Chinese musicology is the academic study of traditional Chinese music. This discipline has a very long history. Traditional Chinese music can be traced back to around 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic age. The concept of music, called yue (), stands among the oldest categories of Chinese thought; however, in historical sources, it does not receive clear definition until the writing of the Classic of Music (lost during the Han dynasty). Different musical traditions have influenced it throughout its history, dating back to the Xia and Shang dynasties.
Music scales
The first musical scales were derived from the harmonic series. On the Guqin (a traditional instrument) all of the dotted positions are equal string length divisions related to the open string like 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, etc. and are quite easy to recognize on this instrument. The Guqin has a scale of 13 positions all representing a natural harmonic position related to the open string.
The ancient Chinese defined, by mathematical means, a gamut or series of 十二律 (Shí-èr-lǜ), meaning "twelve lü," from which various sets of five or seven frequencies were selected to make the sort of "do re mi" major scale familiar to those who have been formed with the Western Standard notation. The twelve lü approximate the frequencies known in the West as the chromatic scale, from A, then B-flat, through to G and A-flat.
Scale and tonality
Most Chinese music uses a pentatonic scale, with the intervals (in terms of lü) almost the same as those of the major pentatonic scale. The notes of this scale are called gōng 宮, shāng 商, jué 角, zhǐ 徵 and yǔ 羽. By starting from a different point of this sequence, a scale (named after its starting note) with a different interval sequence is created, similar to the construction of modes in modern Western music.
Since the Chinese system is not an equal tempered tuning, playing a melody starting from the lü nearest to A will not necessarily sound the same as playing the same melody starting from some other lü, since the wolf interval will occupy a different point in the scale. The effect of changing the starting point of a song can be rather like the effect of shifting from a major to a minor key in Western music. The scalar tunings of Pythagoras, based on 2:3 ratios (8:9, 16:27, 64:81, etc.), are a western near-parallel to the earlier calculations used to derive Chinese scales.
<!--this image is not limited in width to 400px due to the amount of small detail-->
800px|left|thumb|How the scales are produced: Start with a fundamental frequency. (440 hertz is used here.) Apply the ratios to make the first column. Copy the second and all further elements in this column to the respective heads of the other eleven columns. Apply the ratios to make the second through the twelfth columns. So doing produces 144 frequencies (with some duplications). From each column five different selections of non-adjacent frequencies can be made. (See the colored blocks at the far left.) So each column can produce 60 different pentatonic scales.
Putting the highlighted scales from the above image into musical notation gives:
Yu scale [yellow]
<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\time 5/4
\omit Score.TimeSignature
a c d e g
}
</score>
Shang scale [red]
<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\time 5/4
\omit Score.TimeSignature
b cis e fis a
}
</score>
Gong scale [green]
<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\time 5/4
\omit Score.TimeSignature
d e fis a b
}
</score>
Jue scale [orange]
<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\time 5/4
\omit Score.TimeSignature
eis gis ais cis dis
}
</score>
Zhi scale [blue]
<score sound="1">
\relative c {
\time 5/4
\omit Score.TimeSignature
g a c d e
}
</score>
Interactions with the world before the 20th century
After being invented in the pre-Qin era, Chinese music was closely influenced by and influenced other cultures. In the ancient period, music was often associated with various factors, such as singing and dancing. It was a comprehensive art form, conveying themes including production, sacrifice, and anticipation for a better life. After China entered a slave society from a primitive society, the class division produced an occupational division of labor, and the initial stage of professional musicians appeared. Music was also used as a technique for the ruling class to show their power and social status.
Due to the restriction of China's geographical location, social development, and other conditions, music communication with the outside world first occurred in the east, south, and west of China. Early exchanges occurred among the Japanese, Korean, southwestern, and northern minorities. After the Han dynasty, China had a vast territory and prosperous economy, which laid the foundation for music communication between China and India, the Middle East, and other countries.
Zhou dynasty
As the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang dynasty, music culture was improved unprecedentedly. The court collected and organized the existing music, established a musical hierarchy based on application, built music institutions, and conducted musical education. Yayue (雅樂) was established for rituals and ceremonies. At the same time, the Zhou emperors and its aristocracy incorporated foreign music into sacrificial ceremonies and feast performances. This promoted the inflow of music from surrounding areas.
Before People's Republic of China (PRC)
In the early 20th century, Chinese and Western music cultures slowly merged, driven by the external forces of art, to create a new style of Chinese music that was based on both cultures. Then, it was not until March 2, 1930, when the "League of Left-Wing Writers" was founded and its corresponding music criticism and music social activities, that the development of Chinese music entered the next stage.
From 1930 to the founding of PRC, music made great progress under the strong drive of political utilitarian purpose. People call for "national salvation", in the face of this politics, all social resources should be unreservedly for the service. This notion of music criticism is condensed in Chairman Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, published in May 1942. This work is also the most important work of music criticism and music practice from the early to long period after the formation of New China. During this time, Chinese music started to slowly gain popularity outside. For instance, New China places a high value on participating in the World Youth Festival, putting together a competent team to choose the most representative repertoire and creative backbone to do so. China took part in seven World Youth Festivals consecutively during the course of the 14-year period from the second World Youth Festival in 1949 to the eighth World Youth Festival in 1962. Each festival's Chinese art Troupe performances feature fresh highlights that showcase the globe the distinctive charm of New China's music while fervently advancing literature, art, and people's diplomacy.
thumb|A Chinese orchestra in Edmonton
The invention of the Chinese orchestra is another great advancement. Ensembles are not new in Chinese music history, as large-scale ensembles are often used in important rituals or at the court. However, the Chinese orchestra based on the Western orchestra model first appeared in the 20th century, as the Shanghai-based musician Zheng Zhiwen's attempt to enlarge the size of traditional Jiangnan Sizhu (江南絲竹) ensembles and to compose music for each specific section. His idea was not popular in his time, but it laid the foundation for the modern Chinese orchestra. Different from monophonic traditional Chinese music of traditional ensembles, most pieces composed for a modern Chinese orchestra are polyphonic. More importantly, after the foundation of the PRC, the instruments of the Chinese orchestra were tuned to be equal-tempered, the same as Western instruments, rather than following the traditional sonic system introduced before.
A significant point in this period is the meeting "Forum of Young and middle-aged music Theorists" held in 1986, which was an excellent discussion of liberating the mind and pioneering the Chinese musicology circle after the reform and opening up. The core topic of the conference is Chinese music theory, researching how to face the contemporary international new literary trend, and how to apply the academic vision to the global field of music theory research. Since then, tremendous changes have taken place in the academic vision of musicology research in China, and new methods and achievements of musicology research in foreign countries have become the focus of the music community.