

One can also speculate a more direct Western musical influence on this
point, as the erhu is a bowed string like the violin, and so closer to the
"lead" Western instrument.  The idea of the "orchestra" has also become
much more prevalent in China, at least for these instruments (there are
percussion and wind orchestras, seldom heard, with long histories).
There are also traditional groupings of these instruments, but they are
smaller and specific.  The larger groups are clearly motivated by a more
Western-style display, and often the music they play was transcribed or
written only in the last 40 years, especially for erhu.

Even in the very traditional Chinese setting, there can be tangible
musical influences.  Some will say that guzheng is the "most Chinese"
of instruments, and this can be seen in the leading role it takes in the
ensembles of what might be termed "regional semi-classical" music such as
the Han, Chaozhou, Henan and Shandong repertories.  This is the collection
of tunes to which "opera" is linked, and so opera is once removed from
the literati historically.  Guzheng also has the largest solo repertory.
Anyway, composition for solo guzheng has continued throughout the 20th
century, with several composers of recent decades showing some tangible
Western influence, although well within a very Chinese idiom.  This would
be a definite analog to "orientalism" in some of the Western post-Romantic
composers...  an "occidentalism" in traditional Chinese composition.

Well, these are some remarks....

>(ii) Chinese or Chinese-like music composed to be played on
>"Western" instruments such as piano, violin, etc. and orchestra.

There is also this, but I have a hard time caring about it....

Todd McComb
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