Chinese music
| Music of China | |
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| General topics | |
| Genres | |
| Specific forms | |
| Media and performance | |
| Music festivals | Midi Modern Music Festival |
| Music media | |
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | |
| National anthem | |
| Regional music | |
Music of China refers to the music of the Chinese people, which may be the music of the Han Chinese as well as other ethnic minorities within mainland China. It also includes music produced by people of Chinese origin in some territories outside mainland China using traditional Chinese instruments or in the Chinese language. It covers a highly diverse range of music from the traditional to the modern.
Different types of music have been recorded in historical Chinese documents from the early periods of Chinese civilization which, together with archaeological artifacts discovered, provided evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC). These further developed into various forms of music through succeeding dynasties, producing the rich heritage of music that is part of the Chinese cultural landscape today. Chinese music continues to evolve in the modern times, and more contemporary forms have also emerged.
According to legends, the founder of music in Chinese mythology was Ling Lun who, at the request of the Yellow Emperor to create a system of music, made bamboo pipes tuned to the sounds of birds including the phoenix. A twelve-tone musical system was created based on the pitches of the bamboo pipes, and the first of these pipes produced the "yellow bell" (黃鐘) pitch, and set of tune bells were then created from the pipes.
Archaeological evidence indicates that music culture developed in China from a very early period. Excavations in Jiahu Vilage in Wuyang County, Henan found bone flutes dated to 8,000 years ago, and clay music instruments called Xun thought to be 6,000 years old have been found in the Hemudu sites in Zhejiang and Banpo in Xi'an.
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Wikipedia