Skip to main content

Types of Chinese New Year Music

The Chinese calendar adds a month every few years. This means that Chinese New Year is not the same day every year. The extra month occurs because the calendar uses lunar and solar cycles. Adding a month every few years helps to keep the calendar aligned with these cycles. The date changes and can range from January 21 to February 20 of each year. In 2011, the date for Chinese New Year occurred on February 3. In 2021, Chinese New Year fell on February 12. The Chinese have a deep respect for music and several types of music exist for the celebration of each New Year.

Vocal Music

Chinese New Year celebrations make use of vocal music based on Chinese scales and rhythms. Smaller string instruments such as the erhu, a two-stringed fiddle, often accompany the vocal music. The use of vocal music has a strong tradition in China and places heavy emphasis on glissando and quartertones to slide into notes instead of immediately falling directly on individual pitches.

Instrumental Music

The Chinese will use mostly traditional Chinese instruments to play traditional New Year music. These instruments include lutes, zither, harps, huqin and hammered string instruments. Traditional instruments exist in small groups to play highly melodic music. Lutes are plucked instruments, zithers have several plucked strings, the harp functions like the western harp, the huqin are bowed instruments similar to our violins and the hammered string instrument is a dulcimer that is played with bamboo sticks.

Chinese New Year Music

Several songs classified as Chinese New Year Music deal with legendary topics and percussive elements. These songs often depict stories dealing with dragons, merriment, food and luck. Some of the more popular songs include, “Chinese New Year Music,” “Great New Year,” “Dancing Dragon and Phoenix,” “Chinese Happy New Year” and “Deng Li Jun’s Happy New Year Album.”

Dragon Dance

The Dragon Dance involves a large dragon presented to the public with dancers and music. This is a yearly tradition in China. This type of music is highly percussive with prolonged melodic tones rather than easily definable melodies. Most often, the dancers will use gongs and cymbals in time with their rhythm to create this coordinated dance music. The improvised rhythms use a steady beat kept with a drum.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Musical Techniques and Their Meanings

Musical techniques are the building blocks of any basic music training. These techniques allow performers to improve their coordination and develop accuracy through repetitive daily exercises. Musical techniques progressively build upon previously learned techniques. Scales Scales form the basis for other musical techniques. Student may study major and minor scales as well as modern scales, such as the whole-tone and octatonic scales. A scale consists of patterns of half steps and whole steps. These whole steps and half-step arrangements will be different for each scale. Scales are musical techniques that can help a performer to play faster and more accurately, and make learning new pieces easier. Chords Chords require knowledge of major and minor scales. Chords come in several different forms that affect the sound. Triads consist of three notes spaced a third apart and classified as major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. Seventh chords build on triads and have an additional no
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Claude Debussy Never Cared About Music Theory

  Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862. So, I felt writing a blog post to celebrate would be appropriate. Debussy was a revolutionary composer who challenged the conventions of Western music. He was influenced by the impressionist painters, the exotic sounds of gamelan music, and the symbolist poets. He created a musical language that was expressive, colorful, and atmospheric. One of the most remarkable aspects of Debussy's music is his use of harmony. He did not follow the rules of tonality and functional harmony that dominated the music of his time. Instead, he used modes, scales, chords, and parallel movements that created a sense of ambiguity and fluidity. He also experimented with timbre, texture, rhythm, and form to create musical images that evoked moods and emotions. Debussy's music can inspire us to think outside the box and explore new possibilities in our own compositions. We can learn from his innovative techniques and his artistic vision. We can also apprecia
Post a Comment
Read more

Similarities of Classical and Baroque Music

Music has evolved through the centuries and undergone drastic changes. One of the most significant transitions was from the Baroque to the Classical period of music. In this paragraph, I will compare and contrast some of the main features of these two styles, such as ensembles, instrumentation, and counterpoint study. The Baroque and Classical periods of music have many similarities. While the style of music changed drastically, certain key elements remained the same between the two styles. Composers in the Classical period sought to simplify music and create clearly audible musical lines. In contrast, composers from the Baroque period were interested in creating complex and highly ornamented musical lines. The Baroque period occurs from approximately 1600 to 1750, and the Classical period extends from 1750 to 1820. Ensembles Ensembles are groups of musicians that perform together. Both the Baroque and the Classical period had similar types of ensembles, such as operas, orchestras, str
Post a Comment
Read more